Regina Restaurant Review. Hickory Smokehouse and Grill

The Girl and I went out for lunch today. Always nice spending time with her, and I thought I'd check out a new restaurant, see if it would be worth writing about. I never used to think about restaurant reviews. Mainly because I rarely went anywhere. But due to unforseen - and totally delightful - circumstances that is no longer the case. So, off to lunch.

I'm going to start with the ending, and then support said conclusion. Love having no one to answer to as far as the "proper" way to write a review! The conclusion was....I won't be going there again. Was it the food? The waitress? The ambience? Nope, none of those.

The problem was purple sweater lady, who was - I'm guessing, but given the lack of uniform and her general air it seems likely - the manager. Or a manager. We ordered our meals, with water for drinks. Water which didn't come for twenty minutes or so, at which point I was thirsty enough to flag our waitress down and ask where it was. She apologized, and it was clear that she thought someone else was bringing it. Maybe they have a water boy or something. Anyway - no biggie, so we had to wait for water. I dont' mind that...too much. Clearly I do a little bit, or I wouldn't have mentioned it.

The Girl ordered ribs, with Whiskey bbq sauce. I ordered the prime rib sandwich. It came with stuff I didn't want, and when she suggested I have soup, I said sure. Just pack it up and I'll take it with me for lunch another day. I mean, I'm paying the full meal price, right? She thought that seemed reasonable. But, as it turns out, they had no way for me to take it with me. Other containers, yes, soup no. Maybe if you order soup it is unlikely that you won't be able to finish it and will be looking for a doggy bowl? Whatever, I knew the sandwich would be enough. (Some places would make a deduction on the bill for not having any of the extras, some wouldn't. Hickory falls into the latter category).

The Girl liked her ribs....sort of. Her mini-review was that they were tender, but not very meaty and the sauce was barely there. Almost like a last minute brush on. So, ok but not the best ribs she's had, and given that it's a smokehouse she thought they would be better than ok.

My sandwich was also just ok. I couldn't eat the top bun, but that wasn't the kitchen's fault. Again, purple sweater lady makes an appearance in the review.

So, what was the deal with P.S.L.? When our meals came up (and we had mentioned being short on time) our waitress was....somewhere. Probably somewhere totally legitimate, as she was a decent waitress. But when she did appear, instead of quickly grabbing our meals and then going to a different table that was looking to pay she went to the paying table first. Which would have been fine, but for no reason we could figure out it was the longest payment in Christendom. Our meals sat under the heat lamp for eight and half minutes. Hence the inedibly dry sandwich bun. Not to mention luke warm meals.

P.S.L. walked by the waiting meals many times. Many many times. She walked past them and chatted to people in the kitchen. She walked past them and went to the back (an office, perhaps?) She walked past them, looked at them and stood around. So no excuse that she didn't know they'd been sitting there for quite a while. I mean, they were the only two dishes up there for most of those eight minutes.

As manager I get that your job isn't to wait tables. But perhaps it is your job to make sure things happen in - as every irritating office procedure memo I've read puts it - a timely manner. Would it have killed her to pick them up and bring them over? I suppose the same could be said for me, I could have gone over and grabbed my meal. I almost did, in fact, but The Girl said she would find that embarassing. And she's at that age where that is probably true. And it was meant to be a nice lunch out together, so I stayed where I was.

Perhaps that isn't enough reason to not go. And it wouldn't be, if the food was awesome, but the food was just average. Oh, and if you have issues with smoke, be careful. I was ok, but I think had I been there for supper and a more extended time it might have been a different story.