A few weeks back I was in Timonium,MD and decided to Yelp something good to eat nearby. Snoke came up and I am a fan of barbecue so I decided to make the trip there and grab a bite to eat. The reviews were all pretty good so I figured it should be a decently safe bet.First off I decided to order the half chicken with macaroni and cheese and baked beans, all of which are staples of the barbecue restaurant. The main dish, the chicken got rave reviews online but left me sorely disappointed. The breast area was extremely dry and the rub was bland and lacked salt. It really wasn't any good flavors with the chicken nor was there a large amount of smoky flavor. They also have home made barbecue sauces, but the sauces aren't on point. One was way too sweet and the other, a pineapple-jalapeno style kind of gets by on theory. There were chunks of both but they never seemed to have been put together and smoothed out to make a good sauce. It seems to be more for show than effectiveness.
The sides were another disappointment. I get that mac and cheese can be costly and that some ingredients might be cut back for cost, but this mac and cheese was almost all roux. I could taste the flower and once again it lacked salt. The idea of topping it with barbecue chips was a good one, but it didn't add anything at all. The beans were made with the too sweet barbecue sauce and weren't balanced.
I don't know what the good reviews for this restaurant were about. I get that they are known for bacon wrapped dates but one thing can't make a place be a success and Smoke seems to be more form over function. It looks cool and seems cool but the execution was severely lacking. You must use salt to make food, period. It's important and there was no flavor profiles to the food. Salt helps sweetness stand out when you want it. This just left me feeling so down afterward because I was really hungry.
Rating: 1/5
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