Smoke Modern Barbeque

Service was great, Meg did a wonderful job accommodating us, beef brisket was not so good, was told everything made to order, tasted dried out, the sauces at the table were flavorless. Sticking with 521 BBQ

Let’s talk about Smoke, baby…
Let’s talk about sweet chile…
Let’s talk about Korean Chicken BBQ, and the good beer that we see…
Heh. Heh. Heh. See what I did there?
Seriously though, lets talk about it. I came in here for lunch today, I had mac & cheese on my mind — but then because this is North Carolina — it was 10,000 degrees outside, and I started to reconsider. I’ve had the mac & cheese here before, and it was really good, but this heat is just too much for warm cheese/​noodles/​carb/​food coma. So I sat down at the bar and was greeted by Art. He is super friendly, welcoming, and helpful. I told him about my mac & cheese/​heat dilemma and that I was now thinking about a beer and a salad (obviously, they go together.). They have White Street Kolsch on tap, local beer, perfect for this weather. I ordered a Kolsch, and started thinking about what to put on top of the Caesar salad… Then Art looked at me, and suggested the Korean Chicken BBQ Salad.
*long dramatic pause here*
I grabbed the description off of the website for you, «Mixed greens, tomatoes, corn, sesame seeds and chow mein noodles tossed in a sweet chile dressing and topped with pulled chicken drizzled with Korean BBQ sauce» AND ITS AMAZING. When it came out, everything is cold, fresh and delicious. The sauces are just right, not dry but not drenched either. The chicken was done really well and filling — so I took some of it home! For real. Like took enough home to have dinner, and if you’ve been following me — you know that eating is definitely a talent of mine, take home food is rare. Excellent, large portions.
This salad is my new lunch favorite. When it’s not a million degrees outside, I’ll probably still get mac & cheese, but I was really glad that I tried this today.
Smoke is a great place to grab a delicious lunch for a fair price, or to take a nice date. Dress it up, or dress it down — it’s tasty, and on my side of town. Winning!

We used Smoke Modern for our wedding catering in May and they were nothing short of AMAZING! First off, the food is out of this world and all of our guests reiterated that fact to us afterwards. Second, the service is top-​notch and they really cared about making our wedding day the best day possible. When our wedding planner stopped doing her job, SM even took over her duties. The GM, head chef, and event coordinator were all there on our wedding day. They were professional, efficient, and downright wonderful to work with. I told my husband at one point I wish all our wedding vendors were as great as our caterers. We HIGHLY recommend Smoke Modern to anyone wanting BBQ catering for their wedding!

I am always excited to see new BBQ places open in the barren BBQ wasteland that is Charlotte. For a city so close to Lexington, Charlotte really should have better BBQ, but I digress.
Smoke is your typical non-​traditional (read: non-​authentic) BBQ place. For an average of around $ 15 per plate, you get your choice of several types of meats and sides. The food overall is good, and I would return, but if you are looking for authentic NC BBQ, Smoke is not the place. But, I assume that’s what they’re going for (hence the «modern» part of their name).
SERVICE: I wanted to start off with service because it was terrible. We were seated by the hostess and waited at least five minutes before a server helped us. The wait for our food was also a bit more than usual. Service during our meal was no better. Smoke, I suggest you hire more servers or train your existing ones properly.
FOOD: Smoke serves a variety of meats and sides. While not authentic NC BBQ, the food was surprisingly good. For some reason, most BBQ places in Charlotte are pretty bad. Smoke is definitely an exception to that. I ordered a combo of pulled pork and brisket with sides of mac ‘n’ cheese and sweet potato fries. The pork and brisket were smoked well and quite juicy. The sides were very over-​salted, however. Smoke has several BBQ sauces on each table that were all rather bland. Smoke serves one BBQ sauce called «Georgia Gold», which is a pretty interesting name considering that Georgia has no BBQ style. Mustard («gold») BBQ sauce is from South Carolina, not Georgia. Smoke, if you call yourself a BBQ place, you should know this.
PRICE: Overall, the prices are in line with other similar BBQ places. Expect to pay about $ 15 per plate.
I enjoyed Smoke and will return. If they would improve their service, Smoke would definitely be a much better restaurant. One key point to note: make sure to make a reservation. Smoke has limited seating and gets busy on weekends.

My husband and I went to Smoke on Rae Road tonight. We sat at the bar and ordered dinner. I ordered the Korean Chicken Salad and my husband ordered the Pulled Chicken sandwich. After 40 minutes we prompted the bartender over and asked him when our dinners would be served. He went and checked and brought them over. He said it was because my husband ordered his fries extra crispy. His sandwich was half the size it was last month and the pulled chicken in my salad was extremely undercooked. I do not recommend this restaurant. They are inconsistent and when I called the manager on my way home he said that the chicken in the salad is served cold and I probably mistook it for undercooked. I told him I couldn’t cut it with a knife because it was raw.

This is the worst barbecue I have ever tasted in my life. The barbecue has absolutely no flavor. It is very crude cuts of meat. We ordered the nachos and the cheese was not even up to snuff for movie theater nachos.

First time eating here was Mother’s Day 2016 with my family. Great customer service from the staff here. The waiter was courteous and asked us offered many suggestions when he found out it was our first time here. My brother asked him about the protein options and he told us that the brisket was fantastic. I’d agreed. Glad I got it. Paired up with the Mac N Cheese, perfection on your plate. If you leave hungry there is something seriously wrong with your appetite.

The beef brisket was very tender, moist and full of flavor. The creamed spinach was spicy, but I like spicy and it was different. I would have given more stars, but the service was terrible. Our server/​order taker was nowhere to be found after she brought our drinks. Someone else brought our food to the table, which is not unusual, but no one stopped by to check on us until we were finished with the meal. We were never offer more drinks or dessert. I guess they’re making too much money here and don’t need my business.

I am a BBQ nerd. This place was highly welcome in the Ballantyne neighborhood, and the service was great. But ultimately, the food disappointed and lived short of the «modern» BBQ idea.
Much prefer classic BBQ joints in the area like Midwood Smokehouse to here. I´ll tell you why:
–The chef has a problem with overseasoning to compensate for natural flavors. Fried Pickles and the creamed spinach was way too salty.
–The BBQ chicken didnt taste like itd been properly smoked, or was a few days old. Very dry. Almost like itd been just a cheap chicken stripped and mixed with BBQ sauce.
–I love burnt ends. But there wasnt really a good balance in both the places I had em, both the beans and the mac n cheese. The mac n cheese portion is a bit over the top, and don´t really like the choice of cheese. That orangey crap cheese for a modern BBQ joint? Coulda picked a host of others.
–The pork ribs were meh. Lacked punch.
My favorites were:
–The sauces. The Carolina, Texas and KC were spot on. And nods to all types of BBQ heritage.
–The coleslaw was the right contrast to the heavy sides
–Wine selection kickass
–The brisket was perfect
Understand they´ve only been 4 months open, but being in North Carolina there´s some pretty high standards to follow. A pretentious title like «modern» aint really helping. On paper it sounds good — but they need chefs who can really execute envelope-​pushing flavors on the plate. If you´re the owners reading this — not to worry — you will surely always make a killing on the weekends!

Service was efficient and fast.
Menu was very mixed with beef, chicken and pork. The cheesy grits and mac & cheese were both perfect. The fried pickles were good. Beef brisket was fabulous.
They have a excellent beer menu and some solid bourbons and single malt. Something for everyone.
This is owned by Firebirds.

We really enjoyed our visit here! We are true southerners that love a good bbq so we were hesitant to give this place a try. I’m glad we did though! I got the pulled bbq sandwich and my fiancé got the brisket plate. We also got the mac-​n-​cheese, baked beans, cheesy grits, and tater tots all for sides. The only thing we didn’t like out of the whole meal were the baked beans, the rest was delicious! Their thick and sweet BBQ sauce is awesome, but they have 4 different kinds to choose from if that isn’t your style. After the entrées, we got the brownie dessert. If you like «cakey» brownies, then you will like it. We like «fudgey» brownies, so it wasn’t our favorite. Our waitress was very attentive and kind. Make sure you try this spot! We will return!

This decent, slightly upscale BBQ restaurant is a good addition to the Stonecrest shopping center, but could benefit from a wider beer selection and better lighting. A dimly lit ambiance is what I expect from a tapas restaurant, not a BBQ joint — but I guess that’s what ‘Modern Barbeque’ is all about. My order of pulled pork was good, but nothing spectacular, and the massive bowl of Burned End Mac & Cheese was a little underwhelming. I’m hoping Smoke improves as time goes on, because South Charlotte could really use a great BBQ restaurant — but for the time being, I’ll stick with Midwood and Mac’s.

I guess I am in the minority here but I was underwhelmed by the food at this place. My husband and I ordered out and got the ribs and a pulled pork dinner. He said the ribs were decent but had no smoke flavor. I was very disappointed with the pulled pork; like the ribs I did not taste any smoke flavor. It was dry and cold– I had to heat it up in the microwave — we live less than 15 mins away from the restaurant. The portion size on the pulled pork was poor for the $ 15.95 price. For the sides we did baked beans, slaw and the Burnt End Mac. Neither entrée came with rolls, hush puppies or any kind of bread.
The baked beans had a good flavor but tasted underdone to me. The cider slaw was very bland, just mayo, cabbage and carrots, no salt, pepper or cider flavor. The burnt ends mac and cheese is the only reason I am giving 2 stars. It was creamy and the burnt ends gave it nice flavor– it was very good. The dinners came with a variety of sauces which were tomato based but thin, and spicy; not the traditional, thicker, sweeter sauce that I am used to.
Overall, I can’t say that we would take out from this restaurant any time soon.

Went for an early Valentine date on a Thursday. I had the smoked chicken, brisket combo with mac&cheese. My husband tried the ribs dry rub & sauced with creamed spinach and mac&cheese. Both were tasty. The sauces selection on the table hit all of the usual corners of bbq styles. Mac&cheese was creamy, creamed spinach was great. Loved the garlicky note. All of our meat selections were very tasty, although the chicken was dry. Our server John was fantastic. We were never waiting for drink refills and his recommendations were on point. The devil eggs, Yum! Loved the warm brownie sundaethe banana pudding not so much. All in all a great meal with excellent service in a clean and attractive atmosphere. We will be back!

I needed something quick before heading over to the movie theater across the street so I popped in and ordered the smokin nachos with beef brisket and they were great!
Our waiter, Josh was great and the other items on the dinner menu sounded delicious and the prices were reasonable. I look forward to coming here again.

Wow… I’m so pleasantly surprised!
Please go here. I’m a huge BBQ critic because I grew up with Wilber’s BBQ, which is the best of the best… This is a great 2^nd choice.
The staff are so friendly. Great cocktails, and the devilish eggs, and Mac and cheese were on point!
I will be back!!!

Ordered take out for a quick dinner at home. Brisket is offered 3 ways – fatty, lean, and combo – we tried lean, but I’m thinking more fat would probably be better. Mac and cheese was good and the smokin’ slaw was refreshingly different. The corn muffins were good, but we didn’t care for the butter they serve with them. Try them plain to see which you prefer.
Burnt ends were good. Korean sauce was REALLY thick, so maybe just lightly dip to get plenty of flavor.
Next time, we want to eat in to get the full experience. We definitely don’t miss City Tavern (previous tenant), so hopefully this place will do well.
Parking can be a beast here when the movie theater is busy. Park in front of Michaels and walk a few more steps to save yourself the frustration of looking for a space. You’ll want to walk off those calories, anyway!

I’ve always raised an eyebrow at white-​table-​cloth barbecue restaurants, because everyone knows the best que meat comes on paper plates, served on old formica-​top tables in cinder-​block buildings, at least ten miles from the center of town.
But, this place is close to the movie theatre, and we were hungry, so…
We chose poorly.
As a concept, I’m sure that this place is working really hard to put independent barbecue in chain-​dominated South Charlotte. Sadly, for all of the décor and all of the really tasty-​looking cocktails on the menu, it misses the mark on the most important aspect of running a barbecue joint– barbecue.
I’m not going to debate regional styles, or anything like that, but if you are going to put brisket and chicken, and «pulled pork» on a menu with a Cuban sandwich, then you should do those things pretty well. The brisket was, sadly, dry, the first time around. So dry, in fact, that the server took one look at it and took the plate right back to the kitchen for a few fresh slices. The side of baked beans was also, literally, dry on top, and the slaw was a tad warm and wilted (heat lamps wreak havoc on a long shred of cabbage). The pulled pork was pretty good, a little lean, and much better if you didn’t try to put any of the «carolina-​style» sauce on it.
The one thing this place has going for it– great service, and a front-​end manager that took our complaint about dry brisket that had been sitting in the window too long very seriously. The second service of brisket was right on– decent smoke, decent level of moisture, and obviously plated just a few seconds before. As in any presentation, plating and the timing of plating can be unforgiving, especially if you don’t time all of the entrees on the ticket correctly.
I think that this place is working pretty hard to dial it in, and I hope that they get it figured out. I think that they are trying to figure out the «smoker» that they have installed in the open kitchen, and maybe need to start thinking about limiting the proteins on the menu (they have an extensive mac-​and-​cheese selection– perhaps I need to explore that, next time).
TLDR; A safe place for people who don’t subscribe to a particular barbecue tradition, and don’t have any southern friends who are willing to take them to a barbecue restaurant.

My wife and i joked about just what Modern BBQ could be? Fusion or some other adulteration of southern BBQ? We entered with trepidation.
And we were wonderfully surprised to find a modern, almost nightclub ambiance, comfortable and easy on the eyes. Hostess seated, we met a very fine Bahamian waiter, Sanfred. In his soft accent he described the menu, answered our questions and returned shortly to take our order.
The menu had the standard chicken, pulled pork, ribs, beef brisket & sausage meats and then a nice selection of sandwiches, salads, appetizers and sides. Good job and the descriptions were excellent.
Iced tea was served in glasses and refilled via a fresh glass… rather than the splashing, ice filled pitchers more commonly found in other BBQ places. And the unsweetened tea did not need sweeteners, well brewed and not bitter.
We split a house salad which was huge. Doubt if one person could eat a whole salad and with any other main since the salad was so plentiful. Dressings were all house-​made. Excellent.
Beef brisket, a favorite of ours and not easy to find outside of Texas, was excellent. If you simply order brisket you will get fatty and lean slices, so specify your preference. My wife asked for her two fatty slices to be traded for lean and this was accommodated easily. I ordered a two meat combo of pulled pork and brisket and received a good portion of each.
The pulled pork is without sauce, so you can first taste how savory that smoked meat, tinted with burnt edges truly is. Then add one of the four sauces on the table: mustard, vinegar, KC sweet and KC spicy. The spicy was Goldilocks just right for both of us.
Sides included excellent mac & cheese and creamed spinach, along with a cider slaw. All three were excellent and served in their own small bowls. We brought most of the two sides home as the portions were too much to eat given the salad and meats.
Prices were a bit high, but the quality of the smoking, sides, menu options and generous portions validated the costs. Our lunch for two was right at $ 50 and that was with iced tea, no booze.
Nice experience and quality without the mob scene found in surrounding more casual BBQ joints. Will try more items as time goes on, most likely resulting in a five-​star rating.

I’ve been waiting for Smoke to open in Stonecrest since I saw that Village Tavern had left (yay!) and this new «upscale modern BBQ» place was moving in. I was really hoping that our first experience was going to WOW me. Sadly, it did not.
Because of the movie theater nearby, parking for Smoke can be a bitch. Overflow from the theater takes up the parking area in front of Smoke. After finally finding a space and walking some distance, we arrived at Smoke this past Saturday evening and waited for about 10 – 15 minutes for a table (when I could see that there were tables open). Fine. I understand that sometimes they don’t want to overwhelm the servers. What I don’t like, though, is when they do it to try to feel «exclusive.» There were three hostesses and what looked like a manager hanging around the host stand. Do you really need that many?
Smoke has booths, tables, high-​top tables, and bar seating. We were seated at a high-​top in the bar area. Our server promptly greeted us. We ordered drinks and they were made and delivered right away. I tried a Moscow Mule for the first time. It was delicious and came in the traditional copper mug (although I found it strange that it didn’t have a lime and/​or mint sprig in it, like I’ve always seen).
We ordered the fried pickles appetizer and two orders of the Smoked Pulled Pork. I went to use the restroom soon after ordering, and when I came out, our meals had already been delivered! It was super quick! But… where was the fried pickles appetizer? And why did the person delivering the food call one brisket and the other pork? Neither was brisket. Can’t the employees tell the difference between their products?
The Smoked BBQ Plates come with two sides. I tried the mac & cheese and the creamed spinach. Both were fantastic. The mac & cheese was so flavorful (I wished I had ordered one of the mac & cheese entrees) and the creamed spinach wasn’t overly creamy; it was just right. However, the main attraction, the BBQ pork, left something to be desired. It tasted rubbery, almost like chicken (maybe it was?!), wasn’t shredded much (like every other BBQ place does), and was lukewarm in temperature (hence, the quick delivery) compared to the fresh, hot side dishes. For $ 15, I expected a lot better.
We didn’t see our server much after the food was delivered, and never did see the fried pickles. Fortunately, it wasn’t on the check, but, seriously… WTF? The restaurant wasn’t that busy. It then took too long to get our check and then pay for it because we rarely saw our server after she took (and screwed up) our orders.
Will we go back? Possibly. I’d like to try one of the mac & cheese entrees, since they seemed to do that right. As for BBQ? Rubbery, non-​shredded, lukewarm BBQ (that may or may not be chicken)? No, thanks. With Mac’s Speedshop and Midwood Smokehouse offering better BBQ at lower prices, why pay more for less quality?