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| - Been twice now. Once during their soft opening for a Friends and Family night that featured a pared down menu and again for dinner a couple weeks ago. There were some great, good, ok aspects with both visits.
On the barbecue front, I give an overall good rating. This would be opposed to their sister restaurant Midwood Smokehouse getting a "great" from me on cue quality. Thus far I've tried the jalapeno sausage, pulled pork and brisket and I would rate them 1, 2, 3 in that order. There's much more than BBQ on the menu that I have yet to try.
Some of the sides I've tried have been very, very good. Best so far - the Smokin' Slaw and the Mac N Cheese. When you go Mac N Cheese, go for one of the speciality versions. The one with burnt ends was just fantastic and I could not stop shoveling it in my maw even though I was already full.
In terms of service, the soft opening night brought a young girl who had no where near the training needed to work at another sister restaurant, Bad Daddy's Burger Bar, much less at a somewhat upscale place. The second trip brought a superstar named Kevin who wasn't even assigned our table but noticed we had been sitting a couple minutes without water and took it from there. He was exceptional.
All in all, Smoke will be a good addition to Birkdale Village and I would expect them to get better with age.
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