The Armory Smokehouse — Restaurant in Ironton

I've been here several times over the past year and I believe that I've seen enough to give this place a fair review.

The concept of the Armory Smokehouse is gimmicky at best, and the shine of a new restaurant in town doesn't last long when the service is poor, the food mundane, and the prices off the mark.

Since this review reflects my experiences over the course of the year I'll break it into three parts:service, food, and price point. As I find additional photos that I've taken that support this review, I'll attach them.

Service: Every restaurant has growing pains. Finding the proper balance of staff, training staff, and managing them can be difficult, but eventually either a balance is struck or the restaurant falters. From opening day the Armory seems to have struggled. We've encountered wait-staff more interested in their phones and hanging out than service, and rude managers. The only time that we've seen waitstaff exactly interested in being there is when you're 3/4 done with your meal and they are ready for their tip. At that point you can't get rid of them. If you're expecting service that is commensurate to the price of the food then you'll be disappointed. Hand-washing Anecdote: Do you see the picture of the restroom? If employees have to wash their hands (properly) then how are they supposed to open the inward swinging door? They can wash all they want, but they're still touching the same handle as those that aren't.

Food: One my first visit shortly after the Armory's opening that menu was packed, but it's been through several revisions since then, with several items disappearing, prices changing, etc. That's to be expected. Just keep in mind that some menu items may not be available. I uploaded the menu from last weeks visit as well as images of what we ordered. On our first visit we ordered ribs, it's a smokehouse so ribs are the baseline. Without going into too much detail we don't order the ribs anymore. Maybe it was the slow service or a rush to keep filling plates, but biting into a lukewarm strip of fat is pretty nasty. It was an instant sendback. I munched on the cold fries while I waited to find a waiter to come back. I've never had "piping hot" food here. What we have had has been edible, but at the price paid edible is a low bar that the Armory barely clears.

Price point: They're just not worth it. In general most of the meats and entrees that we've tried were overpriced and underwhelming. The exception was the "Stingers" which are now on the menu as Jalapeno Cheddar Sausage. On our past two visits we've ordered exclusively from the appetizer's menu. The loaded nachos are large enough to serve two persons, but at $11 they should. The Street Tacos are $11 and you get three small tacos, a better price point would be $8. Like most items on the rest of the menu, the appetizers are overpriced for what you get. Most of the bottled beer was $6.00 a bottle with no prices to be found on the drink menu. A family of three splitting just appetizers and two domestic beers is going to be over $50 after tip.

Overall: Poor service and inflated prices on a...

Let's start with I am a veteran of the US Navy, I was intrigued to see what the Armory was all about. My husband is a history buff, so he was looking forward to the hype online about this restaurant. This was not a great experience.

The good; the building was awesome! They had uniforms from all different branches and even different decades. There were metals and historical items everywhere... not overwhelming but throughout the building. That being said our experience went down hill from there.

The bad; most of the food was straight from the freezer or had been prepped well ahead of time. I had an appetizer sampler for my entree and the chicken strips were formed strips that were basically a chicken nugget, the stuffed mushrooms may have been hand made, but the stuffing is mostly cream cheese and jot other real flavor with a very heavy fried chicken crust, and the potato skins were old and lifeless. My son got the Mac and cheese with fries. He isn't hard to please with either usually but was not impressed with them. The Mac and cheese was bland, and the fries were straight from the bag.

The ugly; how long it took. I was fairly preoccupied with my youngest son, so the time didn't seem terrible, but my husband wasn't as occupied and had felt as though the wait was by far too long. Our waiter was pitiful at best. He brought our drinks to start but we had to ask for all the refills after giving him time to notice them first, my husband ordered sweet tea and after asking for the refill we still didn't see it for a good 15 minutes. This could have been ok had the waiter come straight back and said give us a few we are brewing a fresh pot but he didn't, when he came back with it finally, he smelled heavily of cigarette smoke. We did get one excuse that our meal was taking longer because the dish my husband ordered was pork chops, and they were fairly thick and taking longer to cook. That being said, my husband ordered the pork chops with a baked potato, and on the potato, he wanted butter and cheese. When the plate came out, the pork chops were a medium thickness at best, and his potato wasn't even cut, let alone did it have butter and cheese. At this point my husband wasn't happy at all, my son and I finished our meals and we left. All meals were paid for, and there was barely a thank you for coming in from our waiter. The staff member who checked us out was very nice and asked us if we needed to speak to a manager, to which...

Service was awful. They brought out our salads about 15 minutes after we ordered them, we had to ask for dressing and silverware, when we finally got it the dressing was watered down and was such a small amount it did not even cover the top of the salad asked for more dressing they didn’t bring it till they brought our food 35-40 minutes later, When we finally got our food, which took forever, the food seemed as if it had been sitting a while and had been warmed up in a microwave. rolls was supposed to come with our meal and we had to ask, 10 minutes later she returned and told us they ran out was not offered a replacement or a discount for having no rolls, but In the time it took her to find out there was no rolls several other tables received them with there meals. Was also told that rolls are made based on the amount sold on the same day of the previous week, how can you as a business justify the amount of product needed from previous weeks total, being a new restaurant knowing you are going to have a lot more customers, especially from the end of the months service and the first of the month knowing more then likely you will have more service on the first of the month. I ordered steak and it was good, but that was the only thing. The ribs had no meat at all on them and what little meat they did have was so dry and tough you couldn’t eat it. The fish was the same way just over cooked and dry, and the fries that came with the plate was sorry looking 5 little French fries about the size of a quarter was brought out and they looked dehydrated. Everyone bragged about how good the The Mac n cheese was I don’t think they was talking about this place it was awful, I don’t know how anyone could it it, it was mush you couldn’t tell apart the noodles from the cheese where it had been reheated so many times. Asked for refills several but never received them. The waitress wanted to know how much we loved our meal as she was walking away, when she finally stopped to listen and we started explaining all of this to her the response was, well I’m sorry and just walked away, she never came back. We won’t be back, due to the bad service...