Bob & Ringo's Grill & Smokehouse — Restaurant in Pontiac Township

I tried the connected smokehouse for some carryout. Full disclosure: I'm friends with one of the owners of the bar, so if I had a bad experience, I would not have posted anything.

I picked up carryout for the family. We got all appetizers: Burnt Ends, Pulled Pork Nachos, Loaded Fries w/Chicken, and six Smoked Wings.

I don't like the whole idea of pulled pork nachos to begin with, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I didn't think much of them. My wife and daughter liked them. My daughter mentioned that she thought the tortilla chips tasted a little stale, but that she would order them again.

The burnt ends were great, and all three of us liked them.

The loaded fries already came with bacon, and we added chicken, per my wife and daughter's request. They were OK. The cheese sauce seemed a little watery, and I didn't think adding the chicken helped. They probably would've been fine with only the bacon and cheese flavor, especially dining in.

The smoked wings were legit. They had a good rub, and a good smokey flavor. We tried adding a homemade spicy mustard BBQ that we make at home, and it wasn't a good pairing. It did pair wonderfully with the red BBQ sauce they provide. It had a fair amount of kick to it as well.

Bottom line: They do all the BBQ, rub, and smokey stuff right. If I have a BBQ craving, I won't be let down if I order from here again. I'm sure it would also be wonderful to dine in, and have some beer...

This is a bizarre place with an identity crisis. Grill and Smokehouse is in the name, but half the place is dedicated to gambling machines and bar games. The “smokehouse” options are fairly limited, and don’t offer up some of the typically expected dinner plates you expect of a smokehouse. I got burnt ends (which comes with JUST the burnt ends), and most of the pieces didn’t seem to be true burnt ends. Instead just slabs of smoked brisket that might’ve been seared. Overall, very greasy. The plate was swimming in grease. Sweet potato fries tasted frozen. Smoked beans were okay.

They have nothing on draft. 1.5 hours from one of the biggest brewery cities in the US and they have nothing on draft. I wasn’t even given a drink menu. But they have a giant bar on one side of the place. Very bizarre. Is this a quick eats place where you go to drink? Or is this a smoker restaurant with a bar? Who knows.

Despite 4-5 servers standing around near the kitchen and few people in the building, we had multiple different servers attend to us. 25 minutes into dinner we had the check given to us. But even though tons of servers were standing around, we were expected to pay on the Toast POS site (which didn’t work), and when we mentioned it didn’t work, they said “Oh yeah it’s been acting up.”

The owner needs to figure out what kind of place...

Just walked out of Bob & Ringo’s because we sat there for 15 minutes in an empty dining area and the hostess/waitress was “too busy” to take our order or even seat us, rather she pushed menus at us and point vaguely at the other end of the bar. Then she proclaimed she had to do all the tickets she had before she could wait on us, though she had plenty of time to chit chat with people who came in. She was incredibly rude and rather than doing her job, she made us feel like we were somehow bothering her, and that is neither fair nor appropriate when someone comes into your establishment to spend their hard earned money. This restaurant has A LOT to learn about customer service and we most certainly won’t be coming coming back. Do yourself a favor and go somewhere that treats it’s...