City Barbeque — Restaurant in Cary

UPDATED REVIEW A credit to the City BBQ for reaching out to try and rectify the issues from last time I was here. I am grateful for that because I don't know many places that would see a negative review like mine and try to fix things. I have added updated photos as well. Photos 1-4 are from original review, 5-8 are new.

This time it was just my husband and I, and we ordered the Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich, Smoked Sausage in Texas Toast, hush puppies, cornbread, drinks and the cake dessert. I can say this eating experience was so much better! The chicken sandwich was really good, the right level of spicy for my husband (too spicy for me!). My sausage was AWESOME; it had pepper flakes throughout, the wrap had a good snap, and just WOW what a delicious flavor. Probably one of the best sausages I have ever had.

Our hushpuppies looked like they were going to be burnt again but I was pleasantly surprised to eat them and realize they weren't burnt at all. The cornbread was way better too.

The cake is good. Not great, not bad, just good. It's a rather large slice too so I was happy with that.

This time around cost $15 a person.

The biggest compliment I can give: I went from never wanting to come here again to I will be coming back for more!

ORIGINAL REVIEW: 2 star Unfortunately, we didn't really enjoy City BBQ in Cary @citybbq 😢 I never like leaving a bad review but I have to be honest and fair.

We went there with a larger group. The orders were messed up, it wasn't even super busy but the staff acted like it was the busiest night of their lives, and the food was lackluster, slapped together, and the meat was rather dry.

Cost: $10-$12 each Kid-friendly: yes

We had a missing item or wrong item in each meal someone ordered. The crew was able to quickly replace items but the replacements weren't good.

I ordered the Smoked Turkey Sandwich, which even though it is directly written that way on the menu, my cashier had no idea what I was talking about. It is quite literally just smoked turkey slices on an untoated bun. There was a good start to flavor in the turkey but the meat was dry, and with nothing else on it, I wasn't even sure it was considered a sandwich. A high price of $8 for this meal.

Jason's More Cowbell is what my turkey sandwich should have been. It had cheese and veggies and sauce. But I still wouldn't call it good. It was roughly layered up on something I would NOT call Texas Toast.

The girls chicken strips looked good, and they didn't seem coated in deep-fry mix, which was nice. And they both are then with gusto!

All the sides were pretty bad. The fries were limp, the hush puppies burnt, and the corn bread very crumbly and dry.

Overall... Price per meal was a little lower than comparable places, but in this case the low price brought low quality. An ok place to bring the kids, but we won't be...

I really hate to do this, but I couldn't find managers contact info on the website. I mean this is the most positive and constructive way possible, this store is a disaster every time we visit. It's to the point we can't spend out money here anymore. I gave it second and third tries before passing judgement.

Each time we visit, they are sold out of the majority of the items on the menu. I get it, economics and resource planning. But would it kill you to say free drinks or a side to make up for having to order and pay for the food you didn't even want to order? Seems like they could offer something to make the customer feel better about wasting their time and money. They just yell at you in the line that all the food is sold out with no customer service at all.

Next the drinks are always empty or put away hours before closing time. Again, I get it to a point, but if your going to charge me $3 for a drink I expect there to be tea and lemonade on tap with plenty of room for refills and to go cups after. On several visits my friends and I had to split the last sips of a tea or lemonade jug, because they had already put the fountains away. 1 jug of tea or lemonade is not enough for a whole restaurant. This on weekends too, no odd times. You shouldn't be haggling with other customers over who gets the last glass of sweat tea?

Additionally the tables are all filthy and disgusting, we typically have to try to sit outside because all the inside tables are so dirty and unkept. And then there is the actual food portions, they are very small to the point where we have to order additional items compared to other City BBQ locations. When you are dropping $15 a head you expect to be full and have refills on your drinks with a clean table. That seems like a fair deal.

I hope someone reads this and takes note of it. I understand how hard it is to run a business, but we can't keep spending this kind of money to be this disappointing each visit. Either the price has to go down or the service and quality have to go up.

Thank you for your time today....

I have been ordering food here for a while now and recently became a doordasher for the local area so I come here even more. Today I had a very unsettling experience with a male worker working the front desk, sort of heavy set, tall with locs in his hair. I advised him my doordash app request had an order number instead of a customer name, I showed him the order number and he proceeded to tell me they don't take order numbers and that he will not be giving me my customers order. I did not fully understand why he was behaving that way so I showed him my dasher app where it specifically stated to provide the order number and not the name and at that moment he turned to the kitchen staff and began mocking me in which they all began heckling between each other. Very belittling behavior, the male worker then proceeds to push the bag of customers food into my arms and as I began walking to the door he yells across the main entrance " DONT THINK ABOUT COMING BACK HERE BOO ". It wasn't until I got back in my car and notified my customer of the situation ( because it caused a time delay ) that it dawned on me the utter disrespect I had just encountered. After filtering my emotions I contacted doordasher support line and made a formal complaint against the merchant due to their employees complete lack of professionalism and just kindness. I honestly don't expect any real consequences to be taken however I think the owners would like to know how their employees treat people who not only are customers to them but also working contractors via doordash. I hope that young man conducts his self more respectfully in the future.

A friendly update, this had been reported to doordasher support team immediately after the incident. Thank you for taking the extra time to investigate. It is always...