Smitty's Smokehouse & Grill — Restaurant in Dade City

I just moved to Zephyrhills and made the short trip to Dade City where we discovered Smitty's Smokehouse. I;m real particular about ribs so my wife and I I ordered Cheeseburgers. Still curious, I asked the waitress if I could have a taste of the ribs. She obliged and brought me one of the juiciest, biggest, tenderest, tastiest ribs I have eaten in a long time. It was smoked the way I like them. The meat was not smoked so long that the meat literally falls off the bone but fairly easy to pull from the bone. The sauce was also good. I told the waitress how delicious it was and she tried to cancel my order for a burger but it was already on the grill. We ate a good burger and ordered a slab of ribs to go.The meal was good but the tea was like water with very little tea flavor. We really liked our waitress and had pleasant conversation with her.

I went back last night fairly late (just before closing time) for some more ribs. The difference was like night and day. The ribs had been smoking for so long that the bones couldn't be touched without loosing the meat. In fact one bone had no meat. I ate about three ribs and discarded the rest. For the remainder of the night, I was burping burned sticks or at least it seemed so. My wife had a good rib eye steak and was satisfied with it. Again, the unsweetened tea was like water and my wife politely complained to the waitress about it. The collard greens for me was not edible. They had a very strong flavor to them.

I would suggest that management put a little money back into the business and replace the moldy ceiling tiles. They were disgusting to look at. No matter if the rest of the restaurant was clean or not I couldn't get past that.

I'm confident they are good people there and would be apologetic of my latest disappointment but I think I might be done with Smitty's but if I knew there was some good ribs to be had I would go there and...

Me and my son came here for brunch because we've heard from a lot of the locals how good it is, first we walk in we are never greeted, so we're just standing at the front of the little restaurant waiting , getting weird looks by all the workers, my son says to me , mom I don't think I'm welcome here, finally I say are we supposed to seat ourselves?, they say yes sit wherever you want, so we pick our seats and we sit there for 15 minutes before anybody even acknowledges that we were there. We end up grabbing our own menus, Two other couples come in and they're both greeted and asked for their drink order , me and my son are still just sitting there. Finally the cashier looks at us and says oh my God nobody even got your drinks yet, I'm like nope , we finally get our drinks, well the other two other parties who came in after us are now eating while we are getting drinks! We got looked at like we were aliens! Didn't give us forks or even a freaking spoon! My son felt extremely extremely discriminated against! The only difference between him and everyone else was the color of his skin! Our experience was extremely hurtful and uncomfortable to the max. I hate that my son had to feel that way. And if it was all just a big mistake then they really need to do better because they shouldn't be making people feel that way. Never...

First I do agree the food and prices are good here, but my wife and I will not be returning. The main issue is their lack of any reasonable COVID protocols. tables were not spaced properly tables were only wiped down with a wet rag that came from the kitchen and it was reused over and over. Disinfectant spray and paper towels were present but evidently only for show because they were never used. No glove wearing or at least handwashing was evident as they went from the cash register to cleaning tables to bringing food to the tables The kitchen staff wore no masks and not one of the waitresses wore a mask properly - under the nose or just on chin, etc. Menus were not cleaned after use. many customers were allowed to enter with any mask.

When asked why these things weren't being adhered to, the waitress said " There really aren't any restrictions anymore. We just do masks as a courtesy" while her mask was on her chin and large red signs were placed on both incoming doors stating the county restrictions and mandates the customers needed to adhere to.

We're not COVID-crazy, but this place isn't even making an effort to comply, and it was...