red bone alley restaurant

redbone used to be my favoriteplaceto eat. last few times it's been awful! they seem to have a huge turn over rate with wait staff. went there today and my chicken was awful!! the chips and chicken tasted like they had been fried in old grease. my chicken was supposed to be dipped in buffalo sauce...umm is sure as heck wasn't buffalo sauce. strangely i couldn't quite figure out the flavor. to top it off a plummer was snaking a floor drain in the kitchen. i know things like that happen, but don't face your customers beside the kitchen when this happens it's disgusting to see this while i am eating. does the original owner not own it anymore?!

great lunch. on our trip to savannah starting from durham, we wanted to find aplaceabout midway to stop for lunch. thanks to this site, we found it! the lunch specials offered a huge salad, and adequate portion of entree to full us up until dinner.

i got the shrimp and grits--my first time ever having them--and i immediately fell in love. the grits were very rich and creamy, almost like a cheese sauce. the amount of shrimp was just right.

our waitress was able to keep up with filling our drinks even in the middle of the lunch crowd. both of us were pleased and would eat there again.

theplacehas been around for over 20 years and the table cloths and decor haven't been updated in the restaurant. the portions are huge, too big in my opinion. you can request lunch portion if you want. the menu is good, could be updated a bit. the service is hit or miss. that's typical for this area, but shouldn't be an excuse. the kids area is great for young families as parents can relax while the kids go wild and crawl all over the ice cream truck. keep that in mind when you go without kids. don't sit in or near the kids section. also they do not take reservations so sometimes there can be a long wait.

atrocious service.. i just had the most god awful experience i have ever had at a restaurant. i ordered online. my food was supposed to be ready at 5:20. at 5:45 my food was brought out with no explanation as to the reason for the wait and hardly an apology. once we got the food home we found our order was incorrect and missing an entree. i called and spoke to a manager named jeff (who is not listed on the website as a manger) who apologized and said if we could come back he would have our missing item ready in 10 minutes. he asked what vehicle we would be in so it could be brought out to us. i got off the phone with jeff at 6:03. at 6:35, 20 minutes after when it should have been ready, we went inside to get our food since it clearly wasn't going to be brought out to us. once inside we explained to the hostess what was going on and she went to get our food. dave (who is the general manager) came up front and asked if we had been waited on. we told him we were waiting on our corrected order after waiting 20 minutes longer than quoted. at that moment the hostess brought our food. no apology. nothing. the icing on the cake? the entree that we drove back to get was cold. the entire experience was ridiculous. we will absolutely never eat at this establishment again and will without a doubt be telling every single person who brings up restaurants in, around, or near us that redbone alley is not theplaceto go.

shrimp and grits---like no other!!. redbone alley has become one of my favorite restaurants!! i have tried shrimp and grits from the beach to the mountains and have yet to find any that's better than here!! the mexican pizza dip and chips is another sweet spot for me!! simply delicious!! i have always received service quickly and never had to ask for anything after stepping inside the door and being seated. i can only say...i love it!!! thanks for a greatplacefor great food!!

wood smoked wings----wonderful things!. hard to believe that something as simple as a chicken wing can be transformed into such a delight.. i also like the traditional shrimp and grits and i have eaten shrimp and grits from savannah to southport and have found none better. as far as i am concerned, this is theplaceto eat in florence both for locals and those passing through. my wife and i occasionally use the curbside service as well. we always find our food to be promptly delivered and as delicious as when served in the restaurant.

salty southern food. the inside of this restaurant is designed to look like a neat alley (thus the name). it's a greatplaceto take your children because it has a play area with ice cream. there's an arcade upstairs and a separate bar. the food is pretty standard american food. they have sandwiches, pasta, bar food, salads, seafood, and meat dishes. their shrimp and grits are great though very salty. there's live music on some nights which can make for a very noisy environment but overall thisplaceis a greatplaceto go.

we heard if was a florence landmark and it was a "don't missplaceto eat." well it can be missed. service was very nice but far from being on point. pita chip app with three dips was very odd & the fried pickle app was nothing special. both were a tad greasy. grits were creamy and very well done. ribeye was good. overall, very average. it was a dressed bar with average food. doubt we will return. going out to eat should be more than average and okay. it should be a memorable event. red bone alley is forgettable.

get the shirmp & grits. i went here on sunday night when my husband and i were stopping through florence on our way from florida to dc. i went to yelp and saw some really great reviews for redbone alley. it did not disappoint. we sat at in the bar area because we wanted to watch some football and avoid the sound of shrieking children that was coming from the main dining room.
i got the shrimp and grits. it was fabulous. lots of shrimp and great tasting grits. my husband got the salmon and grits. it was good except for the huge glob of cheese they slathered over the piece of salmon. it was gross and completely unnecessary. the flavor of the blackened salmon was perfectly complemented by the grits. so if you order this, i would recommend asking for it without the cheese. they had a great selection of reasonably priced beers, including a great seasonal beer on tap that was called son of a peach. i loved it! we also got the pond cake dessert. it was super-good! nice and buttery and the sauce was fabulous. a must-try!
the one down side about thisplacewas that they allow smoking inside. this totally blew me away. i didn't think that any restaurant in american still allowed smoking in restaurants. this was especially surprising in aplacethat caters so much to families. it wasn't so smoky that we had to leave, but it was kinda gross. also, be warned that they don't have any special football tv package, so you will probably only get one football game on a sunday. i would highly recommend it and i would definitely go back.

worked here in college and still love to eat here!. thisplaceis the bestplaceto eat in florence, hands down. very rarely do you find someone who has worked in a restaurant in college that still looks forward to going back and eating the food any and every chance they get. reasonable prices, great atmosphere, and amazing food. the waitstaff and the managers are great and make sure they take care of their customers. my personal recommendations are the marinated ribeye, the mixed grill, chicken pontalba (personal favorite #1), shrimp & grits (personal fav #2), fettucine mosaic, pizza dip, bermuda triangles (chicken + cream cheese + puff pastry = omg good), and please don't forget to save room for the gigantic desserts! :) i

a++++ oh my god! the best food ever. i had the rib-eye steak and my wife had fried chicken breast with mash, bacon and cheddar. thisplaceis a must go..

excellent menu...and everything else. the most important thing about red bone alley is that their menu is wonderfully unique and perfect. the second is that the atmosphere is the most unique you will find in the region. the restaurant inhabits an old two story department store at the old shopping mall and is decorated to look as if you are dining outdoors in charleston. everything i have ever ordered there has been exceptional. it is truly one of the best places in florence. my favorite dishes there are the quail and grits, the shrimp and grits, and last but not least--the bermuda triangles. their grits are cooked perfectly every time and so is the quail and the shrimp, which both taste so awesome, you can't stop eating them. the grits dishes are also great reheated, if you do end up taking leftovers home. the steak has a delicate flavor and is sooo tender! the cajun étouffée is very tasty and the tea is absolutely perfect. i hear the desserts are wonderful, but i couldn't tell you firsthand, as i never have room for anything. there is free ice cream available for children (and the occasional intrepid grown-up) in an indoor ice cream truck. dining here is a must if you are passing through the area.

edit: i went back in february 2013 for my birthday (sorry for the delay) and to my chagrin, one of my favorites here, the quail and grits was discontinued! never have i been as disappointed with a restaurant! what a sad birthday! please bring back the quail--raise the price if need be! advertise it, offer it as a special, do what you have to! i can't remember what i ordered in it's place, but i know that it was good. we did get the bermuda triangles appetizer and that was as tasty as ever.

edit:  we went back in august 2018, as we noticed they had added the quail and grits back to the menu.  i was skeptical until i got there, but there it was.  i didn’t care what else was on the menu—i was ordering this and only this.  once i received my order, i was immediately and decidedly irked.  i’d been waiting years to experience this dish again and figured this would be the last chance to say goodbye to it properly before they got rid of it again for good; but it was a consummate disappointment.  forget the fact that they couldn’t provide ripe tomatoes in the middle of summer and that they had to bring me the forgotten chopped scallions—the re-entry of this quail dish was poorly executed.  don’t mess with my emotions, people.  the quail is now served bone-in, split down the middle of the bird, and deep fried without any breading that i could see.  though thoroughly incensed at the sight of the dish, knowing what it should have been, i let it go at first—but then i tasted it.  i don’t normally complain, but i had to this time.  the problem with serving bone-in half-birds atop grits, is that the diner must now pick up a grit-laden bird and eat it by hand, gnawing on it and getting grits all about his countenance.  that’s annoying enough, but it also means that the quail is no longer an integral part of one unified dish that can be cleanly and conveniently eaten with a fork.  the diner is basically now eating ham and grits, and then picking up these unwieldy and messy half-birds in a separate and vain struggle for which they were not prepared.  all this i could infer upon first sight, yet i was still prepared to forge through my depressing mastication wordlessly.  but then i tasted what resulted of the vain and tragic sacrifice of those noble birds, of which there were two.  they were very dry and stringy, with very little volume of meat, and little to no flavor.  i was deeply saddened by the loss of this dish and the loss of these beautiful birds.  when i finally complained, the waitress and kitchen manager (i gathered) tried to bring me whatever other meat i wanted to replace the quail i refused to eat, but they never offered to take the meal off of my bill.  insult to injury.
everything else at the table was as delicious as usual, including the grits that served as the final restingplaceof the unfortunate birds, but i now feel as if i lost my beloved quail twice.  i know the rest of the menu is great, but i can’t go back without “a sad and lonely comfort in the hollow of (my) eyes,” to quote the band hurt, which is indeed how i felt, as well as betrayed.

so, with that out of the way, i highly recommend this restaurant otherwise.