In our extensive survey of Las Vegas barbecue restaurants a couple of years ago, one of the 10 we reviewed was Braeswood, which billed itself as Tex-Mex BBQ. We loved the smoked carnitas and Creole rice. Unfortunately, Braeswood was locked in a Coke-Pepsi competition, being directly across South Main Street from the uber-popular Soulbelly Barbecue, and didn’t survive. We were sorry when it closed last April.
So when we learned that another south-of-the-border ‘cue joint had opened in Henderson around a year ago, we had high hopes for it and finally got around to trying it.
Humo Barbecue (pronounced “umo”; the “h” is almost always silent in Spanish) is on Sunset Road about a mile east of the airport runway viewing area near the corner of Sandhill. Appropriately meaning “Smoke” in Spanish, Humo is situated in perhaps the most nondescript strip mall you’ve ever seen. The good news is there’s free parking as far as the eye can see.
Humo occupies two storefronts in the center and was crowded with large tables of las familias Latinas on a late Sunday afternoon.
It’s typically colorful, with a wall mural and a couple of interesting signs, two touting the “Mexicue.”
The menu features ribs, brisket, pulled chicken and pork, burnt ends, and barbacoa (one meat/two sides $19, two meat/two sides $26), along with baked potatoes stuffed with brisket, pork, or barbacoa ($16) and tacos ($3), salads and sandwiches ($14-$15), sides such as Hatch-chile mac ‘n’ cheese, chorizo refried beans, potato salad, and street corn, and for dessert flan and churro-banana and bread pudding ($6).
We tried the burnt ends and barbacoa. We don’t often see burnt ends in Vegas, but they’re indicative of the kind of smoking process a barbecue uses; from the fatty end of the brisket, they’re generally cooked longer than the lean meat in order to render the fat, so they’re infused with the smokiness that barbecue aficionados live for. These weren’t that. They weren’t bad, just not up to what we consider the standard. The barbacoa was beef (it can also be lamb and goat) and again, it was okay, just not enough cumin, garlic, and oregano for our taste, so it was bland, plus a bit greasy. For the sides, we got the chorizo refried beans, which were excellent — creamy, mildly spicy, and light — as was the mac ‘n’ cheese, in which the Hatch chiles were plentiful and definitely jazzed up the dish.
For a barbecue place called Smoke, the smoke is mild at best and lacking at worst. We can say that there was plenty of food, enough for two full meals. Still, the bill came to $34 including tax and tip, not a bargain by any means. All in all, we give Humo an A for effort, a B for quality, and a C for value. We wouldn’t go out of our way to return.