Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill

Tried out Smokey Bones on our trip down to the tidewater area. The décor theme is best described as roadhouse meets sports bar. There are televisions located in the bar area which has plenty of seating. One unique thing that I noted upon being seated was the «Ziosk» where you’re able to order items and settle your bill when the meal is complete.
The best part of our experience was our server Jan C; who is very personable and right on top to refill your drink. One person in my party ordered the BLT Burger which had Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion, Avocado, Swiss Cheese and a ½ pound burger served on a toasted bun. The burger is definitely a fork and knife affair, the flavors of the burger were savory and melded together well. The side of fries were simply seasoned with salt and pepper.
Another person had the Pulled Pork Sammy with a side of coleslaw and the loaded potato soup. The sandwich was very good and allowed you to choose the sauce for it. The generous amount of pulled pork was served atop a buttered toasted bun. The soup although «homemade» tasted like they came out of a soup kit. Passable in flavor but it wouldn’t be first in the mind to order again.
I had the the St. Louis Rib Combo which was a ¹⁄₃ rack of ribs made with a dry rub and some Texas Beef Brisket served with the house sauce. The meal came with a side of the fries and fire roasted corn. The Ribs were tender but there was a lot more fat than I would have liked. I’d hope that the barbecuing process would have rendered more of the fat off of the meat, perhaps it was just an off night. The Texas Beef Brisket was fork tender and served and it paired well with the garlic butter Texas toast. The fire roasted corn was perfectly balanced combination of sweetness from the corn and savory from the butter. The smokiness from roasting it gave it a nice meaty flavor.
If you’re looking for a place to get fairly decent barbecue and are very keen on service, Smokey Bones will not disappoint.

Went to have dinner and now have a bad taste in my mouth. The chicken and loaded mashed potatoes where cold. The Texas brisket was a small portion and half was fat. I would not recommend this place for my dog. The staff was friendly.

A friend was in town for the weekend, so a few of us wanted to get together and have a nice dinner, and by nice, i mean better than chipotle or tgi Friday, so we decided on this place. When we got there we day in the bar and a Caribbean girl who’s name i can’t recall was our server. Once or while party of five finally was there, she informed us she didn’t feel well and had been cut, so claudia would now be taking care of us.
Claudia seemed nice, she was patient while we were ordering, she even got me a sample of coleslaw so i could see if i wanted to order it for my pulled pork sandwich or not. About fifteen minutes after we ordered, she came out to tell us that even though one person ordered Mac and cheese, they were now out. That sucks, but she just asked for double mashed potatoes.
That same one of my friends ordered a steak medium rare, which came out medium well. Yikes, big difference! That wasn’t our servers fault, and my friend was hungry so she ate it anyways. Thenshe got to the mashed potatoes– they were filled with corn kernels and French fries. It’d be one thing if there were just one kernal but it was chock full of kernels and fries! That’s a bit too much cross contamination if you ask me! Lucky they’re all starches. After she offered to recook the steak and then again returning with extra gravy for the mashed potatoes and then taking them away at the discovery of the extra trinkets stored inside them.
After that we didn’t see her for quite some time. Although she did ask us before disappearing, if we needed anything or if everything was good, one of my friends had barely started eating by then. Once he got into his burger we saw it was rare — rare i tell you!
We had to eventually flag down another waitress to get claudia for us, as she had disappeared, but the manager got there first. He took the plate and apologized and she came over to the opposite end of the table to check on us and we were fine, it was the other end whose burger wasnt cooked. She walked away and after that she came and brought us our checks.
She split an appetizer and put it on everyone’s check which we didn’t ask her to do and she didn’t take off the burger that should have been medium well but came out almost rare.
My friend asked her ‘hey what are you going to do about the burger, i didn’t even eat it because it wasn’t cooked’ and she got very snippy and told him that he ordered it that way because she had it written down as medium rare. Even if thats what she had written Down, she did not repeat the order back to us to confirm, and you don’t argue with the customer. She then said that she came by multiple times and we said everything was fine so she wasn’t taking anything off the check. It’s not like it was something that was eaten that we wanted free, it was rang in incorrectly or cooked incorrectly and uneaten for that reason, so he shouldn’t have had to pay for it. We were not problematic at all. Most of us have previous server experience and current customer service experience, so we know hoe things should be handled, and arguing and snapping at a customer for not wanting to be charged for something they aren’t consuming is def not the way to go. Ever.
I think i was the only one whose food was actually good tonight, but you can’t go wrong with pulled pork. We did have kind of a late dinner around 9pm but they’re open until about one or two in the morning so with that in mind it’s not that late at nine! I won’t be returning to this location again.

Terrible food! I ordered baby back ribs which should fall off the bone and they are usually small.
What I got was a medium size so called baby back ribs that were tough. Service was so so. My drink from the bar was great! Then again how can you screw up orange vodka & sprite LOL

Food was awesome as well as the service. Both of my drinks bloody mary and martini were terrible. I wont order drinks next time.

Great food, great atmosphere, always friendly servers and they are wonderful with my kids! The West Coast Club is addicting… Yes, I ordered it 3 times this week. Stop by if you’re in the area. The GM will stop by your table make you feel at home.

I loved the smoke bbq (something) wings, it was hot, wasn’t too sloppy to eat. I like that they don’t over do it on the sauce, it kept it crispy. The ribs traditional style was a little salty, the broccoli was soft. We went on a busy night and the wait was around 30 minutes so we ended up doing bar seating and got in right away. The tough screen order tablet didn’t work very well and the service was a little slow. But the wings tho! go.. try it. let me know.

While looking for good BBQ and Southern food on my visit to VA, I decided to drop by with my brother and BF. I read a few reviews on Unilocal and decided that there weren’t any good BBQ restaurants in the immediate area that we’d heard of which were worth visiting. We gave it a shot anyway… Well. I’m closer to believing it to be true after our dining experience. We ordered wings with garlic buffalo sauce and Memphis dry rub. The garlic ones were pretty good! The medium– sized wings were smothered in that sauce, which were accompanied by blue cheese and ranch dressing. The Memphis dry rub was just «meh». Not bad but I wouldn’t order them again. We also ordered the loaded cheese fries as an appetizer as well. These were AMAZING! They piled on the cheese till the seasoned, fried-​to-​perfection french fries were drenched in gooey cheese. They were topped with a ton of bacon and scallions and were accompanied with a side of tangy, amazing sauce. Unfortunately, the wings came out at the same time our entrées did, making our already tiny table crammed. I ordered the fish and chips with a side of loaded mash and sweet fries. The fish was awful! Only three small, thin pieces came with it. They were bland and mostly breading. They had forgotten my tartar sauce and by the time they brought it over– my fish was cold. My loaded mash was missing half of the ingredients. So. I had to wait for them to fix that as well. I munched on the thin, over cooked sweet fries while I waited. Sorry– but they missed the mark on this so I had to return it! They offered a free chocolate cake and $ 5 off our next meal BUT didn’t take off the fish and chips until I told them I didn’t feel I should be charged. Service was just ok. They should probably focus more on hiring servers who are actually experienced instead of hiring young, air headed girls with pretty faces. Would I go back? Nope. After the dining experience we had and a $ 100+ bill for sub par food– I’ll hit the local pizza restaurant instead.

I would rate it at 3 stars and hubby would be 4 or more. We came here for lunch.
He had the Cuban sandwich and he had a choice of 3 types of meat. He was quite happy. I had the pick your meat and two sides for $ 10. Great lunch prices! I had the ¼ bbq chicken with fries and fire roasted corn. The chicken was moist but the bbq sauce on it was not that good. I’m not typically that picky with bbq sauces. I said it was a bit too salty. Hubby said it was too sweet. It sorta reminded me of bad Kraft bbq sauce. Fries were good but not amazing. Really enjoyed the corn (it was not on the cob).
Service was quick, food came out quick. You pay at the table with the LCD thing. We thought it was just a game but it serves as a checkout! No waiting for the check so that’s pretty cool.

Smokey Brisket was Perfect Texas Style, Can’t go wrong going here! $ 2.75 pints, $ 3.75 large beers and $ 3.75 Jim beam, three olives, dewars and sailor Jerry’s! Open til 2 AM… great food, great service and just a fun place to be at.

Fantastic bbq. Pulled pork and smoked sausages are great. Brisket runs out quick, apparently, and wasn’t able to try it. Cole slaw was cool and creamy, best steamed broccoli I’ve had at a restaurant (don’t judge me for getting broc at a bbq place). Drinks came quickly which is always a plus. Our server was great. Not overbearing and seemed to show up at exactly the right time. Loaded cheese fries had the perfect touch of bbq sauce.
Deducted a star because my boyfriend got mashed potatoes and they tasted bland and kind of like glue, a tangy Carolina bbq sauce option would be awesome, and the garlic bread was definitely from frozen texas toast and you could taste freezer burn.
Otherwise, great food and service.

I had not been to a Smokey Bones in years and from what I remember the place was so so nothing terrible but nothing I would go out of my way for either. Well last week we decided to give it a try and wow were we impressed. They have added some things to the menu the food was very good and the service was excellent. The staff was very attentive and I would recommend giving this place a try

Love the fried pickles, crispy and crunchy just the right seasoning and the dipping sauce compliments the pickles perfectly. Ribs are fall off the bone wonderful, and just the right amount of sauce so that it’s not overwhelming. Unfortunately there was not enough room to try the desert menu. The menu was diverse to make everyone happy.

Service is awesome, food so hot it’s steaming! The food is so good. The staff work together like a well oiled machine. Fun atmosphere, too.
Enjoy games at the table.
Love this place.

On the way home from a trip to Central Virginia a group of friends and I decided we needed sustenance before making the rest of the trek back to DC. I told my friends we could find literally every chain restaurant known to man in Central Park so we took a lap through. The fact that we settled on Smokey Bones over the dozens of other chains that are not readily available to us city folk should in itself speak volumes to the brand.
We went in on a Sunday morning and the hostess did us the unnecessary courtesy of asking whether we wanted to be seated near a tv for football. Uhhh does a one legged duck swim in a circle? Yes, these four hungover guys want to watch football while they eat.
One thing that Smokey Bones does that I love when sports bars do is put up signs telling which games will be on which tv. Unfortunately we got there a little before kick off and had to listen to local commentators try and talk about the Redskins’ playoff chances without laughing… I guess that was pretty entertaining too.
Our table got a few burgers, a chicken sandwich, and a pulled pork sandwich and the reviews across the board were good. I had the Big BLT (Burger, lettuce, onion, bacon, avocado, garlic mayo) and subbed in onion straws for an extra dollar. I always feel like it is a common courtesy for the waiter to tell you when a sub is going to be an up-​charge, but I assumed it would be and didn’t ask/​care. I also paid for the «Ultra Premium side,» mac and cheese, which was above average. If I went back to SB I would pay the extra $ 3 again so I would say it is worth it.
Besides the food, the service was relatively fast and attentive although it was a very slow time. Also, the drink specials they had posted were unbelievable: $ 5 for a PBR Tallboy and a shot of Fireball. Amazing, if only this place was metro accessible.
A good chain restaurant with a lot of tvs and decent service. What more do you want?

Not as good as it has been in the past. Also the crowd was not there. Expensive and not worth it. Probably will not go back because the taste wasn’t there.

Even though the food was good, we’re most likely not going back because the service was that bad. Still giving it 3 stars instead of 2 though, because my husband said his ribs were the best he’s had in a long time.
We went with a party of 4 on a Friday night, and the restaurant was less than a third full. Another redeeming feature was that nearly all the waitresses were very, very cute. They were ALMOST cute enough to make up for the crappy service. ALMOST. The service was really slow; we had to flag our waitress down to ask for refills, drinks from the bar took forever to arrive, we had to ask for our salads 3 times, and then she finally brought the salads when we were finished our meals! She was also very unapologetic about all the issues, and lacked personality. Oh, and she never removed empty cups, plates, etc. when they were empty, so we just started busing our own table and stacking the dirty dishes on an empty table next to us. Our waitress definitely noticed what we were doing, but still didn’t make an attempt to move them. Fail.
AS FOR THE FOOD — Yum! The loaded cheese fries were awesome, our mixed drinks were killer, my asiago chicken pasta was delicious, and everyone else at our table raved about their food as well. The guys got ribs and steaks, and went on and on about how good it was. I’m only disappointed that we didn’t have room to try the desserts, which looked amazing!
It’s a real shame that our adorable waitress was so crappy at her job, because the food was truly outstanding.

Update: there is a new GM who responded to my review and offered gift cards. So plus back another star for new management.
–We stopped here to watch the game and have some wings.
The wings were cooked well and were nice and meaty. My wings (chipotle bbq) were’t tossed they just had sauce drizzled over them, but the bartender brought me an extra side for dipping, so no problems there. My husband had memphis dry rub and they were pretty good too. The place wasn’t overly crowded but took forever to get waited on even at the bar, there was some kind of NFL promotional event, they were busy handing out free samples of apps and raffle tickets. I think it would have been better to have had those people waiting tables than wandering around handing out tickets.
I took a star from them because there were so many NFL games playing that only one screen was covering the home-​town game. That left a LOT of frustrated skins fans not able to watch… one of the managers eventually overroad their previous decision and changed one of the other games over to the Washington one to appease the masses. plus back a star for coming to their senses.
The cheese cake bites were ok, nothing to write home about though.
An unexpected bonus, it was quiet enough to actually hear the game.

Hmmmm… Where can you find a good bbq, salads, awesome deserts & appetizers? Oh wait I know– Smokey Bones! My faves include the Loaded Nachoes w/​pulled pork, nutty chicken salad and mini doughnuts. Ask for Greg– he rocks!

This place is okay… was expecting it to be a lot better. The boyfriend and I ended up here one Tuesday night around 11pm, as it is one of the only places in the area that’s open late.
They have a really big menu, which can be a good thing or a bad thing… in this case I’d say it borders more of bad. I’d rather go somewhere that does a few things and does them great.
Our food was okay, nothing remarkable, but the mac and cheese was exceptionally bad, which was disappointing because it looked SO good.
We probably won’t go back.