Smoke & Fire

"We went for the friday fish fry and it was very delicious and flavorful. The portions were huge and our server Avery she was very friendly and and made sure to check back often on us as the place was super busy! Thank you for the great experience and service we will be back."

"We dined in at Smoke and Fire, it was honestly really yummy. The place was pretty quiet for a Wednesday night, and the service was awesome! I really loved the Cajun Queso appetizer, so did my partner. Every last drop was eaten :) The fries were also so freakin good, well seasoned and fairly crispy. Only complaints are that the chicken tasted sorta weird, and my partners burger was not medium, it was very well done. Otherwise I highly recommend this place! 9/10!"

"It's been half a year, so gave them another shot! I'll update my original review with additional star and notes that will be in brackets: Looking at a few other reviews, it seems to me that the negative issues people (including myself) are having with this restaurant, is the BBQ. [The BBQ has improved, read on!] Positive: 1. service was quick and very friendly. [Service was still very friendly. The wait time was on the longer side for the entrees, but our appetizer came out quickly]. 2. The cornbread skillet was fresh and very good. [The cornbread skillet went downhill. A lot. It has a weird flavor now. Did they switch from butter to oil? Also, whereas the original was right out of the oven, this one seemed to be sitting a little while. This was disappointing given how much we liked it last time] Negative: 1. The table we were sitting at was cleared but still dirty. Both of us used our napkins to clean parts of our respective sides. [No issues with this at all this time around!] 2. The meat platter we got was lukewarm at best, dry, and lacking in flavor (in both smoke and seasoning). [Ok, there's a lot of improvement here. The sausage was great, ribs were fairly good but didn't expect them to come pre-sauced, the brisket was pretty good, their new smoker shows... and the pulled pork was okay. There was no issue with any of the meat being too dry... big improvement there! The down side was that the pulled pork and the brisket were both still lukewarm to cold. I don't understand why they have so much trouble serving hot food.] Thoughts: I would really like to see this become a top-notch BBQ place. This part of MN could certainly use one, so please allow me to offer some suggestions: Tables: The tables are dark and so is BBQ sauce... so it will be easy to miss gunk on the tables when cleaning. You'll have to look close! [This was good on trip 2!] Sides: No one wants to see an upcharge for the sides they want. Mark the price on the entree to include two sides of whatever the customer wants (don't force one side to be coleslaw). In my opinion, it's better to surprise someone with a discount for a cheap side they ordered, rather than have them feel like they need to pay more for what they want. [Still recommend doing this] BBQ: I assume you're using an electric smoker. I don't expect given the time it takes to smoke meat, that you're doing that to order... but it should be flame kissed at that point. Your place is called Smoke and Fire, but the only sign we saw of grill marks was on the sausage. Absolutely no bark on the ribs or brisket. Use a brine to help keep your brisket and pulled pork from getting too dry! [The new smoker shows, good job on improving this, it just really needs to be hot or at least warm when served] [Appetizer/entrée: I got a sandwich this time too. The flavor was good, but the burger was well done instead of medium (as requested)... not that big of a deal, but the bread... I mean, look... when someone gets a grilled sandwich they want the bread grilled. They don't want just melted butter on bread. The bread should have been a nice golden crisp. Also the fries could have been crisper and needed more seasoning. Maybe put whatever you put on the cheese curds on the fries to season? The cheese curds were very good] Presentation: Having paper underneath food that I'm using a fork and knife on just results in ripped up paper on my plate. There has to be a better way. [Paper still there, but it didn't break apart and get caught up with my food like it did last time, so maybe it's working?] Conclusion: I truly hope this insight helps. If you need more, Prior Lake has a Rib Fest every July that would allow you to scope out what some top notch BBQ places do to stand out at various competitions. Good luck! [Still recommend this, but nice overall improvement]"

"The chicken was really good. The pulled pork Mac n cheese was unique but good. Fries were really good, the seasoning was perfected, not over seasoned like most places. Will be back"