Hickory's - Wall Heath — Restaurant in Dudley

Came here for my birthday with my family. We had planned to come here a few years ago however a fire prevented that from happening.

I was hoping for some authentic USA BBQ as I have been eating fairly regularly at Bodean's in London and have a love of the style of food, however this place is nothing like how I expected.

We arrived o time for our 12.15pm booking, there were 7 of us, 3 being children (2 of which were under 2), we must have been sat down a good 10mins before we had our drinks order taken and it was another 7 mins or so before they arrived at the table, bearing in mind the restaurant wasn't busy at this point. We thought our food order would be taken shortly after the drinks arrived however the server dropped off the drinks and ran away again a good few mins before our food order was taken, luckily our children didn't mind this wait. After an hour or so of us arriving our main courses had arrived (no starter) the food was good however for a smoke house there was minimal on the menu that was actually smoked, and if it was I doubt very much it was done on site. I ended up having the Hickory burger as a triple which was very good and you could tell the burgers were handmade and around the table the food was well received. One peeve I have about the food was that we had ordered 2 children's main courses, these arrived after the adults food, meaning that myself and my wife's food was sat until well after it had arrived while the children's food was cut up to allow to cool and portion on to child friendly plates, most restaurants I have been to with my children I've never had to ask as the children's food is 99% brought to the table first, so disappointing. Once our main course was finished, we were again left waiting longer than expected for someone to clear our table, our original server had disappeared (she looked heavily pregnant so understandable) but we were passed many times before someone offered to clear the table, we were asked of we'd like to see the desert menu, to which they were fairly quickly brought over to the table... Again it took a long time the order to be taken, the deserts were fairly quickly delivered to the table, although I was quite disappointed by the hard Churros, which were delicious but could have been much nicer, I did mention this the what looked like manager but pretty much got an "oh well" response.

While waiting for the bill to arrive to the table I took my eldest into the kids Cinema as she'd seen children go in and out of there throughout the entire meal, and it sounded like a lovely idea. As we walked in there we could hear children being very loud and swearing, we stood by the side of one of the seats to be met by some children, a little older than mine, stood on the seats, others were jumping on them, shouting and swearing. Needless to say we were out of there very quickly. I'm not saying that it's management's job to police antisocial behaviour, however, I didn't expect anything like that and I think that the parents/guardians that were 6 feet away from the cinema should have been spending less time drinking and more time watching their children, but perhaps keeping an eye or popping in there every so often wouldn't hurt to prevent others having that sort...

We went for a dual celebration. A birthday as well as a uni graduation. It was busy quite loud. We have a deaf partu member sadly the resturant was busy. Seated inbetween a busy bar yelling and a busy chefs expoditing it wasbvery loud should have made it clear but to seat 5 itbmay have been a lot harder to find a quieter place, maybe outside however that was taken by another party and it wasnt the weather to eat out.

We all ordered . Starters to share and to expodited at the same tike as mains drinks as well . Kept being checked on everu 30 seconds, as it seemed., its busy so it was to be expected. Food arrived virtually at the samr time as drinks after order was made. It took 15 to 20 mins for drinks and food to arrive on top. Items were missing and had to chase two items up. Can understand with the volume but how it seemed chaotic and busy you can ubdsrsrand.

The food.

Starters they were ok . Nothing special sadly not wuat they used to be. Frickles were the only stand out item. Corn dogs were medocre at best bland sadly just a little too oily

The burger was consumed and enjoyed by one of the party The brisket by the other party member said it was juicy but lacked flavour. As well someone had to replacw the fries as it was allowed ti leace the kitched undusted fries The single platter thebissue was the brosket was just very fatty. The other two person sharing platter. Was missing the gravy so that had to be asked for.

Itbwas average the chicken wings wwre overcooked. Brisket overly fatty Some of thebribs were just cooked ie super firm and chewey. Felts very underwhelmed wity nothing that was different no real difference in trying to showcase different smoking and bbq techniquest when its sadly the pit beans were even dry.

Ordered more drinks halfway through the meal and those took an age. Nothijg speciall and they were asked withoutbice and ice was put in them.

Used to be a regular visitor from when it opened saddedned by the fire they had, even went to there in the covid eat promo

I have a passion for bbq have two smokers myself and when you pay a price for supposidlu good bbq you would expext o It. Not over cooked just cooked average bland and dry food. So it will be the last time i will pay for this lrefer to spend 10 hours myself smoking a brisket that has been trimmed and looked after or fried chicken that is dry and overy firm ie overcooked.

The only saving grace was the corn bread that was just soaked in maplebsyrup a reason to give you diabeties . It was still moist this morning not suprised

Itbwas sad to see a place where i would rave about to learn and make bbq and smoke bbq a passion turb into seeing sonething i held as a standard quickly be nothing but a ghost of...

Not impressed! I'm a Google reviewer and don't often leave a one star, however multiple things went wrong on our first visit to this restaurant.

1, we had never been to this place before and the menu wasn't explained very well at all. We were told about the tasters, there were 12 of us at our table, we said can we have one each? The waitress said I can't do that, I can give you three, now when someone says they are giving you three things, you don't expect to be charged. If we were to be charged, why couldn't we all have one.

2, I'm a vegan, no tasters were available for me, upon asking, we were told there is nothing for vegans, very confusing as I managed to cook vegan food for myself.

3, My vegan burger was sloppy and borderline warm, my fries were a very small portion in comparison to other restaurants I've been to in the same class. The sauce that is served (tomato like) was not flavoured at all.

4, My brother ordered a large dish with lots of meat on, the ribs were over done, hard and not edible, we sent them back and some new ones returned at the end of the meal, I understand it was busy, but complaints should be replaced with urgency, too late for the birthday celebration as the meal was over. This should have been deducted from the menu as we did say it's a little late when they arrived to enjoy.

5, My sister ordered a fish dish, it was dry and tasted like the fish was borderline out of date. Again, with the reputation of this chain, not good at all.

6, we were sat close to the front door, freezing was an understatement. People kept coming in and leaving the restaurant door open. There was no automatic closer on here or if there was it's not fit for purpose . If we got up once to close the door we got up 15 times.

7, When giving feedback to the waitress at the paying of the bill, we found the attitude to be argumentative, hostile and non caring. Couldn't wait to leave.

8, I've given a two star for the service as we did have a birthday cake and they did bring that over for us.

Summary: We were not...