Skinny J's Paragould — Restaurant in Paragould

I used to eat here regularly but stopped due to the service going way downhill. The food was always great but the service went from great to pretty bad on a consistent basis. A couple of incidents last year sealed the deal.

The first one, I was eating during my work lunch and I had called in my order for a steak and sides so it would be cooked and ready when I arrived around 12:10. When I arrived, my work friends were there pretty quickly after. The waitress took their orders and I asked to have mine dropped off right then so I could get started and have time to eat it. She said it wasn't made yet but she'd get it started...

Another 10 minutes go by and she brings out appetizers and says mine is done and she's just waiting on the other orders to finish so she can bring them together. I ask her again to please just bring mine so I have time to eat it. She acknowledges it. Then, instead of getting my food then, it's another 5-6 minutes and she brings it all out at once. My steak is already cooling off and the sides are cold. I don't have time or patience to send it back so I eat a cool steak and cold sides.

The second incident happened a few months after that one. I was eating during work lunch again, called the steak and sides order in again, and showed up. The steak was done fairly shortly after I arrived, no complaints there. We also ordered a couple of appetizers, and I ordered fried pickles.

When the fried pickles arrived, I started eating them and asked for an extra ranch to go with them. Our waitress said she'd bring it. Ten minutes later, I'm out of ranch from the one cup and eating my food and a different waiter comes by. I ask him if he would please bring another cup of ranch for me as I had asked the waitress already and she hadn't. He assured me he would.

Now, at this point we have finished all our food except I still have half my fried pickles and no ranch, which is annoying, but not the end of the world. We are in a hurry now because we haven't seen him for a while and we have to get back to work, and he comes back and drops off the checks and a to-go box for my pickles, and I request the ranch AGAIN so I can take it with me for my pickles. He goes and brings back the ranch and sets it down while I'm getting my credit card out and he PICKS UP MY CHECK AND TAKES IT WITH HIM. I look at my co-worker incredulously and I tell her that after all this hassle, and him knowing that we are going to be late because of the delays, he better not be taking the check to delay us just to add the ranch they forgot TWICE already...he is gone for another FIVE MINUTES and brings back the check - with a 25-cent charge for the ranch added.

SERIOUSLY?? Two different members of the staff drop the ball and forget it twice, they don't check on us to bring the checks early enough, and then they have the nerve to take the check back and delay us even longer to add a 25-cent charge on a check I'm tipping $10-15 on?? I cut the tip in half and decided I wouldn't be back again, and I haven't...

The owners of this restaurant better thank the older clientele who have no idea what good food at a good price is. They keep this place afloat financially. This place is battling Chili's for the worst dine in place in town. I'd sell this place out of embarrassment if I owned it. Let's start with price. You're easily looking at $30+ a person here. Which is already a step above in price from other dine in places with FAR superior food. The menu is a over committed mess with random assortments of things. Needs to be shrunk down for staff and customer convenience. Variety is nothing when the food isn't good. Now let's talk about how everything failed on my last visit. There's one server working at 4pm on Saturday, and the restaurant is not very full. I ask for a diet coke, my guest a sweet tea. The diet coke tasted like they hadn't cleaned their fountain drink machine in weeks, and the sweet tea was so bad my guest took a sip and sent it back for water instead. We proceeded to wait, and I timed it, one hour and fourteen minutes for our food. Unacceptable plain and simple. I received the chicken alfredo that I ordered. The noodles are SO overcooked they turned to rubber and please tell me you're using some store bought alfredo sauce. That sauce had ZERO flavor, and I mean it literally. No cheese anywhere despite that being the norm for any pasta and God knows this dish could have used some flavor. I have to use the restroom after so I go to the men's room to find a stall that's rusting through it's hinges and writing all over the wall. Local gas stations in town have far better bathrooms. So that concludes my visit but let's talk about the atmosphere. This place has the most hole in the wall biker bar aesthetic. No color anywhere to be seen, tacky mounted animals on the wall with no consistency on height or even spacing. If they're busy you're going to have to walk up a rickety flight of stares. And the most damning thing of all is, there's a Skinny J's in Jonesboro, that has none of these issues. Their food is great, the restaurant is fun and decorated with all sorts of things. This Paragould one must be abandoned because Jonesboro's location probably brings in 3 times the amount of business. It's time for the people of Paragould to vote with their wallet and visit the better options down the street and allow this Skinny J's location to...

Let Big Herb walk you through his experience here. Been hearing mixed reviews and wanted to see for myself. The staff was courteous and professional. Waitress was the best part of the experience. It was 4:30 PM and Big Herb wanted a ribeye. His heart was shattered when he was told that there were none available until 5:00 as they were being cut. Now immediately I was thinking that if they are slicing them, just pop one my way. The menu said baked taters had to wait to 5:00. Odd one but whatever. Big Herb opted for the filet. I wanted crab cakes but they didn't have those. Went with the reuben rolls and they were very good. Had Ceasar side salad and Brussels sprouts. Not too bad. I feel this place is caught somewhere between bar food and trying to achieve a five star rating. There's good things here but plenty of work ahead of them in the kitchen. The wife ordered a burger and fries. She had cheese sticks as appetizer. Cheese sticks are just ordinary like you buy at grocery store and nothing special. Her fries were spiral cut and she said they had an off flavor about them. I immediately noticed her burger. I was expecting a hand pattied beauty but instead, she received a frozen patty that looked over cooked. She said it was very dry and the bun was thick so it made for a struggle. The prices are as others report and way too high. I can get a quality filet at any steak house for 2/3 the price. Not a bad place but we will mostly likely stick to...