Recently Old Towne Orange lost their BBQ joint, but fear not because the closing of Beach Pit BBQ brought the opening of Smoqued in the same exact location. Whereas Beach Pit was fast casual, Smoqued is a traditional sit down restaurant. Smoqued opened at the beginning of the month so we gave them a couple of weeks to work out there bugs and visited during the third week of operation to celebrate some exciting news with my parents. News the rest of you will have to wait to hear about.
Unfortunately I only got pictures of our appetizer and the food I ordered. We started our dinner off with the Avocado Fries, which were exactly what one would think they are, battered avocado wedges, seasoned, and served with sriracha ranch. Everyone agreed that the avocados were bland, probably due to them not being fully ripe, which is most likely an issue with the need for the avocado to be firm enough to batter and fry. It was a bit of a disappointment since we are a family that loves avocados, we probably wouldn’t order these again due to lack of taste.
Mrs. DanGarion and my mom ordered the Texas Brisket Chili, if you like your chili the way they make it in Texas (without beans) you’d probably love this stuff, it is chili con carne as it is meant to be, but for these Californians it was just too meaty with nothing to break it up. The cornbread that was served with it was great though, with just the right amount of sweetness and cooked just perfect to where it wasn’t dry!
My dad and I both ordered meat dishes with Brisket, I also got Baby Back Ribs. The Brisket had the required smoke ring and good flavor (I prefer my smoked meat without sauce and appreciated that they serve their meats with no sauce) that didn’t require the need for BBQ sauce, although it is there for those that need more flavor. The ribs where very meaty, and they weren’t the typical just a bit over cooked fall off the bone style that many people are accustomed to at restaurants, they required a little bit of bite to pull from the bones and had the texture one would expect from competition style ribs. The rub provided a good amount of flavor that again didn’t require the need of additional BBQ. I did have a couple of issues with our meals though. First the food temperature was poor for both of my meats, the Brisket and Ribs were barely warm which frustrated me. Also considering the price for two meats $17.99 I would have liked to have more meat than two slices of Brisket and 5 Pork Ribs. The sides I ordered were the Amazing Mac and Cheese and Deviled Eggs with Pulled Pork. I felt the portion size of the mac and cheese was way off (it was a 6″ skillet) and it just didn’t really do much for me for something that actually had the name “Amazing”. The Deviled Eggs with Pulled Pork were the star when it came to the sides.
All in all our meal was about average but could still have been improved with a couple tweaks here and there. I’m looking forward to seeing if Smoqued is able to work out the kinks, but after you have had some of the best in other parts of the country it takes more than average to really get me going.
[xrr rating=2.5/5]
Smoqued BBQ
128 N Glassell St
Orange, CA 92866
(714) 633-7427
