With an overnight stay in Glasgow I needed somewhere to eat, and there was a lot of choice, both close by and not too far away. There are lots of choices and I did spend a little time looking over what was around on Google Maps, when noticed Smoke Barbecue. Well that was my choice made up for me.
One of my regular favourite places in Bristol is the Smoke Catering stall at the Temple Quay Market. They do a lovely piece of barbecued brisket and so was looking forward to having something similar up in Glasgow. As you can imagine having had some delicious barbecued food I had quite high expectations for Smoke Barbecue in Glasgow.
The venue is airy and somewhat industrial, lots of wood and metal. There are benches and tables and big windows.
They had a wide ranging menu with a lot of choices, but in the end I went with the Brisket plate. This is brisket, spiced & rubbed, then smoked for up to 18 hours. It comes with burnt ends, brisket hash and twice-cooked chips. I took my side order of choice of crispy onion strings. I added a portion of pit smoked chicken thighs as well.
When it arrived it was a big plate of food, well it wasn’t a plate it was a metal cooking tray of food. Yes I know it’s fashionable not to have plates, but okay serve it on a cooking tray, but provide a nice plate to eat it off.
It looked great and I really liked the look of it. The chips were nice, different, and then I tried some of the brisket…
Well…
It was okay, it certainly had a good bold flavour, but it wasn’t anything like the barbecued brisket I have had before, it was a bit dry and not as tender as I would have expected.
The Smoke Catering brisket, which I had eaten in Bristol, was tender, moist and melt in the mouth.
I had anticipated that the crispy onion strings would be nice and crispy, well some were, others weren’t. Good flavour though.
The pit smoked chicken thighs had been smoked previously and then finished off on the charcoal grill. I really liked the flavour of these, but like the brisket was a little dry.
There was a lot of food and I think upon reflection I wouldn’t have ordered the chicken as well as the brisket.
Overall it was okay, I think the challenge was I had really high expectations and I was expecting something amazing.