City Barbeque — Restaurant in Acworth

I visited the newly opened City Barbecue in Acworth today with friends for a late lunch. Even though it was 2:30, the place was busy. There is plenty of parking and the restaurant is nicely finished. You order at the counter and when your order is ready they will call your name and you pick it up at the counter. In the meanwhile you can fix your drink and find a table or high top.

I tried the 3 meat sampler with two sides: hand pulled pork, smoked turkey, beef brisket, collard greens and hush puppies with Texas toast and iced tea. The total came to $26.48. I got my iced tea from the self-serve drink station and found a table. About five minutes later my order was ready.

The serving sizes were ample and all the dishes were great. I tried two of the five barbecue sauces: original and sweet city sauce. They also have brush fire sauce, swine wine sauce and lowco sauce. The sauces are available at a sauce station located adjacent to the drink station and you can apply them directly to your food from large squeeze bottles or into individual serving cups.

On the plus side, when paying at the register there is no prompt to leave a tip like you see at many counter service restaurants. When I pick up my food at the counter, fix my own drink and bus my own table, I do not expect to leave a tip. The employees were all pleasant and friendly. All the food is prepared right out in the open for you to view. The smokers are mounted in the wall and are stoked with wood from the outside while the meats are loaded and unloaded from the inside. The smell of wood smoke lets you know you are in a real BBQ joint. They also have real flatware instead of the chintzy plastic forks you see at many places.

Some things they could improve on: The drink station, condiments and sauce station are all crammed together on one counter so it is a busy area. You can only get ice from the one soft drink dispenser, so even if getting tea, you might have to wait for several people to finish at the soft drink dispenser to get your ice. The caps for the cups and the straws are out of view between the soft drink dispenser and the wall. During my visit, the flatware rack was almost empty. Most good BBQ joints will have ketchup and a selection of BBQ sauces on squeeze bottles at the table. Having to visit the crowed sauce station was a bit inconvenient. I did not notice anyone wiping down the tables while we were there.

Overall, the food was very good and so was the service. I am sure they can make some changes to eliminate the bottleneck at the drink station and sauce station. Being a brand new restaurant that has just opened, I am sure they are still tweaking how they service the tables. City Barbecue is a welcome addition to the Acworth food scene and will be...

Ok lots to talk about with this place. Let me start by saying the food …..is great!!! In fact, so good that this was our second time there in 2 weeks. The smell as soon as you open the door and walk in makes your mouth water! I got the dirty bird which was crispy, juicy , and completely sticky and messy!! Which for the record is a good thing not a bad!! The fries were fresh and crispy and the beans with brisket side was also really good. Hush puppies were tasty and the choice of different bbq sauces to choose from are all tasty. My favorite was the sweet city and the wife liked low co. And brush fire. The banana pudding was also really good, tasted fresh and was a nice end to our dinner. Service was good. The person that took our order was friendly and the food didn’t take too terribly long considering how busy the place was. Drive thru was around the building and inside was almost full.

SOOOOO……why a 4 star and not a 5? The dining room is in desperate need of a full time front of house attendant. Both times that we went there, all 3 garbage areas were full and overflowing with trash. I mean it was really bad! In order to throw out my trash I had to use the paper boat that the food is served in to push it down just enough so I can get my trash in. And when you are dealing with a BBQ place that means there are sauces EVERYWHERE….all over the top of the garbage receptacle. It was so full that trash was over flowing from the can that was inside the receptacle and you can see trash on the floor but under the door opening that the trash can was in. And this was like this on the 2 trash bins inside and the one outside. The self serve drink and sauce station was just as bad. There were blobs of sauce on top of the stainless steel right where you try to serve your sauce into the little cups. Which speaking of, the little cups needed to be refilled , the lids for the drink cups needed to be refilled and there were no straws, we had to ask someone to get us some straws. LASTLY, the tables needed to be wiped down as the were all sticky as well. All these things are the job of a front of house attendant, and that person should have no other tasks but to keep everything stocked and cleaned, especially during busy dinner times.

My final take is this….we will be back again….the food was amazing, the price was very average and again the timely service was great especially for a brand new place and how busy they were. But the dining room needs help ….like BAD…. I hope they see this and fix the problem because honestly, even with the good food and good service, they can easily ruin their reputation with a dirty...

07/03/2025: Test run this was. We had reason, a Lot of bad reviews. Note picture 2. This Small French Fry Tray was Only half filled for $8.99. Note picture 1: I should have taken a side picture. This $2.99 rib was a possum bone. There was plenty of bone. Meat? Have you ever gotten a cheap rib where you use your upper teeth to scrape off what very little meat was on the rib? Well, that is what we came home with. I ask for Naked pulled pork with bun on the side because my wife has Celiac. Notice the bun is stacked in with the Very Dry Pulled Pork. No pickles either. I could add 2 tiny sides and a drink for only an additional $7.99. Those tiny 3 ounce (?) servings of side items were around $3.79 each. Flavor: Poor. What was nice is that I tasted No Salt and the staff confirmed that all meat is gluten-free, no added wheat. Salt is at the tables for the sat addicts. Blood Glucose went out the roof. Why? Discovered that the BBQ sauces are basically HFCS with a little molasses. We paid $12.79 on this test run for half a French Fry tray of pulled pork and a rib bone. The Cool Ray guys where here yesterday for a repair and saw the receipt and said they had thought about going there but instinct and other people said no. The trainer team at Whataburger said basically the same thing. We all agreed that we can go to Golden Corral and get real smoked pulled pork BBQ and Baby Back Ribs with Lots of Meat and a Hot Bar of vegetables and a huge salad bar and potato salad, No Salt on anything You ask Scott or Nichole to Grill the Cod with Butter and Lemon and it is to your table in about seven minutes. Fire Grilled Skinless Chicken Breast in about twenty minutes. All that for $12.00 each or $15.00 each after 4 PM. No Comparison. We All Choose Golden Corral. In My Opinion City Sucks. Extremely Expensive for Very Small Portions of Very Dry Pulled Pork, Rib BONES, and the Basic Potatoes cut and deep fried, No Thanks. GC, Culvers, Freddy's, Whataburger and even Waffle Fries from the chicken guys all Taste Great but these potatoes are just a cheap way out. We will Not go back to any location and neither will anyone where City has come up in conversation. City is Not competitive in pricing. quality or volume. The cup runs over or there is a thumb on the scale. City is a Thumb on the scale with poor quality and...