Maque Sim

Review of Smoque BBQ

One of the only restaurants in the Chicagoland are...

One of the only restaurants in the Chicagoland area that manages to understand and execute REAL barbecue. They don't just broil your food and soak it in bbq sauce. I've eaten everything on the menu and everything is more than edible. Real bbq aficionados will appreciate the smoke ring on the bark of the pork and beef. As aforementioned in other reviews the wait can get lengthy but for a barbecue starved city, it's worth it. I think that cretin with the bleach blonde tips is a chode so I'm not going to mention his stupid show. If you've ever been to his restaurants you'll know he's full of bs and you'd never take his word on food again. He has the dead palette of a 90 year old grandma.

I've never had an issue parking but I never go to Smoque during peak hours. I like the watery vinegar based sauce as it reminds me of a West North Carolina style sauce. They also have a sweeter sauce that is reminiscent of Memphis barbecue. Again, they don't slop it on your food, which is typical of restaurants masking bad bbq. They serve it on the side the way a good barbecue place should. The sauce should complement and enhance the meat, not cover it up entirely with a corn syrup based goo. I'm also fond of their sides. Beans and cornbread were on point. Cole slaw is good but I prefer cream based slaws. (simply a matter of opinion, theirs is vinegar based) I had some of their cobbler for dessert which was also good. With cobbler it's easy to screw up the cooking time. A few minutes one way or the other and you either have raw topping or over-caramelized sugar resulting in a taffy like consistency with unpleasant acrid flavors. They nailed it. While I agree that the hype isn't nearly reflective of the actual quality of the place, we don't have a lot of options here in Chicago and these guys are about as good as it gets here.

This place is far from where I live but I go at least twice a year with the woman who is practically my wife who happens to also be fond of Smoque. (Never hurts.)

Oh, one last thing. TIP THE KIDS WIPING YOUR TABLE. Living in Chicago is expensive. Even in the hood it's comparable to living in NY or LA. You just spent $40 on two meals, slip the kid a five you greedy b*stard. Not many people do.