The Smoke BBQ

Having read and heard a lot of good things about Smoke BBQ at New Farm, I decided it was time we tried it out. Getting a table here is more difficult than we first thought however, having decided on a Friday night, we phoned them Monday to book the table. Uh sorry, we are pretty booked out, the girl on the phone said, but we have a table for two at 5.30pm?

Apparently even booking for two people was difficult 4 days in advance. L decided to go for an 8pm booking on the Thursday night as a compromise. 

We rocked up to the Smoke BBQ famished and ready to hook into some BIGGGGGG ribs.

First we were seated outdoors on the sidewalk on a rocky table with no glasswear for our plonked down bottle of water, amongst a few other empty tables and insects buzzing. Having passed two empty tables on the way out, I asked if we could change tables to an indoor table. I was told no, that those tables were for bookings.

I explained to the waitress that we did in fact have a booking anyway. Ummmmmm, no.... she still said.
Could we possible just swap tables then with the incoming people? They would never know that they had an indoor table instead of an outdoor one? Ummmmmmm no sorry, thats not possible.

Resigning myself to our rocky outdoor table on the footpath, I wondered how we would pour our water having no glasses on the table, and mentally gave them a big strike on the big notepad in my head.

Thankfully, they then managed to come back out and tell us that we could in fact have a table indoors. Thank goodness I said, and wandered inside where the atmosphere was much cosier and accommodating.

Perusing the menu, L had already decided he was ordering the buffalo wings as an entree ($14). The wings come in three varying degrees of hotness; mild, blue hot and 3^rd degree burns. L considers himself a champion of all things spicy and definitely wanted the 3^rd degree burns option, despite my doubts.

We decided to order this for L’s entree and for our main meal to share between us a full rack of the Kansas baby back pork ribs, which come with a side of coleslaw and French fries ($31)

Complimentary cornbread was placed onto the table with a delicious honey butter. Odd thing was, there were two of us and one piece of cornbread?? L had already ripped the bread into two before I managed to snap a photo.

Cornbread (ripped in half)

When it came to ordering, there was again some difficulty.

When L ordered his 3^rd degree burn wings, the straight up answer was “Oh no, you won’t want to order those they are way too hot”.  When we insisted, we then got “Are you sure? They are horrible”. I then replied “well, why do you even offer them on the menu?”

The waitress begrudgingly took the order along with our order for a Corona and a Samuel Adams lager.

The buffalo wings arrived and I am proud to say, L managed to get through them just fine. I was quite smug when the waitress came back to take the plate away and told him that not many people could get through the whole plate of wings! The wings came with celery and a blue cheese dipping sauce which was delicious. Unfortunately, the wings didn’t really impress, with L saying they were small and lacking in flavour, instead just being hot for hotness sakes. They were certainly hot though!

buffalo wings

Our ribs arrived just as I was about to eat my napkin. Unfortunately we were so hungry we dove straight in instead of getting a photo straight away.

The sauce on the ribs was certainly quite tasty, but the meat was slightly dry. The coleslaw was nice but could be creamier. The French fries were actually really nice, crunchy and nicely seasoned. I personally thought the size of the rack of ribs was also rather small... I mean, when I order ribs im expecting something that looks like its from a dinosaur... thats my expectation of ribs.

half of a full rack of ribs....

what was left of our chips and coleslaw before I realised we hadn't taken a photo yet

All in all, we had a few hiccups along the way. I was really unimpressed with the waitress trying to stop L from ordering what he wanted to, although I can understand that they would get people ordering the hot wings and then complaining about how hot they were or not getting through them.

Unfortunately I don’t think Smoke BBQ is my cup of tea. I’d go back with a group of friends and probably try the beef ribs next time, but we won’t be eating there just as a couple again. I really fail to see what all the fuss is about actually and I think the value for money is questionable.

Love, 

C