Smoqe — Restaurant in England

Before I share my experience I should say. Do not miss this little gem of a restaurant, Just go, you will not regret it.

OK my wife and son visited on a day trip. We received a warm welcome from Clare who provided drinks while we looked at the menu. She advised us accordingly after asking us what we would like. I loved the sound of the Korean Spicy BBQ Chicken but my son wanted a burger so we decided to share this. I just wanted to see how good they could do a Smoqe' n Bacon burger as I have yet to ever have a burger that could come close to the ones we had in New York. To accompany this we chose rosemary fries and coleslaw.

I could easily run out of superlatives to describe what arrived the chef as requested had actually divided the meals which saved us the trouble of cutting them up to share and my request of no cheese was noted, thank you Clare and the chef, you would be amazed how many forget that. The burger was not at all dry it had a smoky flavour but was so juicy the bun didn't fall apart. This was absolutely the best burger I have ever had in my life I thought the Korean burger can't possibly compete with that. But it did, it was crisp on the outside and the chicken was so tender, I was in awe at how this was achieved.

The depth of flavours were astonishing Korean BBQ Chicken. Panko-crusted chicken breast on a bed of Asian honey and ginger slaw, homemade Kimchi, Japanese pickled cucumber, Gochujang BBQ drizzle with a spring onion and chilli sprinkle. It was stunningly good. Then the coleslaw again homemade with coriander an amazing combination one portion was enough for us all. and lastly the Rosemary fries just fantastic.

It was clear from our conversation with Clare that she is passionate about the food they provide and OMG it showed. Is it cheap, no, is it good value oh yes very good value. All of us were blown away by the flavours and genuine skill of the food we ate. We were asked if we wanted a desert and if I am honest I didn't want to spoil the experience we had already had by a disappointing desert. But I heard the words "Home made" So again we ordered three different deserts to share between us.

Clare's Chocolate Mousse Cake, Espresso Martini Panna Cotta, Tim’s Raspberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake. I don't know why I had any doubt! All three were stunning. what stood out was the portion size was not mean but the quality of the ingredients was a standard unsurpassed by any other restaurants I have ever visited. All three of us had drinks a main with three sides to share and a desert each and the total was £122 I have paid that per head before. We are from Southend on sea and visited via a boat and on the same day are looking for an excuse to return to Rochester so we can visit again. Possibly the Dickens festival in December. This is not just burgers, this is great food cooked and served by people who take providing amazing food...

Ordered the ‘ribs’ for £48 and I’ve never been so disappointed. They may of had bones in but it was more like pulled pork, actually not more like pulled pork it was pulled pork, couldn’t separate or cut into ribs, sloppy fat all around as it was more like a joint of pork and in no way could you chop them and pick them up.No charring at all like authentic St. Louis ribs I’ve had in the US or infact at BigEasy or Red dog saloon in the U.K.. Tasted pretty bland apart from the hideous bbq sauce poured all over that just tasted like generic bbq sauce from a bottle. Also no smoke ring and seemed slow oven cooked and not ‘smoked’. Don’t believe they take 2 days to cook, give me 4hrs and it would have the same result

If this was sold as pulled pork I would say it was really good, but I’m not a fan of pulled pork in this country as they have no clue how to serve it with the correct condiments and after 5 mins of eating it was boring me

So £48 for ribs for two and served with a tiny portion of fries and a small pot of coleslaw that was like a child’s portion and this is for two adults. Fries were great but the pork crackling topping was just overkill and still tasting it now.

As for the restaurant, looks great, feels great but being a couple having a meal at 7.30pm wasn’t expecting the noise that we did experience, I would only recommend for groups as it was way too loud along with the club music and I couldn’t even hear my wife talking.

True feeling is these owners are new to the restaurant game as there was an unprofessional feeling where nobody knew how to greet or serve properly.

Then to top it off we’re hit with a 12.5% service charge…..for ordering on an app and bringing us a glass of wine and a beer and the bill. Ordering system is like a fast food chain and no personal service yet we get charged for it

Ended up leaving the ribs after eating 1/3 of them and wasn’t even asked if anything was wrong until after we paid the bill and at that point I just wanted to leave. Lovely couple and very polite owners but that’s just not enough wasting £70 on what I can’t even call a nice meal

Just so disappointed and feeling robbed of our hard earned money on what was rare night out without the kids.

Reduced to one star from two for the shabby and unprofessional reply. I wasn’t asked once how the meal was whilst I was there, I didn’t complain at all and yet this is your reply, because other people rate your burgers doesn’t mean I was wrong about the pork ‘ribs’. You took our money even though more than 2/3 of the food was left, you don’t really care about true reviews just the 5 star ones. Simple apology Would of been enough or an offer to return to try something different

Your assumption that I must be in the wrong as I didn’t rate 5 stars will be seen soon enough, owners clearly can’t take criticism and take...

I feel for the sake of balance I must share my experience with others, since I have seen 5 star reviews that were a contributing factor to place an order with Smoqe.

Sadly, my experience was not great.

I ordered the Buttermilk chicken burger (£12), and my partner ordered the Smoqe and Bacon Single burger (£9), regular fries (£3) and rosemary fries (3.50). Service was chaotic and all over the place, had to wait around 20 minutes over my allocated pickup time. This would have been ok if the food was good. When I unwrapped the chicken burger, I immediately noticed that he underside of the bun was very cold. When I bit into it, the whole thing fell apart, and I then noticed the chicken was undercooked. That's as far as I went.

The fries were cold, hard and extremely salty, to the point I was chewing salt. Also, these are no better than the typical high street take away shop, only difference is here they charge you £3 for them, or £3.50 for the rosemary fries (they didn't taste of rosemary, only salt).

My partner said his burger also had a cold bun and was tasteless, and had the same comments about the fries. We ended up throwing all of it away, a huge waste of food and money.

At nearly £30, I think it's safe to say it's far from good value, and I won't be going back.

Edited to address owner's reply: Your reassurance on the burger being throughly checked and cooked is clearly contradicted by the photos I have posted initially, where you see the pink spots. I am glad you value positive and negative feedback, but what confuses me is the sudden influx of 5 star "reviews" posted straight after my...