SMITH Restaurant - Winnipeg

We went to this place as this has been recommended so much on blogs and other social media. I’ve had it on my “Want to Go” list for a long time. Finally had a chance to go tonight. You can book a spot about 4 weeks out from preferred date. Reservation online was easy with no problems at all. Parking is NOT free at The Forks. I wish they would pay for your parking if you spend a certain $$$ at the restaurant. Expect to stay about 2 hours for dinner. We were seated right away and our server was nice, friendly, and attentive to our needs in a timely manner. We ordered a variety of items on the menu as it’s our first time here and wanted to try a bunch of different things. We got the pounded cheese and classic beef tartare as appetizers. The beef tartare was great and the pounded cheese was good. They were both served with the right amount of sourdough. Appetizers came first. For mains, we had to wait a while. We ordered the buttermilk fried half chicken and 10oz berkshire pork chop with a side of brussels sprouts. To be honest, the mains and side were underwhelming. The fried chicken was not cooked and seasoned evenly. The top half was less done than the bottom half and the bottom half was more seasoned (therefore, more salty). On the good side, chicken was tender. The buttermilk dressing was just ok. The pork chop was smaller than I expected… and personally not a fan of it. The meat wasn’t as flavourful as I hoped it would be. The Brussels sprouts were a bigger serving than expected. But it had a weird taste to it. Wasn’t too happy as well that the mains are priced so high but you have to pay extra for the sides. For the cocktails, I had good ones and the sangria was ok too. Had the paper plane and oaxaca, 5pm. We ate only half of the mains so we had leftovers to take home. This is our first and mostly likely will be our last time here. For the price, I expected way better tasting food and a more remarkable overall dining experience.