Dinner at Smoke BBQ Glasgow

I had seen a bit about Smoke BBQ on social media and thought it sounded great so I put it down on my never ending list of the must visit places as Mr EmmaEats is a BIG meat eater. I'm not the biggest meat eater but I'm getting better. I saw that Smoke were putting on an event for bloggers and I immediately put my name down on the list! I was pretty excited about it as it was my first official blogger event!

So first impressions:- It is a lovely bright, airy big space with minimalist decorations but very tasteful and outdoorsy looking. We were greeted at the door by a very friendly waitress and she brought us to our table. It wasn't an exclusive bloggers event so there were 'normal' customers there as well, which I thought was good as it was more of a realistic setting and I was able to experience what the 'normal' atmosphere was like. We ordered our drinks and were informed we would be provided with a platter for dinner. 

I know this blog is about food and not interior but oh my god I just have to say that I loved the bathrooms. The sink is a bucket - a metal bucket and the taps are like taps that you would find outside (fitting in with the whole BBQ theme), I loved them but I thought it would just be too weird to take photos of the bathrooms and put them up on a blog about food. My light fixations continues here at Smoke, the lights in general are pretty cool but there is a net on the ceiling with loads of round lights in it and these are pretty spectacular.

Food
While we were waiting on our food to arrive, the table next to us got their platter and I started to panic as there was no way that two of us would be able to finish that size of a platter, it was HUGE. So our platter came out and here is proof of how big it was:-

The platter included:- pulled pork burger, brisket, ribs, barbecue turkey leg, chicken thighs, house hot link sausages, red cabbage, cornbread and two sauces. I have to say everything tasted as good as it looked. This was my first helping:-

I started with the house hot link sausages, and as I've said before in another post, I can be a bit funny with sausages but I must admit that these were very tasty. I moved onto the chicken thigh and this too was delicious. Next up was the cornbread, now this is only my second time having corn bread so I'm no expert (the first time being in this amazing little restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg) but I found it to be very dry however it did taste pretty good and there was a nice bit of heat in it. Next I moved onto the brisket and to be honest, I wasn't blown away by it. For my second helping I moved onto the ribs, which for me were the absolute winner of the meal (and most of my friends will be astounded to hear that I said that about ribs). They were finger licking good but I must admit I used my knife and fork to eat them. At this stage Mr EE was having the meat sweats and I was getting very close to them so I just had a small taste of the pulled pork and turkey leg, both of which were very tasty. All in all it was a great meal. 

Once our table was cleaned the waitress asked did we want dessert or would we like to wait for a while - I was thinking to myself does a while mean a day or so because that's how long it would take me to feel hungry again. Anyway we said we would need a while before dessert. After a little reprieve we told the waitress that we were ready for our dessert. We received a dessert platter which had 4 different desserts on it - ice-cream, a smores like dessert, a cheesecake and a chocolate cake. 

The smores dessert was absolutely delicious (I am partial to melted marshmallow), as was the chocolate cake and ice cream. I wasn't actually blown away by the cheesecake but I'm not the biggest fan of cheesecake, and would never normally order it in a restaurant so I'm guessing, going by the other desserts, that if you are a cheesecake fan this one would be as good as the other desserts. 

There are loads of other options on the menu if you don't want a platter. You can have burgers, chilli, plates (which are the meat dishes served with twice cooked chips and a side of your choice) and sides of course. And don't think that just because it is a BBQ joint there are no veggie options, Smoke caters for vegetarians too and there is a gluten free menu - Smoke caters for everyone. If you have room after your meal they also do desserts or 'puds' as they are called by Smoke. You need to check the chalk board for the selection. 

There is also an extensive drinks list available and on the night we were offered samples of their beer but we both refrained. 

Food rating: 4/5 

Service 
The service was great (I hear you say of course it was because they knew food bloggers were in the house) but I was watching them in general and they seemed to be very efficient and there was plenty of staff around. My only negative here was my pet hate .... the now infamous glass of water. If you have read the 'about me' section in my blog you will know that I like to have water when I'm eating and more often than not I'm left waiting for water. So I asked for a glass of water when I placed the drinks order - the water never came with the drinks and I had to ask again, I did get it straight away that time. Now this isn't a big thing but it is my pet hate. Service rating:- 4/5.

Atmosphere
There was a great atmosphere in Smoke, there was a good buzz about the place and a constant stream of people coming and going. The decor, as I stated above, is great and really makes it a nice place to eat in. Atmosphere rating:- 5/5.

Price
So for this post I'm not going to rate the price given that I was invited to sample the food but it would appear that you certainly get value for money here.

Last Words
I really like the vibe of this place, it is very welcoming and comfortable. Its somewhere that a group of friend could go to sit over a bucket of beer and a platter of meat and shoot the breeze. Or if you are just in need of a bite to eat, it is the perfect spot. Although it is not somewhere you would bring your other half for a romantic meal. I must say that even though I'm not the biggest meat eater I would definitely go back, the taste of the meat was great. Whilst I was here for dinner, Smoke are also open throughout the day for lunch so if you need a bite to eat at any time during the day, Smoke is somewhere you should definitely try out. Total rating:- 17.5 out of 20 (I converted the 13 out of 15 into a figure out of 20 so it would be in line with all my over reviews).

Date Visited: Thursday, 21 April 2016

Restaurant Details: 
Smoke Barbecue,
2 West Regent Street,
Glasgow,
Scotland,
G2 1RW.

Website:- Smoke Website
Telephone:- 0141 442 0420

Thanks a mil for reading.

Emma Mai xx