Smoke the Burger Joint

seriously the best hamburger I’ve ever had. the fries are damn good too. to the person sad that this isn’t like jouluta’s, you’re missing the boat this is a burger joint and an awesome one at that!

My boyfriend and I ate here for the first time last month after doing some Christmas shopping. We both really wanted something quick and filling as we had a long day ahead of us. The employee at the counter was very informative, but a bit TOO informative, he went over EVERY single burger option, it felt like we were at the counter for 20 minutes before placing an order, and we couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
We ordered burgers and fries, The burgers tasted like pre-​frozen boxed patties that you get for big group gatherings or company picnics, no flavor at all, didn’t even have salt and pepper on them… and the consistency was not that of a burger but more of a flimsy flip flop.
The fries were alright, but for the price you spend here the food should be more up to par. We will most likely not ever be back here, for the amount you spend here the quality of food is lacking.

I’ve been here a couple times and have always had a great experience. I love their turkey burgers and their chips are so addicting! They also have really fresh salads — try the spinach and strawberry!
Even though it’s a burger joint my favorite is the Nonna Caprese grilled cheese sandwich. It’s an amazing twist on a normal grilled cheese. I’m not even a huge fan of grilled cheese normally but Smoke’s is perfect.

Their turkey burgers are my favorite. The fries come with your choice of seasoning (all are delicious). Then their shakes… so good. The staff is very welcoming, friendly and helpful. Overall, definitely one of my favorite burger places.

Amazing burgers and grilled cheese! I usually always get the grill cheese because it’s not your normal sandwich! Fresh cut fires… Need I say more! Haha highly recommend!

Saw this place on television a couple months earlier and finally got a chance to visit. we ordered a Texas Triple burger, a San Antonio burger, a Long Island dog, some fries and drinks. The burgers were some of the best I’ve ever tasted. Every topping on the burgers were obviously well thought out and went well with each other and the burger itself. We could not stop raving about how great the burgers and the fries tasted. if you are in the area, don’t hesitate to stop and try a burger.

Loved it. Had the Dirty Vegas burger, it was a great messy burger. The smoked flavor was clear and the fries were great. My wife raved about her milkshake too.
The food is really good, but it seems as though people are expecting Mickey D’s pricing for great, fresh food. The burgers aren’t huge (I think they’re ¹⁄₃ pound burgers) but they’re good. I’d rather a good decent sized burger than a half pound uninspired slab of meat you get at so many restaurants. The fries are epic too! Different flavors and seasonings, but I’d love to see them add a dipping sauce option for the fries, too.
Bottom line, if you expect fast food prices just because there isn’t a waiter you’re going to be disappointed. If you are willing to pay a bit more for flavor, then come to Smoke.

Went to Smoke, the Burger Joint yesterday with a group of 16 and we just about took over the place. Since one of our group was in a wheelchair we grabbed two of the three regular tables and placed them up against one of the booths. Booths hold four to six and each table comfortably held four each plus one on the end, so we were a little crowded but didn’t want to grab a third table just for one person and we were fine. Other remaining tables are high top and hold four each so they were not an option for us.
Anyway, Smoke is kind of a cross between a fast food and an upscale restaurant. Stand in line to order and pay, then someone brings out the food, served on paper and presented on a metal tray, as it is prepared. Wednesday is $ 5.00 Burger Day, which is why we all come out. Any burger (other than the Build Your Own) is $ 5.00 after 4:00 PM. I heard good things about the Dirty Vegas (usually $ 8.00) so ordered one along with regular fries ($ 2.50) and a milk shake ($ 4.50). Burgers are one-​third pound Angus blend and are touted as fresh, never frozen.
First, let me tell you what I liked. The 20 ounce Milky Way Milk Shake was one of the best I have had in years. The egg on my Dirty Vegas was perfectly cooked with the yoke delicious and runny. The onions were caramelized to perfection. The cheese melted, not thrown on at assembly.
What did I not like? The fries come in different flavors and I picked Cajun. They turned out to be very spicy, which was overwhelming. Next time I would try Parmesan or perhaps Garlic. But there are plenty of flavors to chose from. The other problem I had with the fries was they were very short, some only an inch long, unlike the photo on the wall showing them five or six inches long. Finger food should be large enough to be eaten with the fingers.
I was also disappointed with the meat of the burger. I found the quality not up to my expectations for a burger than usually costs Six to eight dollars. I found something that resembled a piece of bone, or some other hard bit, in my burger. Blaah.
The burgers at Smoke are cooked, unless otherwise requested, to be pink inside. There is a sign at the cash register stating this but was not noticed by many in my party, leaving some to be a bit unhappy.
Most of the reviews for Smoke indicate people either love them or hate them. That was the result within my party as well. Some really liked them, others thought they were merely O.K. Two vegetarians in the group reported the grilled cheese was quite good. One mentioned the soup was somewhat cold. The only condiment available at the stand next to the pop dispenser is ketchup. Service was good and the staff were very friendly. But the meat allows me to give only two stars. It is a step above fast food but not what I expected. To be fair, several in my party said they would love to go back, and plan to.

I’m sorry to say there are better options close by. We wanted to like this place, we love smoked foods. We really like their sister restaurant Old Carolina. The burgers we had were lacking flavor, possibly frozen? For the price, the burgers are small also. The shakes seemed to be artificially flavored. When other burger joints in the area are putting actual pieces of home made pies in their shakes, that was disappointing. The fries… lets just say our kids ate barely half of them and didn’t want anymore. Sorry to say we won’t be coming back here.

The atmosphere and the staff were extremely nice and pleasing.
The menu is very creative with interesting options.
The fries were flavored but not over flavored.
BUT– my burger was the greasiest burger I’ve ever had. My hand was covered in dripping grease while holding the burger. It was disgusting. It was like eating lipgloss. Also there was no flavor to the burger. All I could taste is the grease.
I do not recommend. I will not be returning here.

I’ve had nearly everything on the menu and everything is great. The burgers are always cooked well and the topping creations give flavor options for everyone. Their fries and accompanying seasonings are awesome, the chili is really different and delicious, and they probably have the best hot dogs in the area. I also LOVE that they always have a temporary test menu and so you can literally always have something different. Their prices are really comparable to chipotle and piada for reference.

I finally tore myself away from their great burgers and tried the Smoked Gouda, Muenster & Red Pepper grilled cheese today wit a side of herb chips. OMG! So delicious!
My only tweak would be a little more cheese.
My hubby tried the wings and really loved the dry rub. He had 6 dry and 6 wet BBQ., which also were very tasty, although the meat itself seemed dry and over cooked. Still, he would order them again.

The food is really good here. The burgers definitely have a smokehouse flavor to them which I think is really good. There is a wide variety of toppings to put on there, but sometimes the smoke flavor of the burger can drown it out. I’ve never had bad service here either even when they are bust. The atmosphere is nice, the seasoned fries are good, and the burgers are great. They probably are a bit smaller than I am used to for the $ spent but going during a special time period can help with that too.

Great burgers and shakes. The fries are to die for. Make sure that you try the turkey burgers… very good!

I heard about this place through a co-​worker that enjoyed it. I came here for lunch with a group of guys I work with because I had to give it a try. I’ve been to The Rail, Menches, 5 Guys, McDonalds, and lots of other burger joints. I have a pretty good handle on quality food.
Forget what the thing was served on. Did it compliment the already small burger? No, but who cares. I want to know what it tastes like.
And forget price. If you’re not willing to spend money when you go out to eat then quit being lazy and stay at home to cook your own food. People have the fast food «fries included» mentality these days and it needs to stop. Did I think it was worth the money I paid? No, but I’m not gonna complain about it because I gained a new experience out of it.
Now on to the food, atmosphere, and service review:
Atmosphere:
I’m not gonna lie, I really liked the look and feel of the place a lot. Very modern looking. My only problem with it was that half the menu is above the counter and the other half is around a wall that you have to step back and turn to the right to look at. You should have your whole menu is one spot. Overall I though it was great.
Service:
Everyone was very pleasant when we walked in. They all said hi and welcome to Smoke. The order taker was very helpful and even offered me a little but extra Franks Red Hot for my burger. Thumbs up in this area as well
Food Overall:
Now this is where they fell short. I ordered the Buffalo blue cheeseburger and fries with their garlic salt and pepper seasoning. I ordered it «with pink» as opposed to «without pink», but I didn’t see any pink in that thing. Probably because it was too thin to leave any pink in it.
Presentation of the burger:
The patty looked very small and cookie cutterish. It didn’t look very appetizing because it looked like what they have in the freezer section at the grocery store. If it tasted awesome then I wouldn’t have any problems, but it didn’t. The burger overall did not look appetizing at all– especially when compared to how the burgers look at The Rail right down the
road. The fries looked very appetizing so I will give them a thumbs up on that.
Taste of the burger:
I was greatly disappointed with the taste of it. The smokey flavor ruins this burger altogether. It was already too much after the first bite and every bite after that.
The patty didn’t even really taste like beef– it almost tasted like beef jerky or summer sausage that was overpowered with a smokey flavor, which was gross. My co-​workers agreed.
The patty was very dry. It had no flavor other than smoke. After I ate it my co-​workers mentioned that the patty could have been ordered without the smoke flavor seasoning. If I did that then it would have just tasted like a frozen patty that was microwaved, with no flavor… but probably worse.
The Fries:
I ordered the fries with garlic salt and pepper seasoning. My problem with these is that all I tasted was the salt and pepper. I didn’t taste the garlic on the fries until about 5 minutes after I had finished them. Way way way too much seasoning.
Overall:
I will not go back to this place and I would encourage people to avoid it at all costs. It’s not worth ruining a meal for yourself. If you want a quality burger in the area then head to Belden Village Mall to eat at The Rail. At least there you will know that you will get a good, quality, juicy, flavorful burger, with all locally sourced products.

Have had a lot of luck with the other restaurants owned by this group, and Smoke was no different. Had a personalized burger that was really good. Jalapeño bacon was a very nice touch. My burger was $ 7, I think most of the specialty ones are $ 7 – 8. If you get a thing of fries, you’re looking at $ 10…which is the same price you’d pay just about anywhere else. Not sure why so many people are freaking out about fries not being included!
The fries are delicious. There are 5 or 6 different seasonings to choose from. I went with a group and we split the steakhouse and rosemary styles which were both good. Did not try a shake, but they looked delicious. Of course, this place has Cheerwine as well. If you haven’t tried it, you’re missing out!

Am I the only one who likes this place?! My Dirty Vegas was excellent, and all five of my friends were equally pleased with their burgers! This is a burger joint that is not afraid to offer different, cool additions to their burgers, such as a whole fried egg…
It is a bit on the expensive side, though. Still all in all I would say that the owner (the same guy that started Old Carolina and Baja Pizzafish, I believe) has created another great restaurant!

Not sure what to say… but I was terribly disappointed. I really wanted to like the place
In the old Jojutlas location (Jojutlas is now across the street) in the Gander Mountain Plaza on Portage.
The décor is pretty cool with great graphic signage and fairly nice very casual seating area of roomy booths and table and bar style high tops.
Meal itself — thumbs down. Pre-​pressed burgers that looked like they might have been frozen. Did not look or taste like a fresh burger meat to me. Burgers start at $ 6-​$ 8 with no complimentary sides of any kind. I had a $ 6.50 blue cheese burger with grilled onions and mushrooms which were barely there. Husband had the Tex Jay and was not terribly impressed. Presentation is by way of tray with white paper which makes the already less than desirable burger look even smaller and less appealing. The best part of the meal were the fries, although at $ 2.50 for an order, we didn’t want to order more than one. Three of us shared them. Milkshakes were $ 4.50 and we passed on these as well. Total bill over $ 30 for three us and we left hungry and disappointed. :-(
Upside, Tuesday is kids (10 and under) eat free night.
Wednesday is $ 5 burger night which might be a value depending on what you order.
Pretty pricey for a burger no matter how you look at. Same goes for the salads. Hot dogs appeared to possibly be a value buy.
If you are looking for Smashburger experience or even Five Guys and Fries, not happening. Fast food chains like Smashburger and Five Guys are better values and better burgers.

Had the Tex Jay whatever. It had good flavor, but for an $ 8 burger, it was only a ¹⁄₃ pound burger, and it was most obviously a stamped out (frozen?!) burger that was perfectly round. Place looked corporate with «cool» wall hangings, etc. like a Smashburger or something. perfectly circular patties (1/​3#) made me wonder. Small $ 8 burgers will be a hard sell. Good flavor, not good value.

First visit had the dirty Vegas burger. Second visit had the cobb salad burger, which was not quite as good as Dirty Vegas. The bacon is a little limp, which is not my thing and with all the awesome honey bacon running around these days it fell a little short. I really want to give this 3.5 stars. The bun is soft enough but firm enough. The toppings are great with perfectly cooked egg and caramelized onions. The burger itself has 30 percent brisket and it is smoked, so it has a little richer flavor than many burgers out there. It is well seasoned. They say the burger is fresh but something about the way it is formed fools you into thinking it is frozen.
The fries were tasty with several seasoning options. They are apparently twice fried. They are no match for Five Guys fries IMO. The burger, because of the creative topping options, provide a strong competition for the 2^nd tier burger market. This place does not match the level of The Rail, Flipside, B Spot and 3 Brothers but it is still a pretty great burger overall.
The person I ate with loved the buffalo bleu cheese hot dog. It looked loaded with thinly sliced celery and high quality bleu cheese with a buffalo sauce.
On another visit I tasted the chili and if you like a sweeter chili this is pretty dang good. I love B Spot’s beanless chili though and this falls a little short of that, but it is still a pretty flavorful chili with a nice mix of sweet and spice.
The caramel salted pretzel shake was tried on second visit. Very nice. Probably on the level of a Red Robin or Sonic shake I would say, which ain’t bad.