Smoke on the Water BBQ & Seafood — Restaurant in Conneaut

So, my husband and I read the reviews listed and decided that even though they were varied in response, we would give it go. As there can be kinks that need worked through when first opening any business, especially a restaurant -for first time owners, that we discovered was NOT the case here. Evidently they had to close a previous location.... All of the above said we went in with an open mind. let me add one caveat to that I have worked in the restaurant industry for almost 30 years from being a hostess to an operations manager for a huge restaurant corporation so (unashamedly) I can be a bit hyper-critical about my dining experience. My husband is my balast you might say when it comes to this point.* okay where was I? Right, we decided to have an open mind......

Well, I can say that the view is great, the atmosphere is.... relaxed, so relaxed in fact you almost feel like it's a "do it yourself" type experience with a cafeteria/fast food type vibe and the food is just about equivalent to both the afore mentioned.

Our server was.... young.... so she's forgiven for being taught bad habits and ways by her employers. I only hope she escapes them sooner rather than later and can relearn customer service skills... 🤦‍♀️

I'd like to add at this point my husband and I decide to go back and read more of the reviews . . . And their responses. This is where it's gets unconscionably worse (in our opinion). The "owner" or manager or whomever is being allowed to respond to the reviews should be either let go or step down on their own out of sheer embarrassment.

How on Earth can anyone even imagine or justify trying to both shame and edify a customer who is giving their honest review?

I'll grant them they generally start out alright and most people won't read too far down, which, I imagine they hope for. Nonetheless they stray from being only partially apologetic and excuse-making to pulling out their best condescending -which, in all honesty, they don't have the spelling, verbal cadence or intelligence (one more "alot" and I would've sunk my phone in the lake) for and simply made them look like trash. No matter what your background as an owner or manager it is YOUR JOB to make a bad experience better PERIOD. It is also YOIR JOB to identify problems and kinks and find a way to make them work. After a month you should be well in hand not still blaming the staff that you admit are still training?! You blame the customer, your own staff, the previous business at that location (which by the way blows your smoke right off the water) and whomever else may have the sad misfortune of getting too close. Which is unbelievably arrogant and frankly disgusting behavior. Word of mouth is the BEST way to get your business shut down in less than a year (in your case I'll give ya 6 months at best). One person with a bad experience will tell 10-25 people how negative it was and unasked! . One person's eho had good experience will tell 5-10 and only when asked! These are facts of the business. Do the math..... yeah you're screwing yourselves and doing a disservice to your community. **yes I read the sorry response saying you'd think the community would be "grateful" you've given them jobs..... really?! Are you running for office? Or just believe your own hype?! Regardless of your bizarre and irrelevant comment to customer feed back is just another example of your own self-importance or impotence?

.....I could go on but husband says I made my point so, for now anyway I will NEVER recommend this restaurant. The place is run by a self entitled, small person who can not bring themselves to actually care about their customers...

My wife and I went there for dinner on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. I had a feeling we’d have a long wait from previous experience at the former business but was pleasantly surprised and found it was not busy at all. Probably because they had no band. The place has kind of a McDonald’s vibe to it. You order at a counter off LCD screens behind the order takers. Everything is a’la cart. We ordered a half rack of ribs, coleslaw, chips and queso, a can of beer and a diet Pepsi. I also ordered a piece of cornbread but they said they were out of cornbread. With tip the bill came to just over $50.

The hostess sat us at a table outside and our waitress brought out our food very quickly about 3-4 minutes later, which added to the whole fast food vibe. Our waitress was a very nice younger girl and that was the pretty much the last time we saw her. It was a minuscule amount of food for $50. Our food was served on metal cafeteria trays with plasticware. Although it’s called Smoke on the Water, I didn’t see any smokers.

The ribs were decent, not great but not bad either. I think they might have been baked. I don’t know for sure but they certainly didn’t have a smoky flavor. The coleslaw was a complete joke! It was a tiny amount of crunchy cabbage and carrots, with what tasted like a little French salad dressing on it. It didn’t taste like it was marinated or anything. We each took a bite and threw the rest out. The $10 chips and queso was a small amount of plain generic corn chips and some mediocre queso. It was just okay and we did eat all of it. Their wet naps are definitely on point! These things were awesome, nearly the size of beach towels I tell you and it made clean up a breeze!

One of the owners came by our table and asked how everything was? I asked him how do we get another drink? Do I have to go back up to the counter and order one? He said we could order more drinks from our waitress (but she was MIA). He explained that it’s a new business and he wants the customers input. I was very nice to him and tried to tactfully explain that the coleslaw wasn’t exactly to my liking. He said that customers complain that creamy coleslaw is too creamy and then they complain that vinegar coleslaw has too much vinegar, so his chef came up with this recipe that is somewhere in the middle that everyone should like. I told him that I realize it’s a new business but something that I liked about the old business is that they offered sides with the entree and he may want to consider offering sides with an entree. He got a little defensive and said “the old business was doing a lot of things wrong and that’s why they are not in business anymore”. I felt like this was kind of a low blow because I heard the previous owner was forced to shut down the business because of health reasons.

He went on to tell me about how he’s a snowbird down in Naples in the winter and how this year was rough because he had to come back to Ohio early to open this place, and how he has 63 employees. I eventually kind of cut him off and asked him how we pay for our meal. He said the waitress will bring you your check. He then asked another waitress to tell our waitress to bring the check.

I may give them another shot towards the end of summer to see if they improved. It’s a real shame because it used to be one of our favorite places to go...

We've tried Smoke on the Water a couple times this summer, but it has been a disappointment each time. We went the first time about 3 weeks after they opened, and the food was not good, but they were still working out bumps. I contacted them through private message on social media. Someone said they would get back to me to discuss our meal, but they never did.

The pros: it's a beautiful location, the servers were friendly and attentive, and lots of money has been spent on decor & parking surfacing. The fried bologna sandwich was tasty, the szechuan beans are good, mac & cheese was creamy (although the crispy topping was missing the first time & skimpy the second time) and the clams were clean. Waitstaff were friendly.

The cons: the food is really mediocre overall. The clams were supposed to be served in a smoky garlic broth, but they arrived in a tepid butter water - no hint of smoke, garlic, lemon, etc. The half chicken had rubbery skin and was pre-sauced which probably didn't help anything. The smoke flavor was very mild. The vinegar & oil slaw is vastly underseasoned; it is very oily, but lacks acid, salt or pepper. We thought they just forgot to stir the slaw before serving, but it was the same each time we were there. When we asked for salt & pepper a couple of disposable Food Club shakers appeared.

They had no unsweetened iced tea, and the only no-sugar beverages available were water or Diet Pepsi. Everything is a la cart, so putting together a full meal is quite expensive, but then everything is served in disposable plastic tubs, along with disposable plastic flatware. Diners behind us asked for the dessert of the day, but it wasn't ready yet an hour after opening, and we overheard one of the servers asking the kitchen what the beans tasted like. The final salt in the wound is their insistence on playing truly awful top-40 music from the mid-80s. Not the good 80s stuff, but the songs that remind you how awful teased hair and stirrup pants are.

The menu is small, which would be fine if they were turning out delicious, consistent food, but they're not. I'm puzzled by the high rating they have so far, and I don't know if that's people wowed by the location or just enthusiasm for a new place. They seem to have spent a good deal of money to bring a bland modern-farmhouse style to the space, but it doesn't feel welcoming, and the fast food style ordering counter feels cold and opportunistic when you're paying $25-30 a person for a meal.

I truly hope they pull it together and succeed. We have many great restaurants in town, and this could be one of them but right now there is no reason to go back and pay chef prices for a chain-restaurant...