The Improper Pig @ Rea Farms — Restaurant in Charlotte

Hands down the worst experience I've ever had at a restaurant. Here's why I'm never going back and why you should avoid going to Improper Pig in Waverly.

Terrible customer service Multiple orders delivered incorrectly Little to no accommodation for a party of 10 No flexibility to truly serve the customer Food was just okay and took too long to come out Price compared to overall experience does NOT align

My son chose IP for his birthday dinner. Including his 4 teenage friends, there was 10 in our party. We arrived at 4:35pm so that there would be plenty of opportunity for us to be sat together. The guy who was supposed to seat us put the menus and silverware on a table for 6 and then ignored us. When I went to approach the guy about the seating he walked off. Once he came back it was obvious he didn't really care about his job.

I asked if we could be sat upstairs and the answer was just "no" so then why even have it. We went outside b/c that was the only place to put 10 people. I tried to move some tables closer together and was reprimanded by 3 different employees that it's against policy to do that and then they all gave me different reasons for why it was allowed. The supervisor came out and that was a bust. He just aggravated the problem by not offering any solutions.

Then the GM, Cameron, came out, and that did nothing. He said they could move tables but wanted his servers to do it. So inconsistent. So the very thing the servers told me couldn't be done could all of a sudden be done now. I expressed honest frustrations and how this was already a terrible experience and his remarks were:

"I'm very sorry. We want this to be an excellent experience. I will make sure that the rest of your experience is great and I will take care of you."

The beginning of the end! Drinks were rarely ever refilled. Multiple drink orders were brought out incorrectly. Several orders were delivered incorrectly. One order we had needed to be redone 3 times. Another kid was forgotten about for the entire meal so we got his food to go. We barely saw our server and I never saw the GM again. So much for being accountable to deliver an "excellent experience."

I did get the bill though. $253 for the terrible service and subpar food! Of course the tip was automatically included. Sure they brought us two free appetizers...who cares. I guess that was Cameron's way of "taking care of us." They did remove the cost of the meal that arrived at the end of our 2 hour experience but ONLY because I pushed for it. Had I not been so frustrated and already running late to drop off my son's friends, I would have pushed for a bigger discount.

Bottom line, there are a lot of places to go for food and Improper Pig isn't really that unique. I could have spent $250 anywhere and gotten better service and it would not have taken 2 hours! If you want great BBQ just google other places. It's the south, there are plenty of BBQ places that don't disregard your dollar the way Improper Pig does. The only thing improper about the Waverly location is their service. Cameron did not deliver a great experience. He was not accountable to making sure things got better and his team is obviously not empowered to deliver great experiences. We won't be going back ever. We will always let people know there are better places than IP. And I encourage anyone reading this to reconsider going to IP. Waverly has plenty of better restaurants. Spend your dollar where it will be valued. Especially when it's $250 of them.

In Reply to your comment Cameron:

Thank you for attempting to justify a terrible service. My review still stands.

The message on the back of the receipt wasn’t just for your server. He has no authority in all of this. It was meant to address the entire experience and everyone involved. It was short and to the point because the receipt was small. It wasn’t rude, it was honest. What’s rude is when a customer is ignored and the promise of excellent service wasn’t delivered. If that was your best service then people really shouldn’t come to...

We tried out Improper Pig last night for the first time and were very impressed with everything - the food, the service, and the atmosphere.

We were sat immediately at a table with a beautiful view of the Rea Farms green way by a very nice host. Our server, Daniel, arrived shortly after and took our drink order. Daniel was a delight throughout our entire visit - he had great food recommendations (which were spot on), was very nice, and always made sure we were satisfied and happy with everything we received. He took time to explain all of the sauces to us, giving us a little detail on the flavor and what to expect in terms of spiciness, which was very nice.

We ordered the Mac and Cheese Skillet as an appetizer to get started which was absolutely delicious. The breadcrumb topping was really well done and perfectly complemented the Mac and cheese. This item also arrived very quickly after ordering, within 5 minutes, which was great because we were starving! My girlfriend ordered a Bloody Mary which she described as "one of the best drinks" she's ever had!

For our main meals, I ordered a platter which comes with a selection of 2 meats and 2 sides. I chose the pulled chicken and the brisket, with spicy green beans and baked beans as my sides. My girlfriend ordered the Chow Bao Sliders, which were featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives! She got 2 pulled pork and 1 pulled chicken.

Both meals were absolutely delicious. The meats on the platter were very fresh, juicy, and tender and went very well with several of the sauces available on the table. The spicy green beans were a surprise highlight of my meal. They were tender, spicy, with a hint of garlic and they really added a lot of kick to my meal which I love. The baked beans were also very good, not overly filled with non-bean things like some BBQ places tend to do. The portions were very generous as you can see from the photos. I took home some leftovers that made a delicious lunch today!

The Chow Bao Sliders were also a hit. The pulled chicken was a surprise hit, the flavor was very great and really went well with the bao and the slaw. There were no leftovers here as they were absolutely phenomenal. This was a recommended item by Daniel, also!

Overall, we had a really great time and are very excited to have such great BBQ so close to home. We definitely will be back soon to try other great sounding items like the Mac and cheese burger...

I went to The Improper Pig, and let me tell you—"improper" is the perfect name for this place. The prices were improper, the food quality was improper, and the entire experience was, frankly, a disappointment.

I ordered a steak with two house sides, only to find out—after the fact—that they charge extra for mac and cheese. And for what? The mac and cheese had a bizarre, gritty texture and absolutely no flavor. It was the definition of underwhelming. The collard greens? Overly sweet and inexplicably spicy, making me cough with every bite.

The steak itself was cooked to my requested temperature, but that’s where the positives end. It was so painfully dry that I had to choke it down. And to make matters worse—no steak sauce! What kind of restaurant serves steak but doesn’t have steak sauce? If you’re going to serve dry, lifeless meat, at least offer something to help it go down easier.

The sweet potato casserole was nothing more than a sugar bomb. I couldn't tell if I was eating sweet potatoes or a melted candy bar. The pulled pork was basically just pulled fat, and the so-called pulled chicken? Not even close. Instead of pulled breast meat as advertised, they served us chunks of chicken thigh absolutely drowning in Old Bay seasoning. It was so overpowering that we could have been eating any mystery meat, and we wouldn't have known the difference.

And the worst part? The final bill was $70. Why? Because of sneaky upcharges for so-called "premium" sides and prices that didn’t match what was listed on the menu. I left feeling like I had just dropped Michelin-star money at a glorified fast-food joint.

Save yourself the disappointment and the financial regret. This place is absolutely not worth it. It physically pains me to know I wasted that much money here—money that could have bought me nearly a week’s worth of groceries.

Just do yourself a favor and eat literally...