Blue Barn BBQ — Restaurant in Cedar Falls

My family is heading to Nashville, Tennessee from Moorhead , Minnesota. We just happened to be hungry while in Waterloo, Iowa that’s what we found Blue Barn BBQ. I built up quite an appetite as we left at four in the morning and haven’t eaten since then and it’s now 1230 so I was ready to dip into the bank account to buy some barbecue but just turns out as it is, we didn’t have to dip that far because the prices were affordable, the food was amazing. I never even heard of pork belly crack bites. But I am guessing they call him crack bites because he sings are addicting. I can picture myself driving all the way back from Minnesota. Just for these crack, pork bite things not to mention everything else was amazing and gluten-free, which is a plus since we don’t eat gluten. The sides were amazing as well. We had the corn with cream and some sort of seasoning that was off the hook. We had mac & cheese for my son. He loves mac & cheese, and we had the coleslaw and beans. I would recommend this place to anyone within a 550...

Unimpressed sums it up. First off let me say that I travel for work and consider myself a BBQ connoisseur. I ordered the brisket plate with beans and coleslaw plus the Wednesday special smoked wings. Brisket - chewy and unseasoned. Wings - also chewy but had good flavor. Coleslaw - flavorless with a horrible sticky consistency, I think they just added a scoop of mayo. Beans - good flavor but zero salt was added. I expect BBQ meat to fall off the bone, you shouldn't have to rip it off the bone with all your might then chew chew chew for 5 minutes before you swallow. I've had much better BBQ at Dickeys and I don't even think Dickeys is that good. One more point, this place is expensive, my food came to $23 and I tipped $4 (which I thoroughly regret) totalling my bill to $28 and change. If you don't know what good BBQ is you might think this place is alright, but if you know what good BBQ is......

This used to be my favorite BBQ place. My latest experience, however, made me question if I’ll be going back. Their food is excellent, but their customer service is poor. They forgot to put the bread and sauce I had ordered in my take-out. I discovered it when I got home. When I called, they said I could drive back and get them or I could get them next time I came in. That’s a good way to kill an anticipated dining experience. I was not going to make a 30-40 minute round trip drive to complete my meal. They were unable to credit me or offer me a more meaningful form of compensation for this error (by the way, they were very slow at the time, just not paying attention). The food is great. I love their smoked chicken, Alabama white sauce, and the jalapeño cream corn. Too bad they are not more professional in filling in orders and making customers...