Proud Mary BBQ — Restaurant in Lexington

Let me start off with the good points here. A friend and I drove to Proud Mary BBQ on a Friday at 5pm. The drive was extremely fun, and the place itself had good vibes.

But that's really where the good ends, and the bad begins. We had no trouble getting a table, hostess sat us quickly. It took around 8 minutes for our server to appear, and being in the restaurant industry myself, I understand being busy, but I knew from that point it was going to be a rough dining experience. Server took our drink order, we ordered two ale 8s. No cocktails or beer. Just two ale 8s in a can. It took almost 10 minutes for the server to arrive back with our beverages. Another server asked if we had been saw yet. I said yes, we are waiting for our soft drinks.

He finally came back, took our order, never to be seen again for almost an hour. Another server, or food runner, brought us our food.

I ordered the brisket grilled cheese with baked beans, my friend ordered brisket and shrimp platter.

You would think a grilled cheese brisket sandwich would be amazingly cheesey, with the oh so tender juicy bits of brisket enveloped inside. But no, what I was served was a dry almost overcooked bread, hardly any butter on bread, 1 slice of American cheese, not even melted, with tough, overcooked cold brisket with a 2oz portion of baked beans.

My friends platter wasn't much either. Although the platter did come with quite a bit of food, it had the same over smoked quality that my brisket did as well.

One sauce selection of BBQ was offered on the table. Never once were we asked how our meal was, or any checkups.

By the time I finished my meal, I had to flag down another server and ask for a check.

The server returned with the check, quickly apologized for ghosting us the entire time. My friend didn't even want to take any of his food home. Nor was he offered a Togo box.

The lackluster performance of Proud Mary BBQ really made a horrible choice for us that night.

So all in all I would honestly rate you all a 1 star, but a 2 just because I liked the 40 minute drive to your location.

Step up your game and actually serve food as represented in...

First let me start by saying that I have never written a negative review on any restaurant before. Proud Mary's is situated right on the Kentucky River and should be a good spot for live music and food. For an appetizer I ordered the crab cakes for the table which was advertised at $14. I ordered the pulled pork plate with baked beans and jambalaya. The food was very good and arrived in a timely manner. My group and I also ordered two drinks apiece. The first drink (bourbon with Ale 8) tasted great and had an acceptable amount of liquor in it. When we got the second round of drinks, the whole table did not taste any alcohol in the drinks. We informed the waitress who said she would "take care" of the problem. She came back and informed us that the bartender told her that the drinks were "pre-portioned" with a set amount of alcohol and that we could PURCHASE another shot if we wanted our drinks stronger. I have been taught that the customer is always right, but I guess not at Proud Mary's. We all thought this was rude, but shrugged it off. After this incident we finished our meal and asked for the check. I noticed that I was charged $21 for the crab cakes instead of the advertised $14 price that was on the menu. I again pointed this out to the waitress and she said she would take care of the problem. She came back and said that the price had changed and that now they were $21 for three crab cakes ($7 per cake). I informed her that the menu did not specify this, only the $14 dollar charge (which did not specify how many crab cakes would be served). She then went to get her manager, who came over to the table with an argumentative and rude attitude. She tried to explain to us how we were wrong about the prices when we clearly in the right. After much deliberation and debate, she finally agreed to take the one crab cake off of the check. Instead of taking the full $7, she only took off $6. The one dollar was not a big deal, but her rude and smug attitude was very shocking for someone in a management position. I, nor my friends, will be returning. This is sad because this restaurant had so...

We have been here twice now. Food isn't that great, but the atmosphere is. The first time, we ate upstairs then went downstairs to check the place out. We sat at an empty table to the side to listen to the band for a few minutes. A server promptly came over and asked if we were eating. We said we just ate upstairs. She then told us (rudely) that we can't sit there because it's her section, and if we wanted to just hang out to go by the stage. The restaurant was in no way busy and there were tons of open tables. It was rather unnecessary to act that way because no one would even want to sit at that table anyway- It was in a bad location and had awkward chairs around it. Today, we brought some friends with us to check it out and let the kids play in the sand. After we ate upstairs, we went down to let the kids play in the sand a little. We sat at a picnic table near where our kids were playing. A server came over and told us to move to another picnic table in the sand. She then came back and said she thought we were eating there. We told her we already ate and she told us that we can't sit at any of those tables. Again, only 1 of the tables in the sand was even occupied. All the others totally empty. We all were put off by it and promptly gathered our kids to leave. This place needs to understand that people aren't coming here for the food, but rather the atmosphere. City bbq is 100x better, and much less expensive. Let customers sit where the heck they want. I can understand if the place was actually busy and they needed the tables, but they didn't. No one wants to eat in the sand unless it's their only option! These servers are desperate and money hungry. We spent over $200 on mediocre food and then you're basically kicking us out telling us we can't sit at a nasty, sand covered picnic table for a few minutes?! Put signs up if it's that big of a problem. This place needs to give their servers a reality check and put the customers first. With attitudes like that, no one will want to return and overpay for below...