Smokey Bones has always delivered a very solid BBQ experience for a chain restaurant. I particular we have enjoyed their smoked wings and their rib feast combo that periodically goes on sale. The latter is usually a good value, although they have since dropped some of the premium items it used to come with. Their menu is quite varied though, with a wide variety of entrees and sides to accommodate a variety of tastes. Portion sizes are decent, and the food has always been fresh. At his location in particular, the facility is kept nice and clean. Service has usually been friendly and fast, although recently to-go service has not been quite as good. The food though is always good, and week look forward to it when we are in the area. Recommend giving them a try, especially for dine-in to experience them at their best.
Jade H.
If I could give them zero star I would. Today was my boyfriend birthday and we called two days before to make a reservation for Sunday later during the day. Come Sunday and there was supposedly no servers at work today and we have a party of 14 people. I am very disappointed I stood at the desk no one came but it was people dining in still and there was still a lot of seating. Such a disaster. This is my boyfriend's favorite place to eat.
Anderson T.
Was staying at hotel close by. I was here on business trip. My last day decided to give this establishment a chance. Boy do I regret that. It was around 9pm.. wasn't greeted at the door. So I grabbed a seat at the bar. I kid you not, was ignored for fifteen minutes before I even got a servers attention. No menu, no greeting, no acknowledgement Here's a kicker, a Caucasian gentleman comes and grabs a seat next to me. Two servers came out of nowhere and greeted him" hello Sir how do you do"?, can I get you a menu?, are you kidding me?? They were both African American "so was I .. was I invisible? I make a six figure salary, I was dressed casual. As an African American professional. I was very disappointed.. My intention was to have a good meal , leave a large tip and get back to my hotel.... I highly recommend you stay away from this establishment if you are a person of color. To the two African American running the bar - SHAME ON YOU.
Rachel S.
Came to this location for the first time for lunch on a weekend. Hubby and I ordered their pretzel bones appetizer and their rib feast with sides of broccoli, baked beans, corn, and potato wedges. Total, not including tip was around $53. What's hot - Quality. Delish. This is a chain with a pretty good reputation, and this location holds it up pretty well. Our ribs were flavorful and tender. Our favorite was probably the pretzel bones appetizer, because the pretzel bread was warm, buttered, seasoned with a good amount of salt, and the cheese dip was spicy. Their bbq sauces are pretty good, but nothing to write home about. - Service. Although their staff appears to be minimal, they're definitely making do with who they have and they're definitely pulling their weight. Hubby remarked this is one of the better restaurant services we've had, because they're not juggling between multiple customers at the same time. Our waiter was super polite and helpful. He answered my husband's questions regarding the menu items. The waiter also asked us a couple of follow up questions regarding our orders, which we appreciated, because it showed the waiter didn't assume we would pay for a menu up charge. This location didn't have many dine-in customers, but there were many customers who stopped by to pick up their takeaway orders. From what we observed, we didn't see customers wait very long for their orders. This location appears to have a good system in place to handle dine-in customers and takeaway orders. - Menu. President good variety- something for everyone, including vegetarians (but not vegans). - Price. One person can eat for under $20. However, if you're going to include an appetizer and/or dessert, you're looking at closer to $40. Still pretty reasonable, especially given the portions and quality of food. - Portions. For a decent amount of ribs for 2 people, including side dishes and beer, $40 is pretty good value for money. We actually counted the number of rib bones afterwards, became we were curious. Between the 2 of us, it was 15 bones. Definitely enough to get us full and to share. - Location. Pretty good and is around other conveniences, which is helpful. Pretty good size parking lot, as well. What's not - Service. It appears their staff is minimal and bare bones, so be prepared for their service to be slow. Attentive, but slow. - Health and safety. We didn't see anyone wear face masks. To be fair, the restaurant wasn't packed. However, I don't think that's why the staff doesn't wear masks. It appears not wearing masks is their norm. I appreciate that the pandemic is still evolving. However, it would be reassuring for their staff to wear masks around customers. Final Answer Appears to be a good location to return to, whether it's for takeaway or dine-in.
Tay G.
Bad experience as soon as I walked in the door. I went with a friend and as soon as we stepped in we felt the uncomfortable warm that doesn't go well with eating hot BBQ. The hostess was a little rude. She asked us "how many" and then disappeared in the back for about 5 minutes before coming back out and taking 2 menus and walking away from us, not saying anything. We looked at each other wondering if we were supposed to follow her because she didn't speak to us. She then came back and flatly told us to follow her and sat us at our table and walked away. We almost left after that alone. The ONLY thing that saved this experience for us for our waitress. I cannot remember her name, but she was a tall, skinny, black woman with short hair. She was amazing and attentive, and very friendly. Our food was pretty good, only complaint was the chicken on the Caesar salad was very very dry. Please fix the AC so your employees can work somewhat uncomfortable. They already have to stand all day, they shouldn't be sweating as well! Probably won't be coming back to this location, will just have to drive the 2 hours to the Woodbridge location like I used to. Only giving 3 stars because of the waitress and that the food was decent.
NaQuita T.
Came to Smokey bones to grab a bite before starting my night . I should've known better because the place was empty , but sat down anyways. We were greeted by a bartender , who was very rude . She was aggressive & did not treat us as we were paying customers. One of the people with me was not aware of how a certain drink worked , she was very nasty about it . The manager Micho , allowed this behavior & in turn was also very rude . This restaurant also offers all you can eat wings, but if you decided to share they would charge anyone you shared with the price for all you can eat wings . In addition to, I ordered a burger & they did not have all of the topping options offered on the menu. I asked for my burger to be medium, they brought me a well done dry burger . I used to enjoy Smokey bones , but this experience was horrible especially as a paying customer .
Alison S.
Food was dry and tasteless. They didn't have brisket and substituted with turkey which was horrible. My wings were dried out and burnt. They didn't give me any sauce. It was a bad experience. I ordered from Door Dash. I didn't get the refund of $5.99 up charge for the brisket. I would give Zero stars if I could.
Eric K.
Out of Towner's, staying across the street... One of 3 spots to grab a bite within walking distance... Thought it worth a shot.. not a fan. Uncomfortably warm inside. Felt humid/sticky, hopefully not dirty sticky. Surprisingly slow considering it was a quiet Monday evening. The Tito's strawberry lemonade was undrinkable. "Filet" medallions were cooked dead. Check was brought before we were asked if we wanted dessert, which we did. The Bag o' Donuts then took forever, but were good and hot when they came out. Scraping together 2 stars for the dessert, the kid's meal is a good deal, and the chicken wings were decent.
Mark G.
This place was terrible the minute I walked in dirty lobby sticky floor nobody greet us after about five minutes of waiting we just turned around and went somewhere else I will never go there I can only imagine what the food must taste like
Brisk K.
I'm too freaking lazy to barbecue but needed barbecue-themed food to hand out to family on July 4. So guess what? I chose here. The other restaurant option was like a 2 hour drive. No way jose, so I chose here. Would have to say the only item I liked was actually the corn dog. I think this was homemade, by the looks of it? It was so badly burnt and horribly battered but surprisingly the crust was delicious. It's like a legitimate corn dog. The batter was so buttery, smokey, and very corn bread-tasting-ish. The sausages were pretty good too, reminded me of a slim Jim, chewy crispy outside texture. Grilled chicken was pretty good. Street corn was absolutely nasty. I did not like that at all. Chicken wings were alright. Brisket pretty ok. Not much else to say. I'm not a greasy foods fan.. and this place takes the cake. I love barbecue.. but honestly only when it's done by me.
Check your orders from this restaurant before leaving if you are getting take out. Yesterday they shorted our order again. If this was the first time this had happened I would not be writing a review. They did take care of it after I drove back to the restaurant and the kitchen manager was apologetic and provided a couple of discount coupons. I wasted over a half hour on the round trip and the food was cold when I got home with the missing elements. They have serious quality control issue in their kitchen staff. The only reason I go back is it is the only BBQ within a reasonable distance of my house. They do ok with in house orders but are slow and the are crowded on the weekends.
Christian O.
The staff made me feel special. I've been coming here for bout 2-3 weeks and I enjoy every visit. I highly recommend coming to this establishment! Special shout out to the bartender Peggy! She the best! Check it out and see for yourself. You will not be disappointed!
M J.
The service and the food was very good and delicious but I found the entrance coming into the restaurant lacking any type of attention whatsoever. Broken glass on the front door trash cans filled with trash, the front had not been swept or cleaned and who knows how long with caked up bird droppings. Not very welcoming for a guest
Emily M
The food is good. I had the pulled pork platter. It was ample. The prices are reasonable. The service was fine. And the fresh donuts are worth the trip to eat there. We're usually are too full for dessert, so we buy them to take home and enjoy later. Obviously they are best eaten warm, but they are still good later, still melt in your mouth. My son and grandsons enjoyed their meals too and left with a bag of the donuts, too..
Janice J.
The loaded fries are great and so are the wings except at times depending on the chef they forget to remove the feathers with large wings order like 56 or more . Overall I am satisfied with the food and service except last order they get me a duplication of one flavor and when I returned to get compensated with a replacement order, I received a little smaller size wings than normal and the pretzels lookEd like it died and went to HELL and burnt . When I talked to Simone about my concerns , he walked right away. So disrespectful but what else can you expect from a bowie restaurant on a Friday night . I will give it another try, hope fully it will be better next time . Keeping hope alive !!!!!!!
Smokey Bones has always delivered a very solid BBQ experience for a chain restaurant. I particular we have enjoyed their smoked wings and their rib feast combo that periodically goes on sale. The latter is usually a good value, although they have since dropped some of the premium items it used to come with. Their menu is quite varied though, with a wide variety of entrees and sides to accommodate a variety of tastes. Portion sizes are decent, and the food has always been fresh. At his location in particular, the facility is kept nice and clean. Service has usually been friendly and fast, although recently to-go service has not been quite as good. The food though is always good, and week look forward to it when we are in the area. Recommend giving them a try, especially for dine-in to experience them at their best.
If I could give them zero star I would. Today was my boyfriend birthday and we called two days before to make a reservation for Sunday later during the day. Come Sunday and there was supposedly no servers at work today and we have a party of 14 people. I am very disappointed I stood at the desk no one came but it was people dining in still and there was still a lot of seating. Such a disaster. This is my boyfriend's favorite place to eat.
Was staying at hotel close by. I was here on business trip. My last day decided to give this establishment a chance. Boy do I regret that. It was around 9pm.. wasn't greeted at the door. So I grabbed a seat at the bar. I kid you not, was ignored for fifteen minutes before I even got a servers attention. No menu, no greeting, no acknowledgement Here's a kicker, a Caucasian gentleman comes and grabs a seat next to me. Two servers came out of nowhere and greeted him" hello Sir how do you do"?, can I get you a menu?, are you kidding me?? They were both African American "so was I .. was I invisible? I make a six figure salary, I was dressed casual. As an African American professional. I was very disappointed.. My intention was to have a good meal , leave a large tip and get back to my hotel.... I highly recommend you stay away from this establishment if you are a person of color. To the two African American running the bar - SHAME ON YOU.
Came to this location for the first time for lunch on a weekend. Hubby and I ordered their pretzel bones appetizer and their rib feast with sides of broccoli, baked beans, corn, and potato wedges. Total, not including tip was around $53. What's hot - Quality. Delish. This is a chain with a pretty good reputation, and this location holds it up pretty well. Our ribs were flavorful and tender. Our favorite was probably the pretzel bones appetizer, because the pretzel bread was warm, buttered, seasoned with a good amount of salt, and the cheese dip was spicy. Their bbq sauces are pretty good, but nothing to write home about. - Service. Although their staff appears to be minimal, they're definitely making do with who they have and they're definitely pulling their weight. Hubby remarked this is one of the better restaurant services we've had, because they're not juggling between multiple customers at the same time. Our waiter was super polite and helpful. He answered my husband's questions regarding the menu items. The waiter also asked us a couple of follow up questions regarding our orders, which we appreciated, because it showed the waiter didn't assume we would pay for a menu up charge. This location didn't have many dine-in customers, but there were many customers who stopped by to pick up their takeaway orders. From what we observed, we didn't see customers wait very long for their orders. This location appears to have a good system in place to handle dine-in customers and takeaway orders. - Menu. President good variety- something for everyone, including vegetarians (but not vegans). - Price. One person can eat for under $20. However, if you're going to include an appetizer and/or dessert, you're looking at closer to $40. Still pretty reasonable, especially given the portions and quality of food. - Portions. For a decent amount of ribs for 2 people, including side dishes and beer, $40 is pretty good value for money. We actually counted the number of rib bones afterwards, became we were curious. Between the 2 of us, it was 15 bones. Definitely enough to get us full and to share. - Location. Pretty good and is around other conveniences, which is helpful. Pretty good size parking lot, as well. What's not - Service. It appears their staff is minimal and bare bones, so be prepared for their service to be slow. Attentive, but slow. - Health and safety. We didn't see anyone wear face masks. To be fair, the restaurant wasn't packed. However, I don't think that's why the staff doesn't wear masks. It appears not wearing masks is their norm. I appreciate that the pandemic is still evolving. However, it would be reassuring for their staff to wear masks around customers. Final Answer Appears to be a good location to return to, whether it's for takeaway or dine-in.
Bad experience as soon as I walked in the door. I went with a friend and as soon as we stepped in we felt the uncomfortable warm that doesn't go well with eating hot BBQ. The hostess was a little rude. She asked us "how many" and then disappeared in the back for about 5 minutes before coming back out and taking 2 menus and walking away from us, not saying anything. We looked at each other wondering if we were supposed to follow her because she didn't speak to us. She then came back and flatly told us to follow her and sat us at our table and walked away. We almost left after that alone. The ONLY thing that saved this experience for us for our waitress. I cannot remember her name, but she was a tall, skinny, black woman with short hair. She was amazing and attentive, and very friendly. Our food was pretty good, only complaint was the chicken on the Caesar salad was very very dry. Please fix the AC so your employees can work somewhat uncomfortable. They already have to stand all day, they shouldn't be sweating as well! Probably won't be coming back to this location, will just have to drive the 2 hours to the Woodbridge location like I used to. Only giving 3 stars because of the waitress and that the food was decent.
Came to Smokey bones to grab a bite before starting my night . I should've known better because the place was empty , but sat down anyways. We were greeted by a bartender , who was very rude . She was aggressive & did not treat us as we were paying customers. One of the people with me was not aware of how a certain drink worked , she was very nasty about it . The manager Micho , allowed this behavior & in turn was also very rude . This restaurant also offers all you can eat wings, but if you decided to share they would charge anyone you shared with the price for all you can eat wings . In addition to, I ordered a burger & they did not have all of the topping options offered on the menu. I asked for my burger to be medium, they brought me a well done dry burger . I used to enjoy Smokey bones , but this experience was horrible especially as a paying customer .
Food was dry and tasteless. They didn't have brisket and substituted with turkey which was horrible. My wings were dried out and burnt. They didn't give me any sauce. It was a bad experience. I ordered from Door Dash. I didn't get the refund of $5.99 up charge for the brisket. I would give Zero stars if I could.
Out of Towner's, staying across the street... One of 3 spots to grab a bite within walking distance... Thought it worth a shot.. not a fan. Uncomfortably warm inside. Felt humid/sticky, hopefully not dirty sticky. Surprisingly slow considering it was a quiet Monday evening. The Tito's strawberry lemonade was undrinkable. "Filet" medallions were cooked dead. Check was brought before we were asked if we wanted dessert, which we did. The Bag o' Donuts then took forever, but were good and hot when they came out. Scraping together 2 stars for the dessert, the kid's meal is a good deal, and the chicken wings were decent.
This place was terrible the minute I walked in dirty lobby sticky floor nobody greet us after about five minutes of waiting we just turned around and went somewhere else I will never go there I can only imagine what the food must taste like
I'm too freaking lazy to barbecue but needed barbecue-themed food to hand out to family on July 4. So guess what? I chose here. The other restaurant option was like a 2 hour drive. No way jose, so I chose here. Would have to say the only item I liked was actually the corn dog. I think this was homemade, by the looks of it? It was so badly burnt and horribly battered but surprisingly the crust was delicious. It's like a legitimate corn dog. The batter was so buttery, smokey, and very corn bread-tasting-ish. The sausages were pretty good too, reminded me of a slim Jim, chewy crispy outside texture. Grilled chicken was pretty good. Street corn was absolutely nasty. I did not like that at all. Chicken wings were alright. Brisket pretty ok. Not much else to say. I'm not a greasy foods fan.. and this place takes the cake. I love barbecue.. but honestly only when it's done by me.
Restaurantji Recommends
Check your orders from this restaurant before leaving if you are getting take out. Yesterday they shorted our order again. If this was the first time this had happened I would not be writing a review. They did take care of it after I drove back to the restaurant and the kitchen manager was apologetic and provided a couple of discount coupons. I wasted over a half hour on the round trip and the food was cold when I got home with the missing elements. They have serious quality control issue in their kitchen staff. The only reason I go back is it is the only BBQ within a reasonable distance of my house. They do ok with in house orders but are slow and the are crowded on the weekends.
The staff made me feel special. I've been coming here for bout 2-3 weeks and I enjoy every visit. I highly recommend coming to this establishment! Special shout out to the bartender Peggy! She the best! Check it out and see for yourself. You will not be disappointed!
The service and the food was very good and delicious but I found the entrance coming into the restaurant lacking any type of attention whatsoever. Broken glass on the front door trash cans filled with trash, the front had not been swept or cleaned and who knows how long with caked up bird droppings. Not very welcoming for a guest
The food is good. I had the pulled pork platter. It was ample. The prices are reasonable. The service was fine. And the fresh donuts are worth the trip to eat there. We're usually are too full for dessert, so we buy them to take home and enjoy later. Obviously they are best eaten warm, but they are still good later, still melt in your mouth. My son and grandsons enjoyed their meals too and left with a bag of the donuts, too..
The loaded fries are great and so are the wings except at times depending on the chef they forget to remove the feathers with large wings order like 56 or more . Overall I am satisfied with the food and service except last order they get me a duplication of one flavor and when I returned to get compensated with a replacement order, I received a little smaller size wings than normal and the pretzels lookEd like it died and went to HELL and burnt . When I talked to Simone about my concerns , he walked right away. So disrespectful but what else can you expect from a bowie restaurant on a Friday night . I will give it another try, hope fully it will be better next time . Keeping hope alive !!!!!!!