I had never heard of this place before I started this project, but it popped up towards the top of my search list. The name is visually displeasing to me but I guess it’s kind of cool. The pictures definitely caught my attention and I was excited to find out what this place is all about. I was joined for this review by my best friend Jimmy and his newly wed wife Sam, who were in town for the weekend and looking for some of that good southern BBQ.

This place jokingly refers to itself as “the most obscure restaurant location in Richmond.” Boy, they ain’t kidding. We initially walked into Strangeways by accident, which must happen constantly because Smohk is basically located through Strangeways’ alley way side door.

Kind of like ZZQ (which it’s like 150 feet away from), Smohk is a newfound permanent location for people who have been plying their trade in BBQ for a long time. However, they might be a lot more focused on their catering business because the atmosphere in the restaurant was very odd. Let me just offer a quick summary of where we’re headed in this review: the food was really good and the overall experience was really weird.

Reputation – 4.3/5

This place has pretty good reviews across Google, Facebook, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. I’ve never heard anyone mention it as far as I know. I did mention to one of my coworkers that I was going to check it out and she told me that the owner gave her his business card and said she looked like she “likes to party.” So uh… yeah.

I have to wonder if the owners put this place right next to ZZQ in an attempt to feed off of their overflow. A lot of the reviews I read started with “because the line at ZZQ was out the door…”

Experience – 2.5/5

The bulk of this review is going to be in this section because there was just a lot of weird stuff to cover. As I mentioned, the entrance was weird. We walk in and there’s a sort of bare bones dining room to our left. All black and white with tile floor, low ceilings with fluorescent lighting and some generic signage on the walls. Tables and stools were all black and staged with just a little bottle containing moss and plants and two small ramekins with salt and pepper packets. Weird.

To the right there’s just some odds and ends. There’s a black patio table with an old radio or something. There’s a chalkboard menu on the wall above what appears to be a fireplace with the can and bottle selection displayed. Then in the middle is basically a host stand, behind which is a partition that sort of obscured the view of the kitchen. It doesn’t look like a restaurant kitchen – more like a church kitchen. It’s a big room with a big table in the middle with sinks and refrigerators and such around the outside.

There’s an older guy at the host stand taking orders for the small group of people in front of us. There are three laminated menus on the stand. The guy is nice enough but seems like he’s maybe filling in for someone because he’s really, really slow with the order system. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw (obviously), a side of their award-winning Brunswick stew, and a water. I would not receive the coleslaw or water with my order, and suspect I may have been overcharged.

The staff were just kind of wearing whatever – tie dye, sports gear, etc. they’d carry the food to the host stand and the guy would tell them who to take it to. Once we have our food and some of our drinks (which are bottled only), there’s nobody who comes to check on us so I had to just go kind of awkwardly peek into the kitchen (the guy had disappeared) until one of the kitchen guys came up to grab a water for me.

Basically, it didn’t really feel like a restaurant. Just like, a place that serves food. I didn’t talk about this stuff while I was there because Jimmy and Sam were loving the food and I didn’t want to be that guy. Positives – good portions and reasonable prices.

Presentation – 3.5/5

The food looked really good. I had to steal some of Jimmy’s slaw for my photos. The bun and stew looked especially appetizing.

Now, back to the weirdness. As I mentioned, there’s next to nothing on the table. There’s a bucket with silverware roll-ups near the host stand. There’s no stack of extra napkins or paper towels that I can see, which is an issue I have never before seen at any BBQ place in America.

Another big gripe of mine is (shocker, I know) sauce related. They are the most egregious sauce offender yet. You have to pick one of their six sauces with your order and receive just a ramekin of it. We all got their house specialty apple BBQ sauce which was delicious but I really would have liked to try the rest.

Quality and Taste – 8.7/10

The food was great and that’s still the most important thing. But I’ve wasted my word count on all the other stuff. Sam especially liked the sweet potato side, saying it was warm, sweet and delicious without tasting artificial at all. All the orders came with a generous helping of potato chips in addition to the included side.

Final Rating – 76

I described the experience to my mom and she said it sounds like a place that’s probably more focused on a food truck or catering than their sit-down location. I think she’s right. It’s a bit of a shame because I believe if the restaurant was more complete it could do really well.

It’s sort of in a weird middle ground between your old hole-in-the-wall kind of place and the new sort of trendy, polished BBQ joint. Hopefully they can figure it out.