Smoke, Not Just BBQ

Food was real good. Can be a little pricy but well worth it. I had the burnt ends and my wife had the ribs. Both were very moist and the real smoking was noticeable in every bit. I would suggest trying this place out to everybody.

Since my last post, the restaurant credited the original charge and only charged what we ordered and ate. No problem, good service in that regard.

This is one of those places that is good and borders on great. I truly hope they make that tiny leap to greatness because I like this place and really want to love it.
I love BBQ. And good BBQ is hard to find locally. Until now. Brisket, while a bit too fatty, is flavorful and tender. The turkey breast is moist and delicious. The pulled pork is tender and tasty. The wings are smallish but full of great flavor. And the ribs… yum! Portions are good. Sides are excellent. Service is amazing.
Sadly, there are two deficits which should be looked into. The first is the sauces… way too watery. Super tasty but need some substance. The second is the price… lack of rib combos and no inclusion of sides make the prices inflated for what you get. Fix that and be the great restaurant you can be!

First off, the pulled pork was delicious. Now, the rest: we tried out the delivery, and they came an HOUR after I placed the order. We live (maybe) 10 minutes away, and they quoted us a 25 minute wait time. So, the food was not only cold but it was super dry. I had the Cuban sandwich and it literally hurt going down my throat. The burnt ends we ordered were as dry as wood. The cole slaw had leaked through the bag, and wasn’t anything to write home about. The sweet potato fries were so so (soggy after they had to be reheated). We didn’t skimp on the tip, and feel very jilted out of $ 50. I’m sure if we dined in it would have been delicious… As a family with two kids under 3 years, we had high hopes for a Friday night treat.

Just the week before my first visit, I was down south at an authentic southern down home style BBQ eatery. I have to say Smoke is as good if not better. Of course, I like that it’s local.
I had the What a Rookie sandwich (pulled pork and cole slaw) with a side of fries (they were out of the mac n’ cheese darn it!). The sandwich was huge, I was super hungry but could only eat half. The fries come regular or spicy. They were excellent. The house BBQ sauces available at the table were a great addition.
Prices are a bit steep but the quality is truly top notch. I don’t mind paying a bit more for excellent cuisine. I can’t wait to try them again for lunch or dinner in the near future.

What BBQ did all these bad reviewers eat? I was a touch nervous after reading all these reviews but they had a Savenowct coupon and source local meat so I figured I would try it anyway. It was terrific! Pulled pork was moist and tender. Brisket was good, not the best but not the worst. The mac had a great taste and was very creamy. And we all split an order of boneless wings and they were the BEST boneless wings I’ve eaten in CT. Better than Wings Over, Bidwell, etc. They were super crispy and had an amazing taste, all good white meat. Sauces were all delicious and had unique tastes.
The staff was super friendly and accommodating. Check this place out!

Looooove this place! We got a deal on local flavor, so it wasn’t too pricey that way. We had very ample portions served to us. The hubby had a full rack of ribs which ended up being equivalent to almost a rack & a half! Spices were perfectly fantastic. We had to take some home even with his big appetite.
I had the chili, which was outstanding. Chock full of fresh brisket chunks & slices, it was wonderful & very filling.
The servers were so cheerful & quite helpful, too. Samantha, the great Gal at the front is the best! We felt compelled to add to the tip jar. It’s a wonderful local choice for casual BBQ.

Ugh, I want this place to do well… I really do! That being said, I just can’t give it much love right now. Tons of potential, but they really need to step up their game to keep customers coming back. I’m not really sure where to start, so screw it, let’s just do a Pros and Cons list…
PROS
— excellent job remodeling and cleaning up the joint
— great location along Main St, among several other very solid restaurants
— friendly service
CONS
— I’m sorry, but the food (at least what I tried) just isn’t very good. It’s far from traditional BBQ, and not in a good way. Little, if any, smoke flavor. Little, if any, seasoning /​rub. Dry meat. I always like to assess «BBQ» places by the quality of their brisket, and this brisket definitely did not pass the test. Gray in color, no smoke ring, under-​seasoned, fatty as hell… just no bueno
— what is up with the sauces? All of them were a watery mess! Thicken that sh! t up!
— VERY expensive for what you get. My ½lb of brisket with a small side of mac n cheese was over $ 18 (no drink either)
— crazy slow service. I ordered take-​out and proceeded to sit at a table for 15 minutes before it was brought out. Come on now, none of this food is made to order. How long does it take to cut a few strips of brisket and shovel some Mac into a cup? What are you doing back there?! They also brought the food out to me on a tray… so I guess it wasn’t a take-​out order after all!
Hey look, you can’t win them all. This place is still very new, so hopefully they will iron out some of these kinks moving forward. I’ll give them another try at some point, but definitely not anytime soon.

Many of you who follow me know I try to be honest and very object, so that being said I will now give you my opinion of Smoke not just bbq. In all fairness the name says it all NOT JUST BBQ, IN MY OPINION not even close to being BBQ.
First of all when someone says they have the best pulled pork what comes you your mind, I know for me it is shredded pork with a bbq sauce to die for, unfortunately this is NOT the case here, it is only sliced pork and I might say VERY dry smoked pork not even a hint of bbq sauce. The bread the sandwich is on is so big that you can’t get your mouth on or around it which wouldn’t be bad if the pork had some sauce to soften it, but at last this is not the case, forgot to say the sandwich was the WHAT A ROOKIE, which states «pulled pork and coleslaw with our signature sauce served on a telera roll» again this sandwich VERY DRY there was no sauce of any kind.
Next item was the ASIAN FUSION which the menu stated «pulled chicken (NOT PULLED SLICED), cucumbers, pickled onions, cilantro (love love cilantro, however this was the ONLY flavor to be found) and scallions (there were none) served on focaccia bread, only problem was again more bread then anything no chicken to speak of or any Asian signature sauce.
Also ordered the large (tongue in cheek, for $ 11.00, maybe in a 6 ounce size cup) hate to say it but the bread crumbs were the most flavor in this dish.
Sides, pasta salad, I know now where all the sauce they spoke of was, on the pasta almost to the point of being NASTY.
Sorry to say I will NOT be returning.
So on to my not adventure of trying to find a decent BBQ in Manchester, CT.

I hate giving bad reviews, especially on a place that I was so excited about visiting. This one’s going to be long because the situation is complicated. You’ve been warned.
Smoke seemed like it could be a pretty cool place to get BBQ close to work, so when they opened I had planned to visit for a while. They have a full website, a mobile website, shirts for sale, delivery, online ordering, and a cool name! Lol. The potential was real. Sadly, the truth hit me hard and fast on my first visit. I walked to Smoke (about a 10min stroll) and placed my order for the Hitchhiker combo. I opted for the turkey breast, with Leah’s mac and cheese, cornbread, and the Buffalo signature sauce. At first they couldn’t take my order because the computer had stopped working. No problem, I had time. After about 5 minutes she said she would just put my order in and I waited off to the side until it was ready and they were ready to get their money :). 20 minutes passed. This should have been a relatively quick single order but apparently that wasn’t the case. The cashier then walks up to me and says that they’re waiting on the batch of cornbread to finish and it’d be another 10 minutes or they could make my mac n cheese order a large instead. I decided to wait because I wanted to try it and I had (a little) time. It took the whole 10 minutes and it was time to pay up. Walked out and made the 10 min stroll back to work. Everything was hot, but that’s it’s for the good part.
The «cornbread» was a flavorless corn muffin. It looked store-​bought, but tasted more bland. I was letdown that I decided to wait the extra time for that. Next was the mac. Not bad. That is all. A decently sized portion — I would eat it again. Then came the turkey. The turkey was the most uncooked looking meat I’ve ever got from a restaurant. Yeah, it was warm, but pink all around the edges and fatty. Since when is turkey breast fatty?! No seasoning on it whatsoever. No indication of it being smoked or prepared at all. I was concerned it was undercooked but tried some anyway. No bueno. I tried to stomach it and even tried adding the signature sauce (obviously plain Frank’s Redhot) to it, but the pink edges had me concerned about food poisoning. After a few minutes of deciding whether to count my losses and trash it or make the trip back and complain (to the very kind cashier by the why (shout out to her)), I felt cheated and made the trip. I wasn’t expecting to get it cooked again or a refund. I just didn’t feel right about how this all played out.
On the way back my stomach started aching. Oh no — that NEVER happens and I eat everything. When I got back, I silently explained the situation to the cashier and she told the cook. I could see him from the dining area — getting mad, mumbling and shrugging it off with obvious lack of concern. This made me feel even worse about the situation. I already wasn’t expecting them to do anything, but come on man. I’m a first-​time customer. This is bad. Very bad.
Then came Fran (the supervisor?). He asked what was wrong and I showed him. He tried to say that the undone pink edges were from the smoker. (That wasn’t the case, I’m well-​versed in smoked turkey demolition). Nonetheless, he was very hospitable and, though I told him I didn’t want anything, he told me I couldn’t leave until they made it right. Well then. :) He alone is the reason why this 0-​star review is a 2. He offered suggestions on what to try for a replacement and brought out sauce samples for me to try while waiting on the boneless wings I decided to get in exchange for that horrible borderline-​raw turkey.
I waited another 10 minutes or so and the boneless wings were up. Cool. Fran brought them out and I started to journey back to work. Along the way, I decided to crack the container open. Bone-​in wings (not what I ordered). –_​– Whatever, I wasn’t going to about-​face again. I gave them a shot once back in the office. They were good. Nice and crispy. Can’t complain except that I didn’t order that. Lol.
Anyways, this review is done. From a food-​only perspective this place deserves maybe 1.5 stars. For the ridiculous wait (for something that could’ve taken 30 – 60 seconds to put together) and the cook’s attitude, I want to bring the stars down into the negatives. But Fran saved the day somewhat. I don’t see myself returning here; it was my worst bbq joint experience to date. But maybe when I’m in the mood for some crispy bone-​in wings I may consider them… Maybe. Ok, rant over. Bye-​bye now.

I really enjoyed my pulled pork sandwich on ciabatta with thin sliced cucumbers and aeoli sauce. It came with a side. I had Mac and cheese (nice and creamy cheesiness). Great homemade house bbq sauce.
There only downfall…
Is they charge for hot sauce when I asked for some for my Mac and cheese. That’s pretty stingy when your a paying customer. There assortment of bbq sauces were free and right out on table so why not the hot sauce? That ruined my Mac a bit because I love hot sauce!
They deliver but charge for delivery.
Otherwise, yummy. I’ll be back and I’ll bring my own hot sauce.