Sonny's BBQ — Restaurant in Palm Bay

Updated: Initially this was a one star review. Cole from this location contacted me and we discussed the issues that led to this problem, and hopefully it won't occur again. He offered two free meals in the restaurant to make up this event.

To add a few suggestions.

A customer dining in the restaurant or going through the drive thru has an expectation of a wait. They know they have to wait for someone to ask for their order or to be seated and wait for the waitress. They also know once their order is placed they have to wait for it to be cooked. However, a customer ordering via the website and scheduling a time to pick up the order doesn't have an expectation of a wait. They expect that the time given is the time used to get their order ready. At no point should a curbside order take more than a few minutes to be taken out to a waiting customer. Therefore, a dedicated employee should always be monitoring the status of online/curbside orders as priority number one and ensuring that the four parking spaces reserved for those particular customers aren't being used by customers who are dining inside the restaurant. The way you're supposed to let the staff know you're there to pick up your curbside order is to enter the curbside parking space number you've parked in once you're at the restaurant in the text message confirmation you receive directly after placing your order, which can't be done if those spaces are occupied. To help with that particular issue, there are two drive thru only spots directly across from the drive thru window that should be converted to curbside parking spaces with numbers 5 and 6. Those spaces can still be used by the drive thru staff if a problem arises because those situations are likely few are far between, and because of the location of those two specific spots they aren't likely to ever be used by customers dining inside the restaurant, whereas numbers 1 through 4 are prime spots right in front of the building.

Original

Today I placed an order via the website @4:38pm for curbside pickup. I scheduled the pickup for 5pm. I arrived at 5pm and found all the curbside parking spots filled with cars, several empty, and a motorcycle, also empty. The email confirmation requires a parking space number to be entered when you arrive for curbside delivery, which obviously wasn't possible, so I went through the drive thru to pick up my order. I waited ten minutes for two cars ahead of me before arriving at the window where I was informed that my order had just been received. What? You literally get a text message almost a second after you place an order. I was told to park in a drive thru only parking spot and that my order would be out shortly. Fifteen more minutes passed by, three cars came into the drive thru, ordered, and left with their food while I was still parked and waiting for an order I had placed now over an hour ago. How drive thru orders have a greater priority over scheduled orders is beyond me. I went inside to speak to a manager. The manger came out and told me they were bagging up my food now and to wait right there, so I waited. Right. There. Another ten minutes passed by and still no order. I, yet again, inquired about the status of my order and was told that they were looking for me...outside...and that my order had been ready for several minutes....

One of my orders was for a pulled pork sandwich, which someone turned in a sliced pork sandwich. Of course, I wasn't told that, let alone the reason why. When I got home, the food was cold, for obvious reasons.

And the kicker! The Sonny's sign is currently advertising both online ordering and curbside pickup! Salt. Wound. I would've gotten my food faster if I had arrived in person and sat down to order or simply showed up and went through the the drive thru. Boggles my mind. Utterly...

I like their food and service, however, their customer service needs improvement. A few days ago we ordered take out. We went inside for this. We waited around 20 minutes and they gave us everything bagged (how it should be as it is take out). When we got home, one of the orders was not correct. The 3 meats (pork, wings and brisket) came with 2. You have to pay additional for the brisket, and this was the one that they didn't include. Also, instead of 4 wings they gave us 3. I did ask the friendly young woman who took our order how many wings should come in this meal, and she said 4. I called. A male answered the phone. I told him that I was calling because one of the meals in my order wasn't right. He said, "Are you the lady calling about the cheeseburger and the soda." I said, "No, I am not." I knew right away that mine wasn't an isolated incident that same day. After I explained, he said, "check underneath the fries, sometimes they put it there." I told him that we checked every single ordered in case it was placed in another meal or underneath a side, and it was not there. I also told him about the wings. He remained silent for a few seconds, and after I asked, "Are you still there?" He said, "mmmmm ok. Do you want us to take your name now?" I said, "No" and ended the call. That isn't how you respond to a customer. I am not looking for freebies, discounts, or anything of the sort. We spend almost $80 in our 4 meals. We just want them to be more aware of this issues for this not to happen again. We won't be returning for a while. I hope they can train their staff and make things better. Edit to add: I wished I read the reviews before ordering take-out. It looks like this happens often with delivery and...

Save yourself! Go pretty much anywhere else. Summary: cold food that’s been sitting around for god knows how long that will take forever to get to you and the worst service I’ve ever gotten at any restaurant anywhere in the country. Not trying to be nit picky because we’re chill but it was such a bad experience that I’m going to include all the little things below in case they decide to be better.

Came in and sat at the empty bar with a little freckled girl who didn’t introduce herself or say hi. Asked for water then she disappeared for 10 minutes or longer. She came back and gave us drinks with no coasters one of which came in a dirty glass then disappeared for another 15 minutes before taking our order. We were sharing a larger platter and did not get an extra plate, sauces, or napkins. Food took 25 minutes in an empty restaurant with no to-go orders coming in(we sat next to the Togo station) and at least 10 employees loudly chatting and hanging out in the kitchen doorway. Ribs tasted rancid(bad meat) and one of them came with no meat on it. The wings were undercooked and grossly rubbery. Asked to sample a draft beer before ordering so she gave me 1/2 a beer instead of a sample and charged full price for it. Left all our dirty dishes there until after we left. Took 20 minutes after we finished with everything to check on us by yelling “you good” across the room. Took another 20 minutes to bring us the bill. We honestly SHOULD have walked out because everything was trash but there’s no reason we should have been sitting there for 2 hours to pay $40 for cold food that we didn’t enjoy and will probably be sick from later. This place needs to shape up...