Smokey Bones West Chester — Restaurant in West Chester Township

Food was for the most part spectacular. We reserved a table online before arriving as we were passing through on our way home and didn't want to spend a long time waiting. That was great and we were seated right away. (There was no wait anyway. )

The server was with us quickly, but not before we had had enough time to determine what we wanted to eat (I had never been to this restaurant, and the menu is simple). So dinner was ordered at the time of beverages.

Mine was simple 1/2 rack w corn and broccoli. Husband ordered full rack but upgraded to cup of Brunswick stew and salad--no other sides. Had we not asked while waiting, this would all have been delivered together. Every other restaurant i go to, soup/salad comes out before dinner. Not here apparently, as I observed salad delivered with dinner plate to another customer, who pushed her hot food out of the way in order to eat her salad first.

Husband was disturbed by the "cup" of soup which he paid extra to have being barely more than half full and cold, but he wouldn't send it back. (The server already seemed overwhelmed.) His salad also arrived with his dinner, but he chose to eat his hot food first.

I could understand charging extra for the B. Stew (extra meat), but I don't understand the extra charge for a side salad, especially when he didn't get any of the regular sides offered with the dinner.

While eating, we had to be disturbed to move our table out of the way, while the hostesses and other servers dragged tables and chairs past us to set up another area of the restaurant for a large party.

When finished with our dinners, we waited patiently for the server to bring the check...husband holding credit card in his hand on the table. We were tranveling and wanted to get back on the road. He asked her to just take it and bring it back--didn't look at it. "I trust you" he said. Over 5 minutes she was gone with his credit card; now we are getting frustrated. He went the restroom and back; still no return from the waitress, although she has passed us by a couple of times delivering items to other tables. I'm thinking..."Where is my credit card while she is doing other things?"

Husband believes the management needs to take a look at how the training is done. Observations of food delivery to other tables makes me agree with him. Having waited tables, I never took a credit card or payment from a customer and then walk back past his table without dropping the credit card or change back to him. Too much suspicion...or in our server's case, confusion with mixing up bills or keeping track of what goes where; as the table next to us appeared to have a couple of issues with their bill and form of...

Update after business response: If you had read my original review, you'd know that a) based on food and service I could never give a 5-star rating and b) I have no plans on returning to give you a second chance. First impressions count and you only get to make one first impression. And, again, if you offer something at the front entry honor it without walking it back at first and then not giving it altogether.

• Back to the original rating * Went on a Tuesday afternoon around 1 o'clock. The place wasn't busy at all, dark, and 80s music blasting to the point where a conversation required shouting. The wait staff was a bit overwhelmed by 2 people (us) showing up and needing seating. He brought 2 glasses of water right away which was appreciated, except that the water had a pretty funky chemical taste. So, pass on that. We had to actually remind him after sitting in our booth for a while that we were ready to order.

We had shredded pork with some fries, and shredded pork with some mac and cheese. The pork was ok, certainly not great. Definitely not the anticipated bbq taste but that might have been a regional thing. Having had bbq in lots of other places (states), this one would rank on the bottom of the list. The only way the meat had any bbq flavor was by drowning it with one of the sauces from the bottles on the table. The mac and cheese was good even if luke warm, the fries were barely luke warm and disappointing. So, the food altogether was not worth it and forgettable.

The service, despite being a mostly empty place (at 1 PM on a Tuesday), was slow. I would hate to be there on a busy weekend afternoon. When asking the waiter about the display by the entry door "We proudly offer a 20% Military Discount", he was quick to point out that "Actually it is 10%." Hm. Interesting. Fine. Funny thing, though, when looking at the receipt, there was zero discount on it. So we went from 20% at the entry to 10% by the waiter to none when paying. Not worth arguing about it but if you offer something - honor it. It was our first visit and there won't be...

This was the worst experience we have had at a restaurant in years… it was the least packed restaurant in the area too, probably for good reason. We were not waited on for 20 minutes; should have taken that as a sign. We did have a toddler so just waiting for even water for 20 minutes is never easy haha. We ordered everything at once to make sure we wouldn’t get stuck there for too long, didn’t work. We constantly had to reminder her of things, like silverware, ketchup, side dishes that we never ended up getting and asked to be removed from the check. We also never got refills. She had five tables I think, but so did the other staff members and their service was 100x better. There were other parties with larger parties than us (we had 3), that were getting served food before we even were able to order that came in after us. It’s not like we had a complex meal, I had boneless wings, my husband had a burger, and my son had a grilled cheese (oh and an apart we of mini nachos that was missing half the toppings). I’m not one to usually complain, but tonight was just insane. We ended up staying there an hour and a half because of how long it took to get things (again for things such as silverware). I ended up giving my toddler my own snacks because it took foreverrrr. There were multiple tables of hers where they waited for the check for like 15 plus minutes. They did have food runners helping out too so that at least helped a bit. The food was just okay, nothing to write home about. I really wouldn't recommend coming here unless you have a long time to spare and everywhere...