Smitty's Cinema Sanford — Local services in Sanford

When we lived in Lebanon 10 years back we went more frequently, and decided to check out the new and improved Smitty’s in their new location. They share a space with a bowing alley and arcade now, which we also checked out. The movie place has more screens, I believe, and waitstaff still come out to take and deliver food orders. The seating used to be big comfy SUV seats but are now more like office chairs. They were still pretty comfortable. The lighting was up enough during the movie to still see the menu and eat, though for a completely immersive experience it is not full dark and the chair tops kind of obscure your vision slightly. It was only a minor distraction. The staff is pretty good at quickly delivering food and taking payments without too much interruption. We like Smitty’s and only stopped going because we take in actual theater movies much less since the pandemic. But we’d go again. The new bowling alley and arcade was pretty cool! Equivalent to the inside of the Hilltop Fun Center which is a bit closer in terms of games, plus a small bowling alley with large screen TVs showing sports in the background which you can see even if you aren’t bowling. There also appeared to be a bar and I think you can get the same food as if you were in the movie section. They also had a cool virtual reality setup which we might come back to try at some point. It was token based and you can get a little card to play the games (mostly shooting, driving video games) with claw and coin games along the sides. I didn’t get a look at how many tokens the games took, but the VR needed cash I believe. We’ll probably...

I’ve never been to Smitty’s before and I’ll never go again. I arrived at the theater and went to the concession stand because I was unsure how to get the tickets I ordered online. The girl at the concessions was probably the one of the only positive things I have to mention about this place. She was very patient with the family in front of us who took longer than normal to order movie concessions. She was very pleasant, polite and friendly. I walked into my theater, found my seat and had two bright ceiling lights staring into my face. I thought surely those would go off before the movie started, but they did not. I understand they have them for the people who bring the food orders in, but I feel this could be handled better. It was shocking to me how bright it was in the theater. Movie theaters are supposed to be dark. I squinted throughout the movie to see the picture as best I could. Next - the seats. Horrendous! You are sitting in cheap office rolling chairs that are so uncomfortable. And those are what made up most of the theater. I think the first two rows were stadium seats, but who wants to sit in the first two rows!?!? Clearly this place is running as cheaply as possible. The arm rests of most of the cheap rolling chairs were so worn away, it’s clear these chairs haven’t been replaced in a very long time, if ever. A young man came in and asked if I wanted any food/drink during the movie. He was very pleasant.

The included pictures were taken during the movie without a flash - it was THAT bright...

To say it blatantly, Smitty's is a restaurant in a movie theater. A great concept, normally poorly executed, but Smitty's is proof it can work! My experience was both surprising and delightful. To start, tickets are cheeper than any movie theater around at the moment. Their food is reasonably priced, between $12-15 a meal, and I got myself a cocktail that was incredible. The burger I got was a chicken sandwich with marinara sauce and slices of mozzarella on it. When you think food at the theater, you expect the tier above a gas station. With Smitty's you can expect restaurant level quality in both flavor and presentation. And to make sure I didn't just get lucky with my order, I sampled from 5 different items from the menu with the other people in my party and absolutely everything was mouthwatering and excellent. Their staff are all very friendly and most importantly, very patient and understanding when it comes to the ordering process, bringing out your food, and checking in. Probably my only complaint is lights were fully turned on by the credits, making any end credit scene of a movie a bit difficult to watch. But like I said, that's their one flaw! I would reccomend an evening at Smitty's to everyone who enjoys a fantastic meal while you watch the latest movies on an Imax screen. Then again, after writing all this I'm getting hungry again, better see...