Smokey Bones Virginia Beach — Attraction in Virginia Beach

My family and I decided to spend the last day of our annual trip to Hampton Roads in Virginia Beach, exploring the area and shopping. We all started getting hungry around 2:30 so we decided on an early dinner. After perusing our options on Apple Maps and Yelp, we all settled on trying out Smokey Bones. When we arrived at the building and walked in, we were greeted by a welcoming and clean atmosphere (there was even cleaning supplies left out among guests), but the staff was less than welcoming. We stood at the empty podium for what seemed like a long time. Two employees both looked in our direction then returned to what they were doing, without so much as a verbal greeting. Finally, the bartender approached the podium and asked us how many were in our party. No “hello,” “welcome,” “sorry for the wait,” nothing. She then gathered 5 menus and began to walk away without saying anything else. We assumed that we were meant to follow her, since she didn’t verbally ask us to.

Halfway between the podium and what would be our table, she stopped escorting us to focus her attention on another person, a door dasher that was there picking up an order. After he got his order and walked out, she returned her focus on us and took us the rest of the way to our table. Once we were seated, the bartender/hostess walked away without saying anything. After the length of time it took for anyone to acknowledge our existence, I decided to start timing things. Despite there only being 3 other parties and a small group of people at the bar in the entire establishment at the time, it took our waitress, Taylor, 10 minutes and 47 seconds to arrive at our table after being seated. To her credit, she was very polite and apologetic for the long wait. Since we had a great deal of time, we were already prepared to order our meals as well as our drinks. I ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger (without tomatoes, onions, or pickles) with ketchup and mustard, french-fries and a coke.

After taking our order, Taylor returned 3 minutes and 23 seconds later to bring us our drinks, but that was the last time anything would move relatively quickly. After receiving our drinks, it took the kitchen, and subsequently Taylor, 37 minutes and 12 seconds to cook and serve our meals. Seriously, almost 40 minutes. My burger arrived without the requested condiments, and the bottle of ketchup on our table was empty. After asking Taylor if I could have some ketchup and mustard, she returned shortly afterwards with them. She also returned with my wife’s meal. She placed the meal down on the table in front of me, and I informed her that the meal was my wife’s, and Taylor didn’t respond. Simply just walked away. The only good thing about my meal was that the burger was cooked thoroughly and well-seasoned. The fries, however, were bland and cold (as expected after sitting for 40 minutes before being served). While waiting for Taylor to being us our check (another very long wait), I needed to use the restroom, however there was no toilet paper in the only stall in the men’s room. My family and I will not be returning to this location, and I hope for your sake that you’ll consider another...

We went here Saturday evening for a birthday party. This was a church group. We made reservations for 17 people, I think 25 ended up showing up. More ended up coming than we initially anticipated. We ended up having 3 tables (2 big ones and 1 small one, and they were not attached). After we were seated and had placed our order, the manager (Mr Chung), that refused to give us his name (we ended up getting it off of the front of the building where it is posted), came over and very rudely addressed our party and said that we had more people than we reserved for and that it was unfair to the server and to make sure that nobody else came, and that if they did they be seated somewhere else. Initially we understood where he was coming from and we explained that we were sorry but more people had come than anticipated. We thanked him for seating us, and we explained that we were in no rush and that the server was doing great and that we understood that it was just her serving us and we'd be patient and understanding, and we again were in no rush and just wanted to enjoy ourselves, our loved ones and each other. He continued to make a big deal about everything until the point that he was making a scene and the entire restaurant was looking at us. We continued to explain that we understood what he was saying, and that we would be sure to take great care of the waitress. He persisted on telling us that we'd not get the great service that they were known for and that it was too much for the server (that had been pretty pleasant the entire time and had never voiced an issue to us at all). Several people in our party began getting annoyed and speaking amongst each other about the scene he had made, his rude unprofessional attitude and aggressive behavior toward our party, and started talking about us just going somewhere else (even though we'd already ordered our food). His tirade continued another minute or two and then he finally walked away. We then decided that the whole thing was out of order and that our presence was clearly unwanted and we decided to just leave. As the last couple of us were exiting the establishment, we noticed that several Virginia Beach police officers were arriving because he had called the police on us for absolutely no reason. None of us even ended up speaking to the police because we were all already outside trying to figure out where we were going to go. This whole situation was unnecessary, uncalled for and completely unprofessional of the manager of this establishment . He never would have attempted to disrespect a party of white people in such a manner. This is completely disgusting and I hope the owner gets rid of him before he destroys his business.

REVIEW UPDATED: Smokey Bones responded to my initial review of their restaurant and asked me to email them my info so that they could contact me and discuss what had happened during our visit. I emailed back promptly with my name, email address and phone number and as of today 2/26/2024 they have yet to contact me in any way. I guess I'm forced to believe that the horrendous actions of the store manager were acceptable to the owner. Judge...

Ok it's strange how the right person can change your entire prospective on things. I stopped into Smokey Bones on Independence Blvd in VA Beach and was advised there was a 15 minute wait, which turned into 25 minutes. Once we were seated I noticed there was noone in the dining area, only about 5 people. All the booths and the tables were empty. I could not understand the wait. unless they were short on staff and if that was the case I would have much rather waited at a comfortable table rather at the crowded door with others . it gave you the illusion the restaurant was packed inside and you had to wait for a table. A server took our drink orders to get us started and then told us our server would be right over. After about another 10 minute wait, my friend notice a server was taking the order of a couple behind us who was not there when we first sit down. After she finished with them , I politely asked her could she wait on us since we were here first and noone had come to our table. She stopped midway in the alse and came right to us . There was no hesitations or I'll be right back. No, let me see if I can find someone for you. She apologized for our wait. She took our orders and made adjustments as we requested. Despite the fact the restaurant was now starting to fill up, she never displayed any type of impatience, or tried to rush us. It took Tabitha no time in bringing out how food. She checked on us periodically to see if we needed anything. I ordered the baby back ribs, with a loaded bake potato and broccoli. My friend ordered brisket with the same sides. My food was very good. My friend did say the brisket was a bit fatty for her taste. There was one part that was over cooked and hard. Again Tabitha came to the rescue, she had them to cook another slice of brisket to replace that one. She was so nice and friendly. She showed genuine concern about our experience there and to make it better. Before we left, unbeknown to us, she had explained to the manager on duty about our wait with no service. The manager offered us complimentary desserts of our choice. We both chose the chocolate cake. Tabitha had packed our chocolate cakes and added a scoop of ice cream on the side in a separate container. Tabitha was able to single handedly turn what started out as a not so good experience to a pleasant one. Tabitha , as I told her was "the bomb." I learned a valuable lesson that a server is not just one who takes your orders and bring your food, but also in charge of your over all dining experience. Bravo Smokey Bones for having such an employee as Tabitha who recognizes that. Yes we...