The Smoke Shop BBQ - Harvard Square — Restaurant in Cambridge

Recently hubby, and daughter and I went to The Smoke Shop BBQ in Harvard Square to celebrate a big event. We were not disappointed. The atmosphere and the food were perfect. The minute we walked in and smelled the barbeque, we knew were in the right place...

Much to our happy surprise, The Smoke Shop has a very detailed and helpful allergen menu with a ton of options. Our daughter has celiac disease and she never felt she was missing anything.

For apps, the wait staff recommended the wings and the spring rolls, so we went with those, and also added the BBQ fries with pulled pork. We shared them all and each one was really delicious. You know when you go to a restaurant, and everything tastes sort of the same? Not here -- each item had its own unique flavor. My husband actually said, “The wings melt in my mouth” (yes, we laughed at him). The spring rolls with a dipping sauce were my favorite! The BBQ fries were really good too. For dinner, hubby ordered the pulled pork – a very generous serving, which he hoarded and devoured because it was so delicious. I tried the smoked turkey, which was fantastic - incredibly moist and had a lovely smokey flavor (how do they get it this tender?). S. ordered the pulled chicken which she savored so that she would have leftovers the next night. She loved the mashed sweet potato and hubby and I thought the corn bread was really tasty. I also loved the pickled cabbage on the side of each entree. I could have eaten a whole bowl of it. While we were stuffed, for dessert we tried the S’Layer Bar which was definitely worth finding room for (and its gluten-free!).

We had a wonderful evening -- the food was great, and our waitress Luisa was fantastic. Just the right amount of attention without being over-bearing. We’ll...

I've had food from The Smoke Shop before at events, but I only went in person for the first time recently. I went with a big group (~12 people) on a Wednesday evening, and they initially told us we had to get the family style set menu (choose two to three meats and two to three sides that everyone has to eat). Because we had a lot of vegetarians we asked instead to order a la carte, even though we would potentially be seated at different tables/be staffed by different waiters. In the end, the restaurant was pretty empty and they were able to seat us all together and serve us all together, which was great!

I got 2-1/4 pound orders of the brisket with a side of cornbread. The brisket was okay -- some parts were more tender than others, and there wasn't much flavor. I don't like sweet sauces for savory foods and all of their sauces were sweet so I wasn't able to flavor my brisket. I did like the sides of watermelon and pickled vegetables! They balanced well with everything else.

The cornbread was really delicious, some of the best cornbread I've ever had. Loved the butter on top and the sweetness. Someone who got the mac and cheese noted that the cornbread crumbles on top were by far the best part. So definitely get the cornbread!

Some other reviews I got from my group, in brief -- 4/5 for the haddock sandwich, 4/5 for the meatless sandwich (good, not life-changing, wouldn't come back for it), 3.5/5 for the Texas brisket sandwich (kind of dry), a split review on the brussels sprouts (onion jam was the prevalent flavor, sweet and tangy, wet and not crispy), 5/5 for the ribs (very juicy).

I've certainly had better barbecue, but I'm not sure that I've had better cornbread before. So I may stop by and get some cornbread to-go in...

Instead of being a maverick, it is sometimes well advised to just heed the advice of fellow foodies in certain areas of cuisine ESPECIALLY if they are absolute fanatics about it. Here, I was warned early during my move here that most - if not all - BBQ spots in the immediate area would be a letdown. It wasn't a case that they weren't good...but they were now missing an element of consistency of what made them once great.

I obviously did not heed that advice and followed the other rule of thumb when it comes to BBQ. That is, be there when they first open as that is when the ingredients are often just off the smoke process and resting prior to being served. This way...nothing stays in hot hold for too long (or whatever holding process they choose to follow) that results in the meats drying out. So I placed an online order right before they opened thinking this would indeed be the case...and was absolutely wrong.

I wouldn't dare say in the moment that I was served a reheat but it might as well be. Ribs were dry, brisket was really dry, and the pulled chicken was only edible after drowning it with the provided sauce. That in itself proved my fellow foodie right and I didn't want to tell him what had transpired to avoid the "I told you so".

I am going to just guess that it was an off day. Everyone has one for all possible reasons. I'm going to sit this one out for a while and try again another time. In the meanwhile, I'll keep my hopes up that my fellow friend can be proven wrong by what this area...