Phil D.
Yelp
Possibly the worst BBQ experience we've had anywhere.
We decided to stop by on our way home from the USA Baseball training complex after a long day, craving some fine NC-BBQ and this place was on the way and had good reviews. Unfortunately, our entire experience from ordering to the food was terrible.
Let me preface this by saying we dined in on a Thursday at 5:40pm which we thought would be prime dinner time and there was barely a person in the joint. This should have been our first sign to leave.
I've never been to a truly good BBQ restaurant that didn't have a significant wait. And most of the times it's worth it.
The girl who took our order either couldn't be bothered to answer our questions, or didn't know enough about the restaurant's menu to be helpful.
Being our first time here, we asked if we could order just a single sausage link in addition to the two combos we were ordering.
We were greeted with a blank stare and no answer. We tried asking again. Same. This should have been our second sign to leave.
We then took another route and asked if we could order the sausage sandwich without bread since we weren't successful in communicating to her that we wanted to order a single sausage as a side to our meal. Finally, she seemed to get it and we finished our order.
Suspiciously, our food was ready in less than 5 minutes. Another bad sign in my opinion for a BBQ place that isn't set up for dealing large quantities of meat.
When we picked up the order, one of our combos (which we order two identical combos of previously) wasn't what we ordered. It wasn't confused with another guest, the girl with the blank stare simply messed it up.
It happens so we shrugged it off. The one bright spot of our visit was the friendly lady expediting orders who apologized profusely and helped correct the order.
We brought the food back to our table and I could tell right away that the food wasn't right. It was absolutely freezing in the restaurant (actually a high note since it was hot outside) yet there was not a single bit of steam coming off the supposedly warm food in a very cold place.
As it turns out, the only thing warm on it plates was the texas toast which clearly had to be grilled on the spot. Everything else was lukewarm or colder. The baked beans tasted like they just came out of the refrigerator. The brisket and pork were both lukewarm, as was the sausage link.
We decided to ask for our money back because at this point appetite was completely lost. The manager or person in charge could not have been any less accommodating. He was openly in disbelief that we would not be happy and was entirely dismissive of our concerns. Moreover, he was clearly and overtly suspicious of us, as if we flew 3,000 miles across the country to represent his region with USA Baseball just to scam this place.
He came out to speak with us to feign an apology and make excuses that this "never happens" (well it did, to us, and he clearly didn't care) but it was also clear that he was much more interested in evaluating how much we had actually eaten, which a) shouldn't have mattered and b) was everything we ordered minus 1-2 bites from each item, all we cared to experience from this place.
To add insult to injury, he was SO cheap that he refused to refund the entire order and made us pay for the drinks which we had just filled once because "their errors didn't influence the drink machine" and that the drinks should have been fine for us. I've never in my life even heard of this. I mean, I didn't actually have a problem paying for them but it really was the principle of the matter and just a clear snapshot of the type of establishment this is. I guess they really need to make those margins on a $3 fountain drink. Seriously?!?
All in all, a terrible experience. Would give ZERO stars if possible.
Maybe if you didn't know any better this food would be fine, but if you've had even slightly good BBQ elsewhere you will likely be disappointed.
