I’ve been here many times and always enjoy myself. On Saturday, 5/4 we came with a group of 20 or so, straight from a friend’s wedding reception. The bride and groom were there as well all dressed up still! We are all in our mid twenties. About half of us went in and paid the $10 cover. Seconds later, we went outside to find that the bouncer was claiming one person’s ID was fake although it was actually real. When the group tried to reason with him, he denied entry to all of the rest of them. The bride’s mother even came out to ask him to reconsider. He rudely told her that he had seen her drinking inside all night and she was crazy. It reality we had just shown up. I asked if he could call a police officer to come scan the id and he told me I was making a huge deal and holding up the line. We didn’t even hear one song before we left with the rest of our group. $100 in covers for those that got in just to have a very special night ruined by the bouncers ego. My story is a lot like Mary’s, who seems to have had the same exact experience that night. Even the security guard by the cover counter told me the bouncer is a jerk. If I see this guy bouncing next time, we are turning the other way. Do better.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
MARY ALLAG
My friends and I came from New England to Savannah for the weekend. We are all 24 years old friends from college. We stumbled upon smiles and go in line. The bouncer looked at my friends drivers license from New Hampshire and claimed that it was fake and that she should be grateful that he wasn’t taking it from her. We explained that her ID was in fact real. He proceeded to scream at us and tell us that if we didn’t leave immediately that we were trespassing. We asked to speak to a manager and he refused. We exited and called the establishment and a manager came out. He said that “he cannot override him”. He proceeded to disrespect other patrons in line as well who shared their stories. The bouncer was a skinny short man with an over grown beard and a hat. There’s more details than this. He truly ruined our night. I do not recommend this place whatsoever.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Claire Rafferty
Literally so awful, the worst bar ive ever been to
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Brandi Beals
Amazing entertainment. Mediocre cocktails. But we had so much fun here!
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
Anthony Galasso
The bouncers are clearly power tripping. A man got kicked out for helping the drummer with a fallen cymbal stand. An entire room having a good time watched a bouncer aggressively kick out a paying guest with the best of intentions. No harm was meant, caused, or done.This is literally dueling pianos—maybe a notch above open mic karaoke—not a Metallica concert.
Guy Amoresano
What a rip off and disappointment. Saw all these great reviews, but big let down. We sent up $10 with a birthday song request at the very beginning of the night, and it was never played. When we sent up a note complaining, they crumbled it up and tossed it. Nice way to treat customers! Won’t be back, neither should you.
Jamie McDaniels
Such a fun place for a bachelorette party!!!! The bartenders were soooo attentive. The crowd was friendly and the music was
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
Jesse Price (East Coast ADV)
Great
Atmosphere: 5
Mark Miller
Crazy packed but
Atmosphere: 4
Sarah Lipinski
On the night I attended it wasn't quite dueling pianos in the way that you expect. It was pianos dueling drums.So the stage setup had to pianos and a drum set in the middle of them. The drum set accompanied every song and was honestly so much louder than the pianos and the singing. This made it difficult to hear anything.I will also say that I thought the format of dueling pianos was that both pianists would play a song or popcorn back and forth during a song to see who was the better player of a singular song. Here a pianist would play a full song and then take a break while the other pianist would play a full song. So it's not so much dueling and more just live music by 2 pianos.
I would not advise anyone to go to Smiles. My boyfriend and I were incredibly disappointed in this establishment and the OVERLY RUDE bouncer at the door. The bouncer refused us entry based on the fact that we had been drinking at another establishment. We were simply trying to calmly enter to enjoy some dueling pianos. It appears in the last few weeks there have been other reviews stating similar issues with the rudeness of staff. Unlikely this is coincidental.
Keith S
Players good, but actually kinda hard to hear the pianos over drums and other instruments. Manager saved a lot of seats for friends. Patrons could not get one. Kinda violates the whole first come first served thing.
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 2
Christine Raderstorf
I visited this establishment on a Saturday in March while on spring break from the University of Georgia. In the bar, they have whiteboards where patrons can pay to have whatever message they would like written to display for the entire bar. While I was there, someone used this to display a message with harmful political ideology unjustly capitalizing on the recent tragedy of Laken Riley’s death. As a UGA student, I was extremely bothered by this, as it had been only a week and a half since her passing. I understand the nature of the boards allows messages that are often crude in content, but I felt that this was extremely disrespectful and crossed a line. I expressed my discomfort to multiple employees, most of whom were immediately sympathetic and wanted to help, and they all directed me to their manager. When I talked to the manager, I was immediately dismissed and told to deal with it, as it was “freedom of speech and nothing could be done.” Any establishment that is comfortable letting tragedies be publicized in such a disrespectful manner, and so dismissive of anyone’s resulting distress, is not one that I will be returning to. I hope that the attitude of the management of this bar will change so that the fun atmosphere and music can return to being their priority.
C T.
The show was great, the audience even better....but the star of the show was the young waitress named "Chrissy (or Christy) who constantly fought her way thru the crowd to give excellent service to everyone with the most caring manner I have ever experienced.
Kyle Dalton
Super nice place to go to for a night out. Our group left a cellphone there and we were able to pick it up the next morning. The manager who helped us was great.The rest of the staff was equally as lovely and helped us have an amazing night
I’ve been here many times and always enjoy myself. On Saturday, 5/4 we came with a group of 20 or so, straight from a friend’s wedding reception. The bride and groom were there as well all dressed up still! We are all in our mid twenties. About half of us went in and paid the $10 cover. Seconds later, we went outside to find that the bouncer was claiming one person’s ID was fake although it was actually real. When the group tried to reason with him, he denied entry to all of the rest of them. The bride’s mother even came out to ask him to reconsider. He rudely told her that he had seen her drinking inside all night and she was crazy. It reality we had just shown up. I asked if he could call a police officer to come scan the id and he told me I was making a huge deal and holding up the line. We didn’t even hear one song before we left with the rest of our group. $100 in covers for those that got in just to have a very special night ruined by the bouncers ego. My story is a lot like Mary’s, who seems to have had the same exact experience that night. Even the security guard by the cover counter told me the bouncer is a jerk. If I see this guy bouncing next time, we are turning the other way. Do better.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
My friends and I came from New England to Savannah for the weekend. We are all 24 years old friends from college. We stumbled upon smiles and go in line. The bouncer looked at my friends drivers license from New Hampshire and claimed that it was fake and that she should be grateful that he wasn’t taking it from her. We explained that her ID was in fact real. He proceeded to scream at us and tell us that if we didn’t leave immediately that we were trespassing. We asked to speak to a manager and he refused. We exited and called the establishment and a manager came out. He said that “he cannot override him”. He proceeded to disrespect other patrons in line as well who shared their stories. The bouncer was a skinny short man with an over grown beard and a hat. There’s more details than this. He truly ruined our night. I do not recommend this place whatsoever.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Literally so awful, the worst bar ive ever been to
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Amazing entertainment. Mediocre cocktails. But we had so much fun here!
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
The bouncers are clearly power tripping. A man got kicked out for helping the drummer with a fallen cymbal stand. An entire room having a good time watched a bouncer aggressively kick out a paying guest with the best of intentions. No harm was meant, caused, or done.This is literally dueling pianos—maybe a notch above open mic karaoke—not a Metallica concert.
What a rip off and disappointment. Saw all these great reviews, but big let down. We sent up $10 with a birthday song request at the very beginning of the night, and it was never played. When we sent up a note complaining, they crumbled it up and tossed it. Nice way to treat customers! Won’t be back, neither should you.
Such a fun place for a bachelorette party!!!! The bartenders were soooo attentive. The crowd was friendly and the music was
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
Great
Atmosphere: 5
Crazy packed but
Atmosphere: 4
On the night I attended it wasn't quite dueling pianos in the way that you expect. It was pianos dueling drums.So the stage setup had to pianos and a drum set in the middle of them. The drum set accompanied every song and was honestly so much louder than the pianos and the singing. This made it difficult to hear anything.I will also say that I thought the format of dueling pianos was that both pianists would play a song or popcorn back and forth during a song to see who was the better player of a singular song. Here a pianist would play a full song and then take a break while the other pianist would play a full song. So it's not so much dueling and more just live music by 2 pianos.
Atmosphere: 4
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
I would not advise anyone to go to Smiles. My boyfriend and I were incredibly disappointed in this establishment and the OVERLY RUDE bouncer at the door. The bouncer refused us entry based on the fact that we had been drinking at another establishment. We were simply trying to calmly enter to enjoy some dueling pianos. It appears in the last few weeks there have been other reviews stating similar issues with the rudeness of staff. Unlikely this is coincidental.
Players good, but actually kinda hard to hear the pianos over drums and other instruments. Manager saved a lot of seats for friends. Patrons could not get one. Kinda violates the whole first come first served thing.
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 2
I visited this establishment on a Saturday in March while on spring break from the University of Georgia. In the bar, they have whiteboards where patrons can pay to have whatever message they would like written to display for the entire bar. While I was there, someone used this to display a message with harmful political ideology unjustly capitalizing on the recent tragedy of Laken Riley’s death. As a UGA student, I was extremely bothered by this, as it had been only a week and a half since her passing. I understand the nature of the boards allows messages that are often crude in content, but I felt that this was extremely disrespectful and crossed a line. I expressed my discomfort to multiple employees, most of whom were immediately sympathetic and wanted to help, and they all directed me to their manager. When I talked to the manager, I was immediately dismissed and told to deal with it, as it was “freedom of speech and nothing could be done.” Any establishment that is comfortable letting tragedies be publicized in such a disrespectful manner, and so dismissive of anyone’s resulting distress, is not one that I will be returning to. I hope that the attitude of the management of this bar will change so that the fun atmosphere and music can return to being their priority.
The show was great, the audience even better....but the star of the show was the young waitress named "Chrissy (or Christy) who constantly fought her way thru the crowd to give excellent service to everyone with the most caring manner I have ever experienced.
Super nice place to go to for a night out. Our group left a cellphone there and we were able to pick it up the next morning. The manager who helped us was great.The rest of the staff was equally as lovely and helped us have an amazing night
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5