Bottom Of The Stairs

I cannot say enough good about both the food and service here. My buddy and I were spending a long weekend catching up on a close friendship of over 63 years and we're touring area wineries and distilleries when we decided to try this place out. Boy we're we ever glad that we did. Holy smokes delicious! I got the brisket (which is smoked on premises out back). This is indeed the real deal. Beautiful smoke ring, fabulously tender and cut with a feather tender in very generous amounts and fair pricing. The veggies were great, too. Enough beer choices to please most. If ever in the general Blacksburg area - - (particularly if VA Tech is out and it's quiet and laid back) don't miss this place.

I decided to get the platter with two meats here, from which I selected 1 fried catfish fillet, brisket (came in 2 pieces), and this came with slaw, and two sides, where I chose tater tots and mac and cheese The first thing that absolutely shocked me was the size of this plate. It was incredibly large. My first thought when seeing the food was "there's no way I'm going to finish this". The catfish fillet stretched across the entire plate to cover basically the entire thing. I didn't expect the brisket pieces to be so large either. Also, the amount of tater tots on the plate was significant as well. That's not even to consider the mac & cheese and slaw coming in separate, decently sized cups. Starting with the brisket, I thought this was quite good. What jumped out to me at the start was how well this seemed to be cooked, with beautiful char marks throughout and excellently charred edges. The pieces I had that really nice smoky flavor, and the fat in the meat (since brisket is rather lean - there wasn't too much of it) tasted really good as well. I do think it was a bit dry, as cutting it with a knife required a little bit more effort than cutting a perfectly juicy brisket was, and i did notice some of the meat to be somewhat tough, but I do think both pieces were pretty solid Moving to the fried catfish, I loved how well the breading was seasoned. It had some pepper and other spices that gave it that extra flavor. I liked this less than the brisket, however, due to a) how paper-thin the breading was and b) how easily the breading broke apart from the catfish itself. The entire fillet seemed like it was on the verge of collapse. After my first cut with a fork and knife, a lot of the breading came off, and a good amount of the inner fish spilled out onto the plate. I did think the fish meat was certainly not dry and tasted pretty good, though The tater tots were also fantastic, and there was a lot of them. the fried batter on these was thick and they were quite crunchy as a result. I also appreciated the relish-like sauce that came with them. Another thing that was really good was the slaw - I found the dressing especially to be really flavorful and the vegetables were done well. I liked the mac and cheese less, though, so when it came to prioritizing, I only ended up eating a few bites of it As I already mentioned, the portion size here was pretty insane, and for a price of only around 15 dollars for everything, I thought this ratio was astoundingly good. I would recommend ordering just one for two people, as even as someone who can eat a lot, I had to leave a lot of the mac & cheese and tater tots as I prioritized finishing the main dishes. They certainly don't skimp on size - whether it's the main meat or a side Overall, a strong and diverse combination of traditional Southern barbecue foods at an all-time portion size. 8.75/10

This place was fantastic. The wait staff were all nice and attentive. It was well lite and nice setup. The food was delicious from the TOTschos ( tater tots with cheese, pulled pork, cole slaw and sauce) smoked wings platter was excellent and huge with mac and cheese and cornbread to my 3 meat platter with pulled pork, smoked brisket and smoked wings with mac and cheese, green beans, cole slaw and cornbread 😋. Dessert - nanners pudding delicious. We left with more food than we ate.

Excellent BBQ and burgers at an easy to miss location on the edge of campus. The brisket and pulled pork were near perfect. Outdoor seating available. Plastic flatware or not, recommended!

Such a cute place! Came here for dinner with some friends and had a great time. The food was great and the prices were even better. I’m a big fan and will definitely be coming back to try some other menu items. I got the Buffalo chicken Mac and cheese and my boyfriend got the brisket plate, and I totally recommend.

Had the pulled chicken and it had good flavor, not real Smokey, a bit dry. Coleslaw was different and not to my liking, baked beans were average and green beans seemed bland and fresh from the can.

Good burger, catfish was nicely fried. Did have to go bk, they forgot to give me my burger.. Got a gift card, so no worries!!

Great food. Liked their brisket. So well cooked.

Love the Totchos - pulled pork and beer cheese covered tater tot's. The people are always lovely to deal with from ordering to pick up or eating in. They always make me feel well taken care of.

Best service we've had almost everywhere! Food was good. Nothing was my favorite I've ever had but everything was good, especially the bbq wings. The ambiance is casual and it's a great spot to try when you're downtown!

Stopped by lastnight just by chance and was not disappointed. Our waiter was fantastic, we sit right down. The inside was nicely decorated. The food was outstanding. We started with the TOTschos - wow tatertots with cheese, pulled pork, cole slaw and sauces it was a delicious start. The meals - daughters - smoked wing (they were huge) platter with mac and cheese, corn bread and mine 3 meat platter pulled pork, brisket and smoked wings with green beans, cole slaw, mac and cheese with corn bread. There was so much it was ridiculous. We left with more food than we ate. A pleasant experience a must when u are in town.

Good quick lunch spot near Virginia Tech's campus. Had solid bbq and non-bbq food choices. Nice beer selection too for a small place

I am a vegetarian, and I still find plenty of delicious options here including jackfruit bbq and mac and cheese. I haven't dined in, only ordered delivery. And in the past few years, delivery has changed numerous times re if they deliver, what platform they use, etc. I noticed that they've taken their wonderful hush puppies and fried green tomatoes off the menu too; those were my favorites. Right now I know everyone is short on supplies and staffing and I can be more flexible. When we finally get out of this mess, though, I hope they'll stabilize delivery policies and bring back menu items.

Great spot for lunch at Virginia tech. Food was good and enjoyed eating outside. Overall a good experience.

Huge portions at reasonable prices. Excellent service. The biggest catfish fillet I've ever seen! 5 stars all around.

Stopped here prior to my son's football camp and we were greeted promptly with kindness. We had the fried pickles for an app which were very good. They weren't the usual chips or spears, but more like a thicker julienned cut. The amount of breading was perfect and the sauce that came with it was very good. For the entree I had the Boss Burger. it was cooked perfectly and had pulled pork and beer cheese topping the burger itself. The only criticism I would give is that it needed more beer cheese. They do have four different BBQ sauces available on the table that I ended adding to it to give it what I felt needed a little more sauce touch. Overall, very good food and service was great. One thing I would warn is to make sure you have a parking pass in the lot next to it or you'll get a citation.

Meh barbecue. Definitely not creole/Cajun food. Serving catfish does not make you Cajun. Where are the po'boys, the jambalaya, gumbo? Even some shrimp and grits would be nice. Instead you get kinda dried out, mediocre barbecue. The slaw wasn't great, the Mac and cheese was dry, the hush puppies were minuscule, the baked beans were okay, but not special. The only thing I really loved was the Kansas City Barbeque Sauce. I'm we got the mashed potato bowl and it was okay. Beer cheese tasted out of place with it. The other combinations offered were odd. Brisket and pepperjack? Idk. It was okay, but we won't be back.

Wow, so delicious, so filling price was incredibly fair for the portion size. Food came out impressively fast

Really good bar-food. Excellent value for money. We paid $20 for beer and Cajun catfish fries and a potato bowl. The pulled pork was really good. I liked the service. We chose to sit outside since it was a fabulous day. There's limited seating, so I can imagine that it gets crowded on weekends.

The food here is quite good. A great mix of comfort food with some interesting touches to keep things lively. But the service is really over the top good. We had a very minor issue with an order and they went above and beyond to fix it. As my young son said "they should get 102 thank you notes". Recommendation: try the Alabama white sauce. I'm a native Texan and can be very picky when it comes to BBQ, but I am completely sold on this variant.

I quite enjoy the pulled chicken sliders, typically with mac and cheese. The fried green beans and pickles are also my favorites. I was disappointed to see that the fried pickle recipe seems to have changed. When I last got them it was a different type of pickle (no longer dill) and the batter coating it was barely sticking. I miss the dill pickle chips :-( it was the only place in Blacksburg I knew of that did pickle chips rather than spears for their fried pickles.

Eating often at this Southern BBQ restaurant in downtown Blacksburg will certainly put you in an early grave. Having said that, it doesn't mean that the food isn't really good. Because it is. Fall off the bone ribs, pulled pork, brisket were all delicious. Only disappointment was the pulled chicken which was dry as a bone and flavorless. Even the sides were really good. Service is fine and prices, even for really large portions, are dirt cheap. Four adults and a child ate for $80! Definitely come here for cheap, good bbq and recommended.

Honestly, always loved TOTS so I thought I'd give BOTS a chance. Absolutely horrendous service. The service is the worst I have ever encountered. The servers are cranky, rude, and stand-off-ish. I wish I could say I had a good time. But to be honest, I wish I never would've encountered the BOTS experience and just remembered the memories from TOTS.

Very good! The food was very good quality, hot & the service was quick. You get a pretty large portion for what you pay for, which is relatively cheap. Our waiter was very attentive and made sure our drinks were full. They have several different sauces with all different flavors and spices. Unfortunately I live out of town, but if I ever find myself in Blacksburg again this will be the first restaurant I go to!

So. Good. Brisket cheese steak with tots folded in, served by an honest and polite young lady. #nailedit

For those who don't know, Bottom of the Stairs is the restaurant underneath Top of The Stairs. I assume it is called this because "basically just at ground level" doesn't really fit with their branding as a name. After being " asked"to leave TOTS this afternoon at 3:30 pm, which to be fair was after my lecture for the day, I decided to try this new restuarants food . I would have gone to jimmy johns, my usual spot, but I'm pretty sure I recognized the cashier and i didn't really want him to see me in my current state. The inside of Bots is both modern and rustic, with reclaimed woods on the walls and something that looks like a civil war shower caddy on the table holding barbecue sauce, with exposed piping on the ceiling and a corrugated metal bar in the back. I was seated quickly, and the waitress took my order, two baskets of hush puppies, a side of tots, an ounce of pulled pork and 3 gallons of banana putting. However, after ordering it seemed to take a surprising amount of time to be served, despite me being the only person in there. For context, I could have sat through an entire lecture or seminar in astrophysics in the time. I wouldn't understand the lecture, and it would have been a waste of time since my area is in sociology, but I could have done it While I waited, I took time to contemplate the labeled diagram of a pig and its various subcomponents which hangs on the wall. Did you know that the pigs "butt" is also called pork shoulder? Because safe to say I now have a new code word to use with the boys in class. "Look at the shoulders on that one", we'll say. The food was decent, although I'm pretty sure the "pit style" barbecue sauce was mostly strawberry jelly. I don't know if I'll be back here, but the food was ok, and the portions were very generous, which I appreciated because they pay us professors diddly squat.

A place sitting downstairs of the restaurant "Top of the Stairs". A decent place with various options of sauces and traditional American food. Dill pickles are great and highly recommended. Ordered "three little pigs" and was okay. The portion of the meat is huge but a little greasy for me.

The tots of course were yummy (and would've been better if they hadn't forgotten the beer cheese since it was a takeout order. For my entree, I had the jack fruit bbq sandwich (vegan bbq) with slaw, mac and cheese, and hush puppies. Everything was delicious with the exception of the sandwich. The jack fruit seemed to be over cooked, wasn't very shredded, and was too saucy. For dessert I had the banana pudding and it was AMAZING. Definitely would eat here again and probably would just skip out on the jack fruit bbq next time.

This is my favorite restaurant in the world!!! All of bottom of the stairs BBQ is good and they have a lot of sides to choose from that are also good.

I honestly don't know how they're still in business considering how much of this good quality food they give out in hefty amounts in cheap prices. Some of the entrees are too much (too thick, too calorie-heavy) but that's only about 2-3 items out of 20 (that I know of) and I just don't know how they can afford to give out so much of these food thats both delicious and superfluous and cheap. I'd understand if it was McDonald's where food is shitty and cheap, because well cough cough the food is shitty so they can afford to give out bad food, but BotS isn't even a chain and has actual soul food in bulk loads out in cheap prices, so..... I don't know how they do it. I guess they get so much profit from TotS that they can give out cheap, good quality food in bucket loads like this.

This place is fantastic, prices and food are incredible. Must have the totchos. Very affordable and a quaint little place to eat. Parking kinda sucks.

Ordered the burnt ends and they were awful... I rarely leave negative reviews, but this was warranted. For $10 you get 9 small, cubes, that were not only flavorless but also extremely chewy.

I had heard good things about the food at Bottom of the Stairs. Everyone in our party of seven raved about the food. The portions were quite generous so we all got boxes for left overs. My expectations were exceeded. This place is in my top five places to eat in the New River Valley. The service was very good too. All-around good experience.

Tried this place yesterday while visiting Blacksburg. I ate way too much! I had the two meat plate with brisket and pulled pork. For sides I had baked beans, cold slaw, mashed potatoes with gravy, and hush puppies. They had about 5 different sauces. I tried some of each one. They were all really good. I was told that they were all made in house. Everything was really great except the pulled pork. Being an eastern NC guy, I think I could give them some pointers on the pulled pork! Our server was great. I don't remember his name but he grew up in Memphis. Nice experience! I would recommend this place!

Finally good barbecue in the NRV area! Those calling this "bar food" may not be aware of the (huge) difference between bar food and barbecue. Whatever the case, nothing on the menu has failed to please. Tender and smokey meat, deliciously crafted sides, multiple BBQ sauces, and excellent dessert all go perfectly with the on tap beer selection. To top it off, the prices are more than reasonable.

Split apps with friends and everything was extremely tasty! Drinks were awesome.

Anything done in the smoker is going to be a great choice! Best BBQ sauces around! Highly recommend if you are looking for something different than just bar food in town!

The best boneless wings in Blacksburg. Not a ton of breading and delicious sauces. I would highly recommend!

Our order: brisket sandwiches with mac and cheese, baked beans, and pickles. They also come with hush puppies and coleslaw. Reasonably priced, but it's BBQ, so it should be. The hush puppies and coleslaw were fine, if below average. Same with the mac and cheese and the baked beans. The brisket was straight up bad. The sauces were all overly sweet and we couldn't tell which one was meant to be the spicy one. The only redeeming thing? The pickles.

I am very impressed with the food that BOTs has to offer. Located directly underneath TOTs, the restaurant is small but I have never had to wait to be seated as I usually go around lunch time. On nice days, the seating outside is very nice and the service is no different than if you were inside. The waiters and waitresses are all very friendly and helpful in deciding what to eat from their lengthy menu, and give you a lot of suggestions. For me, the three little pigs sandwich is by far my choice every single time. Deboned ribs, brisket, bacon, cole slaw, onions all served between two warm pieces of toast, what can be better?! The sandwiches are all served with a side of cole slaw, and two hush puppies, as well as a choice of your own side(Mac and cheese, beans, potato salad, etc.) This $10 meal is well worth the money as the food is both very tasteful and filling as well! I would definitely suggest BOTs as one of the top restaurants that Blacksburg has to offer!

First time here. Service was great, food was great. The totchos are a must try appetizer. But you better be careful because you may not need a meal afterwards. These are tater tots covered in cheese sauce,bbq, cole slaw and bbq sauce! Oh my. They are delicious!

This place is really good. Best brisket in the area, hands down. Sweet and Spicy pickles are also good, as well as the hush puppies. If you like BBQ, I would for sure stop by.

This was awful. Only 6 tables, very disorganized staff, poor menu and worse food. My entire meal was burnt and when the waitress asked how my meal was I told her I couldn't even eat it because it was so overcooked and she said "Okay" and left. She didn't offer to comp the meal or get something else. I told another waitress when she refilled our water and she said "Sorry about that." I was appalled that I paid for a meal i had two bites of.

I got the burnt ends yesterday and they were horrible. It seemed like they took steak, cooked it well done and then cubed it up and served it to me. Each piece was dry and hard to chew. Best barbecue in town? No, I think not.Cat fish bites were awesome though.

4 stars for food only. Service was 0. Took 45 min from seating (easiest part) to eating. I think our server was new and maybe did the best she could. Food was great. Manager, at the very end of our meal when we were walking out, gave us a gift card. Would go back for the food but takeout only.

Overall, we were disappointed by our experience at BOTS. After waiting an hour for our food on a not very busy Wednesday night, they only brought 3 of the meals and the 4th meal was brought out 10 minutes after the rest, so the others were already finished. The food was cold for 2/4 meals. In addition, the meals were missing complete orders and the service was not good. The food was OK, and would have been better if served warm. We will not be back.