Their RIBS are very good! Yes. they could be a bit more tasty, I guess they want people to put their own sauce, but it would help more taste in their ribs. Still very good, no dry, no hard. I would visit again anytime!
Absolutely perfect smoked meats. Great sides (recommend the veggies and Mac n cheese). The price is outstanding and the staff was friendly and helpful. We will definitely return.
I saw some of the negative items in the reviews here and the commonality seems to be temperature. Here's the thing... If you are ordering real bbq to go, by the time you take it home it's not going to be scalding hot. Maybe the folks complaining are just so used to deep fried food that they forgot what it's like to have real meat cooked properly.
Do yourself a favor and eat in. Hell, we did take out and I was still thrilled!
Notes for the owner who I met and was extremely kind... If the temperature is a continuous problem, maybe look at styrofoam containers instead of plastic... I believe they are a better insulator... But I'm no rocket professor :)
Keep up the good work.
Solid BBQ joint, especially for Pittsburgh.
Pulled pork was perfect. Great texture, juicy, awesome flavor.
Chicken was great as well...above average for sure but not necessarily a standout.
Brisket was a bit on the dry side. Was hoping for better.
Ribs were a tad on the tough side and tasted ashey...seemed like the fire wasn't hot enough when the hardwood was added. Had that flavor you get from white, soot-ey smoke rather than the nice clear blue smoke.
Sauces left something to be desired.
Beef ribs were great brisket was alittle tough Mac and cheese big no no cheese sauce didn't hit the spot potato salad was okay corn bread nothing special I can say I tried it
They were friendly and helpful. Great service. My wife had the pulled pork, which was good enough that it didn't need any sauce. The chicken was good, but a bit dry. I mentioned it when they asked how the food was. He said it was the last one which is why it was dry. They gave me another piece of chicken with two sides to go because they wanted to make sure I had some chicken that I liked. I declined twice, but they gave it to me anyway. So what the heck, I took it. I tried a bit just to see and sure enough it was awesome. They won me over. I'll be going back for the food and the service.
ordered off of GrubHub delivery and had an excellent experience with this restaurant. The food came within a very reasonable time less than 1 hour. It was all very hot in temperature and the owner personally delivered to my door. Now that is dedication to your business! I ordered the Brisket, St. Louis ribs, Beef ribs, (2) Mac and cheese, Baked beans, and the Coleslaw, All of which came to around $34 including a 20% tip. Not a bad deal for enough food for about three people. The brisket was very tender and had a very smoky flavor but not too overpowering. The St. Louis ribs had a nice bark on the outside and the meat fell off of the bone also, a very smoky taste but also not too overpowering. The beef ribs were good but I felt like they should've had more meat on them, however in their defense, I'm not familiar with that style of rib so they were probably just right I'm just not used to them. They were very large, I ended up giving the leftover bone to my dog and he loved it. I ordered the sweet sauce and the spicy sauce I enjoyed both however the sweet sauce had a sort of taste I wasn't familiar with it I think it may have had some applesauce in it and it wasn't bad, just not what I was used to. Overall this was a great delivery experience I can only imagine that eating-in would've been that much more amazing!
Great food. The smell from the street brought us in. Relaxed atmosphere. Reasonable prices
Friendly BBQ spot. Great tender brisket, perfect cornbread, tasty veggies, the sauces are delicious, (tangy is my fav) good southern style sweet tea too.
Great BBQ, however they told us they were permanently closing the next day. Glad I got to try it before they did.
I had the brisket, mac & cheese, and green beans.
The best item of these three was the green beans. They were fantastic. The mac & cheese was a close second. I could taste several different cheeses and the texture was perfect.
As for the brisket, the bark was pretty good. It had a decent smoke ring but not much smoke flavor and it was a slight bit chewy. It was not bad, but maybe after living in Texas for 27 years I hold others to a much higher brisket standard.
Overall it was a good experience and I will definitely go back to try some pulled pork and ribs next time I'm in town. I should also mention that the service was very friendly and I really liked The atmosphere
Good local bb-q, make sure to try their smores dessert.
Visited for the 1st time w/my Wife this week. We both enjoyed everything we had. The pulled pork & brisket was succulent and moist and packed with flavor. The ribs were even better. They were cooked perfectly and had a nice bark on them form the rub they use. Will definitely be back, and will be recommending to my friends in the area as well
Smoq Pitt was a wonderful experience - I was in meat heaven. The ribs were so delectable that I couldn't bear to sully the flavor with one of the Pitt's (delicious) sauces. I will be back tomorrow for brisket.
Very impressed. Home made sauces, excellent sides. I had brisket, beans Corn bread and fries, can recommend all off them!! Chef was so kind, let us try the meats and bought us over some free deserts. I will be coming back, finally some good BBQ in Pittsburgh!!!
Best BBQ I've had at a restaurant. The baby back ribs were fall off the bone goodness! The chopped brisket was my absolute favorite! Sweet sauce was the best but all were tasty. Pulled pork was also delicious and juicy.
The pulled pork is amazing and the St. Louis and beef ribs are fantastic! The staff is really friendly too.
Delicious BBQ....Amazing Corn bread....can't go wrong with the daily special!
Not sure if we went on an off night or what but the food was not very good to say the least. We ordered the baby back ribs and the meat was extremely dry and tough. Even after I took the leftovers home and put them in a crock pot for an hour it was clear they were extremely over cooked. The mac and cheese was decent but not spectacular. The pulled pork sandwich was probably the best thing we got. The service and the staff were very nice and helpful and the environment was good. Overall though the food was really lacking and for the price I would go elsewhere.
First I thought it would be great to order BBQ. It has been so long and I really looked forward to it. I convinced my office to order one evening so we got about $100 worth of dinners. Very disappointed to say the least. We all ordered sauce and we all got the same pork without sauce. It was so cold I was convinced it came straight out of the walk-in, along with everything else. Needless to say I will not be visiting or ordering again. Just too many missing components. One review said they did not care and honestly after ordering I do not think the restaurant cares what kind of quality food gets sent out. Definitely not worth the money per meal.
Outstanding Q (and I smoke at home). Brisket, hard cut to nail when smoking, is on point. Baby backs had wicked bark and were tender. St. Louis ribs had a nice rub on it too. Chicken was mega moist. Jalapeno corn bread, mac and cheese, onion rings, sweet BBQ and mustard sauces were all highlights to. Portions are large so good value too. A must try if you're a fan of good smoke!
Tried the pork with the tangy sauce, it was great! I'm in love with the corn bread and will definitely be ordering from here again.
Don't go on a Sunday! I went here a few weeks ago with my cousin for lunch. Service was polite and quick, you have to counter order but they bring your food. Sauces were all good with the tangy being my favorite as it's a mustard based sauce. Took my family yesterday and it was very different experience. Staff is still great but the food not so much.
They were out of many items including all deserts. The brisket and pulled pork came out cold, the Mac and cheese was greasy and dry and the brisket was a lot of gristle. Apparently the did a Groupon deal and got slammed.
Part of me can understand that but how many times do you hear that story where volume goes up at the expense of quality. I will give them another chance as my first experience was good. Let's hope Sunday was an anomaly.
The food was great and the atmosphere was adorably kitschy. We brought our 15 month old and they had an actual highchair. Loved it. Will definitely be going back.
Accord to their web page the following message states they are closed.
from their Web site and Facebook
We want to thank the city of Pittsburgh and the community of Brookline for embracing us and filling your bellies with our BBQ. It has been an honor serving the community our passion of BBQ for almost the past two years. We will unfortunately be closing our doors for the last time Sunday, January 29. #thankyou #pittsburgh #brookline #rubsmokelove #smoqpitt
I will never order from them again. Was in the mood for a great bbq meal so we ordered a delivery at 4:37 at which time they said it would be an hour for delivery. However, we did not receive our meal until 6:28 almost two hours later. Needless to say things went down hill from there. Here is our order: Brisket plate= very fatty, hard to find eatable meat; Onion rings = cold and limp; Mac n cheese = cold an oily; Baby back ribs = Luke warm but still ok; Corn bread = only thing worth eating; French fries = not sure none were delivered. So as you can see dinner was a bust. I do not recommend this establishment at least for delivery.
Great bbq...a work in progress but getting better each time we return...dine in or take out....busy place..
The good food was delicious and portions are more than enough. The service is excellent. Will definitely come back again.
The portions are HUGE! WHOLE CHICKEN WINGS! Their prices are so good.
If I could give a 2.5 I would, because I don't want to give the impression the food was bad. It wasn't... it just really didn't work for me.
Ordering the pulled pork, brisket, mac and onion rings to go. Food was ready as soon as I walked in, staff was very friendly, seemed like a really nice place. I hope Smoq Pitt stays open forever, because it's great to see Brookline emerging. Seems like a really cool place to bring a 6-pack into after a long day.
Regarding the food, what turned out to be a big problem was the first thing I noticed. The pulled pork had an acrid taste to it. I couldn't put my finger on what it is. May have been the wood that was used. I definitely wouldn't chalk it up to the meat, it was either the rub or the smoke... there was some flavor that didn't seem appealing - it wasn't hickory, it wasn't mesquite and it wasn't any fruit wood I recognize. Eating the whole order of pork just trying to determine what that flavor was, the closest I could come up with was... Burnt cloves?
Moving onto the brisket, I really couldn't taste much flavor in the beef. I later discovered this is likely due to eating the pork first. Texture-wise the brisket was pretty firm, which is not necessarily a bad thing. You don't want brisket cooked until it turns to saw dust. But without the connective tissue breaking down, it does come off a little hard to chew. In fairness, brisket is probably the single hardest item in the bbq cookbook and I've been to places in the deep south who can't get it 'right'. Overall, hard to evaluate the brisket, just my one time experience and I'd encourage anyone to take their own run at it.
One item I really can't say anything good about, unfortunately, is the sweet sauce. The first flavor to hit you is cinnamon, then there is the dark sweetness from a brown sugar or molasses and finally there's probably some apple cider. All told, it tasted like apple pie filling.
Personally, I'm all for creativity in sauces, but this might just be a case of "looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck". When the things you taste are cinnamon, brown sugar and apple and not much else, your brain can only go a few places.
It probably would have been a really good sauce exclusively for the pork, to give you some of that Bobby Brady 'pork chops and apple sauce' action, but I plowed through the pork trying pinpoint what that off-flavor was. So I had it with the beef. At that point, I didn't feel the beef had any flavor, it wasn't really a good compliment.
I was able to understand a little better what was going on with the beef, thanks to the sides.
The mac and cheese, I actually had after the pork. The sequence of events is important, because it tasted of nothing. Just nothing. I was really disappointed. Next was the the beef and onion rings (which were ok, didn't seem like they were anything special) and the journey that was the sweet sauce. Sealing up the mac, I packed everything up and headed home.
About 30 minutes, and a bottle of water later, I gave the macaroni another try and it was actually really good! Like night and day. What went from an unseasoned pile of cooked macaroni, turned into quality bbq-style mac and cheese. It didn't make sense.
Whatever it was that I didn't like on the pork had really altered my taste buds. The beef very well might have had some flavor I didn't pick up on. Because of that I can't objectively render a verdict on the beef either way.
Hopes up, I revisited the sweet sauce, but found no magical transformation - still pie.
I can't authoritatively say someone should not try Smoq Pitt. Having gone to bbq pits all over the country, I'm not holding them to a 'for Pittsburgh' standard, but I recognize food is ultimately a subjective experience. I'm unlikely to go again, but I wish them well and hope they find an fan base.
I got the ribs, wasn't good at all, oh it was smoked well, good bark on the meat, but no flavor whatsoever. The green beans had no flavor. I wasted 18 bucks, I threw it all away, I won't go back again. My son got the smoked chicken, it was about to fly away it had so many feathers still on them. He didn't touch them, he chucked them as well. Their sauce was watery and again no flavor, now how you do that to a sauce is beyond me.
Not a place I would recommend.
Fantastic smoked meats, tasty sauces, and delicious sides. All of that, and fast.
Pulled pork was some of the best I've had, excellent smoke flavor. Will be back again soon.
