Reading Intlxpatr & Mark’s posts about the newly opened restaurant, Smoke House, was enough to make me want to go there and experience it myself. Before going I asked a couple of friends about the place, and they all said it’s Ok. Nothing more and nothing less, the place is just ok. But I went anyway.

The place is small and had around 7 tables only. It’s in a hard to come across location location and is partially owned by an american (cool factor & authenticity factor). Unfortunately my experience wasn’t a good one. And Here is why:

The food was mediocre at BEST. Nothing special about the food at all:

1- The chicken wings’ (which is considered a specialty in this restaurant) presentation was horrible. The wings looked and tasted like they were cooked a couple of hours ago and then heated up in an oven then served.

2- Their smoke house burger was nothing special. The patty was too dry and the bun was too thick. Even my friend who had this burger a month ago said that it isn’t the same anymore.

3- The ribeye steak, my order, was recommended by the waitress as the house special dish, turned out like a fridays’ steak. I ordered it medium and got a well done.

The service:

The waitress was very nice, but I can’t say the same about the waiter nor the manager. The waiter couldn’t care less when I told him that the wings weren’t fresh, and when I told him I ordered a medium steak not a well done, he just smiled and left.

On our way out me and my friend had a little chat with the manager that went like this:

Friend: The chicken wings was different this time than the last time I was here.
Manager: No it’s the same.
Friend: No, I was here and my friends ordered the wings and it was different.
Manager: No, Thats what you think. I know it is the same.
Me: The wings weren’t fresh.
Manager: No they’re fresh. they were cooked at around 6pm only. (we were eating the wings at 8:30pm)
Friend: The food is different this time, even the burger! I ate here a month ago and everything was good!
Me: see this is my first time in this restaurant, so I don’t know if the way you cook has changed or not, but I just want to say that most of the food wasn’t good.
Manager: (in a very careless tone that lasted throughout the conversation) Listen, I know that my food hasn’t changed a bit, because I cook here, I made the recipes and the dishes and everything… I do everything here.
Friend: and we ate the food, so we know..
Manager: Yes the food I made.
Me: You know, you have an amazing way of arguing with the customers.

Thats when he retracted a bit, realized that he shouldn’t have argued so much, and said the ‘I will try and see what went wrong.. I appreciate your opinion..’ bla bla bla. Too little too late.

The hype surrounding this place was big, and the disappointment I felt, after eating the food and dealing with this disrespectful manager, was bigger.

Their location

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 12:16 am