Sonny's BBQ — Restaurant in Florida

Been a Sonny's patron for a while and food is good to above average. Problem is the service. With so many other great bar b que places to eat in Vero, Sonny's is now scratched permanently off the list. I can deal with the wrong order. I can deal with waiting for my food. What I can not deal with is a blatant lack of respect for the person or people that are deciding how much more than $5.08 a server is going to get paid. From the second we got sat at our table our server Courtney made it clear there were many other priorities than us.

"Be right with you," after we had been sitting for 5 minutes. SAT and watched her give her other tables all sorts of attention. Not sure why she couldn't take our drink order but, OK, figured once she was set with her tables we would get the good customer service she was giving others....Nope. Abruptly came back eventually to take our orders, cutting off my wife. Then she took off. My wife got the salad bar. Watched Courtney bring salad plates to her other tables but not ours. When we were finally able to get her attention we asked for her salad plates and she came back to drop them at the table. No drink refill. No interaction...Off to talk with her other tables. Next came the food. Not ours though. It was the food of the 2 other tables that day after us (one by 10 minutes that I noted because we actually know them!). Never the obligatory, "it will be right out" or "shouldn't be too much longer.". Nothing. Saw my dinner sitting in the window for about 10 minutes. OK, maybe my daughter's food wasn't ready yet. Watched her work a few more tables only to go up to the window, grab the salad, and then put it back. Looked like something was wrong with it by the way she pointed at it. Ultimately she put it back. What next? She went to the table behind us a couple minutes later and said that their food would be up shortly. About another 5 minutes later (45+ minutes so far) she shows up at the table like nothing was wrong at all. Oh, I forgot to mentioned she stopped to chat with 2 of her tables, with our food in hand, just making us wait a tad bit longer. I refused my food as I had basically lost my appetite. Eating a total of 52 minutes for a salad with pulled chicken and a burger for my daughter just ended it for me. Apparently, it ended it for Courtney too. After an , "oh, I'm sorry" she didn't return to the table to refill already empty glasses. We had to flag her down for their check which she rudely, and without saying anything threw (not literally) the check on the table.

Terrible experience. If I wanted to eat dinner and get disrespected, I would have stayed at home. In my opinion, there are a lot better places for bar b que to eat in this town and I would recommend you try them!

She took the salad off the ticket. In my experience whenever ANYTHING gets voided, or there is a mistake or issue over the smallest of things, Management shows up at you table to try to smooth things over. Not at Sonny's. It seems they are more interested in their customers' money then their experience. Just my...

Yesterday, I had a strong craving for a Sonny’s salad and even hyped it up to a friend on the phone, insisting they needed to try it. After picking it up and getting ready to eat (dressing already applied, after driving 30 minutes to get home) I realized there were no onion crisps and no chicken on the salad (which I had hoped might be hidden under the other toppings). I called the restaurant to inform them, the woman on the phone reassured me, “No problem, we’ll place an order and fix it at no charge.” Even though I offered to pay for it myself since I really wanted the food, she insisted that I shouldn't worry about it. I expressed my appreciation, especially since I’m currently in school and any savings is great.

I headed back to the restaurant to pick up my food, but to my dismay, she only handed me grilled chicken. I wish this were a joke. She gave me grilled chicken to add to a salad that had been sitting for at least an hour, already drenched in dressing (thank goodness I didn't toss but instead brought it in the car to show it to staff so they knew I wasn't lying, by the way she never asked to see it). I thanked her and left, not wanting to cause any trouble, but I immediately told my friend never to come to this place, as I was truly devastated.

I had already been feeling down due to the passing of a friend, so this incident felt like the final straw. Legit made my already horrible day worse. Given that I’m a student navigating the challenges of inflation, spending $20 on a soggy, inedible salad was incredibly frustrating. I won’t be returning and will warn others until...

I've lived in Vero Beach my whole life and recall when Sonny's first opened here. It was so good but now, it's like jailhouse quality food! They used to serve corn on the cob and now it's cheap, canned corn. The meals are never good and hot and if you place an order for pick-up, you ask if everything is in the bag and they say yes and there's usually always something missing. When I'm feeding my family and spending almost $80, I want everything I paid for. That's not too much to ask but yeah, the quality of their food has plummeted! Take your money and do yourself a favor and go to a better BBQ joint. There's a new side called dirty rice, don't waste your money because it's basically minute rice with a couple pieces of corn and a couple pieces of diced pork. The cornbread has gotten smaller and they used to give two pieces of garlic bread with your meal, not anymore. I usually am not a complainer but I wanted people who are wondering to know. **PS, I find it truly insincere how the response to bad reviews is the same old copy and paste one and it's kind of just like y'all saying oh we have fallen short this time and I have to say this is not the first time and normally we don't give places second and third chances but we don't live too far from you guys and we think well maybe this time it'll be better but I think the last time really was the last time because for that kind of money, I could have groceries for four or five days for the family and it's just a damn shame how you guys have gone downhill but...