HoneyFire BBQ — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

SHHHHHHHH! This place is great.

As a Nashville & Bellevue native, I am somewhat apprehensive about posting this review. If I post my true thoughts about the new HoneyFire BBQ at 8127 Sawyer Brown Rd #304 within Nashville’s new One Bellevue Place shopping area, I will maintain my integrity of no-nonsense reviews with zero allegiance to businesses. But selfishly, I wish I could lie, because once the word gets out, it’s gonna be hard to get in this place.

We have all seen the TV commercials and menu images of food only to be greatly disappointed when the server arrives at your table. HoneyFire BBQ, if anything, under promises and over delivers. Here are the Pros and Cons.

PROS:

Food –

The food portions are outstanding. Your big eaters will get full and your small eaters will enjoy leftovers at home. The food quality and taste is outstanding. The quality of the chicken, pulled pork and ribs were top notch. The fries were thin cut larger wedges and really well seasoned. Our table had may be 5 different sides most got rave reviews. I watched meal after meal being delivered to other tables that looked amazing. It left my group wanting to come back to try more.

Customer Service –

Cashier could not be nicer and more willing to guild you through your first purchase. The server was pleasant and patient as newbie customers figured out who ordered what as she placed our food on the table. It was nice that menus were right inside the door so you could study your selections while you waited in line. The line moved very fast. Maybe a 5 minute wait. Everyone smiled and communicated well.

Comfort –

The table seating was comfortable, and the booth seating seemed to be the same.

Clean –

The restaurant was extremely clean including the restroom. Oddly enough, the bathroom soap was a rare high-quality allowing customer and employees to come away with very clean hands. Nothing is worse than a dirty bathroom missing toilet paper, hand soap and towels, and it would seem that HoneyFire BBQ has placed cleanliness on the top of their priority list. All the employees were very well kept.

CONS:

This will sound picky but I have to list CONS to not appear as this review has been purchased.

Food –

The baked beans were more like baked vegetables. The quantity of beans vs spicy veggies/peppers was about 50/50 in a very light soupy broth. If you like spicy, you will like these tasty baked beans but meatier thicker baked beans would be better. My guess is that this menu item will be changed as time goes by. I can’t see most customers enjoying them. Nobody at my table of 5 said they would reorder the baked beans. The mac & cheese was pretty good but not very cheesy. This side item may also see a renovation in time. HoneyFire BBQ is so good at everything else they serve, they will have many years to perfect their baked beans and mac & cheese.

Customer Service –

One of the two front entrance doors was locked making it hard for traffic to get in and out but we in the south know how to hold doors for each other and say thank you. It was not a great problem but like I said, I have to list something here just to prove this is not a paid for review.

Comfort –

My table enjoyed having a few views of a TV to see the Titans game but HoneyFire BBQ could spring for 50-60” screens rather than what looked like 32-40” screens. Great picture quality but somewhat small for old eyes.

Clean –

It was unclear if you need to clean your own table or not. We did after spotting cans but still not sure if we needed to do that or not. Having someone to come around and take up your trash for you would be nice but their prices are fare, especially for the good portions you get. Adding a cleanup employee may drive prices up, so lets just all clean up our own tables and enjoy their great food at a good price.

SUMMERY:

HoneyFire BBQ is a great new addition to Bellevue and I wish already that I had not shared this review. I fear Hattie B’s lines are...

There are quite a few BBQ places around Nashville that have developed quite a significant following. Honeyfire, in our opinion, takes the cake. This place sorta follows the fast food model: order and pay at the cashier, sit at booth/table of your liking, and you'll have to get up to get your own refills. They do have bar seating, and outdoor seating available as well.

We knew we were in for a treat reading through the menu. Everything sound amazing, and it was so difficult to only pick a couple things. Brisket and ribs are always our go to, and we judge places pretty heavily based on their execution of these items.

Something else that made us believe we were in for a great experience were the smells. It smelled heavenly in there. You could tell these people really knew what they were doing.

I ordered sausage and brisket, with their queso mac and cheese, and cinnamon apples.

My husband ordered sausage and ribs, with their queso mac and cheese, and Hoosier pudding.

We both split the ribs and brisket.

Oh. My. Gosh.

The queso mac and cheese ALONE was worth the visit and 5 stars. This was the first thing we both tasted. My mouth waters just thinking about it. It is incredibly gooey, and had a nice touch of smokiness as well. Next time we go... it'll be extremely hard to resist getting double servings, and some to go.

I love cinnamon apples. It is one of my favorite dessert sides. Theirs were pretty good but had a bit too much cinnamon and it was overpowering. They weren't awful but I probably wouldn't get it again unless I was really in the mood.

The Hoosier corn pudding was pretty interesting. It was a decent take of the Ohio dish. It was slightly sweet which complimented the savory meats well but the moisture wasn't very consistent. It was pretty dry on top and very wet on the bottom. Not sure if it's supposed to be like that. Either way, I enjoyed it, my husband didn't care for it much.

On to the meats:

Everything was DELICIOUS. My biggest complaint was that the ribs were a touch on the dry side. Definitely not the succulent, fall off the bone experience I love, but they were still very good. Their sauces were great additions to it. I recommend mixing the two sauces together.

The sausage had amazing flavor, and came already slathered in a delicious glaze. Definitely happy we didn't have to split them. They were a great filler.

The brisket was also fantastic. It had a pretty nice smoke ring on it, so you know they're treating it right! It paired extremely well with their hot bbq sauce. This definitely made up for the dryness of the ribs, as it was juicy and melted in your mouth.

They give you so much food that we honestly could've split one tray. But at the same time, I'm so glad we didn't!

I chose a terrible time to right this review, as it's close to lunch time and what I'm eating today pales what we had at Honeyfire.

SERIOUSLY, CHECK THIS PLACE OUT! It has serious potential at becoming the number one bbq joint and we hope to see more of them throughout...

This is a hidden gem that many must know about. We came here before our movie at AMC and we were in and out in less than an hour. The place is super clean and the service is great. Sofia at the cashier was super nice and made some great recommendations.

The food came out pretty fast and was piping hot! We ordered the Candied Bacon Queso, Southern Shine sandwich, Diablo Jones sandwich, Honey Flat Fries, White Queso Mac, Hoosier Corn Pudding, Sugar Cream Pie, and the PB Nana Pudding.

The queso was average I expected a bit more from it flavor wise, but it may just be my particular taste. I’m not sure if they fry the tortilla chips themselves but ours were either stale or over cooked. Extremely hard to chew so we really wasted it unfortunately.

The southern shine was a great portion. I love how you can get so much food for $12.95. The sandwich is full of meat, and you get two sides. That’s a hard fine these days. Conversely, the pulled pork was very dry and too chewy. It looks really nice when it comes out, but leaves you underwhelmed after.

What was perfect was the white queso mac and the honey flat fries! I may come back for those two sides alone.

The sugar cream pie tastes bland and basic in my opinion but I don’t have any past experiences to compare it to. My friend loved it though so I’ll chalk it up to preference.

Lastly, the PB Nana Pudding is delicious!! I was hesitant ordering this because I hate bananas but Sofia said it’s not overly saturated with bananas and she doesn’t like them either but she likes this one so we tried it. I’m so glad I listened to her.

To sum it all, it’s a cool place to visit, but I wouldn’t go out of my way. I’m giving 3 stars because it’s a bbq place and that was one of the worst parts of the meal. Being from Texas we know BBQ and I wasn’t impressed. Nonetheless, the service, sides, and desert make up for the bbq and still leave you full without breaking the bank.

UPDATE 10/12/19

I have visited Honeyfire about 3 times since writing this review and my views have changed. My new favorite item is the banana pudding. I order it almost every time I go to AMC next door. Also, the smoked sausage sandwich has also become a new favorite. I have yet to try the pulled pork again, but so far the food has been better each time since my first visit. As always, the...