i had been eyeballing this place since i moved to town a few months back. i love bbq but i try not to eat it all the time because i prefer to save the red meat consumption for special food occasions. i have had bbq all over this country however, and have learned that smoked brisket and turkey and baby back ribs are typically soooo indulgent. i finally had a big group of friends over and we had a big order delivered. first off, they completely forgot to pack 2 of our sides. the brisket was not sliced, as shown in the photo. it was shredded and tasted like pot roast. THAT is not how bbq smoked brisket is done. the "sliced turkey" was incredibly dry and tasted absolutely foul. the ribs were such poor quality, i can buy the ribs at Costco and make them at home in my instapot and they are a million times better. so much money for absolute trash food. i would feel bad giving this to the raccoons that live in my yard. do not waste your money. the previous order we made at DICKEY'S BBQ that they gave us the wrong person's order was vastly superior to this!!! update: the owner responded with his email so i sent him an email. that was over a month ago and i never heard back. do not believe him when he says he "cares" about anything having to do with his business- it's blatantly obvious that he does not care at all. the fact that this restaurant even exists is a mistake. read more

Frank, the bar manager is a complete gentleman. We had the Bone fire for two. Great deal, great presentation and the smell of the Smokey charcoal briquettes brought summer back for me in December. read more

Food was amazing, drinks were amazing, and service was amazing! Shout out to Frank for making me a Peach Mule! read more

Smokey Bones Rockford - Peach Mule - American Near Me - Rockford, Illinois

My buger was raw after a 30 minute wait the only thing good was there butter and ate waiter

Really cool atmosphere, service was good, drinks are cheap and huge! Food is good, especially the pulled pork, banana pudding is yummy! read more

Smokey Bones Rockford - Three Create Your Own Combo 3 Favorites Brisket Grilled Cheese - American Near Me - Rockford, Illinois

I went with the smoked wings which was recommended by the waitress and she said this one of the orders they were known for. The wings come in 8 or 16 qty portions. They are mid sized wings. Not tiny and not jumbo. With this particular order, the dry rub is chosen for you. There was a different order of wings that you could choose your own sauce. Overall I felt these wings were too salty. The sweetness of the rub was decent but outweighed by the salt. The service was actually really good and it looks like a fun environment to get some drinks and get your favorite barbecue. I would most likely visit again but choose something else on the menu. There look to be a lot of solid choices and perhaps the wings just weren't what I was expecting. read more

Smokey Bones Rockford - Smoked wings - American Near Me - Rockford, Illinois

Nice atmosphere, clean, spacious. Attentive service and good BBQ. I'm not a big fan of fried foods; however, I highly recommend the fried pickles. Perfect crunch, thick sliced pickles. Pork belly appetizers were delicious, a little spicy.. a perfect bite. Appreciate that the manager stopped by. I don't see that often anymore. Will definitely return! read more

We gave Smokey Bones a second chance last night. We went previously back when they opened and weren't impressed. Last night I again was not impressed. I do love a good BBQ joint, however this is not a good one. I ordered the hand pulled pork with baked beans and mac & cheese. My husband and DIL shared the ribs for 2. My pulled pork looked and tasted old and flavorless. Both my husband and DIL said they thought it didn't look good either. The mac & cheese is a complete waste of money. If you are picturing a cheesy, gooey, delicious pasta, do not order this. It's more like cavatappi noodles with some cheese sprinkled on top and warmed with crunchy bread crumbs. It literally tastes like plain noodles with a crunchy topping. Worst mac & cheese ever. Highlights: the baked beans were good, and the cornbread with honey pecan butter starter was good. My husband and DIL both liked the ribs. They got the pretzel bones with their meal. Pretzels were fine but the cheese sauce had a weird taste to it, I tried it at my husband's request and it was not good. We probably won't be rushing back or more likely won't be back. We love BBQ joints, but this one lacks flavor and isn't worth the cost. With so many BBQ places around, there is no reason to settle for mediocre. I am giving 3 stars only because the ribs, otherwise I would give less. read more

Customer service was capital a SS whoever the girl is with glasses tattoo on her back bicep needs to be fired. Did not Greek customers may add contact with me twice she did the same thing for another couple that was there as well. I paid my hard earn money for that food this is not the way to start your New Year's off, and then she laughed about it, which isn't doing nothing but running her customers away read more

We did takeout for 6. Generally speaking food was pretty much sub par. Plentiful leftovers were tossed. We won't be back.

Absolutely the worst restaurant I have been to. I was with a party of 6. When I entered the restaurant, we were seated without any utensils. We sat for 15 minutes before we were even served. Our sever was great! Very apologetic and just had arrived to work. We were her first table. Our order was taken and we got our food around 5:55pm. We got to the restaurant at 4:45pm. A whole hour before we ate. The smoked sausage we ordered had to be sent back because it wasn't done. The manager made excuses. I was highly upset. I travel to different restaurants all of the time. I will NEVER go back to this one!!! EVER! read more

Restaurant itself is nice, came in at 6pm Friday, seated right away (red flag). Drinks were fine, service was good.. food? Not so much. Got an 8oz fillet, medium rare, 50 minutes later it came out well done at best. Baby back ribs were alright, nothing to write home about. Smoked wings, over cooked and poorly seasoned. For a BBQ place, extremely disappointing. read more

Sadly this one so far has been a miss for Rockford. I have pretty high standards when it comes to BBQ, and this place doesn't make the cut. (See JD's on my review list - "Finding Grub in the Burbs) Service was slow, and the food just didn't seem like it came with enough personal care. It felt more like "just get it out". Flavors and textures just weren't to expectations for a good BBQ joint. I give this place less than 2 years at its present service level. The yelp reviewers so far have gotten this one right through consensus. I had higher hopes for Smokey Bones but would rather stop on the way home from Chicago for real good BBQ than to give this place another try. Who knows though, maybe someone can convince me. read more

My girlfriend and I came in on a Monday night so there was no wait and the service was quick. We ordered a couple of margaritas from the bar and the fried pickles for an appetizer. The margaritas came out and was at least 98% ice, (2 big sips and it's gone) not worth the $10. One drink was very strong and the other barely had any tequila at all. The pickles came out and had no flavor what so ever. The breading was very bland and the pickles seemed old. Not impressed at all. I ordered a full slab of the smoked ribs with fries and corn. She ordered the smoked sliced chicken with mac n cheese and corn. When we got our food the presentation was good but you could tell that the "smoked for 4 hours" claim was false as our food was lukewarm at best and looked like it had been microwaved. My ribs had next to no bbq sauce on them and they were kind of tough. The fries were unremarkable, but we both loved the corn. Her mac and cheese was bland and too thick. It was definately out for a while. Now onto the chicken... My girlfriend is a very non confrontational kind of person so she didnt say anything and kind of just didn't touch the chicken. But since it was our first time here, I wanted to try a bite. At first I thought it was weird that the chicken had no sauce with it. It was completely plain and the most bland thing I have ever put in my mouth.. Not to mention eating a mouth full of sand would have had more moisture then this chicken. If you can tell the damn thing is drier then a dessert just by looking at it, why the hell was it sent out like that to begin with?? I informed the waitress who was very nice about it and they gave us a different chicken meal which was still very dry and bland. Our bill was a little under $90 and neither of us were very happy with it. Do your self a favor, Famous Dave's is 5 minutes away. Or better yet, buy a grill and do your own bbq. If a restaurant cannot perform on a slow Monday night, why should I expect anything better on a weekend. For the money, the quality is absent. Spend it elsewhere. read more

It's Wednesday Night! Ok buy now it's Thursday morning! Wednesday they have unlimited Tacos for 12 bucks and change. Good deal I thought. A few weeks ago I was here on a Wednesday night, and figured the terrible food was a fluke. Tonight with the same staff working, at the same time, and even on a rainy night as before, the tacos were the same and the help was really not there for us. I was told that the tacos are always cold because they put cold things in the tacos. Bull! I worked my share of restaurants and I served hot food hot, and cold food cold, EVERY TIME! Both times the manager was told, and the service and quality of the food was the same. I brought a room thermometer with me this time, as last time the place was just fridged! The entire time at the restaurant, even after I asked for the heat to be turned on, or the fans to be turned off, the temperature at this same table was a nice 60 degrees! Fans were on for no reason, and cold air was coming from the vents! My wife had the cornbread. It was hot! We had to ask for butter for the cornbread. It came out in a cup from an ice-cream scoop, and it was almost too cold to cut. How do you spread cold butter on cornbread? The meat in each taco, as soon as it was placed on the table, was as cold as a sloppy joe you might place on a platter for company, and it sat on your counter for 20 minutes! It was not COOLER warm, but it was nowhere near the temperature a hot dish should be served! I expressed he issue I had before, and said that I did not mention the cold food, because it must have been an off night. I was assured that my food was going to be HOT! It was NOT! After the first plate of cold tacos, I was asked about the temperature. I gave them the bad news. The server then asked me to try again, and that this time they would be HOT! The same, as if I said nothing! This comes from a cook, or at this time of night, perhaps the manager not giving a crap what some customer says! The manager wouldn't even talk to me! I bet HE was he cook! Well, I am going to request my full money back. However, I am going to do so with the store manager some time this week or next. I will also follow up with any district managers they may have, and with corporate. It's not one meal they messed up, but two of the same meals! And then, after letting them know there was an issue, the mal was cold twice again! This means just one thing. I am no one to Smokey Bones! They have my money! They have had my loyalty since around 2000 when they opened a store in Plantation Florida. One would think that 1700 miles would not matter in quality or care of customers. I have been to this Rockford Smokey Bones 19 times since they opened in Rockford this year. I did so with my wife and friends, because the building was built with UNION tradesmen! This may be the end of my support for Smokey Bones! There are OTHER mediocre places to eat in Rockford! Choose another, and get a hot meal! read more

I was excited to try this new barbeque spot in Rockford being that have lived in Chicago most of my life, where there is a plethora of q joints I had high hopes. Well , a 45 min wait to be seated. The simple mojito I ordered t the bar was missing the rum. Once I was seated, it took 15 minutes for the server to come to the table. I ordered the cornbread skillet as an app. The serving plate had hair or fur on it. I ordered three meat combo. Pulled pork was salty, couldn't eat it. The brisket was like pot roast. (Where is the smoke ring bro) wings were dry. Overall the meats were bland. The service was horrible and slowwww. At this time I wouldn't recommend this place for barbque enthusiasts . Disappointing. read more

Best part was the service...from our fab and attentive waiter and his personality was great! But the food was okay...compared to our first time visits in one of their FL location! In Florida The baby back ribs used to fall off the bone...and the pulled pork was Piled high! Not today....sad to say.. Now for first impressions? They need a landscaper to clean up the front ...weeds everywhere and Looks neglected! read more

Stopped into this location with my wife on a Monday night to try it out.... Looked cool from the front. We read a few of the mixed reviews and decided we would find out for ourselves. So glad we did because we were extremely blown away by just how awesome the smoked wings were and the service we recieved. Carmen our bartender was incredibly friendly, super passionate about the place, very knowledgeable about the menu and all the different whiskeys they offered. We were happy to get an opportunity to talk with her and ask her questions as this was our first time ever visiting a Smokey Bones. We were very happy to find out that Mondays are all you can eat wings. So of course that is what we went with. We also tried several of their amazing sauces... Ohhh my word those wings are so good... Smoked perfectly! They had perfect seasoning, perfect color, just a tad of that smoky flavor goodness you want, and they were not dried out which is what is important to me. It showed that the kitchen knew what they were doing! We also tried the cornbread with praline pecan butter which was out of this world! My wife and I both agreed that we will be back for sure. If not for the wings, maybe to try something else on the menu.... I did try the maple smoked knob creek whiskey, which was my first time seeing it and drinking it. Delicious! Also they have a wonderful craft beer menu available on tap and in cans or bottle. Over all a wonderful experience! The place was really clean, had a modern hipster vibe, staff was all friendly, everyone was smiling and happy to be there. These little things will make this place a success along with awesome bartenders like Carmen! Keep up the great work and good luck in the future! read more

Smokey Bones Rockford - American Near Me - Rockford, Illinois

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There used to be Smokey Bones in Schaumburg but they closed years ago. It was my favorite place to go because they smoked the ribs first. They also had awesome donuts as the pre-meal "bread". The food was fun and delicious. Fast forward a few years. My sister and I decided to try the new Smokey Bones in Rockford. We were seated pretty quickly for a Friday night. Our server was very pleasant and attentive. Here comes the "but". . . the ribs had the same flavor that I remembered, but they didn't fall off the bone. The brisket was "good", but cut too thick so it didn't grab a lot of sauce. The baked potato and roasted corn were OK. Overall the meal was good, but not a lip-smakin', finger-lickin' experience. I don't think I'll return, but give it a try. read more

Second visit...not impressed...not going back. The food is just eh and the service is super slow even when there's hardly anyone in there.

Was really looking forward to ordering some take out from here. Walked in to the front desk and grabbed a menu. Waited a few mins and looked around, none of the servers even came up to me. Some were just standing around talking to each other, others were just cleaning up. Waited a few more minutes and even made direct eye contact with a few and no one even came up to see if I needed anything! Okay, no big deal, I'll just go order at the bar and have a drink while I wait. The bartender walks over to the opposite side of the bar while I'm sitting down and her coworker walks up and starts talking to her. And they keeeeeep talking. At that point I'm just fed up so I start making direct eye contact with her coworker (since she's facing me) and she even sees me staring and continues to keep talking. The conversation was not work related. And I kid you not, I stared straight into her soul for literally 3 whole minutes and she didn't even come up to me. Finally the bartender comes over to me and I ask if I can place a takeout order. She says "we're not doing take out." That's it. Bottom line is, I didn't even get any food and still had terrible service. This is also at 1am, it was not busy at all and somehow I had to wait 10mins to be told they aren't doing takeout orders. read more

I have eaten at Smokey Bones in Pennsylvania and have to say comparing the one in Rockford to those I am disappointed. Let me start off with how my wife and my experience began..... Came through the door and where told we would have to wait to be seated as the wait staff was doing a shift change. We're finally seated and the issues just kept coming. Ordered our food, unwrapped our utensils and there was dried food on mine. Not appealing at all. We should have left then but decided to press on. Our food was brought to us by someone other than our waitress. Guy leaves our food and takes off.....they forgot my wife's salad. 15 minutes later our waitress comes back, Wife mentions the salad and she is told it is on the way. Decided to cancel the salad. Oh....And this was the first tine since we were seated that I could ask for a new set of utensils (Remember there is dried food on mine). Now for the food......... I ordered the beef brisket. This was more like a pot roast with BBQ sauce poured on it. Also it was like chewing leather. Tough, stringy, and no flavor. My wife ordered the chicken. This was dry and tough. In my opinion there are better BBQ places in Rockford. If you want to pay a high price for poor quality then Smokey Bones is your place. read more

Brisket was dry and tasted like a pot roast from a crock pot. They don't serve it in pencil slices. Instead they shred it to hide the quality of the smoke. The bbq chicken isn't bbq at all. It's oven baked and dipped in sauce then lightly charred to fool people into thinking its bbq (I confirmed with management that it was oven baked). Also it is was extremely dry and overcooked. If your gunna cut corners at least get it right so people don't feel completely cheated ‍. Ordered tacos for an appetizer chicken was frozen not fresh. Steak was very over cooked and tasted like a reheated microwave dinner. To their credit the flavors of the tacos worked very well together but the quality of the meat was impossible to not notice. For those of you looking for a pit master type bbq experience this is absolutely not what you will get at Smokey Bones. I posted a picture of the chicken you can see how incredibly dry it is. It didn't cut it just shredded off in hard flakes. The service staff there is phenomenal. It's a shame they can't get a competent manger to lead their kitchen staff. read more

Smokey Bones Rockford - American Near Me - Rockford, Illinois

Very well decorated, if only they put that much attention into the food and service. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich and my husband ordered the brisket sandwich (some of the only items on the menu under $15) but that's not why we ordered them, we typically love pulled pork and brisket sandwiches. These were... okay. Meat was lukewarm and salty, fries tasted like they were old and reheated, and this is the first bbq place I've ever been to with small portions. That coupled with my drink taking 20 minutes to come out in a nearly empty restaurant makes this a hard pass for us. We will not be back. (Bonus points for them - they rang both our order and another table's on my husbands card! They said it should come back to his account by tomorrow, so we will see on that...) if we are paying $50+ for two drinks and two sandwiches I expect much better than this. read more

Smokey Bones Rockford - The smallest pulled pork sandwich I've ever seen, with a child's portion of French fries. - American Near Me - Rockford, Illinois

Stumbled across this Gem of a place!! Rebecca was my server. She definetly over achieved the service. Attentive and described the items in detail. Recommended some items from the menu and did a great job to assist. I definetly recommend this place, food was fantastic but definitely service makes it a great experience! read more

I have eaten here a number of times and have always enjoyed the food. I especially like the smoked beef brisket and baked apples. I am gluten free so I cannot comment on lots of things, but their cole slaw is good, too! The thing that prevents me from coming back more is the fact that it is so poorly designed! If you like to hear everybody throughout the restaurant, this is the place for you! The noise is absolutely horrible! Do not go here for a nice dinner; go here for a rowdy, raucous dinner! The food is great, but the noisy ruins it!! A mark of stupid, myopic, shallow executive management and stockholders who want to charge a lot for booze! read more

This is my new place to go in Rockford. I was here on opening night, had the Hawaiian Ribeye and it was grilled to perfection. Staff was wonderful and eager to check up on us. This was a later evening visit. I decided to check them out the following day for lunch and they were equally on top of everything. Had the brunch Waffle Burger. It was huge! The General Manager Janine was present on both visits and I watched her go table to table to check on every guest. Also it was very refreshing to watch her have a brief team meeting right at open to get the entire crew excited. The menu has a wide variety and there is something for everyone. None of that matters if the staff is poor. I look forward to future visits and hope the experience remains consistent as it has been wonderful thus far! read more

Smokey Bones Rockford - Waffle Burger - American Near Me - Rockford, Illinois

Brisket is tender and flavorful on its own. Home BBQ sauce variety at the table for you. Delicious food, clean environment, happy atmosphere. Food was so good I forgot to take a picture! read more

Food nasty They just threw brown sugar on ribs and call it a day ..everything else is plain read more

The worst service I have had in a long time. 45 minutes and we never even got our drinks. Save your self a waste of time and stay away.

Nice location. Food was delicious. We ordered the grill. The meat was unevenly warm. The cool meat was away from the coals. Understandable read more

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This is the worst place for the sitting plan I have ever seen... instead of setting according to party size and arrival time they seat you to not inconvenience the kitchen staff... I watched more people walk out and choose not to stay and wait 1hour to an hour and a half for this reason bad customer service in my book when tables sit open for 30 min to an hour with customers walking out. However the food was still amazing except the brisket was a bit on the dry side... but after speaking with the manager he explained the situation and hopefully this situation will rectify quickly.. Isaiah my waiter was absolutely the best.. if you go sit with him 6 foot 5 and all full of great humor... read more

This place is a joke orderd the ribs and they were horrible.I payed $30bucks for a half slab of ribs and they stunk bad.juat thought people should no Dont get the ribs! read more

I visited Smokey Bones a few years ago, shortly after it opened. It was not good at all, but I attributed that to a new kitchen and serving staff. Maybe a few years would make things better? NOPE! The experience at Smokey Bones this evening was laughably bad. Our waitress couldn't figure out how to work the beer tap so our party had to get beer by the bottle. When someone asked if any of the other staff knew how to work the tap, our server said the manager was going to look at it but he "didn't have the time". That's a pretty important issue to leave unaddressed! After waiting almost 45 minutes after we got our appetizers, our entrees FINALLY arrived. They were NOT worth the wait! The ribs were dry and had barely any sauce. My pulled pork tacos had very little pork and were basically all cabbage - gross! Two hours and $50 of my life wasted. Smokey Bones is definitely a no-go! read more

Worst service I've ever experienced. Took hours to get our food. Everything we ordered was completely wrong. They burnt the bread, shrimp,and ribs. Even though they still came out cold. Worse place I've ever been too needs to close down now! read more

Great Staff. Very friendly and FAST. After driving all day was very good eats and environment Servers Bo Williams and Hunter Hosham were great! read more

First time here...had high hopes. Looks like a fun cool place...but it's downhill from there. The service was so incredibly s-l-o-w, and the food was meh and not really even warm. Too bad--it has potential but I won't be back! read more

Came in last minute for me to place an order. I had a lot of questions regarding the menu. Before I knew it the girl at the front hostess station walked away from me with no acknowledgement that I was standing there placing the order. A manager came up and asked me if there was a problem. I replied no there is no problem. I was just asking her about the menu ... paid for my order and waiting on it now. Almost 50.00 for 2 burgers hope it's worth it! read more

This was our first experience here and I don't believe we will be back. If I could give Zero I would. Popped in at 6:30pm and left at 6:50pm on September 18th, asked to sit outside (we were the couple in the HUGE booth outside, not hard to miss!) since it was nice outside and that was the last time a server came to our table. Asked Two people (whoever was working at front desk, didn't care to see his name but he was African American with glasses and short hair, and the guy grabbing dishes outside) and still got nothing. Proceeded to take out business else where and when I let it be known that since no one wanted our money in the first place, got a half ass apology from front desk and left. Why have outside seating if you're just gonna forget about the customers sitting outside? Unbelievable and terrible service, thanks for the first time experience! read more

If I had a taste for barbecue and my father couldn't smoke or grill it, I would go to Smokey Bones. The flavor is good. The chicken wings are good as well. Why did I give it three stars: it's a chain and chain restaurants are not five star quality. You won't be disappointed with the food or service at Smokey Bones. read more