Hickory Park — Restaurant in Ames

Would I go here again? - Maybe Do I recommend it? - Hmm, maybe. (Keep in mind I smoke my own meats and make my own sauce. I'm no chef or expert, but do enjoy excellent Bar-b-que, even if it's only "ok")

Here's why "maybe".. I arrived at 5 minutes to 9pm and ordered take out. If a restaurant is open and seating me and serving me, I'm assuming they will be giving just as good of food as I might have at 6pm, 3pm, noon or whenever they open. Which, I understand, can be difficult for a place that serves real "bar-b-que". My food, which was quite tasty, and had a perfect "smoke" flavor, was dried out, overcooked and tough. I had the Chicken/Ribs Dinner. Quarter chicken (half?) and 4 meaty chunks between rib bones. The sauce was "ok". I don't know if they had any other. It is a vinegar type which seems to have ketchup as it's base. Nothing to write home about. Not sweet at all. Which is fine for a vinegar sauce. However, the sides were delicious. perfect mashed potatoes with a brown gravy, buttered corn (the recommendation of the front cashier girl) and a scone. Ohhhh.. that scone. yumm... The corn and potatoes were good, but not too difficult to make and you can get good sides like that most anywhere. But the scone. Ok, I thought was going to be cornbread, the usual "grain" type side. when I opened it, it looked just like a dinner roll. But after biting into it, I realized it had been lightly (VERY lightly!) fried, it was light and airy inside, just like I'd expect from a dinner roll but a little sweet, with a crispness all over that you just dont' get from baking. Of course, I could be completely wrong about it. This is just what it seemed like to me. ' Personally, I would go back just to order 2-3 dozen of the scones/rolls if I was having a party, or just to put my pulled pork on. It was that good. And very unexpected.

So.. IF I went earlier in the day, perhaps the meat would be cooked perfectly, or at least well and not tough and over-cooked. And if I went inside, I might find they have different sauces than the only one that came with my meal. So, yeah, if I'm ever back in this area I might stop in and see if the $10 box meal was as great a bargain as I thought it would be. Or.. confirm that someone needs to learn not to over-cook. In the end, I just couldn't finish either the ribs or the chicken....

This is not a 4.6 star restaurant (according to reviews on Google in summer 2024). The service was okay, folks were nice, food came to the table quickly, etc. The atmosphere is a little niche. But nothing to rave about. But, by far the food is not as good as other reviewers claim. I ordered the BBQ dinner plate, which comes with 2 slices of turkey, 2 slices of beef, and 2 slices of pork, a roll, and two sides ( I chose Mac and Cheese and Coleslaw, as I do at every BBQ joint I visit). I added a side of BBQ beans, a sweet tea, and finished with a small brownie sundae. The tea tastes like it was from a fountain, my mistake thinking it was freshly brewed. If it was freshly brewed it was a couple of days old or wasn't kept cold all day long. It had THAT sour taste. The BBQ beans tasted like canned baked beans that were doctored with cider vinegar and put on the smoker for a short while. The coleslaw looked and tasted like bagged coleslaw you get in the produce section of the grocery store and mix at home. The mac and cheese was run of the mill cafeteria Mac and cheese that seems to have been doctored as well but I could put my finger on how. The meat was, well, it appeared to be deli meat. I think they went to Gordon's and bought a whole unsliced deli turkey, deli beef, and deli pork, then smoked it, sliced it, and served it. When I read sliced smoked meat in the menu I assumed it was whole smoked turkey that had been sliced, a brisket flat (or equivalent), and pork (butt, loin) something. But this looked, tasted, and had the mouth feel of thick cut deli meat. The roll, was the best part of the meal. The BBQ sauces at the table were definitely needed. The best one was in the red top. It had a nice spicy bite. The yellow top was too sweet, and the white top was a nice in between. I got the brownie sundae because other reviewers raved about the ice cream. But the brown was so small it was completely hidden by one of the two scoops of ice cream. One scoop of ice cream was probably 2...

Update 1/20/24: Glad to report that the food was excellent and has been in our previous visits. Service was great, in fact so good I mentioned it to the manager.

However, there was a damper on the meal so no change to my overall rating, and it was that HP has now decided to add a 3% surcharge to your bill for paying with a credit card and sounds like even a debit card. While I realize the reasons behind this, I find it to be somewhat frivolous and beneath a good establishment. This is more what you'd find at a tiny restaurant that is struggling to make ends meet and even then, it's usually a minimum charge (which I had no issues with).

If the surcharge is causing them financial issues, I'd recommend a small increase in prices which wouldn't even be noticed vs. a surcharge. It reminds me of the airlines when they rip you off with a low advertised flight and then you find all the other non-disclosed charges.

It's certainly well with their rights to do so, but obviously it rubs me wrong and I can't believe I'm the only one and I think we may just move most of our business elsewhere.

It saddens me to write this as we have eaten at HP at least a hundred of times over the years (no exaggeration). However, this last experience was by far the worst ever - in fact, it was one of the few bad ones we ever had.

We usually get cheese balls and ham sandwiches with different sides but this time I mixed it up and got a tenderloin to split with the Mrs (which we've done before).

First, the cheese curds - we've eaten enough of these to know what we should get and not only were they grossly overcooked, but the serving size was about half of what we normally get. But the worst was the tenderloin - it was like eating sawdust......

On a positive note, the ham sandwiches were as good as always but I'm hoping the new ownership isn't a bad sign...