TheSmoke

Well, the food was REALLY good. If I had one complaint, and I know it seems silly, it that it might have been TOO popular. If you can someone time your visit when there is no line you’re sure to love it – oh, and try the meat!

Lots of good food. I had the half slab of ribs and husband had the pulled pork entrée. This gave us four total choices of sides. These are a good size, not a mini dish. The beans were hot, the fries plentiful, the potato salad fresh and the coleslaw crisp. I had leftovers of the latter. I didn’t plan to finish my slab but did because it was so tender I couldn’t stop eating. Nice variety in the sauces. The spicy definitely is hot. Add it at the table rather than having it cooked on.

Food: 3 stars
Service: 5 stars
Value for money: 3 stars
Net rating: 3.6 stars
My family and I ate here last week and ordered the following:
Pulled pork Nachos — extremely SALTY. Too much cabbage and not so much pork
Sampler platter — ribs, chicken and brisket with sweet potato fries and baked beans. The ribs were dry and the chicken was forgettable.
Kids meal: Mac n cheese with coleslaw — biggest RIP OFF EVER!
However, our server Jenny was great and made sure to take care of us as we had two kids with us (22 month old and 5 month old).
Our bill was $ 70 (exclusive of tips). Not sure if this was worth it.

Excellent food and ambience from appetizer to main and dessert. Two of us busted here from Toronto and were impressed by the pull pork, beef brisket and the back ribs. Authentic BBQ and slow cooked with just the right amount of sauce and tenderness. Sides (smoked beans, yam fries, coleslaw) were also made to perfection. Other patrons seem to enjoy they signature burgers which make this a sure place to come back to when in the collingwood, blue
mountain and wasaga area.

You gotta eat here ;)! Yes this restaurant was featured in food network. Had to try it and it did not disappoint! My friend and I shared a sampler platter and wings appetizer. They also had favorite beer (beaus)!
Food:4/5. Highlights– fall off the bone back ribs, tender beef brisket, wings. So so items — dry ¼ chicken, bland penne & cheese
Service: 3.5÷5. Poor wait time estimation (said it would be 40 min. Actually waited 15min). Service was slow but not bad
Ambiance: ⁴⁄₅ cool industrial looking restaurant. Lots of advertisement about food network feature. Nice patio

I came here based on Jason M’s suggestion. Wow, what an elite Unilocaler.
Food: It’s ok. Pull pork was great. Ribs and brisket were on the dryer side. Mac and cheese was weak — it had a gritty texture and wasn’t all that flavourful, as if they added a lot of flour. Shame, because I love mac n cheese. I wasn’t too fond of the red cabbage side either.
The sauces are really good. They’re made in-​house and available for purchase as well. The sauce pairing guides at each table are a really nice touch. Bottles were always full, which I definitely needed for the dryer meats.
Service is amazing! Waitresses were super friendly and really make an effort to brighten your day.

So i came here on wednesday after a full day n night of snowboarding at blue mountain. Having already tried out all the food across the three chalets i figured i’d Unilocal something close by. I had been craving some bbq so thats what i searched. this cozy place popped up first and i decided to check it out. I was seated immediately cuz i think i came at a good time. Waitress didnt tell me her name but she was cheerful and explained that wednesdays were rib night specials. Done deal for me (especially cuz i had seen pics of the ribs beforehand too)! I got a full rack with smokey and sweet bbq sauce. I also ordered two sides: mac n cheese and sweet potato fries. To top it off, I settled with a pint of creemore (they actually have a nice variety of beers on tap as opposed to the regular domestics). My meal came SUPER FAST and steaming hot. OH HOW GLORIOUS THAT FIRST BITE OF RIB WAS. FINGER LICKING GOOD INDEED. You could definitely taste the smokiness in the meat. My waitress also brought over a bunch of different sauces for me to add to my meat (i tried them all and they were all delicious; smoky n sweet my fave). Whole meal came to around ~$ 30 so definitely not cheap, but hey, great quality food so i didnt mind! gave my waitress a big tip on top of that cuz she was awesome (just wish she had told me her name so i couldve name dropped her here). They also have a bunch of HDTV’s showings sports. Too bad I’m from toronto otherwise i’d definitely frequent this place more often. Nevertheless, you can bet the next time im in collingwood i’ll be back! (the bbq sampler looked amazing)

TheSmoke got me excited, from seeing their banner outside of the restaurant stating that it was featured on the Food Network, and their TV display upon entering, which showcased all their sandwiches/​burgers. There was a crowd waiting at the door, but no hostess, so there was a bit of a wait. It appeared understaffed — management should get on that…
Aside from the initial wait, the service was okay. I’m giving the restaurant a 5-​star rating because although the service was average, the food was delicious and reasonably priced to make up for it.
I shared the meat platter with my boyfriend which includes back ribs, pulled pork, and beef brisket. It comes with 2 sides and we substituted one with poutine — and it was a huge plate of poutine! I would recommend doing the same; it was more than enough to feed the two of us after a day spent skiing! The other side we had was coleslaw to balance out the meat intake.
What’s unique to TheSmoke is that they have 5 different sauces at the table (sauce boss). I liked the Carolina mustard sauce (similar to honey mustard) and the smokey sweet BBQ sauce which went really well with the meat. You can have fun with it and experiment the various sauces with your food.
Overall, I had a great experience and would recommend anyone visiting Collingwood to check out this restaurant!

Outstanding food. Like holly grail of BBQ good. Just finished sking and cane here from the good reviews and everyone is right. Their food is amazing! Heaven for any meat lover!

After watching the episode on You Gotta Eat Here my wife and I were super excited on eating at the Smoke as we’re both Meat lovers.
We ordered a platter of brisket, half rack ribs and pulled pork.
The brisket and the pulled pork were really good but the ribs were a bit of a let down.
It fell nicely off the bone but it lacked flavour.
I also recommend the baked beans. A variety of sauces are very tempting as they have a sauce list that shows what goes with what.
A bigger let down was that we had to wait for 40 mins for our food which is very unacceptable. I know it takes hours for the meat to get the right kind of smoke but I’ve eaten at other smokehouses where I got my food 15 – 20 mins from the time I placed the order.

This restaurant is really famous for locals and listed as one of the best restaurants available in the area. When you walk inside you will notice a lot of awards for the ribs and sauces they use for bbq. We came in a party of 40 ppl. The restaurant was pretty spacious and had more then enough room to accomdate us. Me and another ordered the ribs and the chicken.
I was very much looking forward to the ribs as i heard such good things. I have to say that the sauces were good as they place sauces at the table for you to use. So you can try all of them. They were pretty unique. However when we got to the ribs. Unfortunately im not sure if its because we had a large party or such. But the ribs were very overcooked. And the meat was dry and rough. Instead of tender. This was a major disappointment for me. As i was hoping for it to be better. The sides with sauces was decent. And they had a lot of choices for you to pick.
The chicken at this place was not bad. It was not over cooked. And a noted is if a group of 6 or more they charge mandatory 17 percent tip.
The restaurant had a few speciality ice creams such as a bacon rum ice cream we tried and it was unique however i feel the ice cream is better without the bacon as the flavours dont really work well together.
Overall the dining experience was nice. But they simply lost 2 stars because the ribs in which they are famous for was overcookedand dry. Something you would not expect from a rib restaurant that is focused on it

I’ve been to the smoke over a dozen times since my first review of this place. I gotta say, that it’s not the same as when it opened. As soon as we entered the restaurant, we tell the hostess how many people we have usually 2 or 3, and EVERY TIME she’ll ask «do you have a reservation?» and since we almost never make reservations, we tell her «no we do not» and she then makes a disappointed face, sighs and says «errrmm ok… let me see what we have.» And looks at the tables and her reservation system… and EVERY TIME she will say «we recommend that you make a reservation». This is usually proceeded with, «it will be xxx minutes for a table» or, «we have a table, please follow me». I thought it was just me, however on 4 four of occasions my friends had actually noticed this too — they make you feel bad for not making a reservation. It’s a turn-​off. The majority of people that pass through Collingwood are people visiting from other cities and I doubt they are aware of this ‘preferred reservation’ policy. — there’s really no need to shame people for it.
In addition, the food seems to take longer to come to the table and the waitress is often not around for long periods of time when we needed her. — this only happened on 3 different occasions but we found if very off putting. I’ve deducted a star due to those two points.

I loved my back ribs!
As for sides, I ordered sweet potato fries, which was amazing and corn breads, which were okay.
I enjoyed trying five different kinds of sauces that they provided. I liked blue and purple ones best. Their menu started with a page containing a personal message from the chef saying he won some awards in BBQ competitions, which set my expectations high but the food did not disappoint. The service was friendly and pretty fast as well. One thing that annoyed me was seeing a fly trying to land on my food. Shoo. Not for you. If I’m in the area, I’d definitely be back.

It has been almost 2 years since I first came here and I’m still a fan. We arrived just in time and filled their last empty table at dinner so we didn’t have to wait. I got the pulled pork with the grilled bun add-​on. It was absolutely delicious. They have many different sauces you can slather on and most of them worked well. The meal also included 2 sides. I got the caesar salad and the mac and cheese, both of which were pretty good. I recommend the mac and cheese if you’re looking for something a little different. My date got the sweet potato fries, which were good but a bit bland this time. I also tried some of the ribs and while pretty tasty, it was very dry and firmer than I would’ve liked.
The other side we got was the corn bread and it was probably the only true disappointment. It tasted like any regular bread.
P.S The portions are huge so order accordingly.

My friends convinced me to take one of the two eating challenges offered at this establishment.
I had 30 minutes to finishing eating a burger consisting of four 8 oz. beef patties, four bacon strips and four slices of cheddar cheese, alongside one pound of french fries. Being the absolute monster that I am, I managed to complete the challenge in just under 28 minutes (you have to complete the challenge in under 10 minutes to eat for free, which is nigh impossible) and got on the Wall of Fame!
While I was slaving (read: dying) over that meal, my friends ordered from the regular menu and had nothing but positive comments. Prices are very fair and the portions are absolutely monstrous.
According to the folks in the area, this is Collingwood’s not-​so-​hidden local gem, and you should definitely check it out next time you head up to Blue Mountain.

Good food overall. The server was nice enough to recommend us a large platter that is good for sharing. The platter has brisket, coleslaw, ribs, and chicken wings. There are many choices for flavour, either the kitchen will cook the food in that flavour, or customers can mix it themselves with the sauces presented on the table.
However, it seems that the restaurant closes early (at 8pm on a Sunday). We were eating outside at the patio and several customers try to get into the restaurant after 8pm. It was weird when they see the restaurant closed already but still see customers (i.e. us) eating at the patio.
If you want to eat here for dinner on a Sunday, come early!

PROBABLY THE BEST BBQ YOU WILL EVER HAVE.
Our two platters could have fed an entire African village for a week. We got the Meatery and Wings+Ribs meals and jesus christ they were amazing. Our favourite sides were the mac ‘n cheese and beans. Our server was so cute and nice.
WILL COME BACK.

After few weeks, I finally have time to review this place.
When you read the review from Unilocal «The Smoke» page, you see 4 stars right? I don’t know what happen the day me and my gf went, but I would say my ribs tasted BAD. The worst ribs I have had in Canada. If I could, I would just give them 0 star.
My ribs was dry and the coleslaw was alright. I know some people might like dry and chewy ribs but I don’t. It was not even chewy, it just DRY. I want ribs to fall off the bone. The price wasn’t cheap too. However, they had tons of sauces to choose.
My gf’s burger was alright but I won’t say its very good…
The funny part was Swiss Chalet was right across them. I would rather go eat my ribs there instead. I am very disappointed with the reviews here and will never and recommend this place again to my friends and people.

Im quite disappointed by TheSmoke.
With such a high rating, I was expecting TheSmoke to blow me away like Stack (North York) and Le Boucan (Montréal) did.
Ordered the platter, from which we selected two ½ rack ribs and the beef brisket. The 2 sides we ordered were a garden salad and mac and cheese.
In my opinion, there was not one superior item. compared to the restaurants named above. I expected my taste buds to have a party in my mouth but the beat never dropped.

We came because of the high Unilocal rating. The decoration is urban, energetic, casual, yet it doesn’t feel like a pub. The kitchen is visible from the dinning area, which I appreciate. There are TVs at the front showcasing pictures of food in their raw (fresh) and cooked (mouth watering) states.
Between my BF and I, we ordered a chicken wings appetizer ($ 10) and a Pork Platter ($ 21). The chicken wings are a must-​have. We ordered the Franks Hot sauce version. It stimulated the palette but not burning it. We tested with the various sauces and decided that the wings tasted perfect as they were. Adding a sauce just messed the flavour up. The Pork Platter had their award winning pulled pork, a sausage and a ¹⁄₃ rack of back ribs. All were infused with bold flavours. The textures of pulled pork and the ribs were just right, but the sausage was firmer than I liked. We played with the sauces again. I enjoyed the Mustard sauce with the sausage, the Smokey Sweet BBQ sauce with the pulled pork and any of the three BBQ sauces with the ribs. BTW, none of the sauces are suicidal hot.
For dessert, TheSmoke rotates its offering weekly.
A heads up that the portion of the main is huge, so much so that my friends joked that this was «American portion». One main can feed 2 females to full or a male to stuffed. Hence, one appetizer and one main were enough food for both of us.