Smoque Woden

The Hayne Plane had a wobbly take off, Dez Bryant broke a lot of hearts (and his metatarsal) and Rob Gronkowski was the ebullient monster that we have grown to know and love. It's the first week of the American football season. And for many of this sport's growing number of aficionados, that means heading to Smoque​ in Civic or its newer brother Smoque Woden, to watch the game with a beer in hand and some hot wings in another.

When Grant Kells opened Smoque Woden in the Abode Hotel on Bowes Street he was responding to popular demand for his American-style barbecue spreads on the south side. There's no getting around the fact that it's an unprepossessing location, surrounded by parking lots and tall office buildings.

But it's more spacious and light-filled than its Civic counterpart – a couple of high bar tables, plenty of room to spread out, and a huge mural of Elvis on the main wall over the banquettes. Outside there's a big deck strung with colourful lamps that's popular on summer nights. And you don't have to cross the bridge to get your fill of ribs.

There are many interesting things on the menu if you're a member of the American barbecue tribe. Big, sticky ribs. Beef brisket. Pulled pork. The drinks list is more muted – beers, soft drink and a very compact, generalist wine list including a house red and white. 

There are also giant platters of mixed meats and sides, which look tempting to the Pats fan on my right, who is returning to Smoque for the first time since a Monday afternoon spent eating chicken and waffles and watching his team win the Super Bowl earlier this year. The happy memories and optimism are clearly still fresh in his mind. "Let's get the Ultimate Platter!" he says. It's a $99 platter (with half a chicken, a dozen wings, ribs, brisket, pulled pork and three sides), cheekily described as being for "one to six people". We have to talk him down from there – eventually we negotiate a deal in which he gets the barbecue trifecta platter ($39) with pulled pork, ribs, brisket and a three-cheese mac and cheese. 

The platter is a generous serve, with barbecued meat filling the tray and squares of sweet crumbly cornbread and mac and cheese in one corner. The brisket is rather dry, as though it's been the victim of over-aggressive reheating. It pulls apart well enough, which seems to indicate it's been cooked nicely the first time, but is too dry as served.

But the ribs are bloody great – the meat pulls easily off the bone while keeping its shape. Pour on a helping of the barbecue sauce, which complements the pork prettily, and these go down very well. The flavour is balanced – plenty of good savoury pork with a hint of sweetness from the sauce.

The Carolina pulled pork is a pile of rich shreds of meat, full of healthy texture rather than chewiness or mush. To me it doesn't have the vinegary bite that I associate with Carolina-style pulled pork but the meat does work nicely with the house barbecue sauce. There is also no hint of all those hours of smoking over hickory.

It's not all barbecue tonight, though. The cheeseburger is an excellent example of the genre – the beef patty falling just apart with plenty of punchy beef flavour, a good set of buns (boom tish) and that delightful coalescing of pickle/patty/melted cheese that manages to be light and sweet and savoury all at once. It's very, very easy to eat. In fact, my friends stop attacking their ribs and try to get in on the cheeseburger and I have to make like JJ Watt to keep them away.

The chicken wings are one of the main reasons people go to Smoque – and on Monday they are 50¢ each which is a dangerously tempting challenge. These are crisp and anointed with that traditional Buffalo dressing that seems to be made up of half hot sauce, half melted butter, and all delicious. They leave a pleasant, lingering heat.

Desserts are suitably American, with tart key lime pie that's a little stiff rather than lusciously creamy, and thick slices of a rich, wobbly house-made Mars Bar cheesecake usually served with Mars Bar ice-cream (they're all out of the ice-cream but a scoop of vanilla does the trick).

It's been a big meal. This is a restaurant where you bounce in like petite running back Darren Sproles and roll out closer to giant defensive tackle Vince Wilfork.