Smoke the Restaurant

It’s pretty impressive when a place makes great bbq. It’s even more impressive when that same place can take that fairly simple concept and then add a twist to it. That’s exactly what Smoke does, and they do it right. While you can definitely get your regular bbq fix here (brisket, ribs, sausage, etc.), I’d also recommend trying some of the more unique options (like the open-​faced thanksgiving sandwich).

Pretty average barbecue. If you’re looking for ambiance and «fancy» barbecue then this place is nice but quality of food could be much better.
However, I really enjoyed some of their sauces.

Came here a while back for a lunch interview and had such a great experience I decided to try it again for a dinner date earlier this week. Maybe it was the time of day, but the food tasted IMMENSELY fresher when I came around lunch than it did when I went for dinner.
I ordered the deviled eggs both times, and the eggs were almost rubbery the second time around. I did thoroughly enjoy the 6 different kinds of sauces that come on each table top. My favorite one in the chimmi churi sauce. It has a garlicy/​pesto type taste that goes great with just about anything.
For dinner, I had the beef short ribs (priced per rib) and one rib with a side of sweet potatoes was surprisingly enough food for me. The «charred sweet potato» side isn’t charred at all and was a little mushy in my opinion. Will pass on those next time.
My date had ordered the ribeye with whiskey butter sauce. When it came out it looked a little sad with only a few fried tempura vegetables and some intensely-​spicy whiskey-​soaked peaches. I mean I’m a huge fan of spicy food but, those peaches have almost TOO much kick to them…
They do offer happy hour until 7pm with a smaller drink menu with 2 – 3 choices of each wine/​liquor. I will say that the atmosphere is pretty great and casually-​romantic if you’re looking for a good date spot in the Stone Oak area.

Food is very delicious… If they actually have what your planing on ordering. Service is absolutely horrendous, waiter took 15 mins between each visit. Our orders were even wrong, if you visit do not plan on seeing your waiter. Definitely plan on clearing your own plates and having to pretty much beg for refills.

1170 E Commerce St, San Antonio, TX 78 205
Took my girlfriend for her birthday lunch on Saturday. Too bad Smoke was out of beef short ribs!!! That was the only reason I went to the restaurant — bummer! Just happened to see the manager and he said the delivery truck did not make delivery of the beef short ribs Saturday. So we left and ate at Tony G’s restaurant around the he corner, too bad!

I’ll start off my saying that my father and I have been barbecuing for decades now. This place is making some rookie mistakes. I can forgive the hipster style flair like eating beans from an actual tin can or being served everything on a fake cutting board hoping my sauce stays put. But here are my main mark down points. The brisket was cut too thick, a typical sign of being overcooked. You cut it thick when it won’t stay together. The brisket was also about 40% fat, super greasy, and that’s not what I want to pay for. The ribs were also overcook simply because they literally were falling off the bone. That’s not how ribs are to be done.
The pulled pork was however uplifting to this meal. Moist, tender, and flavorful. Actually all the meat was seasoned well to be honest.
The server, however nice she was, didn’t seem to either know how things were prepared or the ingredients used. Maybe she didn’t care. My girlfriend had the Chiliques (sp) and it was packed with cilantro. I love cilantro and this was way over board.
Mixed drinks were well made and the brussel sprouts were very well execute too.
Overall I won’t be going back. There are hundreds of better BBQ places here in San Antonio.

The food was fresh and very good. Sides rocked! The only reason for 4 stars and not 5 is due to the crappy service. Took almost an hour for the food to come out. And the drinks took 30 min! For a beer?
Will be back but will be ready for the wait.

Visited the location on Sonterra. Food is excellent. Atmosphere is excellent. Very friendly and helpful waitstaff. This is a top bbq spot in San Antonio for sure. We were stuffed and only paid $ 60 for two people with 3 apps, 4 sides, main courses, and a drink.
Food: for appetizers we got the deviled eggs with brisket. They were incredible. We also got the Mexican corn to share but quickly realized it was too great to share just one so we added a second one.
MAIN COURSE: My wife got the brisket + bratwurst and a side of Brussels and French fries. All excellent. I got the chefs choice which was brisket, pulled pork, and Dr Pepper braised ribs. The brisket and pulled pork were top 5 all time best. Brisket is very tender moist and smokey. Pulled pork is tender with a Carolina tangy vinegar sauce drizzled on but not too much. Cornbread and potato salas were a perfect compliment to this. Cornbread comes with honey rosemary to pour over. Heaven.
Our waiter was Noël, and he treated us right and walked us through the menu to bbq nirvana. We will definitely be back and will bring friends next time!

I don’t get what all the hype is about. My food came out cold and it took forever. The amount of food that came out was unreal. I go to barbecue places because they load up your plate and it’s always good. They gave us hardly anything and it was disgusting. Cold barbecue is not my thing, I wouldn’t come back.

Any review that says anything negative about the food here is either being wayyy over critical or they had just really bad luck. This was honestly the best Barbeque food I have ever had! Thats saying a lot because I have been to barbeque places from the mid atlantic, to the south east, and to the mid west. Not only was the barbeque pork brisket, and ribs amazing, but all 6 sauces were really good too.
One thing that this place puts a lot of effort in on that most restaurants do not is the sides. Each side comes in a separate iron skillet. Directly from the iron skillet it was cooked in. It keeps it so hot and fresh! The creamed corn, the sweet potatoe slices, the macoroni and cheese, and the corn bread are all served in their own iron skillet. If you want amazing barbeque look no more, do not let their modern designed restaurant fool you. Enjoy!

Welcome to Smoke on Sonterra. A trendy BBQ restaurant with some good things going for it. This was the second stop for my Birthday Meat Extravaganza and had a great time.
Made a reservation and the table was ready as promised. Started with pretzel with smoked bone marrow compliment (still in the bone). Nice beginning for sure, tasty and the marrow was not overpowering.
Meats — pulled pork was very good (add the pepper/​vinegar sauce for that east coast BBQ feel). Brisket was hit and miss but overall good. Ask for pieces with more bark. Sometimes end of the work day bbq get a tad over smoked. Bacon — well, bacon was great. Beef rib — great bark and fall off the bone. May have been my best bite of the night. The open face turkey sandwich was very good. A little like thanksgiving in a 6 inch skillet.
Desserts — banana pudding was pretty good. Wife had a Fritos dessert concoction that sounded odd but she seemed to really enjoy it. Don’t judge a book by its cover on this. The waitress was confident enough to say if we didn’t like it she would buy it. She didn’t have to.
Wait staff was friendly and helpful. Our waitress was a bit slow on the tea refills but made up for it with being a fun character and helpful with selections. Main concern is the area around the tub with beer and ice, it can get a bit slippery.

Had the Sexy Meatloaf tonight. Fabulous. Appetizer was the Burnt Ends and the Beef Livers. Fantastic. Also had a couple of Happy Hour Old Fashioneds that they make great. Had their Donna West Old Fashioned for dessert. The Best.

An over all amazing experience, with great food, music and service. Can I just begin by saying that the atmosphere surrounding this place was exquisite! Hip and classy, we chose to forgo the crowd and sit on the empty balcony where we had a private and gorgeous view. Our server Austin was very attentive and timely with our drinks and food. The drinks were strong with ample amounts of flavor with combinations I would have never thought of. The food was moist and flavorful, I was surprised by how much I loved the pig tails, but had to try them since they were a first for me. I had the sliders which my boyfriend had the brisket burger both of which we finished even though we were stuffed.

Okay y’all.
I don’t even eat meat most of the time. Like, BBQ is NOT my thing. But Smoke is one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in a long time, and I’m not afraid to admit it.
First of all, the service was top notch. They seem to care about the customers. I like that about a restaurant.
Also, all of the food is freaking AWESOME. Not one of our dishes came out less than stellar. Mac and cheese? Fabulous. Tator tot poutine? Inspired. The bread basket?! Who knew. Seriously, everything was so good. It just kept getting better. Also, the sauces complemented everything, and they were perfect alongside my husband’s meat sampler AND the bread AND everything else.
And to top it all off, the cocktails and the desserts are great too. This place just can’t go wrong in my book. I can’t wait to take all of our out of town friends and family here, because they are going to LOVE IT.

This BBQ restaurant is 1 in a million. Which in Texas, that means there are about 1000 other equivalents. BBQ can be so personal, everyone has their favorites, from Rudy’s, Smoke Shack, Big Bib, or more. In a category where it’s hard to stand out, Smoke carves out a small niche by bringing a fusion of fine dining with old-​fashioned meat.
Appetizers was fried chicken livers with a jalapeño orange marmalade ($ 7). The marmalade is a beautiful mix of sweet and spicy. Unfortunately, half of the dish was just fried, and not enough liver came through. It’s the same sauce on their smoked water trout, so if liver isn’t your thing, you can get the trout as your entrée.
Entrees were a mix of the Dr. Pepper pork ribs (3 for $ 7), brisket (¼ lb $ 6), and Corned Beef Ox Tongue ancho demi and charred sweet potato ($ 16), and a side of brussels sprouts. I know sounds awesome, right? The ribs were tender and flavorful. The brisket is solid with a nice bark and tender, but honestly, after having Franklin’s, nothing will ever compare. The ox tongue was really chewy, with only a few tender pieces. It was a disappointing dish, like bad Canadian bacon. The brussel sprouts ($ 3) were over-​salted — and we sent it back — but the refire was great, nice and buttery, with a pinch of salt.
We looked at the desert menu but didn’t get anything. Honestly, the items were really generic. It reminded me of those episodes of Top Chef, when the team is like «Crap, we need desert items!» and they just roll out ice cream, brownies, and banana pudding. The items might be good, but certainly didn’t ring the bell of intrigue or creativity.
Service was pretty good. I noticed that a lot of other reviewers had bad service, but our food was well-​paced and the wait staff was friendly and attentive.
Overall, I only gave this place 3 stars, because I thought the food was a bit disappointing. The BBQ won’t blow you away, but I think the availability of unique items like fried chicken livers, tater tot poutine with brisket, ox tongue, fried catfish, makes Smoke a desirable eatery. I will say, too, that the prices are fantastic, and probably the best value I’ve found for a restaurant in San Antonio.

I really wanted to like this place. I read some articles about the restaurant and was really rooting for it. It was disappointing though.
The décor and seating is great. I love the style.
There is a good choice of beers on tap and cocktails so I like that aspect of this restaurant.
We started with some starters. And these were phenomenal. We had the bone marrow, pork belly and pig tails. I highly suggest all 3 of these starters.
Then we had the bratwurst and moist brisket. It was good but it wasn’t anything special. Rudy’s bbq has better brisket and sausage.
The service was okay. We had a lot of stuff out at once so there was limited space and our waiter kept adding instead of taking the empty plates. Also, we got no small plates with it starters. It just wasn’t good service in that sense; small common sense or Good waiter training should have taken care of that stuff.
Lastly, the bathroom was dirty. I didn’t see the women’s but my husband went to the men’s and was shocked. He said the garbage can was liked high and overflowing to the floor. For my husband to say a bathroom is dirty, says a lot.
I’m not sure I’ll come back, but if I do I would only come for happy hour to enjoy their cocktails and starters.

This is a nice restaurant, but that is not what I think about when eating barbecue. My idea of a great barbeque place is one that has years of smoke staining the walls. If you are into «nice», then this could be the place for you.
This was a Christmas team dinner, and Smoke let us reserve a private room. It was the perfect size for the 10 of us.
The wait staff took excellent care of us. They did a good job of bringing the drinks, more drinks, explaining the barbeque sauces, and bringing us some pork and beef appetizers. Then they explained the menu and answered any/​all of our questions.
I ordered ¼ lb of both brisket and pulled pork. My side was literally a can of beans. My wife ordered fried chicken based on what she had read on Unilocal.It came with mashed potatoes and mac n cheese. Results for the food: pretty good barbeque, but great fried chicken. Sides were pretty good also.
The waiter came back to see if we left room for dessert and received a big yes. We split an order of wild berry cobbler with icecream. To me, that was the «hit» of our entire meal.
I will return at some point. However, if I am wanting some great barbeque, then I will be heading back to the barbeque trail!

Barbecue in the Stone Oak area, say what?! Great first experience here, including attentive service at the bar and live acoustic music. Menu has good variety, and the quality was solid for a new business. I would definitely come back to try more.
BRISKET POUTINE TATER TOTS: Tots, topped with brisket and a fried egg, and drizzled with a chipotle sauce. How can you go wrong?! I’d recomment adding a bit of sauce to this and specifically requesting the egg over medium to enjoy the yolky goodness.
DEVILED EGGS: topped with shredded brisket, this is a fun take on the usual. Not a must-​order but not bad either. Found the order of three pieces to be an odd (unintentional pun) choice for an app that is typically shared.
MAC AND CHEESE: This was just okay, not very saucy which is how I prefer my mac. Decently cheesy, no baked breadcrumb crust (hate that!) but somehow underwhelming.
Menu, in addition to cleverly-​named smoked meats, also has creative entrees and snacks, jarred pickles, and (pricey) family feat meals… not to mention TWELVE DIFFERENT DESSERTS, as posted on the chalkboard menu by the bar. Service, though limited because I took takeout, was friendly and engaging.

We were in the area for lunch and figured BBQ sounded like a fulfilling option. SMOKE has a full menu of many things to choose from and a lot of those options are reasonably priced. I wanted to dine inside but my friend wanted to be outside… ugh bugs! The interior is nicely decorated and a bit dark (kinda romantic) and the patio has black picnic style tables decorated with utensils wrapped up in a cloth napkin… the hand towel-​like napkin gets white lint all over your clothes, consider yourself warned. The waiter will bring a bottle of cold water to the table, I served it. The picnic table we sat at was very close to another table and gave my friend ample opportunity to flirt the lunch away, less talking for me (SCORE).
Ordering process was easy, we sampled many things brisket, sausage, mac-​n-​cheese, grilled brussels sprouts, pulled pork sliders, fries, and BBQ burger. My friend loved every bit of her lunch and I liked some things. The brisket was tender and salty, the sausage pieces that were served were too small but good, cast iron mac-​n-​cheese was tolerable but the red peppers were completely overpowering, the grilled sprouts were the best I’ve ever had with an excellent crunch and light seasoning. My sliders were a huge disappointment, the Hawaiian roll was on the hard side, the pulled pork filling was slim and too sweet for my liking, the slaw was alright, and the fries were nice and fresh. We had to ask for the BBQ sauces, make sure to ask for them when food is brought to the table.
Our server was attentive and patient in answering all of my friend’s food allergy questions. My bud can’t wait to try SMOKE again but I’m not in too much of a hurry to get back, the food was good but right now it’s not drive across town worthy.
Give it a try.

SMOKE has a great outdoor patio & rustic indoor design. I hope they’re able to overcome the jinx of that location! Many joints have come & gone but not stayed.
I went for a Wed lunch & it was busy. The hostess seemed a bit harried but we happily sat at the full-​service, awesome bar. The folks who work at SMOKE are friendly & fast, for you service honking junkies.
The food was pretty dang tasty! We started with the tater tot brisket poutine, which is topped with the ever lovely fried egg: loved it! Fantastic starter, but beware as it sets palate expectations high.
I enjoyed the pulled pork sliders for lunch… pretty good (not the best pulled pork I’ve had): pulled pork on a sweet, buttery Hawaiian roll topped with cole slaw. I personally would’ve preferred more slaw… there was a very light confetti dusting (Viva Fiesta??? :)). The fries were nom, but I’m an admitted fry whore. These, for sure, are above par. Two sliders & fries for $ 9? Reasonable lunch in Stone Oak, indeed.
The potato salad I ordered on the side was good… not overly mayo’d. Great crunch from thinly sliced celery. Missing? A lil’ vinegar punch, in my opinion. Have no fear… this leads me to my fav part…
The in-​house made sauces!!! I love condiments. And I love that SMOKE does it well enough but doesn’t overdo it so I was able to be a sauce-​ologist. I dug all 6, but my fav was by far the Colonel Mustard. I put on everything… including the occasional fry.
Hey, SMOKE, speaking of fries, might a request a jazzy in house made ketchup? Maybe throw in some horseradish & molasses. That would tickle my pickle even more!
Btw, my friend declared his Urban Cowboy burger «amazing».
I’ll be back!