Justin V.
Yelp
It's been at least 10 years since I've visited Bull & Bones. This establishment opened in 2008 in a new shopping center that highlighted Blacksburg's growth. I remember my visit was a special one as it was busy, yet the service and food were impeccable. Bull & Bones put their best foot forward that night and I left Blacksburg thinking that B&B was one reliable dining spot.
Neal & I returned on 11/15/25 to check out Tech's football game at Florida State (our hotel wasn't televising the game). We were in town to check out VT v. Charlotte - a basketball game that featured some promising young talent for the Hokies.
Of course, I arrived at B&B with high hopes since my previous experience was a memorable one. Unfortunately, my latest visit wasn't quite as good.
The evening began well enough - there were plenty of available seats at the bar and we were greeted almost immediately. Our server was nice and pleasant, and returned with our drink orders promptly. We took a few minutes to look over the menu and we were able to order without issue.
We weren't in a rush, and the vibe was fairly chill. I didn't expect top tier service, but there were stretches in which an employee couldn't be located in order to get continued service.
For example, our server was cut (yet no one informed us) - we didn't see her after she took our dinner orders. I looked around constantly to ask for another round of drinks, but she wasn't around. While waiting for our entrees, what appeared to be the manager on duty stopped by to tell us that our entrees may take a while because our ticket was sent to the kitchen right behind a 40-top's order. He was apologetic, but we were cool with it because of the game. Surprisingly, our food arrived less than 10 minutes after the manager's table visit - we probably wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong if he hadn't said anything.
I appreciated the transparency, though. I saw it as one of the evening's highlights.
After the food arrived, it was a constant struggle to find any available server (as a reminder, no one told us she was cut). Refills and/or more rounds of drinks were held to a minimum. That irked me - it got to the point where I went to bar whenever I needed something (I wouldn't have minded doing that during the visit, but they set the expectation by providing table service - meaning I want table service for the duration).
Neal ordered wings, while I decided to go big with a ribeye. Neal devoured his entree but I wasn't happy with mine. I ordered the ribeye rare - it came out nearly well-done. My entree came with two sides - I ordered sweet potato fries and rice. The sweet potato fries were overcooked and burnt. I tried one fry and one fry only because it was charred and inedible. The rice wasn't much better as it was cold and mushy. Since a garlic parm fries appetizer was already at our table, I loaded up on that since they were pretty good. The steak was passable since it wasn't completely dry, so I ate about half of that before I became full.
So, B&B was a miss, imo, this time around. It would be easy to dismiss this as things going haywire during a busy Saturday night dinner service but, outside of the 40-top, they were empty. So, this visit felt like B&B's quality has gone downhill.
I hope this isn't the norm for B&B because they honestly are a good place. But after time, some businesses lose their focus, and it felt like B&B reached that stage. Hopefully they can re-evaluate, reinvent, refocus and improve, but if their food quality continues to suffer, they won't last.
Thank you, Bull & Bones. JV