——-25/10/2012——-
Smoque must be a new restaurant in Canberra because it is packed and everyone wants in. There are three seating times for dinner: 5pm (who eats at 5?!), 7:30pm and 9pm. My friends and I squeezed into the 7:30pm session and the place was completely booked out.
It is a very much ‘help yourselves’ type of dining. You have to order at the counter, grab your own cutlery and napkins and order your drinks at the bar, but with such a busy restaurant and not so great staff, it is probably faster to order and get things yourself.
p.s. I love the carved pumpkin they have at the counter.
So many things to choose from, where to begin?
Ultimate Burger– brisket, pork, cheddar, coleslaw, jalapeno & bacon ($19.90). My friend said that it was a really nice sandwich, this is what I want to try next!
Smoque Ultimate – pulled pork, pork ribs, brisket, beef rib, ½ Chicken, 12 wings & 3 sides (options: three cheese mac n cheese, hand cut fries with house seasoning, red cabbage coleslaw, potato salad or Mexican street corn) serves 1-6 ($99.00). We ordered two of these because there were 8 of us and it fed us pretty well. They had sold out of mac and cheese so we chose a variety of the remaining sides, nothing special although I did enjoy the fries and potato salad.
There was also corn bread and pickles on the platter, the bread was really dry and crumbly, I didn’t bother with either of them.
Pork ribs– they had a great salt rub on them and the meat was really tender.
Brisket– disappointing in comparison, a bit dry.
Pulled pork– it wasn’t overly great but it tasted better with the BBQ sauce that they had on the table but I wasn’t going to waste precious stomach space. It probably would be nice in a sandwich with some cheese.
Beef rib– these were huge! We were trying to cut the ribs into smaller portions, the meat was so tender that the bones didn’t even hold on.
½ Chicken– nice and moist.
12 Wings– I have a soft spot for wings so my delicious opinion might be slightly biased. I ordered all of the wings to be ‘regular’ because I didn’t want to risk accidentally eating a ‘suicidal’ one.
EEEP! I didn’t realise that I had forgotten to take a photo of the buffalo wings, my stomach must have acted before my photo fingers.
All I can tell you was that they were finger licking delicious.
Not my idea but we also got two salads:
The Woodstock – lentils, green beans, beetroot, rocket, feta cheese, green olives and coriander vinaigrette ($11.90).
Traditional Chop Salad – cos lettuce, red onion, tomato, cucumber, red capsicum,
egg and ranch dressing ($11.90).
THEY SHIP!
The Smoque ultimate platter allows you to try a lot of the menu items so you can order your favourites next time. I’m still a little disappointed that I didn’t get mac and cheese but I also want to go back to have a ‘sandwich’. Yum Yum! Warning: not a great first date type of meal, I had sauce all over my face.
Venue: Smoque
Address: 2, 131 London cct, Canberra, city, ACT 2600
Phone: (02) 6162 3350
TALES OF A CONFECTIONIST 