Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill

I was in the mood for some ribs so i ordered the baby back ribs and my husband ordered the smoked salmon salad. My ribs were delicious. They fell right off the bone! My husband was upset with his salad because he had more salmon than salad. He said he would have liked it much better if it had more salad in it. Other than that it was great! We may be back soon. We will see…

Our dinner had a really bad case of mistaken identity…
We went to the Smokey Bones at Polaris which we’ve been to several times before and have had good experiences. However this time… eh, not so much. My husband– always– orders the beef brisket dinner.
When they brought out his beef brisket dinner, it wasn’t a beef brisket but it was a fatty roast beef. Then they tried to convince him it was beef brisket and tried to pass it off as beef brisket. Now my husband is from Texas and he knows cow! And that my friends was not a beef brisket.
Once hubby explained the difference between roast beef and beef brisket, the manager admitted they only had enough beef brisket for the sandwiches. The manager gave us a credit on our receipt for the bill. Don’t think we will be coming back for the beef brisket or the fatty roast beef.

I’m sorry but I have to do this. I really don’t like giving Smokey Bones less than a 4 star but after tonight and the previous experiences I’ve been noticing. Something is wrong with management.
We came in around 7 PM, didn’t get our waters till like 7:30 and appetizers 7:44 the tables that had more people than us came in 15 minutes after us and got their meals before my husband and I. I can go on since I literally timed how long it took them to do everything tonight. 8 PM is when we received our actual meal.
The meals were okay, I have to admit the pretzels (appetizer) weren’t hot because I think they were sitting out for the amount of time we were waiting to actually eat. They were also greasy. So we didn’t eat them all.
Then comes the check, you do everything with a machine on the table. So the waitress messed up our check and charged us for a salad we never ordered. Our bill was double what it should have been. Then we had to wait for the waitress to fix the mistake and show us she fixed it. I’m just saying things were not good at all.

Terrible service, one hour no food. Server lied and blamed kitchen, server had failed to enter order. Manager never came to explain, I had to track him down. Server spilled full glass of water on my wife and daughter. Tables smelled like a dirty stale bar towel, obviously not clean. Bathrooms were nasty. Manager has killed this location.

Food was ok but not great. Slow service for just a handful of customers. We won’t be returning.

Super accommodating staff! Food and drinks were delicious. Second time in a week I came for dinner. Highly recommended!

Came here for dinner at the bar on a weeknight because the place we originally went to was packed. Asked the bartender what their well whiskey was and he clearly didn’t know what that meant and told me it was jack. (I wish) Service was slow and my fiancé ordered a burger and asked for it well done. The bartender’s response was «ok but you realize that’s going to take a long time right?» Ok, we are aware that cooking something well done will typically be longer. Manager stood in the bar conversing with waitresses for the majority of our time there, never acknowledged us or asked how things were going. We had to ask a nearby table for ketchup because we couldn’t get anyone’s attention to get us some. Waitresses were standing at the line where the food comes out and the salads are made EATING. They even left the food they were picking at on the counter right by where everything is prepared. Manager was over there talking to them while they did it too. I used to work in the restaurant business for years and that’s just poor customer service and gross! We won’t be back to this location.

Service was mediocre, food was delivered an hour late, there was no compensation for the lateness of the food. Waitress did not thank us for coming to the restaurant and the manager did not come over to check on us. Needless to say it will be a while before we return.

Good Food. Nice People! I always stop when I’m in town. Great pulled pork, wings and burgers. Have met several different bartenders all nice! If you’re not in a hurry and want to relax they are open late.

Please hire more people. Your bartender is also taking care of like 5 or 10 tables and appeared to be ready to quit or walk out. He was very nice and helpful but there’s only so much one person can do and you are clearly asking too much of your people (this isn’t the first time we’ve witnessed this at this location with your staff although it wasn’t the bartender last time).
You have great food but this time we didn’t get to taste it. Left after 15 min.

Food was great and well-​priced. The bar itself is HUGE and the atmosphere is friendly. The bartender was our server, and she was an absolute rock star. She came quickly and often to check our orders, providing great info and suggestions on the menu. Her drinks were the best I’ve tasted in Columbus. Food came out VERY fast and hot, and wasn’t too heavy in our guts afterwards. The server even apologized (unnecessarily) for a 1min wait while she grabbed our to-​go box. Highly recommended for anyone who wants an affordable, tasty experience after a long afternoon at the mall or at work.

This restaurant needs some major management change. We have been to this place 4 times in the past few months and been very disappointed with the lack of service and care. Each time we had to wait for host/​hostess to even acknowledge our party. We waited 10 minutes before anyone even approached us at the door. The servers walked by only glancing at us and ignore the customer. The second time we were here, we brought up the issue to the manager once we finally got a table and his response was that they were short on staff. The third and forth time we visited was no better. Servers walking around without paying attention to the customers lining up. No host or hostess to be found any where. Once we received our food, we had to ask for silverware a couple of times, and resort to finding silverware ourselves. It’s a petty as the food is quite good, but seriously lacks in service, care and management.

I’m super easy to please. I’ve been in the service industry for 5 years, ranging from dinky small-​town, family owned restaurants to semi-​fine dining here in Columbus. Keep that in mind for the rest of this review.
The female bartender here a couple weekends ago was the worst server I’ve ever had. My wife and I were literally the only ones in the bar with it being so late, and the bartender took her sweet time to even glance at us. No greeting, no smile, no name, no personality; nothing. Absolutely abysmal. I wish I had gone to McDonald’s. She was too concerned with texting and eventually sitting with her boyfriend (after he showed up halfway through our meal). I struggled to leave her a 5% tip, as opposed to my typical 30−50%. I’ve never before considered stiffing a server. I’d mention her name but I don’t know it since she couldn’t be bothered with such pleasantries.
Now horrible service is not reason enough to completely condemn a restaurant to 1 star. They have food there as well…
And, well… the Caesar salad was horrible. Never before in my life have I complained about my meal at any restaurant. Congratulations– you messed up one of the easiest and most simple salads.
Literally the only enjoyable thing about this restaurant was the reasonably comfy seats and cold beer.
Will definitely not be returning nor would I recommend anyone go there.

Great casual and fun atmosphere. We came during new year’s eve, and despite the place was very crowed, we still received an excellent service.
We started of with some pretzel sticks which comes queso dip. Wow I was impressed how well it was made. Soft and crunchy freshly baked with just the right amount of salt, and the queso dip was rich and creamy which tasted much better then most dips I had in the past.
Of course you can’t go to a bbq joint without trying out the bbq. For the entrée I had me the Pullpork Sammy. A loaded sandwich piled with a generous amount of bbq pulled pork on a toasted bun with a side thick steak fries. One of the best damn bbq I had in a while, I look forward to trying out the other selection they have to offer.

This is an update of my review from September 2103 and Smokey Bones remains one of my «go-​to» favorites.
As anyone who reads my reviews knows, I’m generally not a big fan of chain restaurants but Smokey Bones is one of my «go-​to» favorites for a nice satisfying meal. It’s a good place for a quick business lunch and my wife and I enjoy it for dinner. As far as the BBQ goes — this is pretty decent but don’t go in expecting it to be on the same par as a BBQ joint in South Carolina. But — for Columbus — it is pretty decent BBQ. The menu has a nice variety of choices ranging from steaks and chops to ribs to seafood and a nice selection of burgers. Over time, I’ve tried both the St Louis and the baby back ribs, the pulled pork and brisket, the burgers and the seafood. Their pulled pork luncheon special is one of my favorites. For dinner — the salmon is one of my wife’s favorites — followed closely by the baby back ribs. My personal dinner favorites lend to the ribs or to one of their burgers.
Service is generally very good and there usually isn’t much of a wait (if any) to get in. I’ve also been here with our dine-​out group and the service for a party of 30 was still excellent.
AND — Smokey Bones is OPEN LATE — UNTIL 1:00 AM. Great for late night.

My favorite BBQ joint north of Nashville.
Everytime I go, I get the pulled chicken and a amrgarita and I am never disappointed.
I love Smokey Bones.
AMbiance is similar to a log cabin, usually not too busy, good for a date or family dinner.

Was very empty, but then everything around Polaris appeared to be empty. Service was good, but this was first time we had been here. Burgers where so big you could not hold them, and the fries where great. The only down fall was tv’s were old box style, and hard to see the score of OSU-​Purdue game.

They had a tailgate party — gave away food and drink samples, played trivia, and watched the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Dallas Cowboys.
I ordered the 2-​favorites entrée of ¼ BBQ chicken, smoked turkey breast, broccoli, and fries. Amazing. I love their meats.
Get specials with my Smokey Bones card.

So after hitting up the Bones in Grove City we decided to compare by going to this location. They didn’t have the «cute» funny signs hanging around and no high top tables around the bar but the service and food were good.
I did the build your own burger and onion rings and I must say even though I wanted medium and it came out closer to well… that was some tasty burger. Hubs had a southwestern burger with entirely too much salsa on it and the corn. He loved the corn but won’t go for that burger again and will instead go for a build your own.
Yeah it’s another chain restaurant but it’s not a bad one so if you’re interested then by all means go in.

We have had some coupons lately that Smokey Bones have mailed to us so we have been eating there more regularly. I can say that the more we eat there the more I like the place. Yes it’s a chain restaurant and sometimes you do have to wait a while for a table (usually 10 – 20 minutes in the evening) but it’s worth it for not only the food but also the actual décor and aesthetics of the dining area. I really like the fact that they have a nice little fireplace near the entrance and the restaurant as a whole seems very log-cabin’ish «cozy» if you know what I mean.
Generally when we go here we get a burger, which are really good, but the last time we went we got the wings and WOW! They have great wings, big and meaty. Get the combo wings which are buffalo, bbq and all spicy combined. They are really damned good wings and I can’t recommend them enough. The steaks here are ok but not as good as some places such as Longhorn or the like. The barbecue is quite good and they have it in several different styles. Each style will be represented on your table with different regional sauces, which is really cool. I also love to get the shredded pork sandwich and top it off with a vinegary tasting north carolina sauce.
The sides are all pretty good, we lean towards getting the baked beans which are really great and a baked potato usually. We usually love macaroni and cheese but here it tastes somewhat garlicky so we don’t usually get that anymore. If you like garlic a lot in your mac and cheese though then go for it.
Service here is always friendly and generally pretty good but if you go in when the restaurant is full you may get a bit behind on having your drinks restocked but it’s not too bad… the servers do the best they can and for the most part they make up for it with their friendliness. We have never had unfriendly service here which is nice as it makes dining out so much more enjoyable to not have to put up with an attitude.
If you’re out and about at Polaris and want a good place to get some barbecue for dinner this would be a good stop. And if you’re looking for a burger I’d recommend you get the one with the fried egg on top. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.