Sonny's BBQ — Restaurant in Clermont

First time trying Sonny’s for my fiancé and I. We’ve driven past it quite a bit, always talked about it, and decided on BBQ tonight and placed our order online. Here’s a breakdown of the takeout experience.

While having dedicated takeout spots, there is no curbside service available, at least not easily found as an option. Instead, you give them a heads up that you’re either on your way or you’ve arrived.

Take out has its own fairly spacious section so when it is busy I imagine it doesn’t feel crowded, so that is a point to the restaurant. However tonight was not busy around 6:50 and the staff was on the curt side.

For the food, I got a rib meal and my fiancé got a chicken Caesar salad.

Ribs 8.5/10: dry rub St. Louis style. You get 6 ribs, they were pretty good, though light on how much meat was on the bone. Not the greatest, but still good for the price. Cornbread 8/10: good, moist, and muffin style, though on the small side. Coleslaw 7/10: Decent, just pretty plain. Personal preference for me is to have a little vinegary bite and some black pepper, but their style appeals to more people. Homestyle Mac & Cheese 5/10: Mushy and overcooked pasta, cheese was already congealed by the time we got home and on the salty side. Chicken Caesar Salad 2/10: Where to begin. The lettuce was crunchy? I think that was the only positive. We selected Caesar dressing, that wasn’t on it or included on the side. We selected no croutons but leave the Parmesan cheese, it came with neither. The grilled chicken was rubbery, and the whole salad was drizzled with BBQ sauce that was not selected on the order.

I’m not going to include a number for the sauce, but I got the Smokin’ BBQ on the side for my ribs. The only way to describe it is ketchup heavy BBQ sauce mixed with Tabasco, and the flavor is distinctly Tabasco. I wouldn’t get it again.

Overall we’d give it a 6/10 on the food alone. Right now, we’re debating whether we’d try it again or not, perhaps the dine-in experience is better, but the take out is not worth...

Moved to Clermont in 2004. I think this was one of the first, if not the first, place my family and I went out to eat at in the area. The past year every time I've been here the food and service has ranged from poor to at best mediocre. My last visit was the final straw... I will no longer come here to eat. The food was bad and the service was not a whole lot better either.

Experience from my last visit,

A few buddies and I stopped by for dinner at around 7:30. To begin with, when given the choice between a table or a booth, we opted for the table instead. They told us they had to clean one off and that it would "just be a few minutes" (I think I heard this exact line a total of 10 times that evening). My friends and I were the only people in the waiting area and it still took over 15 minutes for us to be seated. Finally we were seated and again... we had to wait another 5 minutes for our server to appear and take our orders. The food took 20 minutes or so to come out and not all of our orders were brought out at the same time. One of them was brought to us later on. Our server was not the friendliest-to say the least and very short with us when we initially placed our orders. When asked for second helpings on our ALL YOU CAN EAT meals she acted as if she was doing us a favor and seemed bothered by the request. Still hungry, we left after we finished our second helpings on our all you can eat meals because we were tired of waiting, the poor service, and the bad food. The best tasting thing out of everything that was served to me that night was the iced tea...

I would've given a 1 star but I gave a 2 because this placed USED to be pretty good. It has really gone down the tubes in the past...

Please let me explain this rating. This usually is our favorite Sonnys. 4stars. They have Brunswick Stew okay 5stars. My family went one Fri about 2 our normal late lunch early dinner time, our time to chill and hang out as a family. The server was horrable. Drinks were not right she even said she was not gonna make it right. But that would be okay you just take it how I get it for you. We thought she was joking. It took almost 15 minutes and 2 trips for everyone in the party of 5 to get our drinks Down to 4stars. One coke came with a lemon seed in it and she said it is just a lemon seed, you wnot drink it. Down to 3stars. Then 30 min after our order was placed we still did not get the stew or the salad plates. Down to 2stars. Since she brought our drinks she never once came back to the table. Down to 1 star. She had Another server came by and drop off the salad plates. Finally food... Salad bar was out of almost half of the items. down to 0stars. We went to see a manager to pay for the drinks we drank, we had to get food by this point and just wanted to leave. Frank, manager said he would take care of us personally but we just wanted to be done. He did not charge us for the drinks. Up to 1star. I called him later and explained it all he was so apologetic and upset at what happened. He said next time we come our whole family meal is taken care of. Up to 2stars. When we finally decided to give it a try again, we made sure that that server was not working, This Server was spot on up to 3stars. Food was great up to 4stars. We enjouyed ourselves and Manager took care of the bill 5stars. No Brunswick Stew....