About.com Rating

Location, Location, Location.

Red Smoke's biggest asset is its location in a historic building along Monroe Street in Detroit's Greektown. While the restaurant delivers on its barbeque, its sides, while visually pleasing and generously portioned, are often a disappointment.

Location / Decoration

Red Smoke is located directly across the street from Greektown Casino, which means it's an easy walk from the casino's free-parking garage.


 The restaurant occupies a historic storefront, but its interior has been transformed to utilize the height of the two-story building. While the lower level includes a long bar with a dark dining area at the back, the restaurant's upper level wraps, atrium like, around a large mobile of sculpted metal pigs. The dining area has an open, airy feel, which is helped along by the large windows overlooking Monroe Street. The building's brick walls give the space character, while the light wooden tables and dark wooden chairs provide contrast. Several interesting elements are sprinkled throughout the restaurant, including a room divider made up entirely of red beads fitted between two metal screens.

Menu

The menu is all about the restaurant's signature “barbeque,” which includes ribs, pulled chicken and pork, Texas beef brisket and apple-smoked chicken. In addition to “plates” that feature a mound of meat and one side, the menu has a sandwich section for lunch. While there are 12 options for sides, including Black-eyed Peas with Spinach over Rice, Collard Greens, Potato Salad and Creamy Coleslaw, they tend to pale in comparison to their descriptions.

Beverages are also a bit pricey. For instance, a lemonade is $3.50.

Food

The Pulled Pork Plate was presented on a paper-lined tray with a nicely sized mound of pulled pork atop Texas toast. The pork was nicely smoked white meat. Unlike a lot of restaurants, Red Smoke's pulled pork was not finely shredded but left in nice size chunks with a little of the surface bark visible, as well as the smoke ring. The meat was tender without being overly dry or juicy. Despite being dry rubbed, the spice blend was subtle and tasty whether or not dipped in sauce. The five sauces were available tableside and included Redsmoke, Roasted Poblano, Michigan Cherry Molasses, Memphis Mudd and Honey Mustard. The meat was served on one slice of not very toasted Texas toast, which just ended up a mushy distraction that didn't add to the dish.

The plate came with one side and a personal-sized loaf of cornbread. The side of Macaroni and Cheese was presented in a deep, oblong bowl; so there was plenty of it. In a unique twist, the restaurant made the dish with cornbread crumbs and sprinkled it with still more crumbs before baking. Unfortunately, the crumbs ended up dry, toasted and tasteless. They completely overwhelmed what might have been a very tasty version of the dish.

The Coleslaw was served in a large bowl in a huge heaping mound. While the vegetables were chopped in big pieces, the dressing mix was very watery, a little too sweet and ultimately bland.

The Jalapeno Cheddar Corn Muffin was likewise disappointing. While it fell somewhere between the grainy southern version of the bread and the sweet muffin variety, the jalapeno and cheddar weren't discernible and the loaf was very dense and oily tasting.

Service

The waitress, who had a down-home charm that worked nicely in the restaurant, was very friendly and went out of her way to cater to kids. She was also on top of service, keeping our drinks filled and our meal well paced.

Pros

• Interesting, historic location in the center of Greektown
• Nicely seasoned and smoked meats
• Plates big enough for two
• Easy walk to free parking

Cons

• Sides disappointing
• Expensive in places

 

Red Smoke Website