Bonefish Grill — Restaurant in Johnson City

Meh. I don’t often go to chains, but this was a favorite... until now

First, our server was excellent. Even though she said she was fairly new to the restaurant you could tell that she was a seasoned server. She forgot a couple of things like our sugar for the tea, but she was pleasant and professional and really quite excellent. She also wasn’t 100% sure what was on the house salad, but told us it was because she was new, so then she consulted her notes. I would much rather the server tell me that they are new and consult notes than get the order wrong.

In the past when I went to Bonefish, there seemed to be many more fresh seafood options. This visit felt like there were not a lot of other options and that their focus has shifted from a mostly seafood place to a place with a lot of other offerings. I tried the poke tuna bowl, and it had way too much creamy sauce on it and (oddly unannounced) crunchy elements on top. The creamy sauce was even in the rice, not just drizzled on top, so it was hard to avoid. I like a poke bowl because it’s very fresh, where the rice is fresh and then the poke sits on top and certainly you can drizzle a little bit of sauce, or something on top of that, but the rice shouldn’t have it all soaked into it, because then it just tastes soggy, and not fresh. That’s what this was like. It was a very heavy sauce to be on a traditional poke. I know the American poke and sushi craze tends to lean a little bit toward crunch and sauce, and you really have to tell the people not to be so heavy with it, but I didn’t imagine that this poke would have this much sauce. Also, they said it was served in a traditional Hawaiian poke sauce but this was not a traditional Hawaiian poke sauce. There was also something crunchy on top, which I had to pick off. If the menu lists all the items, please don’t put something crunchy on top unless it’s listed. It looked like French fried onions or something. No. Just no.

My mom‘s dish was good. She ordered the chicken marsala, so I guess having a few non-seafood dishes would make sense on the menu, because she really liked it.

The dessert menu was really limited as well, with only a few desserts, all of them feeling a bit… thick. Cheesecakes and brownies with nothing either really refreshing or creamy. A mousse would be nice. A panna cotta would be nice. Some sort of creamy chocolate dessert would be nice. A crème brûlée would be nice. A lemon blueberry cake or just simply a lemon cake would be nice. Even a sorbet or gelato or ice cream would be nice. We are huge dessert fans, but nothing on this menu appealed to us. It all felt very dense.

But I think it was the sides that disappointed me the most. They used to have a nice broccolini that was grilled, and so I asked for the broccoli and they just brought out cooked broccoli that had a little lemon butter on it. It was pretty disappointing. And it wasn’t cooked al dente with a crunch. It was just the type of broccoli-with-butter you would get in a cafeteria.

Would love to see some of the fresher seafood and old menu items back with the emphasis on fresh light food. Let's eliminate the butters and the heavy sauces and extra crunches and heavy non-fish proteins. Why are there so many meat and steak options? Let's get back to the fish! We don't need yet another chain serving...

Update to my original post. The staff reached out to me expeditiously and wanted to learn from the experience so this would not happen again. I returned to the restaurant this week and the food and service was exceptional! It's apparent they listen to their customers and make improvements when needed. I'm so happy to recommend Bonefish Grill to my friends and family.

(Old review) My husband and I have been regular customers of Bonefish Grill in JC since opening. We've hosted larger dinners, meetings there and of course we would go for just a dinner out for the two of us. We've always been impressed with the quality of the food and how it was prepared, until lately. We have seen a steady decline in quality recently and last night was the worst experience by far. My fish was not cooked and still cold on one end when it arrived at my table. I wasn't quite sure if it was properly cooked and ate about an ounce until the server came back to check on our table. When I asked her about it she immediately confirmed it was not cooked. Someone came out from the kitchen and apologized and offered to cook another entree and offered a free dessert to make things right. By that point, my appetite was ruined. After consuming a small amount of undercooked fish, I was concerned I could get sick from it. The kitchen manager stated that he eats almost raw tuna and never has a problem. Well., that would be sushi grade tuna, which is different than trout. What has recently changed at Bonefish Grill to cause such a decline? My husband and I spent $91.00 +- (before tip) on 2 entrees and an appetizer (no drinks) and left feeling terribly disappointed. We expected at minimum for our food to be quality and properly prepared. Also, due to all of the issues surrounding my fish, my husband didn't want to bring up that his filet steak was mostly fat and gristly, which was also left mostly uneaten. This used to be our "go to" restaurant for a nice night out. So sad we won't be returning...

Virtually empty restaurant, 7 other tables. Started good. Hostess not at the front table, waited 5 minutes. Waitress was friendly and concise. Did not receive the normal dish of bread. Ordered appetizer.. shrimp app came out with water in three minutes, before we even placed dinner order. Shrimp was luke warm, maybe 90-100 degrees. Good presentation. Food came out.. It's almost as if all of the food finished, but the A la carte au gratin potatoes took longer to cook, so all of the food had to sit and wait. The potatoes were piping hot, everything else was 90-100 degrees. The Brussel sprouts were overcooked, the outside charred and even tasted burned. The scallops were actually undercooked.. everything else the temp was noticeably low. Presentation was great though. Our waitress only visited us once. Someone else brought us our food.. the waitress visited to refill my water glass, and we saw her bouncing from table to table.. There were only 8 tables and two waitresses.. but she didn't visit us for 20 minutes after we finished eating. So about 40-45 minutes. No dessert.. just trying to get out.

I can say, the other waitress checked every 5-10 minutes on all of her tables. She was very thorough and I heard many comments about her.

For the price point of $110 dinner.. we just expect more. We are also in food service on a corporate level with the 6th largest company in the world, and see these things daily. If you want to be the best, do not reinvent the wheel. Timeliness,...