BoneShakers — Restaurant in Salem

DISCLAIMER: Real dining experience in 01/08/23. Our visit lasted from 5:36pm to 7:41pm.

Pros: Only Pro was the drinks definitely a spot for drinks and the price was respectable for drinks alone. That’s where the manager hides so you will see him if you are at the bar.

I wish I could have updated my original 1 stat review from 5 years ago hoping that systems would have improved. Sadly, they are worse. This was our spot every week when they first opened and was going to be my wedding venue choice. This place has gone downhill and even worse since the 5 year gap.

Our experience this second time around began when we arrived on a Sunday evening at 5:36. There was Little to no patrons in the restaurant so our thoughts were not long of a wait time. We were seated 10 minutes later and another 10 minutes went by before our server came to get drinks. 15 minutes later our watered down drinks came and we ordered.

The appetizers (wings and cheese sticks) came out, cheese sticks were cold and the wings had no flavor and not an ounce of sauce. We asked for cups of sauce and to no prevail 10 minutes later we received two cups of cold wing sauce . Approximately an hour after the appetizers, the food arrived in disarray. (Wrong items, wrong sides.)The ribs were stone cold and had burnt rub seasoning on them, the filet was very mid well (ordered medium rare), the ribeye was rare (ordered medium).

The waiter took the steaks back and 8-10 minutes later arrived with new steaks that were still not correct, now the filet was rare, and ribeye was mid well.

We at that point asked for boxes and bill. The kids had fallen asleep at this point due to the wait their food had to be boxed.

The poor service and wait was blamed on a party of 10 that was there after us and leaving before us. Never once saw a manager he was hiding at the bar area. This seems to be a common occurrence and was the same type of scenario five years ago the manager never came to confront the issue.

Don’t waste your time go to Mikes Penn Ave Grill the customer service us outstanding and food is excellent. We had one isolated issue years ago and the owner personally handled...

Went in on a Sunday and decided to try the brunch buffet. Made myself a salad and was going to put dressing on and smelled something funky. I touched the shredded carrots i put on and they were slimy. Then I realized not one salad item was on ice. I put down that salad and made another and then moved on to the chafers. They seemed promising because you could hear them all boiling. All of the food in the pans where dried, crusted, and very poorly presented. The only thing that looked appetizing was this pan that had this huge pile of roasted pork. At least I think it was pork. It looked like a bunch of leftovers heaped into a gloppy bland gravy. I took a few pieces and and went over to the pasta/ omelet bar. After waiting there for 5 minutes for a cook I thought better of it due to the fact that everything was filthy and nothing was on ice. I went back to where we were sitting and the first thing my friend said was "I don't know what that is but it smells like dog food." I tasted the meat I got and it tasted like something scraped out of a freezer, microwaved, and then left to sit in a hot chafer for six hours. I asked for a burger instead of the buffet. When it came it looked well presented but the burger itself was burnt to a cinder. I asked for it med well and it came out completely black on both sides. I was just hungry so i drenched it in ketchup and ate as much as i could of it. For a very slow Sunday with only 8-10 people in the whole restaurant I wasn't very happy. I think this was the first and last time I will...

This was a very anticipated Birthday dinner as this was my first time at Bone Shakers on the evening of 10/14/22. The atmosphere is casual and inviting. We were seated in a cozy booth. Unfortunately, the entrees we ordered were highly disappointing. I ordered the Blackstone blackened chicken salad. The chicken was not blackened, had no taste, was hard/like a stone (hence the name of the salad). The chicken breast was obviously made hours earlier, overcooked, tough and then microwaved to reheat before it reached me. The French fries were also old and cold. The portion size for a main entree at $14 was the size of a side salad! I had one bite and sent the salad back and didn't reorder. My fiancee ordered the Friday Special..which our server assured that the Specials are amazing. This particular Special called the Seafood Medley was $23 was not "Special"! It should have been an appetizer as the portion size was that of an appetizer not an entree. The shrimp skimpy and the smallest size you can get, mussels were plenty but cold, no lobster even though lobster was mentioned in the description. The scallops were few and the size of shriveled nickels. He ate his entree while I watched, we paid the bill and left highly disappointed and HUNGRY! UN-Happy Birthday dinner dining...