Smoke BBQ — Restaurant in Kennebunk

Have been wanting to check this place out for a while now and Smoke was overall a solid experience for a New England bbq joint.

Smoke is a kind of fast casual spot. Seat yourself and order up at the desk and food is brought to you. Service was very good and friendly, checked in frequently and took good care of us. Definitely no complaints here keep it up👍🏻

For the food, my wife and I decided to share the Smokasbord to get a good taste of a lot of the menu. It states that it feeds 2-3 and it was a ton of food. We both ate a ton and easily have a full meal for one leftover or a reasonable split for us both to enjoy again. We tried the brisket, pulled pork, ribs, hot link, chili bomb, Mac and cheese, cornbread, baked beans and French fries.

The pulled pork was excellent and had great flavor. Not usually an item in the most excited for and it was my favorite meat on the board. They also have a variety of bbq sauces of which most were very good, giving lots of options to have different tasting bites if that interests you. The ribs were also great, fall off the bone tender with a great smokey flavor. I wish they had a little more seasoning/spice level but with the south of the border sauce it was about right. The hot link was a pretty good sausage with a nice spice level and I enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately the brisket fell pretty short for me. I’m originally from Texas and brisket is always a favorite of mine. I usually have fairly low expectations for it anywhere outside of Texas but there are places where it can be decent but unfortunately it was pretty dry and unflavorful here, and didn’t have any of that moistness that makes brisket so good. It definitely needed the help of sauces. It totally could have been a bad day as it can be finicky so I’ll be sure to update if I get a better portion next time.

The sides were all good to great, and none of them being disappointing. The chili bomb was fantastic and way better than expected, nice level of spice and just awesome. The fries are like a thin shoestring but homemade and were also great, but slightly under seasoned. Mac and cheese was super creamy and dense, tasted delicious. Pasta was slightly overcooked and soft but I don’t think I’ve ever been to a bbq joint where that wasn’t the case. Beans and cornbread were both good.

Overall pretty happy with the joint and will likely return when the craving for bbq strikes again. Got my eye on trying those...

Long awaited visit to this new BBQ place in Kennebunk, ME. What a massive transformation from gutting the original building, renovating from the studs, following the planning, progress and investment into the Smoker. Very impressive physical plant. It looks like it is well equipped from the kitchen standpoint and especially comfortable and decorated in the dining room. So much potential to establish themselves as a rock establishment in the community. I’ve read all other reviews to make sure I’m not off on my assessment. It appears that they had a stressful situation on this Saturday that threw them off track. They had a line out into the parking lot filling the dining room minutes after they opened. The 2nd issue was a staffing issue where a bartender had called out. Experienced team members did their best steadying the ship, while some others looked overwhelmed. For a small place, they also had an inefficient ordering process where customers get seated, but then return to the front counter to order for their tables. It created a clogged entry for new people coming in. Table service would serve them well and ensure they have a pulse on the service levels. Dedicated bar service would help too. I was one of the first to sit at the bar. When it ultimately filled nobody was there to greet them. For me, I had a good greeting before the storm. All of this is fixable. As stated, it was a nice comfortable bar, with tons of beer & drink options, TVs and lively music. I had the burnt ends with fries. Super tender and a good portion. I would recommend. A tad sweet & could use some crunch, but that’s being picky. Due to the press on the kitchen, my salad and Buffalo wings were delayed. Side salad was big and fresh. The wings were a little rubbery, possibly a little overcooked, but flavor was good and spicy. I observed a lot of food passing by and everything did look fresh. I’m trying to be fair and helpful, as I personally would love to see them succeed. It could have been an off night. Tweak a couple service issues and maybe don’t do takeout on Weekends until they settle in. A good...

We visited here while on our Maine vacation last week and the experience really has left a mark on me so here it goes:

Pros:

AMAZING chicken wings. They were by far the best thing about our meal. They were cooked perfectly, had a wonderful crisp, the buffalo flavor was delicious and the wings themselves were high quality chicken.

The staff were friendly. When we walked in there were no tables available for us to sit at (it is a seat yourself/place your own order place), but there were 4 tables that needed to be bussed, when we asked how long we'd need to wait the girl was very nice and we ended up waiting less than 5 minutes to get brought to a table. Our food took a reasonable amount of time to get to our table once they sorted out the order issues.

The cornbread is very good, the chopped chicken was good, my kiddo liked their grilled cheese.

Cons:

My husband and I placed our order and about 15 minutes later we were told our meat of choice (brisket) was sold out. They also had just run out of pulled pork. There was obviously some kind of communication issue and we ended up kind of settling. My husband wanted to change to tacos but was told he had to pick a plate item since that's what he originally ordered and he wasn't thrilled with what he ended up with. I also think there was a price discrepancy that wasn't adjusted because of this issue, but I guess that's something I should have brought up.

The macaroni and cheese is AWFUL. No flavor, barely any cheese sauce. It tasted more like butter noodles than macaroni and cheese. Just, do not even bother with it.

To wrap up the wall of text - it's OK BBQ. They definitely use high quality meat and know how to smoke it well. But for the price I expect better quality sides and a full...