Smoque Brasserie Chatswood — Restaurant in Sydney

I wanted to like this restaurant as a lover of classic French food but I found my experience to be rather inconsistent, making me hesitate to come here again especially given the competition in the French restaurant scene.

From an atmosphere perspective, it is pretty standard fare with a modern but homely feel. The open kitchen is especially nice. The only letdown here is that the menu is bluetacked to a public signboard out front rather than on its own dedicated lecturn, which is a bit tacky looking.

For food, this is where the main inconsistencies lie. For entree, we ordered the Goats Cheese Soufle and the Kingfish Crudo. The Soufle was decadent and the candied walnuts really elevated the dish. However, while the Kingfish Crudo was well plated and was visually striking, it was incredibly bland tasting. The dressing sauce was a vibrant green but tasted of basically nothing except a faint taste of oil and a bit of green apple. Typically, you'd expect a bit of a sweet/sour freshness with citrus notes (yuzu ponzu dressing is a good example of this) to complement the fish. The fish itself was delicate and was of good quality but did not pair well with the green apple slices. Basically you got the tartness of apple, then the fishy taste, not much synergy. Perhaps with a better dressing, it would've gelled better. Disapointing but not irredemable.

For the mains, we ordered the Rack of Lamb and the Confit Duck Leg and frustratingly again it was inconsistent! The lamb was tender and the accompanying demi-glace/meat glaze was perfect. But the duck was woefully over-salted and salty all the way through. I have had many confit duck across restaurants of similar calibre (Cafe Lyon, Machiavelli, Felix, Beckett's, Bistrot St. Jaques etc.) but none were even close to this. I'll chalk this up to some kitchen issue as I can't imagine anyone being able to stomach this but it was disapointing nonetheless.

Thankfully, the service quality was on the good side with them finding a table for us even though they were fully booked and they were understanding when we voiced our complaints, offering a replacement dish (we were too full already, having braved through as much as we could stomach, so we declined).

It feels a little bit wrong to leave an overall negative review given how nice the staff were, but when half the dishes we ate were decidedly subpar, its hard not to.

As I said earlier, I really wanted to like this restaurant. It provides some more uncommon dishes and is open for breakfast and lunch, each with their own menu which is exciting as its rare to find such fare elsewhere. However, I will have a hard time convincing myself and my significant other to come again, especially when Saveur and Cafe Lyon are but a quick jaunt away...

I wish Smoque the best of luck for the future and apologise for the...

We’re absolute supporters of local businesses and so this one is a little hard to write. Firstly it is a welcomed breath of fresh air with a French restaurant in the busy precinct of Chatswood. Let me say that we visited during non peak hours but on a Sunday - and the noise from outside the restaurant was a killer (Chinese new year lion dances). The restaurant itself was quiet- presumably because it’s just so noisy outside no one would be dining in with enjoyment. The waitstaff were polite and lovely, and non intrusive. Did all the right things so service was good. The menu seemed befitting for a French style brasserie- with crepes, escargot, soup etc being featured. We ordered the scallops, the souffle, lamb and steak béarnaise as these were, as previous reviews claim to be wonderful. We were quite disappointed with the food when they came. The scallops weren’t terrible but they did lack caramelisation/ were under seared, and cold when it came out. The souffle was poorly done; way over cooked and had hardened and it was just unpleasant to eat. The best way to describe it is to imagine eating stale basque cheesecake alongside pecan. My steak wasn’t too bad - if anything, it was perfectly cooked as medium rare ( many restaurants tend to overcook at this level we find). The serving of béarnaise could have been more generous but that’s really the only fault of the dish. The lamb was also very good, well cooked and the potatoes went well with it. Both dishes were solid, but for some reason they didn’t blow us away. It may or may not be due to the poor starters. Finally we ordered sparkling water - we were surprised that they served san Pellegrino. In this day and age of supporting local businesses, carbon neutrality and sustainability, we were disappointed that there are still restaurants who don’t do their own sparkling water. We don’t mind paying for it of course, it’s just a killer to the environment when our country has plenty of water that we can carbonate without having to fly...

Smoque is conveniently located at Chatswood Concourse that is easily accessible by bus, train, or metro with a short walk. A rare French restaurant for Chatswood and a nice alternative to the variety of Asian food in the area.

My highlights & thoughts: The service is pretty good. Friendly & polite staff. Orders are placed directly with the staff. There is indoor & outdoor seating. The place was clean. The flat white was good and we enjoyed the coffee from start to finish. The coffee tasted good hot and even when it cooled down. The beans were from Toby Estate. The food is decent, and while i would like to rave bout it, there were some shortcomings. The pulled brisket benedict was very tasty and the right amount of hollandaise sauce, but the beef brisket that was originally served was only enough for 1 slice of toast and almost none on the second slice. This was noticeable when i started to remove the generous portion of spinach. When it was highlighted to the staff, they brought out extra meat to top up, which made up for it. Though it would have been nice to have it right the first time around. As for the shakshouka, it had loads of green capsicum, which tasted more like a capsicum stew as opposed to what I expected from a shakshouka dish. Probably because of the amount of capsicums, we couldn't taste the spices or much of the tomatoes. Furthermore, the portion size was pretty small, including the size of the eggs. This dish was, unfortunately, disappointing.

I would come back for the coffee but may think twice if i were to head...