A few weeks ago, I took a quick trip down to Hilton Head to catch up with some old friends. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to enjoy two meals in their company. I've already blogged about the first place we went to (you can read about it
here). This post is all about spot number 2, which is where we had dinner.
We went to the
Smokehouse, which, as the name suggest, specializes in assorted smoked meats. As such, there was not, at least in my book, a thing that could possibly go wrong with this meal.
Our group was lucky enough to have someone with us who was intimately acquainted with the
menu, so we were steered in the right direction from the get-go. J ordered us the Chips & Dip to start. Anywhere that serves freshly cooked potato chips with sweet homemade onion dip is absolutely getting two thumbs up from this girl. The onion dip was creamy, but with obvious onion pieces. It was a little sweeter than most onion dips, but I liked it. The chips were crunchy and fresh. It was perfect for the five of us to split.
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| Looks good to me. Nice and casual, but really tasty. |
We also ordered a second appetizer, as it was kind of taking our food a little while to come out. No big deal...it was busy and we didn't really have anywhere to be. So we ordered 8 bones from the Baby Back Sampler to munch on. Like it says on the menu, this is a "tease" of the smoked baby back ribs. Let me tell you. This tease certainly made me happy that I had ordered ribs as part of my dinner. The meat quite literally fell off of the bone. They were tender and nicely seasoned with a dry rub. Absolutely outstanding.
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| I know these look pink, but that happens when you smoke things. I promise these were fully cooked. |
We had two children with us, so M & C contributed something that I don't usually get to in these reviews: a view of the kid's menu. My favorite part of the kid's menu? The fact that they had a kid's size portion of the ribs. Now your kids can go to the Smokehouse and not gaze longingly at the ribs on your plate. C opted for the ribs with french fries (although I think she still ended up picking a few things off of her mom's plate), while M went with the cheeseburger and mac & cheese. I think they were both pretty happy. And I liked the bite of mac & cheese that I nicked from M's plate.
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| The mac & cheese was super creamy. Just how I like it. |
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| Perfect kid's portion, but not necessarily featuring the normal kid's food. |
J decided to order steak. And, unfortunately, my memory is failing me, and I can't remember what kind of steak it was. I want to say it was the ribeye, but I'm not 100% sure. Someone look at the picture and tell me if you can figure it out. Anyway. To go with his steak, J ordered a baked potato and grilled veggies. And there was a mighty nice piece of cornbread too. This looked awesome. I had the veggies too, so I can assure you that they were delicious. But this was a fabulous looking (and tasting, but all accounts) meal. So far, so good.
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| Let's play "Name That Cut of Steak." Filet Mignon, NY Strip, Ribeye, or Top Sirloin? |
P and I ordered the same main course with different sides. We both had the Butt & Bones, which is a combination of pulled pork and ribs. Yes, the same ribs we had as our appetizer. These ribs were equally tender and delicious. The pulled pork was clearly the kind that is cooked FOREVER and then pulled apart. And by pulled apart, I definitely mean that the meat is so tender that you touch it and it falls apart. The pork wasn't heavily seasoned - there were assorted sauces on the table that you could add to it. I mixed all of them together, so that I got a semi-spicy, slightly vinegary taste. Outstanding. For my sides, I had the french fries (what? sometimes I have the palette of a 6 year old) and the grilled veggies. The veggies were out of this world. They had a nice char-grilled color, but they were still crunchy. I'm sure you all know by now that one of my biggest pet peeves is mushy vegetables. Do not overcook them!!! These were beautifully done. If I had known how good they were going to be, I probably would have vetoed the fries and gotten a double order of veggies. P also had the veggies (I think) and a baked sweet potato, that she raved about. Sweet potatoes aren't really my thing, but this one sure looked awesome.
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| This was mine. See the color on the veggies? |
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| P added the sauces to her pork before she took this picture. |
At this point, I was so full, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to stay awake during my 3 hour drive home. I said as much, but of course, everyone insisted that we get dessert. M, C, and J ordered dessert, and P and I happily helped them eat them. M went with a peanut butter pie type thing, that looked like turtle cheesecake, but tasted like peanut butter. It was awesome. C decided on the key lime pie. This was my favorite of the three. It was just key lime pie - no frills, no fuss. It was so light and creamy. The perfect way to cap off a great meal. J went with the chocolate cake, which was really like a chocolate mousse and cake pie. It was so rich and so heavy, I have no idea how he ate it all. It was good, but I would have only been able to have 2 or 3 bites before I'd be done with it.
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| Peanut butter pie. Loved the chocolate crust. |
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| Chocolate cake. |
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| Key Lime Pie. My favorite. |
We had a great time at Smokehouse. We had a bit of a wait before we got a table, but there was a shuffleboard table in one corner, so no one got bored waiting. Our server was great, but it did take awhile for our food to come out. Just be prepared that, should you choose to go to the Smokehouse, it won't be a quick meal. They do have some pretty awesome outdoor seating, as well as a good sized bar. There was a stage in one corner, so my guess would be that they occasionally have live music. They have a ton of TVs all over the restaurant, so you can keep your eye on the game (and the food is certainly better than your neighborhood sports bar). I'm a fan.
Final Rating
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