Smoke Tavern and Grill — Restaurant in Columbus

My husband and I were in town for the weekend and decided to stop by on our way home (around noon) because we walked by a few times and it smelled so good! For the appetizer we chose the smoke wings (hot). Admittedly so the waiter told us they wouldn’t be smoked for whatever reason (I can’t remember) however they would be fried. What the waiter didn’t tell us was they would attempt to recreate the “smoke” flavor by charring them to the point upon which they were almost inedible. They must’ve left them under the broiler too long. Please don’t do this. Just fry them and let it be or better yet take them off the menu or say they aren’t available if they can’t be prepared properly. We had a few drinks while we waited on our entrees, which seemed to take a very long time. We noticed several guests who came in after us were eating while we were still waiting. The table next to us noticed the same thing and addressed it with their waiter. Right when I was about to say something our food arrived. I ordered the gnocchi & brisket with the sauce/gravy on the side while my husband ordered the rack with mac and cheese & okra and banana peppers. My food was not hot at all. More so room temp. The brisket was too fatty for my liking so I had to pick around to find actual meat. The gnocchi was good but cold. I’m glad I got the gravy sauce on the side because I didn’t like it either. Too bland. I added some bbq sauce to my brisket and gnocchi which made it taste better but again it was cold and I was only able to eat the non-fatty pieces of brisket. On the upside my husband enjoyed his rack. They were tender and he enjoyed the bbq sauces they were served with. He also enjoyed the okra/banana peppers and the mac was satisfying to him. Overall I hope this was an isolated incident however for the price we paid and the mediocre service coupled with my cold food I unfortunately cannot recommend this restaurant. Maybe I’ll try again but as we were leaving we saw kitchen staff eating off the plates (through the side door). This is very unsanitary and why I gave them 2 stars....

The only way to summarize our experience is that it sucked. The restaurant was a little under half full when we arrived, but the initial encounter with a team member was abrasive. Nonetheless, our server quickly arrived and took our drink orders. Afterwards we ordered one burger (cooked medium rare) and a grilled chicken sandwich (with no veggies). This is where our problems began.

Not only was the burger incredibly well done, the chicken sandwich came out incorrectly. The fries, which had a good flavor, were also lukewarm. We asked for a replacement chicken sandwich and retrieved one that was dry and charred to a crisp about 25 minutes later, even though the restaurant still wasn't awfully busy. After we asked if the sandwich could be comped, we saw our server take the request to the manager, who we believe seemed displeased that he even asked to comp the meal. Contrast to what we would expect, no manager ever came to our table to apologize, request feedback, or do anything. We believe we saw the manager walk back and forth across the dining room -- even right beside our table -- but there was no expression of concern.

Here are some other things of note from our experience. Our server seemed like he would have rather stayed in the kitchen to talk than check on his tables. In reality, none of the staff really appeared to want to be there. Lastly, there were no napkins on the table; and no one ever offered them. Altogether, we felt this was a wasted hour and a half of our time. I'm not a fan of McDonald's, but I'm sure we could have had a better experience there.

Update: Response says that our meal was comped, but we still had to pay for the burger. Even checked the credit card statement and it’s still on there. Them being short staffed is a joke as most of them were standing around doing nothing. The manager spent most of her time over by the bar talking to the bartender. You really need a whole hour and a half to talk to them? Don’t go here. This...

This WAS one of my favorite places, I love the fried okra. Today my husband and I went to eat for our 15th anniversary. We were sat at a table rather quickly and the server came to take our order immediately.. but that's where the good ended. I ordered a mule to drink and we also both got a water. We placed our food order at the same time as we were VERY HUNGRY. We got our waters and I waited for the bartender to make my mule. I watched her make it and set it out for the server to get it and bring it to our table, which never happened. I watched it sit there and sweat (it was 99 degrees today) for at least 20 minutes if not longer. Still, our server never brought it to us, another server finally grabbed it and brought it to me. We actually never saw our server again for the next hour. We sat and waited, and waited, and waited for our food that never came. I watched other people who came in after us continue to get their food in a reasonable amount of time. As we sat there, no one ever checked on us, not our server nor any other servers, nor the bartender or hostess. After waiting an hour or more, my husband finally flagged down the hostess and told her we still hadn't got our food. She came back and said someone would be with us shortly. 10 more minutes pass and still nothing. Finally our server came to our table and asked us what we were waiting on!! This set me off. Obviously we were waiting for our FOOD!!! She acted like she had never seen us before. Finally she admitted that she never put our order in. I was so angry that we paid for my drink and left. I was a server for many years and while I understand that mistakes happen, this was totally unacceptable. The restaurant wasn't even busy, and she never even came back to check on us to realize she hadn't put our order in. Horrible service. This ruined one of my favorite places to go and I...