Luca S.
Yelp
I'll try to start with some positives. The signage is cute. The menu is straight to the point. The food came out extremely quickly (maybe a little too quickly). It's a relaxed, self-serve vibe. There's a unique "udder" self-serve dispenser for their range of barbecue sauces.
My family and I were looking to switch things up from the seafood we've been having this week. I have been on a barbecue kick lately and was extremely excited to try what I thought would be an incredible, authentic, barbecue spot. After eating here, I have NO CLUE how this place has lasted 40 years on the OBX. It may have ruined barbecue food for me.
I ordered a half rack of ribs, a side of mac and cheese, and a side of coleslaw. The girl at the counter put my order into the system incorrectly, charging me for an entire half rack of ribs "plate" which comes with beans (that I didn't want), hush puppies (that I didn't want), and coleslaw (that I had already ordered as a side). Not sure why there were no clarifying questions. The girl seemed to struggle to understand our orders.
There is a "boat" section on the menu, described as sandwiches. The three people I was with each ordered one, expecting sandwiches. The chicken tender boat is not a sandwich. It's just tenders. The fried shrimp boat is also not a sandwich. It's just fried shrimp. The girl at the counter input the fried shrimp boat incorrectly (which should come with fries and hush puppies), only putting in fried shrimp à la carte. Not a huge deal, they brought out the sides after we said something.
The ribs were bad. The color of the meat was off putting. You could see a yellow sheen on the surface and the inside was grey. The texture of the meat was gelatinous and bouncy. There was an overwhelming amount of fat. I took two bites before giving up and making everyone in my party try it. It was a negative experience for everyone. We threw what is pictured away.
The barbecue sauce was terrible. Not sure how you can mess that up as a barbecue restaurant, but of the six offered sauces, only one was remotely close to a classic barbecue flavor (but was too sweet). All the other sauces tasted like straight vinegar- extremely sour.
The pork barbecue boat (which actually does come as the advertised sandwich) was so sour due to the vinegar-based barbecue sauce. I couldn't tolerate it, but luckily the person who ordered it was able to get through it by adding copious amounts of the sweet barbecue sauce (which I believe Pigman's call their "Cock" sauce for whatever reason).
I got Starry as my drink from the self-serve soda machine. It tasted like dirty cafeteria soda, as if the machine needed a cleaning or the Starry had somehow gone bad.
The experience spiraled so badly that we ended up hysterically laughing at the cards we were dealt.
I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone in any scenario. Get some ribs from Food Lion or something if you want barbecue food. At least the workers were nice!