The Smokehouse — Restaurant in Hilton Head Island

Well. . . . . Sometimes it just all starts off wrong. I hope that my experience today is the exception, and not the rule. Let me start out that their new building is beautiful. When we walked into the restaurant, there was no greeter. I stood there for a minute or two and still no one. I then step into the dining room and asked "do we just take a seat?" So they took us to a booth. In our seat we waited much longer before I asked a passing waitress to have our waitress come by. She responded she was our waitress and she'd be right back. I ordered an ice tea and asked for another menu, I had only picked up one when I walked in. Ice tea showed up quickly, had to asked another waitress for another menu. After a few minutes we got the menu. Our waitress passed by several times without asking if we were ready to order. Sooooo then I overheard her and I guess, her supervisor. It seemed to me she was saying she was over loaded. I don't know, that was just my impression. I probably at this point made it worse. I spoke up and said that we didn't mind moving to another table. She said defensively "oh no she would be right back" while saying "all the restaurants on the Island where short handed and we wouldn't get any faster service elsewere". In a couple minutes she returned and took our order. The food came out quickly. Our waitress returned right after and asked if everything was ok. My wife and I were a little shook up. We replied it's fine. This is our first time to the restaurant, we are trying to relax. We had ordered a large plate that had chicken, brisket, 2 ribs, and pulled pork. Well, the food wasn't hot just kind of luke warm. The brisket and the pulled pork was not well seasoned. The chicken was dry and cool. Because of the other stuff we decided to just suffer through it. We did ask the manager over, and we tried to explain, because I believe if they are not aware, they can't fix it. He's response seemed like he thought we where trying for a free meal. We had eaten most of the plate except 2 oz chicken meat, baked sweet potato, and sweet potato tots. He explained that if we had called him out sooner he would have fixed it, and I believe him. About the front door not having someone to seat you he said he could not afford someone to do that.🤔. Wow. First impressions are very important. A word to the management. Always treat your customers like they are right even if they are wrong. And be truely friendly and pleasant. It goes a long way. I hope this is a one off. But I...

This isn't the Smokehouse that you remember. Since the fire a couple of years ago, they've rebuilt and now have a beautiful building however the food, service and atmosphere have all taken a turn for the worse.

This used to be our favorite restaurant in Hilton Head but no more. We went here for the first time since they rebuilt and had a terrible experience. First, the new seating area is a terrible design. They just have one big open-air room where everyone gets stuffed in to like cattle. We went on a busy night and the room was packed. Due to the design and layout, it was incredible loud. You literally had to yell at someone sitting right next to you for them to hear you. Not enjoyable at all.

Then the service, it was even worse. From the time we sat down, it took over 50 mins to get our food. It took almost 20 mins just for someone to come over to take our order. And the person who did eventually come over said that they weren't even our assigned waiter but they were going to help out because our waiter was... well, he actually didn't know where our waiter was. And we never did see the waiter who was supposed to be taking care of our table. Guess this might have contributed to the poor service.

And last but not least, the food, it just wasn't very good. I would always get the rack of ribs, it used to be the best on the island IMO. Not anymore though. The ribs were really thick and dry. This can normally be helped with some good BBQ sauce, and theirs used be great but even that has changed since the fire and isn't very good anymore. The sauce was really tart with a strong vinegar flavor. Some people might like that but my wife and I didn't like it at all.

So, not sure if they are under new ownership now or not but this definitely isn't the Smokehouse that we all remembered and loved.

P.S. - In response the the owner's response to this review suggesting that we may have had Covid while eating there, we did not. Bottom line is that this place is no where near as good as it used to be. And if the owner spent a little more time addressing the bad service, bad dining room design and sub-par food, instead of making jokes in response to people who are posting honest reviews, then maybe this restaurant could someday get back to what...

Never been so disappointed in a restaurant. I had a few friends recommend this place on Hilton Head and all I can say is that this was definitely a disappointing experience. The restaurant itself has a nice atmosphere and the service was good. Now the food was where it went downhill. Now my wife and I have had plenty of BBQ. It is one of our faves but when it came to this place they shouldn’t have it on the menu if you can’t do it right. We have visited grandparents in the nursing home and have had nursing home food and this would be what I would compare it too. It absolutely had no taste! No smoking flavor or flavor from a rub of sauce. Even the sides were bland. My wife got the smoked chicken, baked potato, and macaroni and cheese. None of these had flavor, she doesn’t salt anything and she added salt to all the items! The baked potato looked like a shriveled up old shoe. The chicken at least was juicy but didn’t have flavor even with the barbecue sauces they provided which were very vinegary, you couldn’t get much taste. No we didn’t have Covid either. I tried the pulled pork, corn on the cob, and smashed potatoes. The smashed potatoes were good and had some flavor but the corn was meh. As for the pulled pork it was chewy and dry and of course had no taste. Again the barbecue sauce couldn’t save it. My wife ate a quarter of her meal , I ate half trying to save it. When the server asked us how it was we said it was ok. We don’t usually send food back or have them take it off our check because we know how hard it is for restaurants right now. Usually I don’t even complain but I had to warn people about this one especially for the prices. The food is definitely not worth the cost and definitely the most disappointing food experience I have had on Hilton...