smoke on the water

passable bbq, great sides and nice atmosphere. pulled pork is good but like one reviewer said, not a ton of smoke on it. that being said the sides are fantastic. the collard greens,friedokra and mac and cheese are way above average. sit outside if the weather is nice and you have a real treat.

i've changed my mind about sotw. the last few times we have dined here we were underwhelmed by the food.frieditems seemed greasy and under seasoned. service and atmosphere are still terrific.


-----22 aug, 2009-----

without a doubt the best hamburger i have ever had!!!!! well seasoned, perfectly cooked with a rich, tangy pimento cheese sauce. get it by itself or as part of a sampler with mini pulled pork and bbq beef brisket sandwiches

after several trips, i am revising my vote down. many times here a menu item sounds great butthe actual item does not live up. pulled pork is not smokey. i had thefriedcatfish sammy and there was over twice the bread over fish. ridiculous. overall mediocre food. the location and atmo are great but really i don't think it is worth it for mediocre food. sorry.


-----19 aug, 2009-----

this is a great restaurant. barbeque is to die for. don't bother with the crabcake po boy though. casual, masculine sensibility to the atmosphere with a lovely view from the back porch or people watching in front. go to this restaurant!

i can now take smoke on the water out of my bookmarked places to eat. i celebrated my bday, july 12 by having lunch here. the restaurant isn't large, and the lunch time crowd wasn't that big. smoke on the water has a fully stocked bar and i was going to have a bday margarita but decided on the lemonade instead. the table had several big bottles of barbecue sauce for your convenience, from a sweet and mild, mustard based, ketchup to hot barbecue sauces. they serve cake square size pieces of cornbread while you wait on the food to come. it's served with warm butter and is slightly sweet. they will bring out as much of these as you want. a nice a different southern touch!! for an appetizer we had the smokin' jackets. the smokin' jackets are potato skins stuffed with your choice of beef brisket, pulled pork or smoked pulled chicken. we had ours stuffed with pulled pork, they top this with melted cheese and barbecue sauce and green onions. these are served with sour cream. i liked the potato skins, though the pulled pork topping was a little skimpy, as you can see in the picture. they reminded me of the baked potatoes that big dave's barbecue use to serve. for lunch i ordered the barbecue chicken breast, a dinner portion comes with two sides. my sides were mac and cheese and squash casserole. my first bite of the squash casserole i noticed that there was mushrooms in it, i'm not a mushroom eater, so i gave the squash casserole to my niece and she gave me herfriedokra. the switch was ok with me. that being said i can't say how the squash casserole was. the okra looked and tasted like it was breaded in just a cornmeal batter. it was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. the mac and cheese was just that macaroni with a cheese sauce with to me a little too much garlic in it. this was still a different tasting mac and cheese, the flavor was ok it was creamy and the pasta was not under cooked it had a nice crunchy breadcrumb topping that added and nice touch to the casserole. now about the barbecue chicken breast. it was a nice looking piece of chicken, nice grill marks, a beautiful glaze of a sweet tasting smoky barbecue sauce. the chicken breast was not very tender, but it did have a good smoked taste. this meal should come with a steak knife, so it would be easier to cut the chicken breasts. it was a butterflied chicken breast, but it was still tough. i've found that if you put chicken breasts in the oven after it's comes off of the grill, it gets tender. that's time consuming i know, but it helps tenderize the chicken especially if it's a thick chicken breast. all in all it was a good meal, and i'll come back again and try some thing different on the menu. i would recommend smoke on the water it's a nice place to eat in downtown greenville.

had a late dinner here and it was still very crowded. enjoyed a beer at the bar before our table was available. ordered the beef brisket which was thinly sliced and very flavorful. even tried all of the different sauces which were quite good each with their own unique taste. thefriedokra was tasty but i didn't care for the squash casserole that had roasted red peppers which in my opinion over powered the taste of the squash. the crab cake sandwich was good with afriedloaded potato as a side. the mac-n-cheese made with a white cheddar was good as well. all in all, we had a pleasant experience and a wonderful meal. the staff was friendly and accommodating even though they were slam packed. we would definitely visit again.

a good value crowd pleaser. meals are a good variety and plentiful. sides i tried - onion rings,friedokra, spinach casserole were all delish. and so was pecan pie. i'd go back.

finger-licking good! it's one of those restaurants that doesn't cut corners when it comes to the details! we had to wait a very long time for a table (we expected that) but while we sat at the bar they offered us free app offriedasparagus which was heavenly! and so nice! their cocktails were perfect as well! i can't wait to go back!

great lunch and value!. stopped in for lunch. food was great at a good price. friendly staff. hadfriedpearl oysters, baby back ribs, onion rings,friedcatfish. all were great. good sauces too. dessert menu looked good but we were stuffed.

smoke on the water is our favorite place to eat in greenville. we love eating at smoke on the water. when we moved here from kansas city we were concerned about finding good barbecue. we have never been disappointed. the meat has a good smoke flavor. the sauce is a bit different than what we are used to but they did have options that we really enjoyed. i love thefriedgreen tomatoes. i cannot get enough of them.

our go-to resto for barbcue. we never get tired of eating their barbcue sampler plate which is plenty to share. i also can't get out without having theirfriedokra. some of the very best in town. also, as a craft beer blogger (headforbeer.com) i appreciate the variety of real beers on draft.

for my main course, i had the combo platter with brisket and pulled pork with sides offriedokra and sugar snap peas. in a word, the meal was fantastic. the pulled pork has a great smoke flavor, is tender, and not dry at all. you can definitely eat it without adding any sauce, but the sauce definitely enhances the flavor. my personal favorite is a spicy vinegar based sauce, but you can also choose from sc mustard, kc sweet, and a house red sauce.

way overrated!!!. went there last evening five people for a graduation dinner $200. thefriedgreen tomatoes were hard, barely cooked, the brisket was extremely dry to the point it got stuck in your throat when you tried to swallow it, sugar snap peas some undercooked and some ok, the dish was inconsistent. ribs were mushy, dont know how else to describe it. the squash casserole was good, tuna very good andfriedoyster appetizer was good. the cobbler was undercooked and i had better at a diner, strawberry binegt was so, so. bannana foster was very good. corn bread some pieces ok others burnt. i called about a week ahead so they knew i was coming for a graduation, it was around 8:30 and they close at 10pm so they rushed everything, the dinner came out way before we even had a chance to get halfway through our appetizers and they insisted on putting the dinner plates on the table with the appetizer plates even though they all wouldn't fit. the same happened with all other courses, they had us in and out of there i would bet, within an hour and we ordered appetizers, wine, dinner and desert. i normally don't write reviews even if the restaurant was really bad, but i just felt so bad for the person i took out for graduation. this restaurant really didn't care. if you are going to be spending $200 or even just $20 there are so many other good restaurants in the greenville area, especially barbeque. this rates just above low to medium quality, seriously and i'm not hard to please with food. if you want really good barbecue try baby's in seneca. it's not a sit down restaurant, but the barbecue is unreal. and i guess it wouldn't have mattered if it was sit down or not since we barely got to sit down at smoke on the water before they were rushing us back out the door. this restaurant is way over rated!! i guess i should have read the reviews before i went there.

great place for rawfriedoysters & uncookedfriedgreen tomatoes. we tried this restaurant for the first time tonight. since we lovefriedoysters andfriedgreen tomatoes when we saw them on the menu we ordered them. what a disappointment. both were under-cooked. the oysters raw and slimy and the green tomatoes rubbery. we left all but two... less one each that my wife and i tried to eat. when we asked for the check no... "was there something wrong with the food from the waitress?" we won't be back

never a bad meal. sometimes service is a bit slow. (and how the hell does anyone run out of guinness and not have a re-supply a week after st. patrick's day?)

but the food is worth the wait. thefriedasparagus & thefriedgreen tomoato appetizers are always great. their brisket and the seared ahi tuna are among my favorites. (i wish the several bottles of sauces on each table had labels so i wouldn't have to "re-learn" what's in each of them on every visit.) but, hey, some people like surprises. or maybe i'm just a slow learner.

al in all, i'm never reluctant to take out-of-town guests here.

the smokey smoked meats are fantastic, but i really think i could just go order a plate of sides. the squash casserole and the spinach casserole are phenomenal, the potato cakes are outstanding, and thefriedgreen tomatoes are to die for. i went with a group of some of the pickiest eaters i know and everyone came out fat, happy, and with a to go box!