** UPDATE** It appears that the Langford location has now closed; however, I have noticed that there is a "Coming Soon" sign for them at the new Hudson condos.
I am having a hard time making an opinion on Smoken Bones. I have eaten their three times now and each time I leave feeling differently about it.
The first time the food was decent, but nothing review worthy. My one major complaint would be that they left the tough silver skin on the bottom of ribs making it quite hard to chew through. I left thinking the food was okay, but the hype around the restaurant was a little much.
My second experience was fantastic. My fiance and I went there for lunch and I absolutely loved their pulled pork sandwich and butter fried cabbage. My lunch experience gave me hope that all the good reviews were warranted; and I left feeling I can't wait to come back and try out the dinner menu again.
Well, I finally went back last night with a couple of friends.
I ordered the "meat plate", which is a mound of pulled pork and beef brisket. If you have never been to Smoken Bones, let me digress, when you order from the Big Food portion of the menu, you pick your protein or main portion and then get to choose two sides to go with it. I decided to have the butter fried cabbage and the roasted squash. The food took bit of time to arrive, but it was expected as the restaurant was packed with diners and a large birthday party. I don't mind waiting a little bit for food when a restaurant is extremely busy; however, some of my food tasted as if it was waiting a long time for my server. My butter fried cabbage was luke warm, the pulled pork was about room temperature and the rest of it was hot. This was disappointing to me as I know some of it was just sitting out while they were trying to finish off the rest. The rest of the group seemed to enjoy their meals, or at least they didn't complain about them. For dessert we ordered a Mississippi Mud Cake and an Island Crumble. Mud cake was delicious, but definitely something to share with another person or two as it is dense and rich in flavour. As for the Island Crumble, I wouldn't recommend it, no one in our group was fond of it.
If I had to give an overall review of my experiences at Smoken Bones, I would say their food is good, but like any restaurant they some days can be better or worse than others. I think the reason people don't like it is because they are trying to compare it to some memorable experience they had in a southern USA barbecue house or what they think BBQ should taste like. Some of the American BBQ restaurants have recipes, that have been handed down for generations, that have been tried and true, it is unfair to compare Smoken Bones to these places. If you are going to try Smoken Bones I would suggest a time when they are not smokin' busy, I am sure your food will be great when the chefs aren't in the weeds all night. If they do have one constant, it is that they have some great beer selection. How many places have Phillips on tap.
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