Smokeshed Bar and Grill Hoddesdon — Restaurant in Broxbourne

EDIT TO RESPOND TO OWNER: We’ve eaten out at plenty of restaurants - none of which have sticky tables. Even before COVID, I would expect to see staff washing hands after a break and wearing gloves while preparing food. There were no clear ‘sanitising station’ signs at your restaurant. If your overstaffed/training, you should be showing them how to take orders and serve food quickly. Not waiting for customers to tell you what’s missing from our order. I doubt your staff where taste testing, but if they were, please tell them not to do it while preparing customers food. Mentioning the poor parking is purely useful advice for other people who may think about visiting you. It had no bearing on the 2 star review we gave you. That was purely based on bad service and poor food quality. FYI, Sainsbury’s have a parking notice detailing it is only for Sainsbury’s customers.

I’m unsure which of my points are ‘not valid’. I stand behind the review made and hope that people do use it to make a decision about whether they visit you or not. The only amendment I would like to make to my review is that the owner doesn’t respond well to feedback and has come across quiet rude in their response.

MY REVIEW AFTER OUR VISIT: Very underwhelming, I’m surprised at how overrated this restaurant is. First of all, the table was sticky, a glass was dirty, there was no hand sanitiser for customers and they have poorest COVID measures we’ve seen in a restaurant post lock down. No staff were wearing PPE. The service overall was very poor and we had to call someone over to take our food order despite 6 waiting staff around. They seemed to be more interested in getting their bags from lockers and going out for a smoke/vape. We saw 2 chefs in the kitchen eating a burger of some sort while cooking food. We could see our food was placed ready to be taken to our table but it took quiet a while for someone to bring it over. We were also missing onion rings from our order which we had to ask for.

We ordered x2 burgers, buffalo wings, onion rings, coleslaw and chips. The chips were nice and the onion rings were decent once they finally arrived but everything else was very mediocre. I’m very surprised that the burger was not better as this is meant to be a grill specialty restaurant.

The options for deserts was very limited with only 5 options. The 5 deserts seemed liked they were catered only to children, apart from the baileys cheesecake which they only had 1 slice of left.

A usual problem in Hoddesdon but parking is poor here. Toilet at the premises were quiet clean.

I would not recommend...

Had to drive round the block a couple of times before luckily finding parking in the high street, no idea what youre supposed to do if eating somewhere before 6.30pm as everywhere seems 1 hour permits, disabled or loading bays.

Restaurant felt warm and inviting, about 80% capacity on a Sat night but couldn't see any food yet. 🚩

4 of us had the higher seating booked which could have comfortably fit another 2 more so we had enough elbow room.

Cocktails from the swanky looking bar were  on point, drank those Dark Smokey's all night. 🥃

Ordered the £65 platter to share with a mate and requested brisket slices from the point (the fatty part) as sometimes slices from the flat part in BBQ places can be a bit dry.

The owners daughter came up and advised that part is used for burnt ends (which are also part of the platter) and asked if I wanted more of those, but assured me that the brisket slices are juicy enough so convinced me to order as-is.

And she wasn't wrong, food took about 45mins but well worth the wait.

To my surprise we got a couple thick slices from the point anyway. Had a nice smoke ring and they were tender, juicy, just about held together on a fork and melted in your mouth! Right up there between Franklins and Terry Black's! IYKYK.

The Burnt ends were ridiculous, tacky BBQ glossy, glazed, mahogany exterior that you could crush with your tongue against the roof of you mouth.

The sausage was delicious too and had a nice snap to the bite, although following the previous 2 meats, needed to dunk in 1 of the 3 sauces provided for an extra flavour kick. Would have been nice to see a jalapeno cheddar option like they have all over Texas but I'm splitting hairs here.

Pulled pork was as you'd expect, a little over shredded if I really had to pick holes in it but nicely presented in its own cast iron skillet with that BBQ sauce drizzled on top.

Pickles and red cabbage cut through the richness and even the veggies cooked on the coals were bang on.

St Louis Ribs had a great depth of flavour, clean bite off the bone and a moreish smokey aftertaste.

Seasoned Fries perfectly crispy and overall a great experience.

Best BBQ in...

A decent BBQ place worth a visit.

Went there for a birthday meal for my wife and had booked originally for 7 but ended up with 9 (did call to extend and was advised of a £10pp deposit for bookings over 8, but was driving at the time and forgot to call back).

After initially struggling to fit my party the staff did indeed accommodate us comfortably.

We sat at 7pm, ordered drinks and then food shortly after. The drink took a while (longer than I expected) to come and the food was even longer. In fact noticeably longer to the point where we had queried as other tables seated after had received before us. For context it was fairly busy not I wouldn't say rushed.

We had a baby with us also and requested a high chair twice but never received it, but staff apologised when they realised but by then the baby was tired and wouldn't have used it.

When the food came it looked and tasted very nice, however it was very disappointing to find a fair amount was either luke warm or cold. We did have to wait some time for cutlery after the food was delivered also which didn't help.

We expressed our disappointment to the staff and they were amazing and replaced everything within 5 mins (rather than reheat - although we did query why this was so quick Vs the initial wait - it was chalked up to being less busy). We were very impressed with how this was handled.

Overall I'd recommend the restaurant and eat there again based on the Meat Riot we had. And would attribute some of the failings on the night to possible one offs. But quickly resolved by friendly staff.

Upon visiting again I'd hope to see improvements to food/drink wait times, which would probably address some of the issues we experienced. Also I never got to try the dessert as I was too full.

Thanks Smoke shed...