Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill

Got sat right away. Really not busy. We actually thought they were closed. Rolled in around 1230 on a Friday and probably had 12 tables with people
We had the bartender as our waiter. He was nice enough took our order etc. then some of his homies came in (that worked there too on their day off) and then we waited. And waited. And waited Finally –hey buddy what’s going on with our food? «Was just gonna check.» Then I HEAR him say to the cook line. What’s going on with table whatever they are complaining! Nice
So food comes out right then, it was hot thankfully. I’d have to say the sandwich I ordered. (Grilled buffalo chicken sandwich) was ok. It had a seasoning that reminded me of chickfilas grilled chicken with buffalo sauce on it.
Hubby got the Cuban and he liked it
Long and short. Service. Ok. Food ok. Timeframe to wait for the food. Poor.

Service at this, and another Smokey’s, is slow, unorganized, non-​focused, along with orders being incorrect. The servers appear to have proper training. No follow-​through when complications arise from a dining experience. Upon registering a concern to the corporate office a manager politely called me to discuss the bad experience, offered to re-​load the Bones points on my Club card, as they had been attempted to be loaded but found they never were. Corporate also extended their apologies by offering a Smokey Bones certificate. 6 – 7 weeks later neither points or certificate have surfaced. I have now cancelled my Bones Club as I wish to longer visit any Bones restaurants.

The Baby Back Ribs full Rack with Brown Sugar sauce was mostly good. But when it came down to about the last four Ribs it was overcooked near the end of the Rack. They gave me some credit for this. I will go back again and hope they will cook it better. Much better than Sonny’s up the street at least I could eat most of it.

They had a wide variety of options available. Service was quick and helpful, and the food was pretty good. They could use a wider variety of drinks and some higher class options, but overall a decent place to eat.

This is always a great option for lunch or dinner. Smokey Bones has menu options for any appetite. I must have named 7 different restaurants to my pregnant wife and she said no to all, but she did say yes to Smokey Bones because of our great experiences with this location before.
The service has always been amazing, coffee is delicious, and the burgers are massive. I normally order the loaded BBQ burger with pulled pork, onion rings, BBQ sauce, and a ½ pound burger. It is a bit messy and around $ 11-​$ 13 dollars, but well worth it! You can always add to it as well. There is an option to build your own burger as well.
My wife ordered a chicken salad and she said it was perfect. We chose not to partake in the dessert, but not because it isn’t great. There is a great bar with plenty of TV’s and the bathrooms are very clean. This is our go to restaurant for good reason :)

Smokey Bones has the vehicle to success. It’s smothered with TVs making it easy for patrons to enjoy food while watching the news or sporting events. It’s opened late giving customers the option to swing by even when most places are closed. And, brings an upbeat, fun atmosphere.
Meanwhile, below average BBQ and meager service keeps Smokey Bones from remaining on our radar. We arrived shortly before 10 and there was only one server on duty (the bartender). Rather than refilling drinks and bringing out our salad before our meal, he preferred to text behind the counter. That didn’t bother us as much as the quality of food.
Unfortunately, the pulled pork was dry, the brisket was meager, at best and the turkey was so overcooked it resembled leather more so than moist, juicy turkey. The sides, too, are average. Meanwhile, I do believe the entrees are priced fair and portions are respectable. We simply wished the quality was better. On the other hand, if you frequent places like Chilis, Fridays, Applebees and other big chains — you’ll love the BBQ here.

I haven’t been in a couple of years. I took my wife for supper after telling her how good the food is and was disappointed. It was around 4:30 pm with approximately 15 to 20 people besides my wife and I. I had the beef brisket and not only was it cold, it was tough tough, I eat beef brisket often so I know how it should be prepared. The sides were small and the over all portions were not worth the $ 16.00 I payed. The server was slow and never came around to refill our water until it was time to pay the check. The total bill was over $ 35.00 with no drinks we both had water. I felt for the service, cold food and portion sizes, the meal was not worth more than $ 20.00. As to the cleanliness, when you walk in the door it smelled like a bathroom. Our table was dirty, we asked for it to be cleaned twice however, it never happened. I don’t like to give negative reviews but this is one of those rare times I didn’t have a positive.

Worst service I have ever experienced in all my eating out experience. I went with a party of 8, 6 adults and 2 kids. We wanted to sit at a table not a high top and they told us that would be a 45 minute wait. The restaurant was empty on a Sunday afternoon. Don’t ever ask for a table unless you want to walk out. Totally unacceptable to not have a table available with an empty restaurant on a Sunday afternoon before football season.

The food is pretty good but the service is fair and the time it takes you to get your food is poor at best.
It does not matter what time I come in here whether they are busy or slow, it takes forever to get your food. If you go, be prepared to wait a while.
Three stars only because the service stinks most of the time

Pretty good meal. Could have been better. My order came out without my wings, and took a little bit longer than expected. Portions were good. Food was flavorful. Our server, Joe, was better than average. We might stop there again if in the area.

I try every so often to go in and give it another chance. What is so sad, it’s not the food that is a 2, I would rate food a 3 but the service is horrible. We were seated in a back area and apparently the hostess didn’t tell anyone we were back there. I waited 15 mons before finding someone. She was already overwhelmed by her section that at every turn we fell thru the cracks. We asked to speak to a mamager, we were told there wasn’t one in the store at the time. Hmm… boooo, wish I could like it more.

Absolutely love frequenting Smokey Bones. They have a great menu and the service is always good. I regularly crave their Smoked Wings and cannot stop in without having some. I also enjoy many other items on their menu including the pulled pork, ribs, burgers and steak. Even if you have that someone in your family who doesn’t love BBQ, they’ll find something they’ll enjoy. Oh, and don’t forget to get some doughnuts for dessert!

If you have a hankering for BBQ, this is your place. Went on a Friday night with a group of 5 and had a 45 min wait, but it was well worth it! Service was great. Super funny hostess who made our table laugh too.
The food was delicious and they have an extensive drink menu. I had not one, but TWO Blushing Strawberry Sangrias, mmm!
We shared the Skillet Cornbread and tried out all their different BBQ sauces on the table. All so tasty! I had the Baby Back Ribs, Wings & Brisket combo. Sides were Mashed Potatoes & Big Cheese Macaroni. (Put some bbq sauce on top and mm-​mm-​mmm!) I already wanna go back. So yeah. Run, don’t walk to this place!

Good bar tenders, good food, good prices, late hours and folks sitting around us that are truly cool. Nice music, tons of TV’s…

Wow! This place is amazing: D I had the fried pickles and the house specialty stew. Both were delicious. My husband got some steak and wow that steak was sooooo tender. Definitely gonna be going back!

I have eaten at Smokey Bones several times, and I have relegated myself to just ordering take-​out. If you go at night time, from 5−8pm, expect a wait. The service is horrifically slow, there is a huge turnover in staff, and while I don’t mind a long dining experience if I go into the evening wanting that, I don’t expect to spend 2.5 hours in a restaurant for an average dinner out. So now, I just call ahead and order my food to go and I avoid the madness of rush hour there.
That critical point out of the way, their food has been pretty awesome. I find myself going after their pulled pork time and time again. It is the best around. The serving sizes are generous, but the prices are a bit high in my opinion. Appetizer, dinner, and drinks for two is going to run you $ 60. Their honey mustard BBQ sauce is the best I’ve had.
I agree with the other reviewers that the cleanliness leads a bit to be desired.
3 Stars, mainly for the dining experience there. Their food is deserving of 4 stars.

Before today, it thought this restraunt was fairly decent. However, it’s now under new management and the waitress was up charging us on everything. We had coupons, but because we order the two for 24.00 we were golds we could not use them. So rather than waste them I gave them away. The manager, came to my table and reprimanded me, about giving them way to the other customers. What the heck! Five dollars… really!
I’ will never… If I feel the need to eat Smokey Bones, I will drive 30 miles way visit another or stay away from the Lakeland store for life. Absolute the worst experience I ‘ve had I any restraunt.

I rarely give low star ratings for anything on Unilocal,as I usually lean more to the 4 – 5 star range. However, I’d have to say that I had a far below par experience here. First of all, we had a group of four, two of which got there before we did, by maybe 5 minutes. When the later two (us) walk in, the hostess basically ignored us. So we waited like idiots thinking the other two were coming in behind us. They had already been seated, and we had to find them on our own. Ok, that’s a little below average when discussing crappy service.
Next, after we seated ourselves, we had to wait for drinks (all ordered water) around 10 minutes. After we finally received our drinks, we had to say we were ready to order, and our poor waitress seemed stunned that we wanted food. Oh, what a bad foreshadowing.
Ok, so we ordered a fairly diverse spread. One pork plate, one veggie burger, one salad, and one burger (my choice; Southwest Scorcher, to be specific).
This was my first trip to Smokey Bones, and I soon found out that they had a selection of BBQ sauces. As I took the first bite of my burger, I soon found that it left a lot to be desired, so I reached for the Chipotle BBQ sauce (I think that’s what it was called). The only bright spot of this trip is that the sauce actually made the burger really tasty, and even went well on the onion rings. I was munching along, grazing my way around the plate… Until I decided I wanted more sauce on my burger. I took the top bun off, sauced it generously, and just as I stopped… A long, dark brown hair emerged from the tip of the bottle’s nozzle, dangling, coated in sauce.
Now, it was bad enough that I had to see a hair glommed up with sauce, as my only stomach kryptonite is hair – But nay, the sauce bottle that I had been eating from ever so fervently had actually been hosting a hair. I don’t know which is more disgusting to think about… A hair that had trolled a countless number of other guests, or where that suspicious strand came from. Maybe a mix of both.
The waitress, stoic as possible, didn’t even blink when I told her what had happened. That may have scared me worse than thinking of the hair’s voyage, since she may have seen worse in the kitchen. Yikes. She took my plate, and put in an entire separate order. I had it put in a to go box, as I was trying to keep the contents of my stomach, well in my stomach. Hair-​B-​Q sauce and all. They did remove the burger from the ticket, but the principle is that people should be able to order a burger, pork plate, what have you, without their saucing rights being infringed by a hair emerging from the bottle. I’m still a little queasy from re-​living the situation.
Long story short, make sure you really go over the menu, your plate, and any sauce bottles with a fine tooth comb before eating here.

Decent BBQ, and stays open really late for the area (1AM?) — even on a Wednesday night.
Went here aftershow with some friends and was really impressed by the baby backs, the fennel-​spiced sausage and the smoked wings. My friends loved the brisket and pulled pork as well. Very tasty Chipotle-​based spicy BBQ sauce. There are 3 other BBQ sauces to choose from, including a mustard-​based Carolina sauce. Good stuff!
Side of Baked Beans was perfect, as was the Fire Roasted Corn. I would pick exactly the same sides again.
Wish there were a place like this in every rural town I play in! This place truly hit the spot.

Love this place! I’ve come to terms with chain dining whenever I’m in Lakeland, and this place does a really nice job.
They’ve re-​branded Killian’s Red as Bones Brew and offer it for $ 2.25/pint. Not bad at all. Their blackberry mojito is also quite nice if you’re into the girly drinks (I am).
Smokey chicken wings are some of the yummiest around for sure. Their brisket and pulled pork are both moist, and they do leave some pork chunks for you to sink your teeth into. Large portions, reasonable prices, lots of TV screens for your entertainment, and different daily specials keep it interesting. Plus, last call at 1:00 a.m. in a town that rolls up the sidewalks well before 8:00 p.m. is very, very appreciated.