Hickory Chip — Restaurant in Alabama

My parents and I came here for dinner on a Friday night. The place was packed, which made me think the food must be amazing, right? Wrong. First off, the atmosphere reminded me of a combination between the flea market and cracker barrel, and to top it off their wifi network was down, I'm guessing so that people can't write bad reviews while they're there. Tacky plastic plants and dusty old decor greeted us as we took our seats. We waited an hour for our food, which I was hoping meant that it was going to be fresh and delicious, but sadly that was not the case. Their food would be better suited for a retirement home or school cafeteria. I ordered the rib plate with fried okra and cole slaw, which for a place called The Hickory Chip should be a solid choice. Nothing tasted like it was seasoned at all. I'm pretty sure their dry rub was just salt and pepper. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender, I'll give them that, but most of the meat was so chewy and dry it reminded me of pork jerky. Only about half of the meat was actually edible. I had to drown it in barbecue sauce (which was actually quite good, but sadly wasn't used while they were actually smoking the ribs or else they'd actually be tender and flavorful). The fried okra was cold, bland, and mushy. And the cole slaw? The cole slaw was an insult to generations upon generations of southern women everywhere. I don't know why, but they pureed the it. It, too, was bland, had the consistency of baby food, and wasn't even cold. I called it cole slop. I literally could drink it through a straw. I'm pretty sure the tears i shed were the most flavorful thing about it. The meal was served with a toasty, buttery slice of texas toast, which truly was the best thing about the entire meal. The place has potential, I'll give it that, but you can tell nobody there puts pride in their work. Do better, guys. There's no reason a place like that should serve such underwhelming food in such a tacky atmosphere. I feel like I got...

The Building Screams Famous BBQ from the old Days, there were even smokers "smoking" when I passed by during a detour from I-65 onto 145 Alabama, to bypass "accident" traffic into Birmingham.

I specifically remembered this place as it sat in the middle of an open field off the highway, and I brought my wife back to it for a special dinner when she was travel nursing in UAB Birmingham. I remember telling her, honey a place that looks like this, off the beaten path, on a side county road HAS TO BE GREAT!

Well the service was GREAT, The Ambiance was GREAT, but the food could have been better. Bacon Bits for the Salads were Restaurant Supply / Depot imitation bacon bits, Salad Dressings were in little prefabricated cups, I remember little sauce packets, etc for everything else.

In my opinion the food quality did not match my expectation(s) based on what the place looked like. I had HIGH HOPES!!!

I thought I was walking into a masterpiece of meats from the past, with great side dishes, and tasty food!!!

We had to take everything back to my wife's accommodations and blast it in the air fryer, with more bbq sauce and spices, then ate the meat with sour dough rolls with the chopped meat that we acquired at the Chip...

Perhaps it might be time to inject some new love and technique into the place! It is an awesome spot, a good location, accessible to many people in that area and off the highway!

I do not think the Chip is lost, but I think the Chip needs some new love and new blood to keep...

Okay this is a situation where my husband's food was good and mine was horrible first off the place was located in the middle of nowhere which I thought was pretty cool because it was a lot of cars outside but there wasn't that many people inside I thought that there was at first but I guess they have a lot of workers anyways. I ordered the fried shrimp it was horrible first off you can tell when shrimp is hand batter this was shrimp that came out of a box no doubt there was no really shrimp to it it was really just all hard batter had no taste whatsoever disgusting second I ordered the fried jalapeno and onion strips as my side had no taste did not like that either my husband got the pulled pork it was absolutely delicious and he got the jalapeno and onion strips to of course I didn't like those he said that he liked it but he didn't eat them so I don't think he liked them that great the only thing that I considered to be so darn good and which was the very first time me and my husband ever ate them in our lives was the fried green tomatoes oh my gosh they were absolutely wonderful it almost tastes like eating squash I am now craving them because it was just that good and we still had some left over so I will be eating that today I'm going to try to get them back crispy again by boiling them or put them in my air fryer and then it's going to taste like brand-new all over again my husband really really loved his pulled pork so it's a type of place that you have to order...