Smack Shack

Reviews 4

DA

David Nussbaum

Let me begin by saying that I have, in the the past, been a big fan of this establishment - or, at least, its happy hour. Reasonable prices and good service. That has now changed.. My wife and I decided to grab some seats at the bar on a typically quiet Sunday evening in downtown Minneapolis. There were only two other patrons seated near us so it seemed as though we would be promptly greeted and served. Not to be - no bartender in sight, no other sever/staff acknowledging us in any way. 5 to 7 minutes later bartender shows up, blows right past us and starts pouring drinks for waiting servers. Bartender finally greets us, gives us menus and takes our drink and dinner order. We order the ahi tuna crudo as an appetizer and the shrimp po boy, to share, as an entree. 15 minutes go by, tuna arrives. Quite good, although at $15, somewhat overpriced for the portion size. Finish up appetizer and, lo and behold, are sandwich arrives. The lobster roll. The sandwich we didnt order. The young lady who delivered wrong sandwich says "Oops" and runs over to our bartender to inquire about the mixup. I then watch as wrong sandwich is scurried back to the kitchen while our bartender fumbles at the POS to re-order correct entree. At this point - and what typically happens - is that the aforementioned bartender/server approaches customer and apologizes for screw-up and assures guest that correct sandwich will be delivered soon. None of this happened. Another 10-15 minutes elapse - sandwich finally arrives. Again, no "Im really sorry about the wrong order" - just Mr. Clueless asking if theres anything else I can bring you. After my first bite of the po boy I thought yes, there is something else. A sandwich with some FLAVOR. The po boy was certainly not the worst thing I ever tasted but it may well have been the blandest. And way overpriced at $17. If the Smack Shack is going to attempt to put out authentic Maine/New England fare they need to rethink the menu and doctor the flavor profiles. Our bill came to $66. 3 good beers, one decent appetizer, one lousy sandwich and one totally undeserved 18% tip (I used to wait tables so we were being generous, to say the least..). Hey, I get it. Its the North Loop. Trendy, hip and (sometimes) overpriced. But, honestly, the crummy service and mediocre food at the Smack Shack will make me run across Washington Avenue to seek a much better dining experience at Borough or La Grassa in the future.

BI

Billy Bobby

The Mrs. heard good things at work from a few co-workers, so we went. She had the Connecticut lobster roll (which she heard about) and I had the Lobster Lucy, both with the extra $2 fries instead of the included chips. Both meals come out to about $21 with the fries. First off, get the chips. The fries were nearly cold, dry and salty salty salty (P.S. Im OK with salty, I like Salt-n-vinegar chips) Why is it SO hard to get decent fries today? When we later told her to take the fries off the bill, she told us we should have asked for new fires - yeah, but Im sick of eating my fries AFTER the rest of my meal. No thanks. We both found the lobster portions of our meals to be flavorless, a little tough, and not hot again. My lobster Lucy was basically a Juicy Lucy with a lobster cheese sauce in the middle and a pile of lobster on top. 1/2 pound of beef. Sounds good, right? Once again, I could NOT taste the lobster - flavorless - the burger itself was not cooked hot or long enough and had that icky grey look to it, with no char. My guess is that you cant properly cook the burger otherwise the sauce leaks out and thats why it ends up mushy and grey. The Mrss Connecticut (that means hot, not cold) lobster roll was a nice big brautwurst sized bun with a ton of chopped lobster bulging out. She didnt eat a good deal of it. Neither did I. Not enough butter, not hot enough, and the flavor etc issues. There is something definitely wrong with the lobster - OLD? Over frozen? Cheap? I cant tell you for sure. The lobster isnt "bad" (rotten) its just not "good" favor, texture, etc. The waitress was friendly enough, LOVED EVERYTHING on the menu. But after giving us our meals NEVER stopped by to ask how it was. Just ONCE topped off our waters and ran off. Until we asked for the bill. Maybe if she ASKED about our food after a few minutes like shes supposed to, she could have caught some of the problems - OR does she know the food is ---- barely OK.? You DO however get a lot for the money. And theres the rub. Theres a LOT of people that mistake good value/quantity for ... well ... GOOD. They DID take off the fries and gave us a free desert to take home. But I doubt well ever go again.

OK

Oksana Harhun

I really really wish I was writing a great review, but unfortunately my last experience was less than good. After visiting Smack Shack a few times in the past years, my husband wanted to see what the rave was all about. We were so excited to celebrate my birthday but we left the place unfulfilled and extremely disappointed. Our evening started out by us being seated on the patio, which was great but the weather was just so great. After sitting for about 20 minutes, our waitress finally noticed us and came over to ask and asked if we have been helped. We replied no but we were ready to order. She looked around, quickly explained the drink menu and left. After sitting for another 15 minutes, she came over and took our order. As we were chatting, we noticed that people were getting their food fairly quick so were excited to have our food soon. After another 10 minutes, our waitress came over to us and said she lost our order and needed to take it again. So now its been 45 minutes and we only got our drinks, which was a soft drink and lemonade. After 20 minutes, we got our appetizers which we were excited for. When I took my first bite of fried Calamari, I honestly thought I was eating rubber. There was no taste and it looked like they have been sitting under a lamp for a while or they were not freshly made. My husband had to share his appetizer with me because I couldn’t even eat a few without feeling sick to my stomach. Once we were done, the busboy whisked our plates away and refilled our drinks. After about 30 minutes, we received our main course. I was so excited for my Connecticut roll but was promptly disappointed after the first bite. The roll was not toasted, the lobster was definitely not salted and it has been sitting out for a while because the roll was completely soggy. The fries were not even fresh as well. My husband’s Jambalaya was worse. The rice was undercooked, under salted and didn’t have any taste of your usual Jambalaya. As we left the restaurant in a hurry, my husband told me that he was extremely disappointed in the food and our experience. Looks like we won’t be returning anytime soon. My high expectations for this great place have been lowered by quite a bit.

SH

Shayn Luinstra

We were visiting downtown Minneapolis to see the new US Bank stadium. Skol Vikings! We looked up a cool place to eat and decided to try Smack Shack! We are so glad we did. I mean from start to finish it was one of our favorite places we ever visited. The whole experience was impressive. The building is a really modern indoor /outdoors seating venue. It is an extremely large resturant. The staff were all attenative and very friendly. If you asked any of them a question they were happy to answer. Super clean resturant. The bar was large and offered 15 + different craft beers and many more bottles/cans as well. Below I will explain our food experience. We all tried different food items on the menu so i will speak about those. Everything was finger licking good. We orderd the Smack wings as an appitizer. WOW!! Cooked perfectly and the smack sauce is dynomite.... served with a homemade blue-cheese. I usually dislike Blue Cheese and never eat it. I could eat this stuff all day. A must try I promise. My son had the homemade Clam chower which was fresh and very tasty. Good portion size! Our other son eat the homemade Lobster Mac-n-cheese which was also top notch. My wife and I each had a different lobster roll. We shared and tried each others. I was in heaven. They were both everything you would expect out on the East coast. Fresh lobster and light flavors, crispy toast.... my mouth is watering as I write this. If O lived nearby I would visit this place weekly. The waitress was impressive too. She took our entire order by memory without writing down a thing. Made no mistakes. Had the kitchen split my wife and I sandwich in half for us. We never even asked for that. She just heard us speaking about sharing and did it for us. Then at the end of our meals for dessert our amazing waitress brought out a cookie for our 3 year old daughter that came with her meal. But instead she brought one out for our two boys so they got one as well to save any problems or whinning from happening. This place rock.... We will be back now every time we are in town and may even make a special trip up just for a dinner. Keep up the great work Smack Shack!