Blue Smoke Bar-B-Que   (Closed)

Thanksgiving is American and new to me as I have never heard about it in the UK.

I found about the Thanksgiving dinner at Bluesmoke when I read about it last year just after Thanksgiving had passed, so I had to wait another year to be able to try this Thanksgiving dinner at Bluesmoke!

I was really attracted to this thanksgiving dinner because it is similar to the Christmas Dinners with roast turkey and stuffing.

Finally a year had nearly past and I kept calling Blue smoke in early November to see if they were doing the Thanksgiving dinner this year but they were not really good at calling people back because they did not return my call.
A few weeks later I checked their website and it had been updated with the coming thanks giving dinner so I booked it.

The thanksgiving menu for ths year is:
Chicharron (Crispy pork skins)
Veggie sticks and ranch dressing
Roasted butternut squash soup with chestnut and sage
Smoked turkey breast
Sage-giblet dressing
cinnamon cranberry sauce
Basket of biscuits
Candied yams with toasted marshmallow
Rosemary roasted carrots
Roasted garlic mashed potato
Ham and pea macaroni and cheese
Stewed cinnamon and spiced apples
Green bean casserole with crispy onions
Dessert: Pumpkin pie/apple pie/peacan chocolate chip pie.

The menu seemed quite reasonable because it had turkey and pumpkin pie which were Thanksgiving items.
Some other places in Hong Kong modified the menu slightly by serving lobster bisque which I thought defeated the purpose of Thanksgiving and more of a gimmick for business.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Previously dined here before and their semi-buffet lunch was good, so this time went again.

We ordered take out from Blue Smoke as our favorite rib house Tony Roma is now closed.
The rib arrived to our house on time (great for the delivery guys) and we were anxious to try this so called "smoke rib" a la Americana. The rib looked so overcooked that it actually reminded us of a marble slab we saw on Lockhart Road. We tried and it was as dry as the sole of our tennis shoes.
We spent $200 for a piece of card board which did not even come with French fries or any side dish.
Very disappointing.

I found the entrance to the actual restaurant a bit confusing as once you exit the lift, you're in a small yet Willy Wonka-esque corridor that leads to the restaurant itself as well as the toilets, staircase and other miscellaneous areas. Once I found my way in, the ambience was not too bad and had a rustic American feel to it (albeit, it was a bit dark and the glow from the neon lights inside was overpowering).

For starters we ordered macaroni and cheese and nachos with pulled pork. I couldn't help but feel a little repulsed eating the macaroni and cheese as the cheese used resembled what a gas station in the US would use, or what you would find on nachos when at a cinema. There were kidney beans in the macaroni too which was a nice touch but I think this was overshadowed by the cheese issue. The fact that I could also see the chef ladling the cheese out of a big pan didn't help matters either. The nachos were soggy and incredibly salty, although the pulled pork was very tasty and tender. The jalapeno seasoning was a bit too much for me as I can't tolerate much spice.

Next, we had ribs, pulled pork and an assortment of chicken wings (honey mustard dressing, buffalo and blue cheese).
The ribs looked much better than they tasted. Again, I was apprehensive to fully dig into the meal as the meat was pink. Considering they were pork ribs, I didn't want to wake up at 3am with a stomach ache because of eating what looked like under cooked ribs. The sauce was on the side of the ribs, which I found to be a bit strange as ribs usually have the sauce smothered on them.
The pulled pork was very good. I'd say this was the best dish of the night. Extremely tender, tasty and enjoyable to eat.
The chicken wings weren't anything to write home about. The honey mustard wings were the most tasty of the lot. However, I found that because the inside of the restaurant was quite dim, it was hard to identify which wing had which sauce on it.

Once the restaurant filled up (it was only half full for the whole night), it became incredibly noisy. I could hardly hear the person next to me let alone hear what someone opposite me had to say. This isn't really the restaurant's fault but if you're looking for a nice, quiet place to have a relaxing dinner, this is not the place to go. Imagine how crazy it would be if it were full!

The dessert menu looked quite enticing yet when we actually saw the desserts in the fridge near where we were sitting, they looked a bit sad. I'm not sure if this was due to the uncomplimentary lighting or whether they were in fact pre-packaged pies that they just heated up. We decided to stay away from the pies but someone from our party ordered some ice cream which they said was quite nice but I am not sure of what flavours they had. A waitress walked past us with an ice cream sundae which looked really good but we didn't order that.

As for the wait staff, I can't really tell you much about them as none of them seem interested in interacting let alone opening their mouths when food came to the table or when greeting customers. There was one waiter in particular who was very friendly and talkative but that was about it; quite surprising as this place is an American restaurant, I'd expect the waiters and waitresses to be outgoing and confident.

I left the restaurant looking for more food as I didn't enjoy my experience there. Paying close to $400 and still feeling hungry at the end is definitely not a good sign. Being apprehensive and not knowing what item was what due to the lack of light was uncomfortable and I just couldn't relax and enjoy the food we ordered.

Other American restaurants such as Ruby Tuesdays, Dan Ryans and BLT Burger trump this restaurant any day. I don't have any intention of giving this restaurant a second go or recommending it to friends. It wasn't worth the money, especially considering the amount of food I ate.

I did not enjoy my experience here, the buffalo wings were nothing special with little taste. We had to order a pitcher of beer 3 times before we got it (took 20 minutes). The Macaroni & cheese was actually pretty tasty, and nice texture to it with nice flavours.

When we got the ribs they looked undercooked but I decided to try them anyway, there was absolutely no taste in the ribs as well as them being dry, when I order ribs I don't want the taste to rely on the barbecue sauce. When I decided to mention it to the waitress that they were unsatisfactory she said that they were always cooked like this and this is how they do it here but would try to get something sorted. She then came back with who I can only assume was the manager as she was dressed differently. She then decided to try and "educate" us on how they prepare their ribs at this restaurant with no apologies. Honestly I don't care how it's cooked I care about how it tastes.

The turkey burger was ok in taste but kinda dry, I would say that I would order it again though... The Jambalaya was was tasted like chilli sauce with rice.

Overall the attitude of the staff was not good, the male staff were actually quite fun and friendly but the female staff had quite a bad attitude in general. The manager was not friendly either, criticism is a big part in helping restraunts grow and they did not take it with an understanding attitude.

I will NOT be going back again.

Last night I went out with a bunch of friends. We are all from the States and wanted something to remind us of home. I've been to Blue Smoke in the past and wasn't that impressed. This time We were blown away. We ordered Nachos, Chili Mac, poppers to start and all three were awesome, especially the chili mac. For dinner we shared a full slab, more chili mac, collard greens, brisket, and a couple Burgers. Burgers where off the charts! perfectly cooked and juicy as hell! The brisket had a perfect smoke ring and bark (which if your from anywhere in the southern U.S. is the 1st thing you look for in good q). It was smokey and tender. The ribs fell off the bone and the collards reminded me of home.

All in all.... Awesome!
Cant wait top come bak

After having a pretty bad meal experience on my last visit in December, I had decided to take a break from Blue Smoke. See here: http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2209158

I decided to give them another chance. I arrived early for the lunch session and there were only a few people there. Ordered my standard meal, a pulled pork sandwich. It came out pretty quickly and thankfully, the pork was much better this time. It was nice to enjoy a good pulled pork sandwich again. It came with a shot glass of slaw and their unique style of chips. The chips were okay, but could have been a little warmer and with a pinch more salt, but I guess you can add the latter to taste.

The staff, which has largely been the Achilles' heel of Blue Smoke was a little better. They didn't have many waiters, but the 2-3 they had were doing a decent job. It also seems they have a new manager. I really like the old manager and she was quite good at picking up the slack for the rest of the staff. The new manager is very friendly and seems to be good also.

I like Blue Smoke and I want it to succeed as a restaurant, but they will need to be consistent with their food and if they could get some proactive servers it would REALLY help.

went for a quick bite, ordered the ribs and a burger.

waitress didnt ask me how i wanted the burger, and it was difficult to get their attention even though the restaurant only had two other tables. finally when the burger came, i had been craving for a good burger for a few weeks, so anticipation was high. and i was completely disappointed, the patty was well done, to the point that i could taste the carbon from the grill. it was burnt to a crisp. cheese was lacking in taste to cover up the burnt taste as well...so no salvation. upon mentioning it to the staff. "sorry, next time"

ribs were hopelessly dry, and while it was falling off the bone, lacked taste and moisture that we expected.

all in all, nothing worth raving about, but definitely worth griping about .....

I've been to Blue Smoke a few times, but hadn't popped in for a few months. I was sad to see that the old manager had left, but she brought over another American replacement who was super sweet and friendly! They also just got a new chef so there are a lot of new things happening. Anyway, back to the important stuff. The food was great! They have a new queso dip with Velveeta cheese that is to die for. Totally makes me feel like I'm back home. The ribs were awesome as usual and I finally tried the pecan pie. Holy cow-AMAZING! Had a really great time-the servers and new people are putting some really good energy into the place. Can't wait to go back!

We have been here many times now (at least 6 or 7), unfortunately I think we have visited for the last time. The first time visit was fantastic, the pulled pork nachos and sandwich were great as was the ambiance and server (who happened to be the American manager that is fantastic). The pulled pork had a great tangy, with just enough vinegar bbq sauce mixed through and our meal was great. After that visit everything went downhill. We ordered the same meal on previous occasions and the pulled pork now comes just with 'dry rub' aka...dry, not very flavourful pulled pork- not good. When we asked why the change I guess the former chef had left, however we could ask for the pulled pork to come the way we preferred which seemed easy enough. Unfortunately, every time since when we have asked it has come dry which makes the 'pulled pork nachos' a very unexciting, bland dish. Unless you deal with the American manager, your order is likely to come wrong almost every single time (even when ordering things normally from the menu). Don't even bother ordering from the take- away service, the food arrives warm at best and the order was wrong, even though I had actually called the restaurant themselves to double ensure they got it right. Tonight was the last straw when we ate in the restaurant, food was just average and when we ordered desert to take home (mississippi mud pie and pumpkin pie) we were told that actually the mud pie was probably not a good choice as it was too old by that point, nice to let us know but rather gross! Anyway, we switched to a key lime pie and pumpkin pie, paid the bill (after asking several times) and left. Now home thinking we were going to enjoy some desert and we find we were given the old mississippi mud pie and a key lime pie....no pumpkin pie and the pie the server particularly warned us into changing...fabulous. The restaurant was not busy so there really is no excuse when you are packing up someones order that was placed 1 minute previously to get it so wrong. The staff just pay absolutely no attention to what they are doing, what you have ordered, or around the dining room in general! Even the key lime martini I had tonight which is their concoction was wrong as it came with a salted rim instead of the graham cracker rim it should have. If you deal only with the American manager your meal is likely to be fantastic as she will make sure of it (she has stepped in on a few occasions when our orders came in wrong or just to check on the table). However if she is not there to problem solve, with the combination that the food actually is not nearly as good as it was 6 months ago, you will likely wish you had gone elsewhere for your money!

I have eaten at Blue Smoke several times: twice from catered meals and about a half dozen lunches. When I first had Blue Smoke, I was excited to find some good BBQ in HK; it reminded me of being back home. My standard order was a pulled pork sandwich. Occasionally, I would try a different side or something like that, but mostly pulled pork. Honestly, the staff outside of the managers has always been pretty crappy IMO. The waitresses are slow and not attentive.

Today, might be my last time at Blue Smoke. I ordered the pulled pork (about $160 HKD) and a side of veggies ($38 HKD). The order came up quick which was nice, but the quality of the pulled pork was bad- really long strips that were tough except for the big globs of fat mixed in. Definitely some of the worst 'cue I've ever eaten (which is quite a bit). The steamed broccoli was... steamed broccoli- nothing special, but not bad.

The waitresses were their typical selves, slow, solemn and needing to be flagged down to get service. The kicker was that after paying, I had to wait about 5 minutes for change, which came back in the form of 3 - $20s, 11 - $2 and 1 - $1. That's right I got a freaking pocket full of coins to go. I understand this can happen, but it was just the final straw in a bad dinner.

I just can't justify going back and paying $28 USD for crappy BBQ and poor service.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and when I was looking for places to go this year I based my decision completely on what was on the menu. Blue Smoke listed all of my favorites so I thought I would give it a try. I’d been there for lunch before and it was good- and very good for Hong Kong standards of southern cooking- but nothing too special.

The Thanksgiving Dinner at Blue Smoke however absolutely changed my opinion of the restaurant. It was DELICIOUS! I love the way they have it set up too. They serve a big platter of turkey (sliced turkey, turkey legs) and then lots of side dishes family style and you can order seconds of whatever sides you want more of. Everything was wonderful- with the one exception being the starter pumpkin soup. Details below on the entire meal. I am a little biased because I absolutely love thanksgiving food 

Pumpkin Soup: it was good but not great- it was a little too thick for my taste and tasted more like a gravy than soup.

Smoked Turkey: this was one of the best turkey’s I’ve had! I’ve never had smoked turkey and I loved it! It wasn’t dry at all- it was moist and extremely flavorful. I loved how the smoke flavor came through. It went great with the cranberry sauce and gravy.

Cornbread Stuffing: just the way stuffing should be. It was one of my favorite sides of the night.

Baked Mac and Cheese: cheesy goodness. I’ve read in other reviews that the mac and cheese was dry but this mac and cheese was perfect in my book and went really well with everything else on the plate. This was a crowd pleaser for our group and we ordered seconds.

Sweet Potatoes with meringue: I could have this dish every day. It had just the right amount of sweetness. This was another dish that required seconds.

Mashed Potatoes- good- standard thanksgiving style mashed potatoes. Tasted better with gravy.

Honeyed Carrots- I couldn’t get enough of these!

Green Been Casserole- I think I liked this dish more than the rest of my party. I love green beans and these were in a delicious soupy sauce with fried onions on top. YUM

Peas and Bacon: I don’t like peas so I didn’t try these but my friends said they were good

Apple, Pecan, and Pumpkin Pie: all tasted great. My personal favorite was the pecan.

Service: the manager is really nice and was very helpful. She stopped by our table to chat and made sure we had enough of everything. She is from Georgia too which I liked. The other servers weren’t as great- we had some confusion at the start with one (and how much confusion can you have when it is a set menu??) and then we had an issue with getting charged for the wrong thing but overall was still a really great night.

Tip- we had the 7:30-9:30 seating which was great. We got there a couple minutes before 7:30 and were seated right away. The 9:30 crowd all showed up around 9 and they had to wait for the earlier seating to clear out and I could tell they were getting a bit agitated. We made reservations about 3 weeks prior to Thanksgiving.

I wish they served their Thanksgiving menu all year round- I would go all the time! Regardless I am still going to go back for dinner sometime and be a little more adventurous with the menu.

It was HK$378 per person +10% service charge. Not bad for Thanksgiving- and I would say excellent value for what you got!

I consider myself something of a Q expert, having lived in the home of fine pork cooking, Memphis TN for a number of years.

Walking up the the restaurant, I was initially hopeful as the smell coming down the stairwell was promising - a hint of sauce and smoke in the air.

The first round of chicken wings were nice, with a sweet glaze. Smoking them prior to cooking added a good depth of flavour. They went quite well with the jugs of Tsing Tao on offer. I like my wings hot though, so we ordered another round of the "Voodoo" level. Again, a tasty wing, but the sauce barely broke a sweat - definitely needs to be fired up more. If you're not halucinating by the end of a round of wings, they're not hot enough.

Main courses -

Between us we ordered the Pork Shoulder (Pulled Pork), Fried Chicken, Brisket and a burger. Sides - Mac & Cheese, Coleslaw

Pulled Pork - sub par. It came attractively presented in a small cast iron dish, but was lacking flavour and the texture was wrong - too much bite. There should be a little resistance to the tooth, but this was too much. The BBQ sauce was OK, nothing special but definitely not the worst I've ever had. I loaded up a bun with pork, sauce and coleslaw for a sammich - the combination made the pork taste better to be fair.

Fried Chicken - average. Not a huge amount of flavour and quite greasy according to the person who ordered it. I didn't mind it (had to "borrow" a piece) - but definitely in need of more flavour.

Brisket was quite good apparently (I didn't get to try it) but the burger was extremely salty and "inedible" (again, I didn't get to try it).

The Mac & Cheese was too dry unfortunately.

Deserts were OK - the Apple pie was dry, with not enough apple. I will give some credit to the Key Lime Pie - it wasn't fluorescent green and was very 'limey'.

The setup of the restaurant is good - lots of big tables, quite noisy and you could have a really good time there - if only the food was better.

The service though is pretty good. Our waitress was friendly and acknowledged some of the shortcomings with the food. One of the diners at our table wore a pot of ranch dressing so we scored a free jug of beer - can't argue with that

My friends and I arrived at 6pm on the dot and pretty much had the place to ourselves. Another group of Westerners came in a while later but for the time we were there not many people came in. Not sure why---this place is great!!

Let me preface this review with the following: I am American, from the South (Tennessee) so my BBQ expectations are pretty high. I prefer Memphis style (a sweet molasses based sauce) as opposed to North Carolina (a more tangy vinegar-based sauce), and I like lots of flavor.

Bluesmoke did not disappoint!!

I ordered the pulled chicken sandwich with fries, and my friends and I split baked beans and macaroni and cheese.

The service was about the same as any other place--pretty quick, although there weren't that many people in there. I tried to order one of my favorite drinks (Scarlett O'Hara-- Southern Comfort with cranberry juice and a twist of lime) but I think the waitress thought I said something about coke because it was not really a true Scarlett O'Hara. It was good though so I drank it, maybe I will articulate more next time what the drink consists of... They pretty much took our order, served our food, and left us alone. That is pretty much on par for most restaurants here.

The pulled chicken sandwich was delicious. The baked beans tasted more like chili beans--not true Southern baked beans. The mac 'n cheese was good though--baked, nice and cheesy.

After our meal we saw the chef near the kitchen so we went over and talked to him. Turns out he is from Germany and recently took over as Head Chef from this guy from Texas who basically just up and left the place. He had made some adjustments to the pulled pork recipe, and my friend who had been there before said she could tell a difference. I mentioned that the beans were not quite right--true Southern BBQ beans are made with brown sugar and bacon, so we'll see if they change anything. I was very complimentary to the kitchen staff (who have probably never been to the South but did a good job re-creating some hometown faves!) and I will definitely be going back to satisfy my cravings from home!

Finally paid the Blue Smoke Bar-B-Que a visit, which is conveniently located in LKF.

It is part of the Dining concepts group, which features their menu online.

I was attracted to this place because the starters looked really good, especially the Mac and Cheese which are fried balls with macaroni and cheese inside.
It is south American/Mexican cuisine.

I tried the Chicken Jamabalaya and the chilli beef burger.
The chicken Jamabalaya was the best, every part and every grain of rice was flavourful.
Anyway next time I will be back for the Mac and cheese.
The burger was good too, but I would have preferred a western bun rather than a sweet local Chinese bun.

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Price: quite reasonable.
English menu: yes
Service: Brilliant
Yummy factor: very.
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