Sonny's BBQ — Restaurant in Florida

We stopped at Sonny's for dinner on the way home from a long trip. We normally eat at the Sonny's in Bartow but that was out of our coming from north Lakeland. This two star review is generous all things considered.

When we walked in we were greeted and seated right away. That was the best part of our visit. The next people that came in were told it would be a 10 minute wait to be seated (our booth was right next to the hostess stand). We didn't see our waitress during the next ten minutes and they weren't seated. More people piled into the lobby and were told there was a wait.

Our server finally came to get our drink order shortly after notifying the table behind us their food order was still on hold and hadn't been put through since they had ordered an appetizer. This should have been a clue that we should have just left.

My wife tried to order a sweet potato but was informed they were all out. Imagine our surprise when the table behind us received a sweet potato although their order hadn't been put through before we ordered.

Forty minutes after our order was taken, almost an hour into our visit, our son's burger and fries came out (since it's made at different station than our food). It looked like a thin hockey puck. It was probably an inch smaller than the bun all the way around and the fries were cold.

The restaurant was not that busy. There were probably 10 empty tables and 4 servers working when we got there. It started calling out at this point and a couple other tables were seated but they were new walk inside because all the other people that had been waiting over half an hour had left (maybe about 20 people).

Shortly after the hour in point, our food arrived. My wife's corn nuggets were very over cooked. I had ordered a corn muffin but received garlic toast. Our server has been running around frantic the entire time so catching her to make a correction was pretty much impossible.

Around the same time as we received our food, the tables that were recently sat also received their food.

It was a train wreck. The wheels were off the bus. I never saw a manager. We won't be back to...

Well figured since family was in town they wanted ribs we would try again !! I spent about 300$ today on Sonny’s bbq. Ribs - pork-chicken Well the 4 full slabs of baby back ribs were dried out no meat and overcooked . I ordered a second order of st luis ribs they were good . So we called the “ so called lady manager” she said there was nothing they could do ! This time I’m done ! What a rip off ! My family from out of town had good st luis ribs but couldn’t eat the baby back which should have been the best !( plus 4 FULL SLABS) ! I have photos so I will be posting them soon and my receipts to show how tipped off we got !

So sad !! They don’t care ! Over 2 years ago our food was messed up and the manager was going to send us $100 gift card and he never did how funny. .. So when the lady said she was a manager this time, we tried to explain it to her. She could care less. She said that’s how the ribs are.!

Made a large family order around $100 under the name of Debbie.. call Dan at 6:05 PM and it is 7:15 PM still in line waiting for the food and was just told 10 minutes ago that they lost the order and going to try to get it in now and fill the order while 10 people have come and gone with their food! Why is the staff so rude and hateful about forgetting the order and customer service there is really unprofessional.. not sure why people hate their jobs so much and do not want to work even though they are being paid to do so and to treat the customers fairly and professionally which is not done at the store I am trying to find out who the manager is and in hopes that he will return a email or a call to let me know that he can find refresher training for his employees or I definitely will not return or ever recommend this to anyone in Polk County. . Now I’m kind of wondering how our food is going to turn out when they are this rude and hateful what are they going to do to our food I am sure going to rewrite another review once I get my food home if we ever...

The Older rude Female Manager with black hair (Refused to give me her name to try to avoid my complaint on her) is not capable of managing anything. I order 3 times in May (1x in june,LAST TIME EVER) of this year 2025. The 1st time I picked up, I ordered sweat potato's for all the sides of the "Big Deal's" & was told food would be ready in one hour. Got there to learn they didn't prep enough sweat potato's & ran out (Poor Management doesn't make sure things are done). The next Wed I ordered same 3 big deals with 3 sweat potato sides. Picked up & was told the prep work wasn't done for the cinnamon butter so they just threw in butter packets & cinnamon powder in a cup & told me to mix it myself (Horrible Management doesn't make sure prep work is done by employee's). Next wed 6-4-25 @ 4:06PM I placed my order all 3 orders were supposed to be on Garlic toast. I'm wait behind a female complaining that ALL her order was wrong. After listening I made sure to check my food to find my 3 order's were wrong also. I asked to speak to the RUDE old woman manager & she refused to give me her name as I informed her I was going to complain about her. She offered NO discount No apology's for anything & basically said sorry about your luck people make mistakes. I said the last time my order from another place was screwed up this bad they didn't charge me for it (Or you would think at least give me a discount but NOPE). The other lady if front of me that waited got NO DIScount & the same treatment. So I called North Lakeland store and asked to speak to the highest level of management which I was told was Chris Adcock & was told I would be called back to explain how rude & all the mistakes in the past month have me NEVER going back. Guess what never got a call back period from anyone. I'm soOo done with this place & the RUDE Lady called Manager that refuses to give her name to avoid discipline or credit for her...