Smokey Bones Lithonia — Restaurant in Stonecrest

I just ate here with my family. There were 15 of us. The worst thing was the service. I’m a server myself and a good rule of thumb is that when you have a large party, either assign it to one strong server or two average servers. We got one weak server, Aaliyah. She was a nice young lady and she had a positive attitude. However she was very disorganized and seemed to not have much experience waiting on large parties. She would take a long time between coming back to the table. We were not given any silverware until we already had our food for about 5-10 minutes. No one was given a refill proactively. All of the wings were given to us with no blue cheese or ranch. She didn’t even ask which one we wanted while taking the order. While we were trying to ask for condiments, refills, napkins, etc, she would only get 2-3 peoples request at one time. If you’re a strong server and are good at organizing, you ask the entire table for their needs at once, then retrieve everything at once. This makes for the customers getting everything they need quickly and makes your job easier so that you don’t have to keep running back and forth. Thank God for the young lady who was helping her run the food. I wish I knew her name because she truly saved the day and had we had her as a server from the beginning I’m sure we would’ve had a better experience. She was quick and organized how a good server should be. My family and I wanted to order some more drinks and to go meals, but the original server was so slow and disorganized that we didn’t even bother. For the food, it was average at best. They were out of brisket, which 3 of my family members wanted to order. The star of the show were the smoked wings BUT they’re “not allowed” to toss them, so the wing sauce comes on the side, which takes away from the experience of eating wings. Literally all of the other food from the pulled pork, to the nachos, to the burgers were very average. One of the pictures I provided was the pork belly appetizer, which sounds really good in the description, but was extremely disappointing. The “Asian salad” was literally some sliced cucumber and red onions. The pork belly was just stuck on some skewers with a light drizzle of bbq sauce. What a joke. The atmosphere of the restaurant is nice but it was hot inside and the floors were extremely slippery, to the point that it was an obvious safety hazard. Overall, i wouldn’t recommend coming with a large party. The smoked wings are good, but that’s about it and you’re better off...

8/7/24-DINE AT OWN RISK: My fiancé and I arrived in Atlanta and decided to grab a quick bite to eat. We hadn't been dining for more than 20 minutes before our rental car was vandalized and robbed while dinning at the Smokey Bones located in The Mall at Stonecrest, Lithonia, GA. Two other families were hit as well. That itself was terrible, and we're dealing with what happens when your personal property is stolen (a whole other post).

As we were outside dealing with this, our waiter ran out to hand us a $45 bill. At this point, none of management had even acknowledged or offered a "sorry that happened." When he heard us expressing dismay, a manager suddenly appeared and promptly reminded us that they were not responsible and it was our own fault we were robbed. He went on to say that he and many other people had been robbed there at some point, as if to say, "No big deal, pay your bill." When, we asked if the bill could simply be comped, not because of the amount, but simply as an act of good business faith, that was declined. He then called their district manager, who reiterated the message that our robbery was not their fault/problem but offered a 50% cut to the bill. I'm not sure how the other families were treated, but I can say that management never acknowledged us or what we were experiencing other than over the bill dispute.

Some may agree with the restaurant's assessment, but it just felt like such a kick while we were down. In his scolding, the manager reminded us of their inadequate signage outside that told us to "protect our belongings" which should have read "dine at your own risk" based on how often these breakins apparently occur. We asked the manager why they didn't have security if that was so common an occurrence, and he said, "we do at night." So basically, they secure their restaurant when no one is there, but customers are on their own. Got it. I know this could've happened anywhere, but it didn't. It happened at an establishment where it was a common occurrence with an almost rehearsed response. I won't criminalize a whole area but if you do business in areas where these problems are more prevalent, perhaps have a better response plan that isn't a corporate scolding for your unsuspecting customers who just...

Update: 11/16/2024: After filing a bank claim, I was emailed a notice for my refund in less than 24 hours. I had sent my comments to this company the night of the order. Why 11 days? First time ordering delivery and first time eating from this brand. Such a disappointment for dinner. Save yourself the disappointment from my personal experience with my family. I ordered the buy one, get one free half chicken for Tuesdays. What you get is NOT advertised. Whoever plated my order did not care about my expectations, the preception or quality of the food. There was no smokey flavor from the chicken except from the weak bbq sauce on it and from the beans. I think the smokey flavor in the beans is from bbq sauce. Broccoli was more crisp than requested and very lightly seasoned. Baked potato was reheated, firm, not fluffy like a fresh potato and no condiments were given for it. The potato wedges were firm, soggy, poorly cooked and not freshly cooked. I refried and seasoned them so they resembled real potato wedges. They were for one plate but were scattered across both plates with a dash of salt. The chicken had soft skin, no seasonings, maybe rotisseried then brushed with sauce. Chicken was not smoked. The toast was soft and oversaturated with oil, not butter and bland. This delivery was not for the fees. There was no tamper-proof for my order. The plastic bag was doubled knotted. There was no forewarning of the delivery driver approaching my residence, and he, too, had delivery trouble with the app's directions. The chicken was moist and bland but not cooked as expected from a bbq restaurant. I called the store, an unknown female answered and said to report my order online, and laughed when I said I wanted my money back. Bad customer service...