Smokin Bones

If you hit the same spot 3 times in 2 weeks, you know there is something special going on, and here, it’s the mac ‘n’ cheese. Delicious gooey carby cheesy goodness, I have actually ordered this as a side, and as my desert. It really is that good!
There is a great selection of light bites and sides, I personally loved the ‘slaw and the onion rings, but was not taken with the sweet potato mash, and the nachos are tasty and HUGE, def one to share.
There is a list as long as your arm of meats which are made there. I can only vouch for the chicken burger, which was awesome, but my friends have had almost everything on the menu between them and loved the lot, with brisket and the juicy Lucy burgers being their stand out dishes.
Lovely staff complete the vibe and I’ll be back, possibly less often, these jeans are gettin’ tight!

Bummer. Another BBQ place I had high hopes for and it only disappointed. Ordered via Deliveroo, very quick delivery (for a Friday night) but my main basically exploded inside the bag. Most of the sauce had spilled out and the chicken was partially outside the box. Sides were fine but containers covered in sauce. I think the restaurant is to blame, the box was put in the bag on its side which was a terrible choice.
As for the food, half the chicken was very dry, but the leg portion was moist and the sauce was sooo delicious (too bad I lost almost all of it to the bag). The seasoning was great and I enjoyed the parts that weren’t dry, big portion too. Didn’t like any of the sides, again sad because slaw and sweet potato are some of my absolute favs. The slaw had chunks that were too big, but it was edible. The sweet potato mash I barely touched, baby food consistency with a weird after taste. The Mac and cheese was particularly underwhelming, absolutely no flavor! Just mush of overcooked pasta. Added salt and pepper just to eat it.
Wouldn’t order again, and not sure it’s worth stopping by the restaurant because nothing really blew me away. Too many other places to try!

I went here last night with six other friends. Service was very good and food prices reasonable. I shared the taster platter with a friend and we were not disappointed. It had an array of chicken wings ribs brisket and two chicken sliders. Wow the food tasted amazing. My favorite element of the dish was the chicken wings. So I know what ill be getting here next time. Also watch out for the beer prices as we got pale ale in a bottle and they were six euro each. We didnt realise this until the bill came. But all in all great place to meet up with a few friends and enjoy some american bbq it was positive comments from all of us

I was really looking forward to trying this place out as I’m a huge BBQ fan. However, I was left feeling a little bit underwhelmed.
The food itself tasted okay, but my experience was let down by a combination of things. Our water jug wasn’t clean, the food was bordering cold, the sauces were difficult to get out of their containers and the place itself wasn’t the warmest! But what I was most disappointed with was the portion sizes, which definitely weren’t on par with other BBQ joints in town. I tried the brisket and pulled pork, which were pretty small in size considering the price!
Their one saving grace, though, has to be their dirty fries, really really tasty.
All in all, this place has potential but with the likes of Pitt Bros in close proximity, it has a lot to live up to.

So good. Can’t say anything about the place because I have only ever ordered delivery but I would easily name it the best delivery in city center. The wait is a bit long but given the deliciousness and nature of the food its worth planning ahead. Meat is always perfect as well as the sides, can’t get enough of the mac’n’cheese. And desserts… treat yourself and order dessert.

Ok! So I’ve not been in their restaurant but having heard great things on this olé miserable wet Irish winters night, I decided tonight was the night.
Via Just Eat, we ordered the half chicken w/​Mac n Cheese plus Fries (2 sides come with every meal) then also the Beef Brisket with Pitt Beans and Bourbon Sweet Potato Mash.
Delivery was quick enough, especially given the night in it… Food arrived well packaged. Sides where a little small or at least perceived that way cause of the size of tub they use however everything was so flavoursome! The Pitt beans where fab and the brisket, came with an extra portion of sauce on the size which I though was good thinking; for me the bourbon sweet potato was a little runny, so consistency was like baby food but hey, I got the flavour they were going for.
Brisket and Chicken were both yummy, perfect dose of sauce and each as tasty as the other. The brisket portion was very generous, fear not, my husband finished it off.
Great value and delighted to see places like this offer delivery… Beats the usual Chinese or Chipper :-)

I really didn’t love the food here. We shared a platter and a side of onion rings between two of us, and couldn’t finish it because well, the food just wasn’t very good.
Let me start with what I liked. The pulled pork sliders were quite nice and the beans were very tasty (albeit extremely salty). The seasoned fries weren’t bad either — very moreish.
The ribs were really dry, as was the brisket. I have honestly never had brisket that dry in my life — it was well on its way to becoming jerky. Even the bbq sauce couldn’t save it as it was dry to the point it was crumbly. We also had the hot wings which were spicy as promised, but lacked any other balance of flavour and the skin was very soggy like they had been braised or boiled. Our side of onion rings, which cost € 3, came with a measly 6 skinny rings. 50 cents per onion ring?! Really?!
With so many other bbq joints in the city, I highly doubt I’ll be back.

Thank God for Deliveroo, and then for Smokin Bones! Sitting in for the weekend, pissing down rain outside, not wanting to go out for tasty foods, but not wanting a Chinese or Indian or pizza, one is usually hit with quite the conundrum. No more! I got myself a box of slow cooked brisket with three sides; sweet potato mash, burned beans & slaw. It all arrived packed perfectly so that it was all fully intact, hot, and presented well (sometimes an issue with Deliveroo)
Then the taste test. Wow. I can’t explain how happy I am that it’s possible to get food like this delivered to your door. Tasty, not too unhealthy, and different.
Everything was good. I couldn’t get through the brisket there was so much of it. The BBQ sauce for pouring on top was sublime. Tangy with a full flavour. The sweet potatoes were creamy, the slaw was crispy and not too creamy and the beans were smoked gooooood.
I would 100% get this again, and will definitely put this place on the Must Visit bookmarks list

Ordered for deliver and I couln’t be happier about it!
The packaging, temperature and food was excellent.
Try the North Carolina Pulled Pork and the Oreo Cookie Pie and thank me later!

RUN… DON’T WALK… This is «NOT» BBQ !!!
The Chicken Caesar salad was half right… it had chicken but wasn’t even close to what a Caesar Salad is. The dressing was more like mayonnaise that anything resembling a salad type dressing let alone a Caesar dressing. And what Caesar Salad has tomatoes and no cheese.
The beef brisket was over BBQ sauced to mask the lack of beef taste or alleged seasoning. The onion rings were thin, over cooked and a poor excuse for a side dish.
However, the beans, mixed with Pull Pork was a some what passable, nearly, good dish… sadly the only good thing in this dining experience.
The ribs, when cut, disintegrated off the bone… no lie. The taste was so poor, I wasn’t sure what type of animal they came from.
Of course the waitress botched my order and her vailed pleasantries was as phony as the food.
Imitating an American fare is more putting off that they pretend to serve good food but is really a pathetic front for a niche that does not compare to the poorest quality US BBQ joint.
Send your chef and manager to the US to learn what a «real» rib joint fare taste like.
If your from the US, avoid this place, guaranteed you’ll be as disappointed as I was.
Do they deserve a «zero»… you betcha…

Anything BBQ makes me turn my head so I certainly did a 180 when we spotted this relatively newer smokin’ spot on Dame!
Ordered the pulled pork sandwich with a side of beans and boy was it worth the relatively low price at 8.50.
The servers were very friendly too — we arrived just at closing but they stayed open just for us and the food was served very quickly and piping hot! All the sides were delish, especially the fries — super tasty!
It’s less pricey than other BBQ spots in the City and smokin’ savory!
Will return :)

So I was brought here along with the rest of the team, swayed by wild promises that the meat in this place was, quote: «Better than Bison Bar».
You’ll have to agree that those are some serious allegations, and the only viable course of action was to investigate!
The venue itself is nice, wasn’t too crowded around lunchtime, and the menu had good offer of meaty things and sides (and a vegetarian hamburger!).
Since there were a few of us, we ended up going for the Bin Lid to share… basically a bin lid with all kind of meats and sides (check the picture).
Didn’t take long at all for someone to take our order, so we eagerly awaited our food! And waited.
We kept waiting.
After a good while, the same waiter (ahah) told us it was taking longer, so we would have to wait just a bit longer… So we waited.
After what seemed like a good portion of a century, our food arrived. This was for the best, since the group had started eyeing each other, looking for signs of weakness, and picking the weakest link to sacrifice and eat for survival (fortunately, I look quite stringy and chewy).
Then the food arrived!
All the meat was pretty good, and the portion HUGE. Each bin lid was enough for 3 people. The sides were pretty tasty too, especially the Dirty Chips (messy chips? can’t remember), which are basically like chips with cheese and beans and tasty things!
The only problem with the whole thing… is the actual bin lid… it’s quite far from stable, so trying to hack some St. Louis Ribs in a crowded table while the «lid» wobbles from side to side… not great. I like novelty just as much as the next guy (not really, I don’t like bright lights, loud noises, messy kids, people on my lawn, etc), but that bin lid just wasn’t very practical to eat from.
So, the food itself would have gotten this place a solid Four STARS! It would need better sauces to push it to five (the barbecue sauce was nothing to write home about, the mustard one was kind of «meh», and the spicy sauce was actually ok!).
The waiting time + dancing lid full of food would grant this place a two…
Since I’m nothing if not a fair person, and I can do basic math pretty well, 3 stars!

Masso!!!
Food is fantastic and staff are great. We go a lot and the bin lid is HUGH!!! they’re nice to your kids as well.

This was my second visit so straight off that’s a good sign! First there I had bought a deal rush voucher so between three of us we used the voucher and got a tasting plate so we actually ended up with one of everythibg on the menu amd worried that we might still be hungry! We were wrong, we struggled to finish it but finish it we did. All of it was delicious apart from one thing which weren’t even sure what it was. Tasted burnt and was dry and tough and covered in sauce to try bring it to life, we ate it anyway. The stand out for me were the Pitt beans, so tasty. Make sure you order them!
For the second round I went with a friend and we got a platter for two, twenty quid and more than enough for two people, again it was all delicious.
They have a food selection of craft beers amd the staff are friendly. I’ve two small complaints, one; the toilet isn’t the best but they do have a sign saying they’re gonna get it sorted out and two; it’s extremely warm in the place and you stink of bbq when u leave so they need to get the extractor fans sorted. So maybe avoid it if you’re heading for a bite before a night on the tiles unless you like to smell of food all night.

I went here for lunch and found they offer fantastic value for your money! 4.99Euro for a whopper sandwich (mine came with slaw on the side) plus an extra 2Euro for a coffee or tea to finish. Sweet!
The service was incredibly friendly and fast even though all but one table were taken. When my pulled pork on sourdough arrived, the first thing I noticed was the lovely garlicky smell off the bread, sooo delish! The portion was a good size with nicely done meat and not too heavy for a lunch option. I’ll be back for more.

Ate in Smokin’ Bones last night with two friends on Dealrush vouchers for barbeque combos (choice of 2 meats and 2 sides). We may as well get it out of the way first, barbeque is now pretty much ubiquitous in Dublin, pulled pork is as common as a hang and cheese sambo these days, you can find it in some variation on nearly every menu in the city. I’ve eaten at the more well-​known BBQ establishments in the city and enjoyed them all to a certain extent, some seem to carry off the ‘long and slow’ comfort-​food fare with more pizazz than the others and I have to say that Smokin’ Bones would limp in last on my list of places to eat BBQ in Dublin.
Décor is a simple affair with leather booths, smaller tables and bottles of regular, spicy and mustard BBQ sauce on the tables, along with rolls of kitchen towel to wipe down greasy mitts and mugs. Service was good and prompt, the waiter was a genial type of guy and very friendly. Being restricted by the voucher to ordering two of four meat options that are usually served as sandwiches — smoked chicken, sausage, brisket or (you guessed it) pulled pork, I opted for the chicken and sausage with sides of mac ‘n’ cheese and onion rings. The chicken and sausage were both a little on the dry side and I had to put a liberal amount of BBQ sauce on them (which, I have to say was most excellent but more on that later). The chicken which was served shredded and mixed with lettuce, could be nice as a sandwich filling perhaps but wasn’t great on its own. I also found two pieces of bone in the mix which I wasn’t best pleased with. The sausage was tasty but again on the dry side, I did like the caramelised onion that came with it though, it added a nice depth of flavour. As for the sides — the onion rings were soggy and greasy, definitely among the worst I’ve had, while the mac ‘n’ cheese was a nice creamy little dish jazzed up by a nice sprinkling of cayenne pepper. We decided to try the desserts as we noticed that they were all house-​made, we opted for one of each option — the brownie was the best, warm and gooey and sinfully sweet, it was the perfect chocolate hit. The Oreo dessert came in a sweet little jar and was also very good, the topping was light and creamy. Least favoured among the three of us was the cheesecake — it was baked and had a stodgy, heavy consistency and a bit of an odd aftertaste. The desserts were only € 4 a pop so definitely worth getting anyway for that price!
And now, back to the sauce… I was at the BBQ festival in Herbert Park last summer and the most popular stand by a long mile was the Smokin’ Bones stall that had major queues for its ribs all day. They were a US based company and their ribs were to die for, rich and sticky, they fell off the bone and were the highlight of the day for me, so much so that I bought jars of their BBQ sauce to bring home with me. It was only after I’d finished the meal that I realised I recognised the logos on the sauces on the table and the penny dropped… the stall and the restaurant were one and the same. This was really baffling to me as the difference between the quality of the barbequed meats I’d just eaten and the epic ribs served up at the festival was poles apart! Perhaps then, it was a case of ordering the wrong thing, I will have to go back to see if their ribs stand up to the ones I’d had the pleasure of eating last summer. Until then, I’ll have to stick to my guns and say there are far better options close-​by to satisfy any BBQ hankerings!

Im actually genuinely surprised how high its being marked… It was ok… not great. Yes the barbecue sauce is pretty darn good. I went in with a voucher for 2 bbq platters. From my understanding we were supposed to get wings instead of beans… I thught that was a bit shady. Service was just sub par in my opinion.
The pulled pork was on the dry side but at least they have bbq sauce already on the table so you can help yourself. the ribs were good and I loved the beans. All in all I would come back but this wouldnt be my go to bbq place. White friar grill is still my number one.

NOT for me.
I was so disappointed with the place, which is so annoying cause I was totes excited to try it. I thought it was gona be like bison but with cooler sides.
The meat was slightly, now in fairness to them only slightly over done. I was expecting moist, oozy meat but it wasn’t the case :(and in my opinion it lacked a slight bit of seasoning.
The bbq sauce was very strong in some spice, I think it may have been cinnamon. Usually I am team BBQ sauce but I was not a fan and it defo affected my experience.
The sides were great tho. Bbq beans, slaw, fries, mash all very yum. MAC & CHEESE, OMG the Mac&cheese was so Gudd. Like if I was to go back I would just get that.
We shared nachos to start. They were very good but defo needed more salsa and a big dollop of guac.
NO Guac, who does that!!!
All and all I was disappointed and I kinda doubt I’ll be back :(

Oh my god the greatness of this place …
Bbq taster platter for one id a great idea to try a bit of everything on the menu. As the menu is so great.. you can’t decide what you want as you just want everything. so yeah. taster platter is a good un !
Pulled pork sliders were super super moist and juicy
Brisket was juicy but at the same time there was a nice grilled taste from it. .
Ribs Were fab they had that proper charcoal taste from them. It was dry. but it was supposed to be and if you wanted more moisture there are huge bbq bottles provided…
Baked beans had so much flavour in them, didn’t think it was possible to do much extra or interesting with simple baked beans but there you go ! Platter cost about 14 quid
Wings Were so juicy also and you get a huge portion for about 7 quid. Very plump wings with plenty of meat.
Chips served in a cute little tea cup.
Even the coleslaw was flavoursome. I recommend getting a side salad with the platter as you need a little something to break all the meat up.
Ale, Heineken and wine served here, bottles not on tap… beer wasn’t the coldest though.. probably from the fridge being opened and closed so much.
Service is excellent the waiter was very attentive, friendly and knew his stuff about the menu.
The owner came up at the end for personal genuine feedback from us about what we liked and didn’t like. Not just this half arsed ‘everything ok for you folk’ while he us walking by not really wanting to hear any complaints but genuinely took an interest in what we had to say and told us a bit of background info about the business and all.
Goodbye pitt bros with your annoying hipsterness hellooooooooo to my new lover smoking bones with your professional staff and juicy pork and wings.

New BBQ joint in town with two entrances on Dame St and Dame Lane! Gonna be a long review as it’s the first so I apologise for rambling on…
Summary is that it’s pretty good except for a few niggles or it’s just me being fussy as the unofficial BBQ meat guru! Everyone knows I lurrrve Bison Bar and this place ranks one star below it.
We ordered the bin lid platter which is massive with a capital M… pic attached as proof of our gluttony! There were chips topped with burnt end beans and cheese in the middle, surrounded by brisket, wings, pulled pork mini buns, onion rings and half a rack of ribs. Oh and just to make the meal less sinful, they had about 5 celery stalks. Thanks, that helped ;)
Wings — GOOD!
Brisket — Lots of flavour but need to be sliced thinner to get the perfect texture/​bite
Pulled pork — Tender but needs a bit more seasoning
Rack of ribs — Delicious but Mikey thought it was a bit oversmoked
Onion rings — Same concept as Bison; huge with batter but it needs more seasoning for flavour and to crisp it up more
Beans, cheese on chips — You keep going back for more!
Service was friendly and easy on the eye, a little abrupt at times but otherwise sufficient for the joint, which sits about 25 people. Venue feels slightly fast food-​ish, and they need to sort out the toilet which is functional at best (dim lighting, a fresh lick of paint, bit of artwork won’t hurt!)
Bill came to € 35 for that meat onslaught platter + 2 Tom Crean beers so very reasonable!