Smoak BBQ

Popped in without booking and luckily was able to get a table within 10 mins.
I was very surprised that they don’t have an alcohol licence but you can take your own, I don’t often carry bags of booze through Glasgow so this wasn’t ideal.
The food was ok and the staff were really helpful and pleasant but I thought the restaurant was a bit cramped.
It is unlikely that I will return.

As someone else has noted, it appears that BBQ style foods are the new ‘burgers’, the latest food craze to sweep through Glasgow. As a meat eater I approve of this notion (until we have too many of them by which point the next craze will be upon us anyway).
And so to Smoak, once of Pivo Pivo, now with it’s own location on Royal Exchange Square. It’s a small space, and we were sitting in the back where room is a little on the tight side. We had pre-​ordered to avoid the lunchtime rush and so I already knew that I would be having the Dirty Harry.
After being shown to our table, drinks were ordered and delivered and the food arrived promptly after that.
I hadn’t ordered any chips or sides with mine (in a vague effort to be healthy) so when it was placed in front of me it did look a little on the small side as it was on a plate clearly made to hold some fries (which most of my colleagues had). An odd thing to note, perhaps, but presentation is everything right?
Well of course it’s not. Taste is everything!
The Dirty Harry — a venison hot dog, topped with BBQ pulled pork, cheese and fried onions, all served in a brioche style hot dog bun — looked pretty average when it arrived and did little to prove me wrong. The fried onions scattered on the top were more charred and crispy than fried and so small all the flavour was gone, so that was a bit of a disappointment. The first bite of the hot dog proved promising, the flavour of the venison hot dog was there, the cheese wasn’t overpowering, and the little kick of sweetness from the pulled pork helped, although I’m not sure the brioche bun was the best idea, making the entire thing a little on the sweet side.
However by the last few bites I was pretty underwhelmed and left with just a bun that was pretty dry, and a some of the venison hot dog, I ended up adding some ketchup just to make it easier to eat.
Price wise paying just short of £10 for a pretty average hotdog and a ginger beer didn’t feel like value for money.
My whelmed remains undered and I don’t see me hurrying back to Smoak any time soon. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that special

With all the restaurants in Glasgow that have this type of cuisine to offer I found Smoak distinctly average. We went because they had outside seats and it’s been particularly sunny this week. With few places in Glasgow offering outdoor seating this is a bonus for the place. Although the table was notably wobbly and the waitresses answer to this was. Yes thats what it’s like.
I had the venison hotdog with the cheese and crispy onions. The hotdog sausage itself was really tough and chewy, not what you would expect from a hotdog at all. In most cases it’s the topping that makes a dog special but it’s was just plain old cheddar. The menu said there was also bacon jam on the hotdog (obviously why I chose it) but I failed to locate that, hmm.
Mac and cheese was decent and the texas was just garlic bread I thought.
Won’t be back in a rush

Popped in here for lunch and the place was decently busy for 2:30PM.
First impression:
The lighting is poor. Maybe this is what they’re going for… hopefully? The further in you go the darker and smaller it seems. I took a seat near the door so thankfully there was some natural light.
Service:
The staff are attentive, but not overly. As soon as I walked into the restaurant a male staff member greeted me and told me I could sit anywhere I’d like. After about a 5 minute wait, a female server took my order and brought my food out when it was ready. There was no other interaction with them other than when I asked for my bill.
The food:
I had one of their lunch specials — smoak pulled pork with French fries for £6. Not a bad deal! the sandwich was really good, quite similar to Bread Meats Bread. The fries were cooked crispy and piping hot.
Ambiance:
It was lunch time so there were lots of business lunches going on. There were also a couple girlfriends having lunch together after an afternoon of shopping. Pretty laid back and quite casual overall.
I plan to go back with Jordan for dinner. Their milkshake menu caught my eye and I’m excited to try one next time.

Worth It! Great Food, Great Service and Introduced me into my new favourite hot sauce. In Great location of you are out shopping and the only reason I wouldn’t give it a 5 is because we where sitting right next to the door and It let in a slight breeze so I had to keep me jumper on for the entire meal.

I quite enjoyed Smoak and quite often ate out when they where guests residents at the Variety bar in Sauchiehall street
it’s nice to see them settle down and have a home of their own.
First thoughts
Was cosy as in very small place with lots of seats and tables topped of with a rather large bar that that only served soft drinks.
Food
We arrived not long after they opened to be told what they did not have on the menu
I’m not sure if it was due to lack of preparation but it certainly wasn’t due to it being busy.
I sadly didn’t even get to read half the menu as within two minutes the server was at the table ready to take our order so l had to make a spontaneous choice of what l would like.
I chose the BBQ chicken wings & some sort of burger with pulled pork I’m not sure what was called as I didn’t have time to take in what was on the menu.
I had the impression that the staff where trying to turn the tables around fast and have you out the door as soon as you came in.
All the food arrived at once and looked pretty good visual wise but that wasn’t to last long.
The BBQ chicken wings tasted more like sweet and sour sauce and where presented on a cold skillet pan and served warm.
The burger was presented on a large rectangle plate that was cold, and with the slaw on the burger the whole thing was barely warm even though it tasted fine just needed a little more seasoning as there was a lack of flavour
(I have a high sense of taste & smell) and could not taste much flavour.
Staff where nice enough but felt that for a Friday night they where trying their best to up sell soft drinks as they had no drinks licence, if they had beer l would have had one but the last thing that l would wanted was a soft drink.
There was no recommendation or specials from staff. It would have been nice to have been recommended an item of the menu to try than guess.
The restaurant was pretty silent and all l was hearing was the clanging of carry outs from the off licence and the glass bottles being taken out to the bins as guests where coming in and out and the door constantly banging.
It’s a nice enough place but not my scene any more.

Popped in for a quick bite here. it wasn’t quick. But it was absolutely wonderful. Best beef brisket by far that i’ve eaten in Glasgow, succulent well flavoured, awesome. The fries were glorious but i could always do with more.
It’s not cheap, but you can taste the quality, and as it looks like more and more places are sticking «beef brisket» on the menu that are obviously sourcing straight from catering packs of the stuff, this place is definitely the real deal.

I ordered the Smoak Stack. £10.95 I think was a cheap meal out. It tasted nice. And it looked nice. Why have a given 3 stars? Because there was no taste of smokiness from the meat. It obviously is not being smoked.
Only reason I’ve dropped the stars are it was misleading. If it tasted smoked I would have given it 5 stars.
It’s not all doom and gloom, as I’m sure you will address that.
My friend kept complaining to be about the banging the entrance kept making every time people entered or left. And fact bin bags were being carried past our table. As we were next to the door. It never bothered me, but did with him.
Staff were polite, décor looks great. It’s a very small place, but feels nice.
One thing to note. They have another restaurant on sauchiehall street I’m sure I heard. As 2 poor ladies came to the wrong restaurant to meet friends.
They also sell Irn Bru too try it yourself

We nipped in here for a quick bite to eat not realising they have a £6 lunch menu, bonus. The burger and chips was lovely and arrived really quickly. Felt like we had just placed our order when it arrived. The burger itself was really tasty and the fries were just as good.
The milkshake is lovely and well worth checking out if you are up for some additional calories. The orange juice was really fresh.
Atmosphere wise the choice of music is great and it’s quite a chilled place. Service was fantastic as well. Really nice lunch. I’m sure we will be back soon.

Myself and friends have been here many times, and have always enjoyed the food and service. Always served with a smile and good banter, the food is always top notch and appropriately filling.
The BBQ Ribs I had last time were just out of the smoker after 14 hours — unparalleled in taste with any others I’ve had recently!
Never had a bad experience and will continue to return.

I actually forgot this location had opened when I noticed it when deciding when to eat. Perfect timing for me. I had to stop.
It looked rather empty but the first thing I was asked is if I had a booking. I didn’t but they were able to get me a table anyway. We were given the lunch menu and told what they were sold out of. Still good as a lot of what they had on the menu appealed to me and I made me pick quickly before I became too indecisive.
I had felt inspired by something cheesy and ordered the three cheese mac and cheese and a side of cornbread. My friend ordered the yaka mein and a side of home fries poutine along with a salted caramel milkshake.
The milkshake arrived quickly. It was massive with a load of whipped cream on top. From the taste I had it was thick and flavourful and honestly made me wish I had also ordered a milkshake.
The food took a bit longer but looked delicious when it came up. The yaka mein had one big prawn on it with other meat, along with a fragrant broth. I honestly was worried that because it felt out of place on the menu it wouldn’t work, but the flavours in it all melded together to make something that works. The home fries poutine looked very impressive as well.
And then there was my macaroni cheese. It was a wonderful sort of cosy macaroni cheese, with enough excess cheese sauce to be eaten with the garlic bread on the side (even if I prefer more crispy on the top baked macaroni cheese). My one picky thing is apparently the Texas toast jalepeno cornbread seems to be the same thing as the garlic bread that comes with the macaroni cheese, but that’s likely just a difference in term usage.
It was a really positive experience and I look forward to visiting later in the evening when they’re more likely to have ribs. I’ll apparently need to book though, based on the amount of people who got turned away while we were there.

Thank the BBQ gods that we were off that afternoon cos Smoak completely failed in the speed of services stakes. I’ll take a point off right away for that.
It’s a small place and actually a little too cosy, but its cute. No alcohol here, so I ordered Sanpellogrino and waited. I had to order another long before I saw any food. I’d ordered a Guadlupe Peak burger. This consists of a sauce, smoked brisket, pork belly, a burger, slaw, pickles, and emmenthal cheese, and I ordered a side of poutine.
When our food finally appeared I found I really liked my burger. It was big and had a lovely combination of flavours. I even liked the large slice of gherkin and I never like gherkins. The brisket particularly had a splendid, smokey tang. One problem even here though, my uncle was unimpressed with the temperature of his, and although mine wasn’t quite so bad it still should have been hotter. The corn bread we shared was also nice, again it could have been warmer too.
The poutine came and it was way bigger than a side. My criticism of it would be that the gravy was too runny, it was basically a fried potato and curd broth, it wasn’t poutine at all. Poutine is fried potato chips, topped with thick gravy and cheese curds, the potato isn’t meant to be swimming and nor are the curds, and for that and the serving temperature another star has to come off.

I had the ribs, jalapeño corn bread and beans — all were awesome. The best compliment I can give this place is that it’s the closest I have come to the ribs in Bodeans in London — anyone who knows what I mean will know what I mean! It took me over a half hour to get my food which wasn’t a huge deal but they weren’t busy or else it would have been 5*, I also had a mango & passionfruit shake which was awesome

My friend and I visited here a few weeks ago after passing by and hearing that it was pretty good.
We went on a Wednesday and whilst it was great for turning up and getting a seat, unfortunately there was no brisket on the menu. Not too sure why, sold out? Not made? Who knows either way we did enjoy our meal.
We opted for the burgers which were delicious. Cooked just right and had a good amount of relish, cheese etc on the burger. For me the icing on the cake was the maple bacon jam. Amazing. Even if you’re not into jams and sauces and everything else you can put on a burger definitely don’t miss out on that.
The sides were generous, we got two between the two of us. The ‘chips’ we’re not as much chips as they were small potatoes. Cooked well and the aioli was tasty. The Mac ‘n cheese was great too however we felt it was a bit too heavy on the garlic side.
We were a bit surprised to find no drinks menu available as it’s always nice to have some wine with a meal with friends!

The Smoak brand has been about for a long time now and I was pleased to see them finally get their own home. They have come along way from their start of having some space at Variety bar to being part of the bigger Tribeca group and now opening a location in the centre of the city at Royal Exchange Square.
First impressions were not great, it was much smaller than we thought and the table our group was sat at was very cramped in and really close to another groups table. The staff were friendly enough though and we went on with picking our mains and sides.
I had a burger and shared poutine & Mac n cheese. The food was slightly disappointing to be honest. The portions on everything were very small in size and I don’t feel like we got value for money at all. The poutine was under cooked and the sauce was to runny for my taste. The Mac was ok, but it was very very plain. The burger was average, but gone in two bites. (OK Maybe three) All in the food was pretty meehhhh and a bit disappointing. I would not be in a hurry to go back. I can only give a low rating I am afraid.

We decided to try out Smoak BBQ on Royal Exchange Square as we had heard a lot of good things from people who had tried their food at various pop-​ups across the city.
We were warmly welcomed on arrival and quickly told that there is not an alcohol licence in place yet but if we wanted to pop out and buy some beer there would be no charge for corkage. We decided to stick to San Pellegrino lemonade as neither of us wanted to brave the cold! I ordered the brisket on a brioche bun with fries, the meat was beautifully tender topped with fried sauerkraut and barbecue sauce. Be prepared to get messy, but that’s part of the fun.

I was a pretty big fan of Swedish Affär and was sad to see it (and its delicious Prinsesstårtas!) go. However, I was also excited to try Smoak, having heard a lot about it through other Unilocalers, when their food was being served in various different places.
The first thing I will say is that they’ve done a seriously cracking job inside! The place is unrecognisable and they’ve definitely got all their branding sorted out, which I always admire. They know who they are and they know what they’re here to do — serve delicious BBQ offerings to the masses! And that they certainly did for myself and Paul S last night.
I thought some of their main dishes seemed a bit pricey (although having now had other food from Smoak I can see they could be worth it) and neither of us fancied anything massive, so we opted for a few of the «Bolt Ons» to share — home fry poutine with added beef brisket, onion rings, BBQ chicken wings and Cajun fries. I was very happy with all of these! The onion rings were a bit on the crunchy side (Mr Debs commented that he felt like he was gonna break his teeth!) but I found them to be pretty tasty all the same. I only had one Cajun fry under duress from the aforementioned boyfriend, and they’re not very spicy! Ideal if you like Cajun flavour but not crying because your mouth is on fire. The chicken wings were brill — great smoky BBQ flavour which went past just the skin, really juicy and an adequate amount of meat on them too. They were served with a lime wedge which really kicked the flavour up another wee notch, mmm!
And now we need to talk about the poutine. Holy OMG Batman! Brisket aside, the poutine itself is yummy and the fact that it’s done with home fries instead of chips is a nice touch, the gravy is delicious and I highly doubt that cheese curds can ever be bad, because cheese curds. But the BRISKET. As soon as I ate some, I excitedly proclaimed to Mr Debs that he *must* have a bit, because it was so good I thought I might die of happiness. If you’re into that kind of thing, I seriously recommend you add the brisket for a mere pound, it’s worth it!
Our server was very attentive and made sure we had enough drinks, he was also really friendly and seemed genuinely interested in how our food was, instead of just asking for the sake of it. So overall it was a pretty good experience!
I’m pretty interested to come back and try their breakfast menu because a) it comes with a free coffee and b) let’s face it, rum smoaked brioche French toast definitely has my name written on it! But I’d also be up for coming back to try their other dinner options too.