Smoke Shack — Restaurant in Milwaukee

I want to love this place, because it has a cool vibe, good services, and tasty beers and beverages. Unfortunately, it does not appear to have good BBQ. For the life of me, I cannot figure out all of these great reviews, so either none of the locals have ever had good BBQ from Texas, Oklahoma, or the Carolinas, or I hit a night when the cooks were WAAAAYY off. My son and I visited on a cold January night. The smell up and down the street was wonderfully intoxicating, and the host was very friendly and accommodating to seat us an hour earlier than our reservation. At 7 pm on a Saturday night, it was busy, but not crazy busy. Our waiter was terrific, and the selection of beers and drinks was good. We ordered a few orders of brisket and some ribs (which oddly cannot be combined with any combo platters.) When everything came out it looked overcooked/smoked and very dry, not to mention that the serving sizes were not up to typical Midwestern standards. The ribs were tough like shoe leather. It was as if someone had forgotten them in the smoker where the cooked twice as long as needed. I wish that I was exaggerating when I say they were tough, dry, and easily the worst that I have ever had. The brisket was likewise very dry and a small portion of a few pieces (not sliced.) It tasted better than the ribs, and certainly was more tender, but fell short of even average. Again, something must have been wrong, because this stuff was not close to good quality or deserving of the reviews that are posted. Fortunately, the BBQ sauces were in volume at the table, and we used a ton to eat what was delivered. Additionally, the coleslaw had almost no flavor and the beans were fine, but pretty runny. The cornbread was actually very tasty, and probably the highlight of our meal, outside of the beverages. Neither my son nor I wanted to ruin the evening out, so both of us put on a show for the other. It was only the next day that we discussed how bad everything was. However, the staff, bar, and atmosphere are good, so for the third time, I have to believe that something was just wrong that night. My wife wants to give it a try, so we'll take another swing at it in a month or so, and I will happily undo this note accordingly if we are pleasantly surprised by almost any aspect of the food. However, if what we received was typical for this place, then Milwaukeeans have no idea what they...

Smoke Shack immediately catches your eye from the street. It's a comparatively tiny, ramshackle looking little...well, shack. This is a good thing for a BBQ restaurant in my opinion. It inspires confidence.

Visually the interior of the restaurant matches the outside and is what you expect from a hole in the wall bbq joint. There's something slightly odd about it though, and while this will sound weird in a restaurant review, it's that it feels too clean to be a good bbq restaurant. The thing about every great bbq joint is that the smoke permeates every surface in the building and you can just feel it. Smoke Shack feels oddly sterile.

Adding to that is actually the thing I noticed first when I walked in: no bbq or smoke smell. It just smells faintly of the reclaimed wood used to create the interior. Not exactly off-putting necessarily, just really strange for a bbq restaurant. I expect i walk in a be hit with a wall of aroma that hints at the meal to come.

We were seated quickly. Service was prompt, friendly, energetic, and generally very good.

The bbq itself tasted good if not blow-you-away great. Meat was tender. The sauces on the table all were good. The portions are what I would call small. I ordered the 2 meat platter which is advertised as 2/3lb of meat and 4 sides, expecting to take a box home. I was able to easily finish and could have eaten more. At $26 for the plate I'm looking for larger portions. I obviously didn't weigh it, so I'm not sure if the issue is that Smoke Shack is under plating or other restaurants are overstuffing plates. Regardless, the effect was that the meal felt meager, especially for the price paid.

Overall if you're craving bbq and you're downtown, Smoke Shack will scratch that itch, if not totally satisfy your hunger. There is nothing here that is offensive, and moreover I did like everything I had. But I also didn't have anything that I know I'm going to randomly think about at some point in the future and start craving. If you're downtown, give it a go. If you're in the suburbs you have plenty of better and cheaper options.

EDIT: I just want to acknowledge how quickly management replied to my review. I think this speaks to how much they care about the experience in their restaurant. I am sure I...

We chose this restaurant to celebrate my husband's birthday last night. We called ahead to check on our son's food allergies. They checked and answered our questions and also recommended getting a reservation. We made the reservation but when we got there, there was nothing available. After a bit of standing, they got us seated at a bar-height table with stools which were not ideal to seat a kid.

The server was very nice and already knew that we had food allergies that we mentioned when making the reservation. Which was very impressive. She continued to impress us throughout the ordering process, making note of our son's allergies and noting down each menu option we wanted to check for him and checking with the kitchen if everything was safe for him. Our son was very happy to have so many items that were safe for him. The way the restaurant handled his allergies was extraordinary. Compared to other restaurants that sometimes even refuse to serve us.

The smoked meats were good and the sauces were excellent. The fries were great too. However, the mc and cheese was a big letdown. It was on the dry side and was one of the worst we've ever had.

It would have been nice if they acknowledged my husband's birthday that we mentioned on the reservation. But hey, they took really good care of my son's allergy needs and that was the best part for us since it made it possible to even come out to eat.

I wanted to write this review to help other food allergy parents know that this restaurant was awesome at handling food allergies with respect and care when most don't. We drove 30mins to get to this restaurant and now we know where to eat when we are around Milwaukee! Big thanks to the person who answered the phone to check on ingredients, the server, and the...