Combining a mixture of flavours from Asian to American, SMOAK have brought their street food to a permanent location right in the heart of Glasgow promising some fun for your taste buds – but did it deliver on our visit?
The interior is a complete transformation from the minimalist scandi-cool Swedish Affär cafe which sadly didn’t stay open for long. Now it’s all cages, filament lightbulbs and wood.
Mr and Mrs Foodie, along with the Colonel visited for some lunch. There are different menus for breakfast/brunch including eggs & muffins, brisket, hauveros (sic) rancheros, a fry etc; lunch with soups, salads, burgers, tacos, sandwiches and for dinner there are burgers, ribs and steak etc, with some delicious (and mostly meaty) sounding items on each! On the drinks menu the smoothies and shakes sounded the part, but sadly none were available. So with sighs all round as we ordered some boring soft drinks instead. Anyway, onto the food…
Prime Beef Burger, £7.50. SMOAK
Both Mrs Foodie and The Colonel went for the Prime Beef burger. Chunky beef burger with Emmenthal cheese, pickle, smoked aioli and chipotle ketchup. Add fries for £2.00 extra.
A huge crunchy pickle served alongside our burger, no pickle on the burger itself (The Colonel had ordered his pickle on the side but we both received it like this). The overall taste and texture was extremely moreish and cooked perfectly (pinky) but no aioli creamyness or chipotle punch could be found.
Hot Gut Sausage Sandwich £6.95, SMOAK
Mr Foodie picked the Hot Gut Sausage with sauerkraut, balsamic onion and Emmenthal mustard in a pretzel roll. This was very Germanic and filling, a perfect balance of tart vinegary cabbage and onion with the creamy cheese and the juicy fat sausage.
jalapeno Cornbread £3.50. SMOAK
Another bit of a meh feeling from the jalapeno Cornbread though. Crisp and fluffy bread but we think the jalapeno had left for their Christmas break early. It was more like a glorified slice of garlic bread, tasty as it was, the jalapeno just wasn’t there.
L-R: Pit Beans £3.50, Fries, Beef Dripping Home Fries £3.50
Beef dripping home fries (with rosemary salt and smoked garlic aioli…umm nope!) were crisp and tasty but again seemed to be missing some of their ingredients. The house fries didn’t look all that special but they were tasty with a good crispness. Pit Beans with beef and pork, again a little disapointed with these, very much beans with a chopped tomato sauce and no depth of flavours.
Overall, a filling lunch but we left feeling disappointed after enjoying the standard of SMOAK food at street food events in the past. Maybe it was due to visiting the week before Christmas when they had only just opened, we will return again later in the year to see how things change. Staff were amiable so no probs there.
Total cost was £40.75 for lunch for three. We were stuffed and filled, but not overawed. Toilets were not checked on this visit.
TL:DR
+ meaty burger
+ juicy sausage
+ pretzel bun
– more flavor needed!
– shakes were off the menu on this visit
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Opening Hours: Mon – Sun: 8am – 10pm
Tel: 0141 221 9127