JD's Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in Georgia

I am going to preface by saying that I have been coming to JD's since it was nothing more than a smoking trailer and a shack on Bells Ferry. I have always raved about the food and we dine at JD's on the Lake pretty frequently.

That ends tonight. My wife and I happened to be driving by and saw the sign advertising Friday Night Prime Rib Dinners, This caught my attention since I have always been a Big South Pork Sandwich kinda guy. I walked in to take a look and it looked goooood.. Chatted with one of the server girls and asked the guys cutting the meat to save me a nice piece as I went back to the car to tell my wife to come in for dinner.

This is Friday Night June 7 at about 6pm the place was not fully packed yet about half full. We were seated immediately and shortly after I told my wife to order me a beer and went to the restroom to wash my hands and such. Came back to the table after cleaning up and there was no drinks yet. Asked my wife if the server had been by yet, to which she replied no. So I figured a server would be by shortly.

We waited and we waited. Started to look around and notice other people being seated and their drink orders being taken. Even those who had arrived after us. I was starting to wonder in the back of my mind if we had been forgotten. So I got up and made polite conversation with the guys cutting the meat to save me a nice piece and compliment them on how good the food looked. It did look good. I politely asked one the girls who came there if we could get service and wondered where our server was. She told me she would go check and make sure our server knew.

Went back to my table and sat there with my wife chatting but keeping an eye on the servers moving around the room. Several passed right by our table and never stopped. In fact one of the servers took drink orders of a family right behind us who had been seated 10 minutes after us.

So all told we sat there 20 minutes before asking anyone and waited another 8 minutes before I looked at my wife and asked her if we should just leave. After all almost 30 minutes with NOBODY coming to our table and no drinks or any service? That isn't just an error, that is deliberate. How many servers want a table that they depend on tips from to be occupied without noticing customers occupying their assigned table.

Now I am going to give JD's the benefit of the doubt, that indeed this was just and error on someones part. I am going to mention that my wife and I are both Asian and have been active members of the towne lake community for almost 20 years. I hope that our ethnic appearance did not dissuade your servers from approaching us. I know I made my presence known to the guys cutting the meat and the young blonde server who smiled at me when I commented that I would take a giant slice and who went to look for our server.

But the optics are bad, the service on this night was even worse. I can not comment that it was bad because it was non-existent.

Waited almost 25 minutes before we finally got fed up and walked out. I am going to say this - If the owners do address this issue. You have lost a long time customer in me and even worse I will be hard pressed to recommend using the company ever again for any of our catered events we used to often utilize.

That is a LONG TIME to sit without getting the notice of someone on staff. Completely unacceptable and if it was deliberate I won't be the type of person who will remain silent on the matter.

Lets see what happens another Friday in the future, is this an isolated incident or is there going to be a pervasive trend.

To the dark haired girl who I expressed my frustrations with when I walked out. I wasn't mad at you. I just wanted someone to know and to address it immediately so another person would not have to suffer from the...

This place has been there for 20 years. That is what the sign said. So I'm guessing from what I ate they have lost the spark that makes a great restaurant with great food. I have been to a lot of bbq places. But only a few have sandwiches that are served without a side. To me that is not a good idea when you serve a jumbo sandwich and I the customer walks out still hungry. The waitress brings out a menu that you unfold to the size of the Sunday paper. How awkward to say the least when you are sitting across from someone. Nothing on the menu was stand out. The server comes to take our order. At first she was nice. Brought drink and that is where it turned. Never been there before so they obviously do not traine there servers well enough to ask have you been here before and our specials are... Etc. No that goes back to get been here 20 years take it or leave it. I said the sandwiches don't come with anything. No just sauce. I said Cole slaw? Yes it can if you want. So when ever we go to new bbq places we just try a little at first. If it is good we buy more and will come back. I said ok I will have the jumbo brisket and the Cole on the side. She said you want a side of Cole slaw. I said no I want the slaw you would put on my sandwich on the side. She was between confused and applaud. She basically shamed me for not paying for a side of Cole slaw. I add the slaw myself. Because sometimes I don't like some places Cole slaw and do not want my 7.00 sandwich ruined. So she brings out our sandwiches. He had the jumbo pork chopped with no sauce slaw on the side. Now she knew I ordered for us. They put a I guess a SIDE of Cole slaw on his plate. I got none. She never came back to refill 2.75 drinks. Now lets talk about the sandwiches. The pork was not cold but not hot . It was chopped nicely. But you could tell it was older pork. The fat and some pieces were hard and transparent looking. Not enough meat in a jumbo with no sides. The brisket was cut into finger like pieces. It was old. Tasted like roast. No smoke flavor at all. That was a jumbo sandwich? I left no tip. Why? Because of the way our sandwiches were served. That is her job to bring what I ordered. As far as the sauces go. They was as weak tasting as the smoke flavor in the meats. Will not return. If you don't want new customers you are succeeding. If you don't want to be in the bbq biz any more then close up shop. Because it shows in your food...

I only wish google would allow me the opportunity to put no stars for this review in order for me to adequately express how horrible the food from JD’s Bar tasted. My wife and I had such high hopes for the food and we were hungry for some bbq. Usually when we are hungry almost anything tastes amazing but unfortunately this was not the case for JD’s bar in Woodstock. 1) when we ordered the food over the phone the lady said to pick it up in 10 minutes and so we were immediately worried because only 10 minutes for 2 meals? So, I go in to pay and pick up the meal and it smelt great so you can only imagine our excitement to eat. Once we got home and opened the boxes, It was so disappointing to find that the food smelt better than it looked or tasted. Anything will look great smothered in bbq sauce, which this food did too. We ordered 1/2 rack baby back ribs, smoked chopped pork Mac and cheese, fried okra, garlic bread, spicy collard, baked beans, and fries. 2) The ribs were under cooked once you finally found your way under all that bbq sauce and all you saw was pink. My wife stopped eating that before she got food poisoning. The canned baked beans that you get from Walmart tasted way better than the ones we were provided, and the spicy collards were not even spicy and tasted like they had been sitting in pickle juice all day. I lost my appetite the moment I took one bite of the smoked chopped pork, which was under cooked and had no flavor. The Mac and Cheese was drowning in milk, the hush puppies tasted like they had been sitting out all day and were just reheated when we ordered. The only thing that was half way decent were the fries and the fried okra. At this point my wife and I were better off just going to McDonalds, instead of spending over $36 dollars for food we SHOULD have just made in our own kitchen. We will not be returning to JD’s BBQ as this was the most disappointing meal we have had to pay for in a long time. The price was not worth the food we barely got to eat. THIS...