Wholly Smokin’

4/5 -this is my second time at Wholly Smokin and overall I’m conflicted. Service is great. Certain dishes are amazing and other ones are just OK. Nothing I’ve had here as bad, but it just doesn’t blow me away like some other BBQ places have. The best thing we probably had were the smoked chicken wings, which were a little small but very flavorful. The pulled pork and brisket are all right, but again not super amazing. Sides are similar. Would come here again, but not rushing to

We went to Florence to visit some friends and with it being a Sunday, most restaurants were closed. Found Wholly Smokin and decided to try it. The restaurant is located downtown Florence and it gives no appeal from the outside. The air was on, and it was hot outside that day, but it was hot in there. Our server was sweating the entire time and she was taking orders so no negative words there. Walking in we had no expectations about the food. Turned out, the food was pretty good! We had smoked wings, which Richard said was surprisingly good; brisket, burnt ends, sweet potato fries, collard greens, baked beans, corn and limas, fried okra. They were all good. Serving size was large, there was brisket to take home. I finished all of my plate. Now the worst item and it's not pictured is the mac/cheese. Straight from the Kraft box! If in Florence, would probably order to go and not eat in. I recommend the wings, burnt ends, collards and succotash. Also street parking only, so that make it a challenge. We went on Sunday, so parking was easier to find.

Decided to try this place out tonight from our drive from FL to NC. We arrived after dark and the town looked very sketchy – we almost didn't get out but when we pulled up to the door and it was the only building with lights on, we could see people inside so we decided to go in! Just know that the lacking curb appeal does not speak for the food here! When we came in, we waited at the "please wait to be seated" sign and nobody acknowledged us or said hello. There was nobody at the host stand and there were two waitresses sitting at the first table talking, a blonde and brunette. They both looked at us and continued chatting. After a few minutes we started looking around for someone to ask if we could seat ourselves. The blonde got up and said "oh are you guys wanting to be seated?" And finally brought us to a table. We then noticed the hostess was on the phone taking orders while also packing an order and she looked stressed. That's how orders get mistakes because other team members aren't helping or addressing their tables and instead are just sitting down in front of everyone not doing anything to help. If I were managing I would have sent them home. Our waiter, male, was very polite but soft spoken with hardly any expression almost like a robot. He did not seem happy to be there. We tried to order the deviled eggs and nachos but he said they were out of that. We then tried to order the burnt ends but they were out of that too. We got the pulled pork platter and triple slider combo both with sweet potato fries and fried okra. All of it was really good, especially with the BBQ sauce and their vinegar based mustard was surprisingly tasty! The brisket, however, was not very seasoned and was lukewarm and bland. Enough sauce on top fixed that, though. The quarter rack combo we ordered with mac & cheese and that mac was not good at all, even with sauce added. Everything else was great. We also got the fried wings and those were amazing!!! Definitely would come back for those. Probably a 90% satisfactory rating with the food and 50% satisfactory with the staff but the atmosphere was pleasant, decorated, comfortable, and clean!