The Smoque Shack (Fumoir SmoQue Shack) — Restaurant in Ottawa

I'll be honest when I say this review started as a 1 star. It's been a roller coaster. I'll start at the beginning.

I went to the Smoque Shack for the very first time in November/December of 2018 with a friend when it was still located in the market downtown. I had a wonderful experience; it was a hole on the wall place with good service and great food.

Fast forward to my fiance's birthday this year, I wanted to plan something nice after all the COVID BS. He's a meatatarian so I'm thinking the meat coma that Smoque Shack has, would be perfect for this occasion.

For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the place, only where it is. And I spend 20 minutes walking down the roads of the market, and I remember the spot but it's not there anymore.. I then spend time doing a Google search of meat restaurants downtown and FINALLY find it. It's moved to City Center.

So I make a reservation for my fiance, his family and I. We arrive early, and a thin, tall blond girl with pigtails and small matching tattoos below each collar bone, brings us inside. The inside is not what I expected but that's okay. It's EXTREMELY loud, but again not a huge deal. The blond brings us upstairs and we can't hear anything she's saying until she leans in to explain this is our table. One of the chairs is missing but I explain that our party is smaller than expected so it's not a big deal. She says she can seat us downstairs where it's quieter.

She cleans off a dirty table and has us sit. Explains that the menu is scanned off the table and that's how we order. Not super convenient but that's ok. So we scan, browse the menu and decide we'll get an order of drinks while we wait for the rest of our group. When she walks by again, I ask if this scan thing just starts a tab and she very bluntly says they don't do that. It's pay as you go. I ask if there is any way to start a tab and she says no, they don't do that and stares at me. I explain that this is very different than the last time I was here - the restaurant, service, the paying and she shrugs and says she didn't build the place and walks away.

I'm honestly horrified. We spend the next 10 minutes trying to determine where else we could go on short notice during a dinner rush, based on the service we're getting I'm just don't feel good spending my money here but I've hyped up the food and my fiance wants to see it through.

Then a different person walks over and asks if we need a hand with the menu or had any questions. I explain to him the situation, the last time I was here, I'm a bit concerned the food isn't the same etc. We have a group coming and one of them is under age. He reassures me they are family friendly and asks if I want a hard copy of the menu. Introduces himself as Tom.

When our party arrives, he brings over water for everyone and menus. He offers to make a tab for us and says he can just take our orders. Tom really turned the whole experience around. His service was great, he was kind, empathetic and the food was fantastic.

Thank you Tom for turning our experience around from what it started at when we walked in the door. I wish I could have given it 5 stars but that blond girl...

Food is usually good. Their brisket and ribs got a different taste every time you visit (pretty decent). Their creamy cole slaw is excellent so it is the variety of beers offered. However, after have seen the decay of the service, I’ve decided I would go to another restaurant next time or better cook the recipes myself and provide a wonderful ambience to my family and friends.

These are my complaints about the service. More than taking this as a simple rant, I would recommend the owners of the place to take it seriously and start making changes in the management.

Waiter/waitress: I’ve visited the restaurant 7 or 8 times already and I’ve notice that the waiters and waitresses seem to be less careful about how to treat customers now. Their treatment is rough and when my friends (visiting for their first time) got questions, the answers are pretty short like they think everyone should know about the menu magically, #duh. Every time, but one, I visited with a large group of more than 6 people, so we were charged the service fee + I always provide a % tip (I don’t oppose to the fee or the tip, but at least I expect a friendly service).

Hey mates at the SmoqueShack: I would recommend that the waiter that receives you provides you with an introduction about how the experience would be and, of course, includes the mention of the board of beers. (It is not obvious for people to know that you got a wall with the local beers posted). Then, encourage your employees to treat people with a charismatic attitude. Be thankful that customers did not choose the Warehouse, where everything is pretty cheap, they chose YOU. So treat them accordingly, always thinking in their next visit.

Waiting time: sometimes food would arrive 20min after you ordered it, or as happened to us twice. 1h to 1h45. We weren’t told about the waiting times on those occasions. My family and friends were having a good time on both episodes. So, I decided to try to understand that the cooking crew were super busy.

Nevertheless, it was the following point (summarized to everything I’ve stated. 1+1+1....) what made think that by all means I would not visit anymore

Closing hours: The SmoqueShack has posted EVERYWHERE, yes everywhere, that the restaurant is open until 11pm. It was super disappointing and pretty confusing when a group of friends and I were practically ‘kicked out’ of the place last week at 9pm when we were told that we got 10 minutes left because they were closing 😡. Some friends had just arrived and others were on their way. The whole group had been there since 6pm eating and chatting ( 8 people + friends that arrived later). It is important to note that we were celebrating a Farewell party and that had decided for that place in view of the closing time posted on their website, on Facebook, on...

If you like a very loud, sports type of place.. only because there were a projection TV's viewable from anywhere.. not that you could hear anything.. and beer this might be your home.. but don't go here expecting good food.. or even service, PS everyone I did speak with were great people.. they had a hostess, no issues, found us a table.. great.. then advised there isn't service.. scan the QR on the table to get to app, PS: App is a Web page, sorry, is bad enough programs, now called apps, now web sites are being called Apps.. ok.. sad uneducated culture.. yes I'm older.. and as such am well aware of good food.. I tired the brisket, honestly it was decent.. but very easily could of been a precooked slice of meat.. which I suspect from the way it was plated vs every smoke house I have been too.. never been served brisket with sauce all over it.. always on the side.. and sides well fries were the basic choice so figured since its their prime sell must be good.. I was wrong.. they very much were frozen fries, with seasoning sprinkled on them.. but very definitely frozen taste to them.. coleslaw was ok.. and best part of the brisket was the pickled onion/pepper mix I found .. My dinner partner tried the Nashville Chicken, again with fries.. The chicken chunks seemed near burnt on the coating.. honestly I suspect this wasn't fresh either.. she ate about 1/2 of the chicken and wanted to throw up, only ate a few the fries, to share I had ordered the Cauliflower wings, which I had no idea what they would be, that was another ahh no thanks... just not impressive.. doesn't appear other than beer anything is "made" here.. I'll stick to places I know that actually make good fresh food.

PS: I almost gave up on that horrible web site the navigation was the worst I had even seen yet.. always amazes me how todays programmers are so bad at making useful web sites.. but I managed to complete an order just forgot to order a free glass of water which I was told would be brought to me and never arrived.. would helped wash the swill down..

Kudo's to the one staff member who when asking us what we thought was told about the bad chicken.. which we didn't want to wait for a redo.. walked over an gave us a 4pk of beer.. thanks.. I have a friend who will drink that.. since neither one of us are...