The Smoke Shop BBQ-Kendall Square Cambridge

I posted this on Chow in response to a review of the Seaport shop that opened not too long ago. …

A little off topic…we ate at the Kendall location this past Saturday for the first time. Food, with one exception, was excellent, wings, hot links with pimento cheese, fried chicken basket, brisket sandwich.
The exception was the special, a slow roasted prime rib. Was ok, just not really worth cost.

Good cocktails, I really liked the Jack’s Abby Smoke and Dagger.
But the service was disappointing. It felt like our waiter was on loan from a frat house, not in a good way.

We didn’t feel like he was engaged, paying attention, service was slow, a few minor missteps were not corrected when requested. We were there early, the place wasn’t slammed.

Has anyone else run into this? At either location.

We did like the food, the vibe and would like to go back…just hoping it was an off night.

We get take out from the Smoke House once in awhile, but have only eaten in house twice. We found service indifferent and somewhat incompetent both times. It’s just a BBQ place, but at those prices they’ve got to do better. I can’t see the service improving now that some management and their owner is distracted with a 2nd location.

Thanks Uni, I think thats how we felt, for the price and ambiance, the service was just not up to par. And for whatever reason it didn’t feel like an off night but an on-going issue.

We like the brisket just fine. Not the world’s best, but a decent version. The sides seem really chef-y, but not that good. We have, twice, dropped by to get a quart of brisket to go, and then eaten the sides I make at home.

Now that I have a smoker, I am going to try my hand at burnt-ends. Maybe I won’t have to go to hipster-land to eat really non-hipster food. BBQ is just not hipster folks!

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That answers that question. My home smoked version is just better. It was so good! We were able to make great sides that catered to our tastes. Full report on the “What’s For Dinner” thread over in Cooking.

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Oh man, that looks great! What kind of smoker did you get?
(am heading over to Whats for Dinner right now)

I bought a Masterbuilt electric 30" smoker with cold smoker attachment using one of the @hungryonion’s discount links before Christmas. The goal was smoked fish, but haven’t done that yet. Instead, I have been busy making and smoking sausages and the brisket point. The flap is in brine and I will cold smoke that for pastrami.

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The Masterbuilt 30 has been a reliable smoker for me. Can turn out good Q

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So gorgeous! Amazing.

that looks great.

Same here - went to the Kendall location a couple weeks ago, for the second time. Don’t remember any service issues the first time. But this time several others who arrived after us got their food first. The server knew it was wrong and sort of acknowledged it but not really… it was one of those moments where I didn’t feel like arguing about it but I was mad because I should have. In the end for the price the food pales in comparison to Sweet Cheeks in my opinion. It’s not bad though, but with service issues like that I won’t go again.

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