Smoke On the Water — Restaurant in Greenville

This will probably be their most critical review, but by far the most honest. I will start by saying this... The smoked wings and greens are absofriggenlutely delicious, and should be enjoyed by everyone!!! However, carryout only. The dining experience leaves much to be desired for the pricepoint. MUCH!

Stoped in for Saturday lunch, quoted a wait time of 35-40mins. We were seated in just under an hour. (We chose to wait because we really wanted to see what all the hype was about, being fairly new to town) The text msg wait/paging system was a nice feature to have... not being tethered to the immediate area around the restaurant while waiting is a plus.

The door quotes them as a "saucy southern tavern", which for us non southerners translates to; goodluck getting anybody to move with a sense of urgency. While waiting to be seated, you could see numerous dirty tables sit for 10-15mins before being cleaned, and then an additional 5 mins before anyone would be seated.

The mens restroom is akin to something you'd encounter in an i-85 truck stop.

Once finally seated, our sever was energetic and oozed southern hospitality. Which translates to "as long as I'm super nice, who cares if im bad". Her uniform was covered in spills and stains (I found myself curious how many of them came from the current shift). This triggered me to start "people watching" and it seems the entire dining staff wore stains and wrinkles as if it were an official piece of the uniform. Each wearing a different combination of shoes, belts and pants without any uniformity.

She asked if we had dined there before to which we said "no". A question asked in vain, as this information would've proven useful to a better server, in regards to cautioning or aiding in the navigation of the dining experience.

Bar drinks and food were ordered. Water brought to the table in the time between, with great textured and poorly flavored cornbread. Bar drinks arrived 15 mins later, literaly seconds before the food. (Decent drinks)

Ribeye medium and sides (mashed potatoes, spinach casserole) Smoked wings And a plate of sides (mac n cheese, greens and dressing)

Ribeye came closer to well Potatoes good Casserole decent Wings and greens (EXCELLENT) Dressing (good, but not disclosed in menu or by server it would come smothered in mushroom gravy😑🤮) Mac and cheese, possibly the most tasteless mess I've ever eaten. I described it to my lunchmate as "palate cleansing".

To which we agreed, with the exception of the wings, we had been served Nursing home food.😒 The clean plate club we were not. The only items eaten in full were the wings and the greens.

Again, clues that something was awry and should've been picked up on.

Another round of drinks, and the check were requested, accompanied by another 15min wait.

The server retuned to collect the plates and the check. And asked if we needed change.

1. always assume so, and promptly return change unless told otherwise by the guest. You do not ask!?
2. I payed with a credit card.

$79.37 plus tip for lunch for two and over 2 hours of a sunny Saturday, erased.

In a nutshell, pace of experience, service and culinary execution need to be dramatically improved, especially at this pricepoint. There are too many other places to go and spend $100 on lunch 😑. I will not return or recommend except for wings, and...

Downtown Greenville, SC is absolutely gorgeous! A quickly growing, well thought out hub of entertainment, fine dining, and modern living, it's truly a great place to live and visit.

Located right in the center of the action is Smoke On The Water, a southern-style restaurant, offering fine dining tastes at a reasonable price point, and more relaxed atmosphere.

Upon entering, we were immediately greeted by the hostess, who attempted to seat us by the bar. We had our Grandchildren with us and asked if we could sit in another area. At first, it seemed she didn't like this request, and we were concerned that was going to set the tone for our meal. I could not have been more wrong.

Shortly after being seated at a 4 top, a very friendly waiter by the name of Zack took our drink orders and gave us suggestions on the menu.

After placing our order, Zack brought some freshly made cornbread and butter, which was just the right mixture of savory and sweet.

For the main course, I had andouille and kielbasa sausage, as well as pulled pork, and a double portion of a vegetable medley. My wife had kielbasa, pulled pork, fried okra and potato salad. Both kids ordered cheese quesadillas; One ordered Mac and cheese for a side, while the other ordered a loaded baked potato cake. My sausages were grilled perfectly, with the cut ends crispy, the skin cooked perfectly and the taste of both were amazing, with the andouille having the expected amount of spicy heat. The pulled pork was cooked to perfection and not dry, with the the right smoky taste. The bourbon barbecue sauce made it darn near perfect! The fried okra were the bast I'd ever eaten at a restaurant, ever! The potato salad was ok. Nothing wrong with it, it was just average. The quesadillas were amazing! How could just a cheese quesadilla be amazing? The wrap appeared to have been deep fried and was so crunchy on the outside, but still soft on the inside. The Mac and cheese thankfully was not the usual boxed Kraft-looking kind that is usually served to kids at restaurants, but appeared to be home made there, and was tasty. The loaded baked potato cake was incredible. It appeared to be a spoonful of mashed potato, deep fried to form a thin outer crust, that was topped by a dollop of sour cream and chives. The taste was amazing and texture was perfect. We opted out of desert and our bill was just over $71. Not bad at all!

The real star though, was Zack!! He is a true gem. At 19 years old, he is such a great communicator and lover of people. With each table, he acted like they were the only table he was waiting on and took all the time he needed with them, without neglecting the other tables. He interacted with my wife and I and the Grandkids equally as well.

Thank you Zack and Smoke on the Water for an incredible dining...

I was really excited to come here for my engagement dinner with friends and family after hearing such great things about it from my parents. The food was great, but the service was awful. I am a server and so are several of my friends that were there so we typically like to give people in the service industry a break, but understanding what it’s like to serve made this experience even more questionable for us all. The waitress seemed frantic from the start asking how we were doing checks(which was all on one anyways) and seeming anxious taking drink orders (that’s fine). She didn’t care about my engagement (that’s also fine) but knowing how to get a tip from someone she could have at least pretended to care lol. My friend waited 2 hours for her steak and there was no communication about it what so ever. She came to ask about the food several times, mentioning nothing about the food she still didn’t have. We had to say “We just need her food…” every time, to which she was always like “oh yeah!” with no updates. There was no communication. It’s so easy to let a table know what’s going on and being honest and she chose to ignore us instead and check on every other table. Her steak was cooked RARE so theres no reason it took 2 hours. We were completely finished and we called her over saying forget about the steak and she’ll do dessert instead. The food ended up coming out shortly after so we were like ok whatever and the dessert then proceeded to take an extremely long time. i understand these things are the kitchens fault but lack of communication is absolutely on the server. My fiancé waited 45 minutes for a michultra bottle. Why? Were they out fermenting it in the back? Then, the steak was included on the bill and my mom nicely was like hey not for nothing but why are we still being charged for a steak we told you we didn’t even want anymore and she waited 2 hours for it. She said she could take it off for us, then came back with nothing taken off saying “my manager is busy so it’s going to take a long time sorry”. And??? As a server I know you can split the item off of the check, allow us to pay, and have the manager comp it when they have time. Nope. My mom is too nice and still tipped well, I definitely would not have. Then as we walked out we saw the manager standing at the host stand, not busy. No manager ever came over to apologize for the steak never coming out and honestly I was surprised that our waitress didn’t bring a champagne toast or literally ANYTHING to say sorry for the lack of good service or congrats on your engagement. Just disappointing and whack in my opinion. I guess I’m just a much better server and know how to treat people properly. The two stars was because the appetizers were great. I wish I had a better...