Armstrong Barbecue — Restaurant in Barwon South West

Delicious meat, but expect to pay your pound of flesh for it. Woah?! Given the rising cost of living and how we're all trying to tighten our purse strings to make ends meet, a visit to Armstrong BBQ will require some serious saving up before getting there. A modest platter (we ordered the Date Night, suitable for two adults, including 200g of Brisket, Pulled Pork and Sausage, along with 2 sides), for a staggering $80! There is no doubt the meats on offer were delicious and there are inherent costs in slow cooking them to perfection. But sadly, this platter left us wanting. We were both still hungry after the fact. It's a lot to pay for when you can order three large pizzas and feed a family, or visit an Indian or Thai restaurant and walk away stuffed for about the same amount of money... and at those venues, you're able to drink out of glasses not plastic and eat off ceramic plates, not disposable paper plates. While the 'disposable' serving in principle is consistent with informality of traditional Texas BBQ , it's not exactly aligned with the price point. If you visit a traditional Texas BBQ in Texas, the whole disposable cups, plates and baskets is about 'affordability' as much as convenience. This doesn't seem to be the case here though? Add some drinks to the visit and you're not going to leave for anything less than $100 for two people.

The booking process was less than ideal. If you call, you'll be lucky to get anyone to answer. We tried several times over two days and never got through to anyone? Instead, you'll more likely have to log into their booking portal. That's fine for some people, but if you're not someone willing to share a lot of your personal details through these types of booking portals, then you'll have to persist with the phone and just hope for the best.

The staff are not un-friendly, but they're not exactly champing at the bit to serve you, or ask you how your meal was? This might seem hyper-critical in lieu of a 3-star review. But when you're dropping $100 for two people and walking away still hungry and questioning the whole experience, you start to think about the alternatives out there, and how you may be served quite differently for the same outlay? Times are tough, people don't have a lot of money to splash around and if they do, they want to feel well fed, definitely well serviced and that the whole experience being seamless and complete breeze. Otherwise, why go out in the first place? This just wasn't the case here for us.

I think if you love Texas BBQ and you're not prepared to visit somewhere like Fancy Hanks in the Melbourne CBD, then Armstrong BBQ is worth a one-off visit. The food (meats) are very good. Tasty, well-cooked, well presented and traditional in every sense of the word. But if you're a family, or paying for a few other people, understand up front that this will be a very, very expensive...

We have been excitedly waiting the opening of our new local. Overall we had a nice dinner out as a family but there is some feedback I would like to give in the hopes next time we visit I can give 5 stars all round. Bar- looks great I LOVED the plastic American bar cups, really made me transport back to my time living in the US. I had the Texas tea and it was a 10/10- will go back purely for that on a hot day.

Ordering - we didn’t love the ordering set up, it felt really awkward. I would either suggest altering to paying first and then having your order made in front of you or regular table service. All the staff were very friendly except the bar staff, they were quite disinterested. Food- ‘The vegan plate’ love the concept as a vegetarian who loves American bbq however I think it could be fine tuned. The jackfruit was terrible- I ate two bites and left the rest. I think ditch that entirely. The smoked pumpkin however is AMAZING! That needs to go on the regular menu please! The green goodness slaw is also amazing- the best slaw I have ever had! Pickles and red onions were absolutely delicious. I would love the option to add on extras to each meal. The potato salad was very average and I think the vegan plate would benefit from swapping that out to a baked beans instead. It needed a warm sweet saucy element to bring everything together. Please also remove the white bread slices- not appetising at all. I would much prefer corn bread or buttermilk biscuits. They would be a great Addition. My husband had the state sandwich and loved that but thought it needed a side of fries. I was surprised the menu didn’t have any fries/ fried potato and that would be a welcome addition. I would also love to suggest serving your bbq sauce warm- that truly brings out the flavour and a larger serving size as the sauce cups were barely filled 1/4 of the way.

Overall we enjoyed ourselves but no one left ‘full’ and with drinks and food combined we spent $110 as a family of 3. I hope my above suggestions help and next time we go we can have a stand out time. All in all for a new restaurant I think they are doing great and once the warmer weather returns I look forward to having cocktails...

Disappointed to say least! My family had plans to have dinner at Armstrong BBQ. I had never heard of the restaurant until one of friends recommended it as she has a young family. I looked at the website, reviews it looked good so we decided we’d take our young son for he’s birthday. I made reservations for 7, unfortunately we were running late as I’m heavily pregnant, 20 min drive to restaurant got uncomfortable pulled over got my partner drive. When in carpark I received a call from the restaurant confirming if still wanting table, 15 min late. I said yes we’re in car park. There was a line we had wait, as we went counter I said to the young polite girl we have booking, the girl just rang us about our table. She said sorry we’ve given your table away. You just called me and I confirmed I was already here & you said yes no problem. A much older mature women who assume was manager approached said No your table is gone, we still have table however it’s outside. I said why wasn’t informed of the time of the call you gave my table away, I was just outside. She replied ohhh it must have been given away after the phone call. At the point was confused because you’ve basically said you gave my table away after I said yes I’m here, I’m in the car park, why would restaurant bother ringing if going to ignore the Costumer. She said your now 20min late which is correct as waited a 5 min in the line to get in the door. I said to her I can not have dinner outside with my children it’s cold, She smirked and said Okay….. My children are 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 eating outside in winter not really ideal. Basically we left scratching our heads. My son was very disappointed with he’s night. It seems they are more interested in full house then looking after...