Sonny's BBQ — Restaurant in Kentucky

This review is 2 stars only because of the flavor of the food i received.

Sonny's BBQ has amazing flavor, and I usually drive out of my way to enjoy their brisket, smoked turkey, and chicken. On 20JUL25, i decided to make the 90 minute journey from my home in Knoxville to the closest Sonny's to me, which happened to be this one. In order to ensure I had the freshest order i could get, I waited until I was at the parking lot before i placed my order on the website. There was no trouble using the website to order and pay, and the website informed me that my order would be ready for pickup at 1122 local time.

I waited patiently in my car, then at 1122 I walked into the restaurant in order to pick up my order. I went to the to go counter and I waited......and I waited.... and I waited. I stood there for about 10 minutes and during that time not a single member of staff even thought it would be a good idea to at least say "hello" or acknowledge my presence at the counter.

I should point out that I understand if a place is busy that they are so distracted that they might not be able to say anything to me, but this was not the case. the Host at the host stand was literally standing and doing nothing, and didn't have the idea to at least ask if i had been helped, 4 or 5 different servers looked in my direction, as well as at least 2 kitchen staff looked in my direction, and didn't have the thought to at least see if there was anything they could help me with. In a last ditch effort to get someone's attention, i decided to call the restaurant while i was still standing at the to go counter. The phone rang for a good minute, and not a single person tried to pick up the phone.

after 15 minutes i walked out of the restaurant and decided to try to pick up in the drive through, I still had to wait another 5 minutes before someone answered on the loudspeaker. After telling them that i was picking up a to go order i pulled around and there was a car at the window. Another 5 minutes passed before I finally was able to pull up to the window and the drive through attendant handed me my food. I parked and started eating but while the food's flavor was amazing, sadly at this point most of the food was a lukewarm temperature at best because it had been sitting in the container for at least 20-25 minutes.

I'm sorry, but no food is amazing enough to drive 90 minutes for just to receive terrible service, or in this case a lack of service. A simple "hello" and /or "we'll be with you shortly" by at least any of the staff would have...

Ok... it happened to be right next where I shut down for the night... this place was looking very nice on the outside... step in and there was no wait.. 3pm. My waitress was very nice and got to me quickly. I ordered the sonny's sampler and pulled pork egg rolls. They had 4 different sauces to put on your food. Original, sweet, smokey, and spicy. I wasn't a fan of the smokey at all. The other three had good tastes and the one that went with everything was the sweet.

Now moving on to the food. I tried everything straight up before putting anything else on it. I'll start with the Coleslaw... this had a mayo base.. it was good! Not too overwhelming, not too sweet, with a hint of pepper on the backside. Cabbage was crisp and not soggy. The chicken I got a leg and thigh ¼ and it had a small piece of breast attached. Normally, chicken has a heavy smoke and is very dry. Not this chicken... even the beast meat was juicy. Just a hint of smoke. It was delicious without anything else on it. But if you want a sauce, the Original and sweet go well with this. Pulled pork was juicy and had a good flavor attached to it. Smoke was good with it.. not too much, not too little. Sauces that go well is the sweet, Original and spicy.. Brisket was flavorful and moist. It also was tender. Smoke wasn't bad with it. Not too much of a bark, so if your looking for bark your not going to find it. Now sauces that go with this is spicy and Original, the spicy shines with this meat. Ribs were delicious, moist and tender. They also had good flavor. Smoke was subtle. The sweet and original go good with this meat as well. On to the beans... they were ok.... they had a mustard flavor to them that wasn't my jam. But if it's yours you'd enjoy them. Corn muffin was not too sweet and it wasn't dry. I enjoyed it very much. Just wish it can with butter.... I should have asked for some. My fault. Egg rolls were different, can't say if they were good or not... it's kind of a in-between. They had a sauce that came with them... like a bbq mayo mix, in my opinion. So the only bad thing I have to say about the place is a I was being seated, I noticed a bunch of tables not bused, and the floor under my table needed to be swept up. Other than that I was happy with my experience and would recommend to anyone who would...

Food was actually great for the most part, my chicken tenders on my BBQ chicken tender sandwich minus the BBQ, LOL, was cooked to perfection. My husband even seen it and had to point out how it just looked like it was cooked to the perfect temp and all that because it looked like it was straight out of a magazine, u know, ones u have looked at and thought to urself, that it had to be fake food just for the ad in the magazine because that's how perfect it looked. Well, that's precisely how this looked yesterday. Now, I got this same sandwich 2 days b4, and it wasn't the best, I almost didn't order it this time because after the other day I told my husband I wish I had went with my other choice cause I felt ripped off, lol. But, boy am I glad I didn't. I gave 1 less star because by the time we got our food or got the waiter to finally bring some mayo for me and some sour cream for my husband for his loaded baked potato, that mind u, was not loaded, in fact when we asked the waiter what all toppings they had for the baked potatoes, he hesitated and was like, um.., just basically like butter and.....souurr creeaammm.... lol and then I helped him out by suggesting.....and..... chhheeeesseee....????.... lmao and yeah that was basically it, although I believe my husband added the bacon bits, that I couldn't even eat, because they were so rock hard! But, nevertheless, shit happens, trust me, we know this all too well, as we have Murphy's Law to assist us full force in our everyday lives because my husband is a Murphy. And. Yall wouldn't even believe me if I told yall bout a 1/4 of it all, but I'm not going to, I'm just saying I dont wanna persuade some1 not to eat there as it could be great for them, just like how I was disappointed 2 days ago, but then they redeemed themselves this time and then some with that magazine picture (and taste and through cookedness) perfect chicken tender sandwich. And, I understand that because of this, I don't wanna negatively impact the overall image of a relatively good place to bring your family. And I really wish I'd thought to take such a picture of such a picture perfect sandwich, but I didn't, and I'm sorry. Lol. Next time tho, I...