Smoke Daddy BBQ - Wrigleyville — Restaurant in Lake View Township

I was in Wrigleyville around 1PM Saturday and there were three hosts/hostesses gathered around the hostess stand chatting with one another. This is always a terrible sign, as restaurants that require three people to seat a guest - or where the staff prefers chatting with each other to serving - are usually in serious disrepair.

I wanted to grab a quick bite before my 2:30 PM tour of Wrigley Field so I asked for a table for one. Ignoring my request, the hostess gave me her best stewardess "over there somewhere" point and told me to go figure it out myself in the bar. Okay, but why are three people standing there to tell me to seat myself?

I didn't want to sit on a barstool to eat my BBQ but the place wasn’t that busy so I sat at a table that seemed a little out of the way. I read the menu and made my selection which was easy because it was a very limited selection: 5 sandwiches, 3 types of ribs, 3 types of salads, and some appetizers. I was actually hoping for BBQ chicken, which would seem like something you might be able to get at a BBQ place, but other than a pulled chicken sandwich I didn’t see any chicken.

I waited. I waited. I waited some more. I was thinking I might have to ditch this place because no one was coming.

Fortunately they solved the problem as a hostess came up to bounce me off my table because it was “reserved”. Okay, but:

1. There was no reserved sign on it.
2. I had ASKED FOR A TABLE and had not been told to go find one myself, and then reprimanded for my selection.
3. I wasted 10 minute waiting for you not to come help me, but to tell me to go find somewhere else to sit.

Seriously?

Memo to Smoke Daddy’s: As near I could tell your entire second floor wasn't open (or at least, not open to me, when I specifically ASKED FOR A TABLE!!). Don’t close half the place then mark off a huge chunk of your remaining seats as RESERVED with an invisible rope line only you can see and then tell people to go seat themselves, because guess what’s going to happen?

Realizing at this point I was doomed I said, “No worries” and left. I didn’t feel like I should have to argue to get a table or plead to get someone to wait on me and I certainly didn’t want to interrupt their fascinating conversations with each other. If that's how they handle seating thank goodness I didn't eat any of the food, but fortunately getting seated was so dreadful I never got past the hostess stand. I sincerely hope they close soon and are replaced with a restaurant with a...

Heard good things about this place, decided to hit it up for brunch. First off, place has a decent atmosphere. Had reservations, were sat relatively quickly. Took 15+ minutes before we were asked about drinks etc.

We did the bottomless brunch, we both ordered bottomless drinks also. I started off with bloody Mary and my friend tried the punch. Punch came out quickly, my bloody Mary took forever(20+ min.) When it finally did come out it looked like it was a send back from another table and wasn't even complete(the rib looked like someone took a nibble out of it and put it back), they took it back and made "another" one. It was the same drink they just added a new rib, the same markings were still on the glass, I didn't drink it.(They still charged me even though I told them I didn't want it for obvious reasons.) So. With bottomless brunch you're supposed to receive bottomless pancakes, sausage, fruit, hash browns etc. Those never came out. We received our entree's instead. Everything on our entree was cold like it had sat waiting to be expedited for quite some time. The brisket was mostly fat, no meat and cold. Not appetizing whatsoever. My friend ordered nachos with no meat, well, they received nachos with meat chili all over it after we were assured it would have no meat. Around 45 min have gone by, still no pancakes, sausage etc. no refills on our drinks or my initial bottomless drink(I had a bloody Mary to start with which I sent back and cancelled my bottomless and they were waiting on a mimosa.) I technically had zero drinks minus my water and my friend had one total drink for bottomless after roughly 1.5 hrs had gone by. Wow.

Finally got frustrated and asked for our check, as soon as we asked for the check and to see a manager they then rushed out another punch drink which my friend did not want to begin with, they wanted a mimosa, and our pancakes, sausage etc finally came out and the food was all cold.

Not sure if they were having an expediting issue,staffing issue or both but I was not happy whatsoever and it started our day on a rotten foot.

Tip of the iceberg we waited for an additional 15 minutes to see a manager but no one came. I reluctantly paid the bill since we had to leave to make an event. I then called the next day hoping to get this fixed and I still wasn't able to speak to a manager. I feel like the staff was covering for each other, but at the end of the day the place was overall horrible. From what I was able to try I can safely say the BBQ...

Me & my guest went to this restaurant on Wednesday the 12th of 2024 at 6:45pm.

One of the worst dining experiences we’ve had in a very long time.

Waited around 15 minutes till our server sarah came after we were seated. Throughout our dining experience, our server sarah was noticeably absent and borderline negligent.

My guest and I were parched and did not have our drinks refilled for about 45 minutes. She also did not clear our table of dirty dishes or ask what we thought of any of the food we ordered.

She also failed to take our menus away and never brought silverware or new plates when new food was arriving to the table. I had to go grab silverware from the table besides us. At one point we just gave up and just started eating directly from the plate since we were sure she was not going to come back anytime soon.

We were there for almost 2 hours & not by choice, we could not get ahold of anybody. Sarah the server was seen talking to the bartender most of the time and not attending to the tables. This was especially frustrating because the restaurant was not busy whatsoever.

Probably one of the worst servers I have had in a very long time. definitely soured our experience. It was very frustrating as again the restaurant was basically empty.

I also will note that the manager was roaming around the restaurant the whole time. He saw us wait at the table for around 15 minutes when we were seated as he walked past us many, many times and didn't bother to ask or do anything about it.

At one point when the server didn't come by for a long time and we needed extra plates we tried to get his attention as he was the only staff member available in the dining area but he ignored us. Not sure if he did not see me wave or not but he never bothered to come to our table once.

My overall visit to this restaurant was very poor. The staff was very negligent (server and manager) from beginning to end. Even though the food was good I would not consider and would advise people to not go to this place.

Some of the standout dishes were deviled eggs & carolina- style...