Smokey Bones Clearwater — Restaurant in Clearwater

(Update) sent message to the address from the owners below and as of today no contact !!!!!!!???

Walked into Smokey Bones Clearwater at 2:42 pm and it went downhill instantly. The place wasn’t even busy, but the dining room looked like a hurricane hit it—dirty tables everywhere. We sat, and it took 20+ minutes before a server even showed up.

My wife orders a Bones Margarita. It comes out looking like a toddler made it—salt dripping down the side of the glass, not a grain on the rim. Strike one.

Appetizers: pretzels with cheese and cornbread. Cornbread was okay, but the pretzels were burnt, rock-hard, and blackened on the bottom. The “cheese sauce” was watery, tasteless sludge. That wasn’t cheese—that was liquid depression in a cup. Strike two.

We put faith in the Bone Fire. Huge mistake. After waiting an entire hour, the food finally crawled out of the kitchen looking like it had been assembled behind a gas station dumpster. • Ribs looked like they’d been hacked apart with a butter knife and tossed on the plate. • Potatoes were so overcooked they belonged in a museum exhibit, not on a plate. • Chicken still had feathers attached. • The sirloin steak was a complete joke—the size of a half-dollar coin.

Called for the manager, and he strolls over with excuses: “The ribs are imported, the vendor sends the chicken that way.” Nah, buddy—this isn’t a vendor problem, it’s a standards problem. If your ribs look like roadkill and your chicken’s still rocking feathers, the only thing you should be importing is some pride in your kitchen. What you actually need isn’t new vendors—it’s new management.

We left. Sent the food back, paid for drinks and apps, and still left a $10 tip for the server—because the staff wasn’t the problem, the system is rotten from the top down.

This wasn’t food. This was punishment. Between the filthy dining room, the endless wait, the trash on the plates, and a manager who hides behind excuses, this place is a one-star dumpster fire.

If you want real food and real service, go literally anywhere else. Smokey Bones Clearwater is where good meals go to die.

Smokey Bones? More like Smokey Garbage. Bone Fire? More like Dumpster Fire. One star only because zero stars...

I've been going here a long time. It's always delicious but I'm not sure if recently their staff they hired or they were just low staffed but we were waiting at the sitting desk to be seated for about 10 minutes (yes I did time it) before anyone came up to us and asked how many to sit. No greeting at all yet. There were at least two or maybe even three employees (waiters looked like) walked by just staring not stating customers and then the take out person walked right by us and went to their computer screen on the right table near the bathrooms and just started tapping on it without even acknowledging us. I understand if you're busy but just stating "someone will be with you in a couple of minutes, or please take a seat and will grab you shortly to sit" would be greatly appreciated. We really are frequent customers so I was really taken back at the ignorance and almost disregard for us as customers. Finally I asked the curb side employee "Excuse me am I'm supposed to sit myself now with my family, is there a neat method sorry for asking?" Then he stated "ow actually let me try to find someone for you" and about a minute later the person came around the back kitchen and just said "okay you want to eat here, how many?" I apologized to her if she was on break and she simply said "no, no worries I wasn't doing anything"...then why weren't you doing the one job a hostess is supposed to do? I will update if staff improves but I asked for the manager and the waiter said they are busy but I can wait here and try to ask her later...(I actually couldn't because we had to get to an appointment) Unfortunately I couldn't speak with a supervisor/manager as to why no one was doing a hostess job seating people but hope no one else runs into this..just makes you feel unwanted and almost disappointed in a restaurant I loved for years. This was on a Friday evening around 5:40ish as we just got off work and picked our little one up. We sat on the slightly raised floor where the booths and tables are...

Tried this place out for the first time! ( Friday May 16th 2025 7:20pm) Never heard of the chain until now (from SC/AZ) . We are always looking for sum BBQ on vacations and this place didn't disappoint! Called ahead for a booth for the family and everything went smoothly! The gal hostess was super nice! The place was busy and on a wait at this time.

Our server (Julianna) was friendly, quick, knowledgeable and even threw in a couple jokes! Drinks were quick and actually had some alcohol in them (awesome all day happy hour on this day) ! We followed her on her recommendations from the shipwreck drink for the lady, the Korean pork belly pops (fantastic burnt ends), as well as the baked beans side (we ordered the beans for the little guy but we crushed most of them they we so good) !

For our entree we were already set on trying the Bonfire that feeds 2! Mega glad we did everything on this sampler we wanted more of ! Those WINGS and that BBQ Chicken were top notch flavor and char! We added a Caesar salad and cornbread as well. Love the choices of BBQ sauces on the table and if you are a ranch fan they have a good one! Everything was great!

To finish it off our server recommended the bag of donuts for dessert so we kept with her up sales and again were very happy with what we got (the raspberry sauce!!!!!) ! We indulged a bit with a bill of about $120.00 total but for what we got plus two kids meals, another dessert, and 3 bar drinks I'd say great price. You can get away with spending way less per person than we did!

Will def go back to this chain whether it be this location or not ! Normally don't look for chains on vacation especially but we highly recommend you try this out if...