red bone alley restaurant

thisrestaurantis full of authentic southern food. the shrimp and grits is amazing! they also have cheese nuggets as an appetizer, and if you're a lover of cheese sticks, you have to try them. they have a very affordable lunch menu!

yes...going downhill for sure!. this used to be my favoriterestaurantin florence. well that is no longer true! the last few times i have been there, my food tasted like it was just thrown together. therestaurantitself is dirty, and i have seen cleaner bathrooms at gas stations. i am teacher here in florence and a large group of teachers from my school used to get together here for birthdays, showers, retirement parties, etc. well, we have decided to take our business elsewhere. it's amazing what a fresh coat of paint and a scrub brush will do, you should try it redbone.

disappointed with old favorite!. redbone is not what it used to be! i know that the cooking staff has changed and it shows! ordered the bubba burger, was able to eat it, however bread was almost burnt and burger was cooked a little too much. fries looked and the one i attempted to eat tasted like they were dumped out of a frozen bag. when i go to a nicerestauranti want better than this! we got there at 6:00 pm, no waiting, not very busy, took 45 minutes to get dinner for 3. i wonder if the same people still own it? table cloths need replacing, napkins black lint showed on our clothes, walls and floors need some tlc!

going downhill. food is so-so (certainly not what it used to be) but absolutely stunned by how dirtyrestaurantappeared. bathrooms were unsightly, dirty and rundown which screams volumes of how the kitchen must be kept. if you don't care what the customers see, how can you possibly care about what we don't see???
it's time to start reinvesting your profits back into the restaurant....food and building. and please, just take a look around with fresh eyes and adequate lighting in the process.

not what is used to be. i still like it just not as much as i used too. seems that over the years the quality of the food has deteriorated. not sure if its me or therestaurantbut i'm thinking its the restaurant.

shrimp & grits for example. used to be a very nice dish with the option of having it spicy. portion used to be larger than it is now and the spicy was actually spicy. the toppings with the shrimp were nicely prepared and fresh looking.

now if there is a difference between the spicy and regular i can't detect it. the shrimp are overcooked and the peppers and onions with them are so overcooked they are almost unrecognizable.

i can make better grits at home.

that's a common theme throughout the menu. i think dale needs to pay more attention to the meal preparation.


-----15 jul, 2012-----

torn. i used to really like red bone but over the last few years it seems like the quality of the food and skill of preparation has deteriorated. one of my favorites has always been the shrimp & grits but the last time it looked like a totally different dish and it did not taste the same.

its worth a shot just to experience.

salty southern food. the inside of thisrestaurantis designed to look like a neat alley (thus the name). it's a great place to 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 this place is a great place to go.

vegetarian unfriendly. i have been a vegetarian for many years and do not expect everyone to cater to my interests -- especially when i am at a fast foodrestaurantor at a food wasteland like applebee's. i do expect restaurants with real kitchens and supposedly real chefs to give it a try.

i called red bone back in october and told them that we were coming in and that i just wanted to check that they could pull something together that was vegetarian. the young lady that answered the phone said she didn't think so, so i asked her if she could ask the chef if there was anything they could whip up for an entree that didn't have meat in it. after several minutes, she came back and told me that they don't do vegetarian meals there. (i later learned that they do have a pasta dish on the menu.)

very disappointed.

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 this place was that they allow smoking inside. this totally blew me away. i didn't think that anyrestaurantin american still allowed smoking in restaurants. this was especially surprising in a place that 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.

unique atmosphere. the food is good and the portions are huge...ask for the lunch portion. good for casual dining and getting a drink. the best thing about it is the atmosphere - it was an old department store that they turned into a two-storyrestaurantthat looks and feels like you are outside.

worked here in college and still love to eat here!. this place is the best place to eat in florence, hands down. very rarely do you find someone who has worked in arestaurantin 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

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. therestaurantinhabits 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 resting place of 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 thisrestaurantotherwise.

food at thisrestaurantwas ok, nothing special. the service and attitude of the server was terrible. therestaurantitself has a great surrounding and a fun environment. if you go, make sure to get some traditional southern food.