Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in Prattville

Let me start out by saying 2 things. First, I work as a cook at a restaurant back home in Indiana, so when I go out to eat, other than fast food because I already know there are awful things that go on at these places, I tend to watch for things at the restaurant I’m eating at that I don’t like or I don’t think should be going on in the restaurant environment. And two, the best thing in this restaurant is the cheddar biscuits they give you before your actual food arrives. With those two things being said, let me move on to what I noticed, and the reason for giving 2 stars instead of just one. So, don’t get me wrong, the food wasn’t awful, it wasn’t great either though, however, for how busy they were, and the size of the parties they were serving, food was coming out entirely too fast from the kitchen. Now, I know what you’re going to say, why would you complain about fast service? Well, here’s why, if you’re at a restaurant that is somewhat busy, and your food is coming out of the kitchen in less than 10 minutes, that means one thing and one thing only, every bit of the hot food on your plate, except for French fries if you ordered them, were made by a very special chef, and you’ve got one of your own at home, I like to call him Chef Mike. Aka a microwave, and from what I noticed, I’m sure this place has at least 7 of them in their kitchen. And another way to tell if you’ve been served by Chef Mike is if your food is blazing hot in some spots, but luke warm to cold in others, and that’s exactly the case here. Now I do understand, this is BBQ, you smoke it for 24-36 hours and then there isn’t much else to do to warm it back up than to mike it; but I do believe their are better ways to handle it. Another thing I noticed is that everyone who worked here, except for the hostess who seemed really nice and was trying to make the best out of being at work on a Saturday night, seemed to absolutely hate their jobs. They were walking around with ugly smirks on their faces, moping, and just didn’t seem to have an upbeat attitude as a front-of-house wait staff should. Another thing I noticed, and I saw this right away when my family walked in, was that someone was sweeping, in the middle of the dinner rush. Now I don’t know about you guys, but I have never been to another restaurant where an employee is sweeping the dining room in the middle of the busy dinner service. To me it is very annoying and distracting and is something that should be done at the end of the shift after it has died down. Because, unlike the kitchen, the dining room floor does not get very dirty. Finally, our table had a direct view into the doorway of the kitchen. All I could see was a sink and THE GIANT STACK OF PRODUCT THAT SAT ON THE FLOOR FOR THE ENTIRE DURATION OF MY STAY. I assume they had just got a truck and no one had time to put the product away, but for one, there should always be extra staff on shifts the truck is expected to put the product away, and two, if there isn’t, take a little time away from the microwaves to put the stuff away. And no it wasn’t just dry stock items sitting in this stack of product, there was food including tomatoes which may I say were on the bottom of the stack, in direct contact with the wet, dirty kitchen floor. So, all in all if you like microwaved food, a mopey wait staff, and cheddar biscuits this is the place for you. Otherwise, try one of the other BBQ joints around, from our research their are plenty of them, and we just happened to pick the wrong one...

We visited this location today and enjoyed our food. However, our server seemed to get mad at us and proceeded to ignore us, even when she came to the table. We usually visit the Montgomery location and have always had great service there, which is rare in Montgomery. I guess we thought that the Prattville location would at least be similar.

I remember the server's name but don't want to use it to prevent management from punishing her for her bad behavior. All I want is for her to think deeply about how she treats guests. My wife worked as a server for 8 years at Outback and we are very tolerant of bad service. It is bad behavior that we cannot tolerate.

When the server took out drink order, we asked for our drinks to be put in the big to-go cups. She started to say that she wasn't allowed but stopped short of explanation. She rolled her eyes and simply turned away and got our drinks. When she returned, she took our order but didn't immediately bring rolls. We had to flag her down to get rolls and every time she came by or stopped at our table she would not make eye contact with either of us. We had to even ask for silverware when she brought our food. She never checked on us while we ate and never refilled our drinks during the meal. I know it can be hard to see when a drink in a styrofoam cup is in need of refill. Despite walking by numerous times, she never looked at us or checked on us. After we were obviously done eating, she brought our check and said the words that she wasn't rushing us to pay, again without looking at either of us. She saw me getting cash from my wallet and came back to the table without asking if we needed anything. We asked for a to-go box and for a refill of our drinks, without handing over our payment. She rolled her eyes and huffed but refilled our drinks and brought the box.

I have no idea what made her mad because our interactions were quite limited. She was mad from the initial drink request. We would have paid extra for the drinks if needed but she wasn't nice enough to find out if we would be willing to pay more. If they have a policy against dine in guests having styrofoam cups, she could have explained that and I would have spoke to a manager. I would have went to the bar and order the to-go drinks. As a paying customer, I will pay for exactly what I want! If any establishment won't allow that, there would be a different review.

Regardless, we were treated rudely. I recommend going to Montgomery if you really want to eat at this chain. Hopefully the server will consider this review and see how she behaved. We did tip her but only 15%. We would have tipped much better for even minimal service and not...

I was just at Jimmy Nicks here in Prattville AL picking up a To Go order and witnessed the most untactful, discourteous thing i’ve witnessed in my years of eating out. Next to the To Go checkout was a booth with a very Elderly obviously disabled Gentleman seated at a booth right next to the To Go checkout awaiting his To Go order. A waitress came up with a couple with there 2 children to be seated at THAT table. A small discussion took place between the patron and waitress about not having him get up, but he got up shuffling only to stand the best he could and continued waiting for his meal. The tall bar stool type seats in the booth area would not allow him to sit due to his short stature and the height of the chairs. After about a minute I looked around across the room and saw normal size chairs around a table, and went and got one for this gentleman to sit. The waitress, no matter how new she was should have accessed this situation with the Eldery gentleman and instantly gone back and selected another booth (1 minute it would have taken Max)and arranged for the other Patrons to sit at another booth. There were many booths available and on this day, Wedensday August 13th 5:30 Pm 2025 with the restaurant at approximately 1/2 capacity. I ask to speak with the Manager on duty and while telling her what I just witnessed, its like it fell on deaf ears and there was no sign that she gave me that it should have been handled any differently. There was also nothing said back to me to indicate that she’d address what happened with the staff for future reference down the road in cases like this. Maybe this is what we’ve evolved into over the years, but it sure wasn’t the way i was taught or raised as i grew up, or expect to see in 2025. Very disappointed and saddened after seeing this occur in a public restaurant and within the society we live in today we are all seemingly walking on eggshells not to offend or disrespect folks feelings, and to see this occur at a restaurant leaves me in concerned into what we’ve evolved into and the practices being taught. As a people, we can do better than this !!

Respectfully Submitted, Jamie...