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| - This is the absolute worst Smoke's location. Anywhere. Ever.
I went a few weeks after it opened. I was stoked, since I hit up Smoke's once a week and this one is closest to my house.
It has a large amount of seating compared to other locations in the city. Dundas and Jarvis offers no seats at all. Annex has a few stools. So if that's what you're after, head on in.
Having been a regular Smoke's customer for the past year and a half, I expected much more from this location. The staff could barely work the register. They were not knowledgeable about the menu whatsoever. OK, so it's a new location. I get it. But how hard is it to work a register and learn a menu? I've done it in one, maybe two, days multiple times.
There were two people who ordered before I got there. After I ordered, I waited twenty minutes and the people ahead of me got theirs about a minute before I did. Why, I'll never know. The guys at the Annex have far better turnaround time on a Friday at 2 a.m. when the place is rammed than these schmucks did on an idle Sunday night. I understand the fries need to be cooked, but come on. I could've gotten an entree at a sit-down restaurant in twenty minutes.
Best of all: If you know and love Smoke's, STAY FAR AWAY. They made my poutine WRONG. How is that even possible? Well, I didn't think it was until I visited this location. The standard Smoke's equation is fries, gravy, toppings. 75% of my container was fries. 20% was gravy. Only 5% was toppings. I ordered Country Style (chicken, peas, onions, mushrooms). All I could taste was gravy. It was literally drowning in it and the container was soggy at the bottom. They put the gravy ON TOP of the scant toppings, which made it worse. It was so disgusting that despite not eating anything all day, I couldn't eat it. If I wanted a sea of gravy, I'd make my own at home and drink it out of a cup.
The Smoke's at the Annex loads their dishes up with toppings, so much so that you can barely close the container. I go out of my way to go there because I will NEVER return to this hell hole in Little Italy!
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