uticabbq — Restaurant in City of Utica

This place was awesome and deserves so much more recognition. My boyfriend and I came here tonight after having driven around this restaurant many times and always saying “we should try that place!” I’m so glad we finally did. It’s a very small but cozy restaurant and on this particular night the owner/chef was the only staff member present. Even so, he was incredibly attentive and chatted with us about his background and all the different food options. First, the specials sounded outstanding; I wish I had five stomachs so I could have tried them all. In the fridge was a variety of different drinks/sodas and many of them were super unique and are switched up for something new from time to time! I had a limoncello soda that was incredibly refreshing (and I will search high and low to have some in my fridge!). Next, we got an appetizer of hot honey bbq wings which were charred (which I love), crispy, and absolutely LATHERED in sauce. The sauce was the owner’s own award-winning recipe and was delicious. For my dinner, I ordered an “appetizer” of tostadas and a side of macaroni and cheese. I had thought there would only be one tostada, but boy was I wrong- there were three and they were big, heaping portions (which is why I put “appetizer” in quotes, this could feed me for three meals). The tortilla was crispy and strong, never breaking when I picked it up by the side, even though it had a lot of food on it. On top of that there was a layer of bbq beans, pulled pork, pico de gallo, some sort of leafy green, bbq sauce, cheese, avocado, and lime. Omg. Amazing. SO. GOOD. And they looked beautiful too! Loved how they were presented. The macaroni and cheese was creamy and delicious. My boyfriend got brisket with a side of fries and cornbread. Again, the plate’s presentation was beautiful and there was a lot of food. I tried some of the fries and cornbread. The fries had a really tasty seasoning and the cornbread was outstanding. One side of it was fried in a way that gave it a delicious initial crispy outer coating while the inside of the bread was soft and flavorful. The brisket was super tasty and the owner told us it was slowly cooked for 18 hours! You could tell he cared a lot about his food and his service. All of the food came out really quickly but was prepared with care. Oh and you know what else I loved? The to-go bag was biodegradable. A small touch but one I want to support. Really a local gem and I hope the place...

I’m sharing my catering experience with Utica BBQ to help others avoid the frustrating situation we encountered.

Over the summer, I hired Chance at Utica BBQ to cater a party, specifically because he assured me that he would handle not only the food but also the delivery, buffet setup, and breakdown—allowing us, as the hosts, to fully enjoy the event without stress. Unfortunately, that was far from what happened.

Chance was scheduled to arrive by 11:00 AM with the food and all necessary banquet supplies (tables, linens, warmers, etc.) for our 12:00 PM party start time. By 11:15 AM, I had not heard from him. Multiple texts and calls went unanswered. When he finally returned my call at 11:30 AM, he informed me that not only was the food not fully prepared, but he also had no one available to deliver it.

This left my husband and me scrambling to pick up part of the order while he finished cooking the rest, promising to deliver it later. We ended up setting up everything ourselves—tables, linens, warmers, and the buffet—as guests were arriving. Some of our guests even helped us, which was exactly the stressful situation I had wanted to avoid by hiring full-service catering.

To make matters worse, the vegetable trays I paid for were never provided.

After the event, I repeatedly reached out via phone, text, Facebook messages, and even comments on his posts, requesting a partial refund for the services and items that were not delivered. It took multiple attempts to even get a response, and when I finally did, I was met with confrontation rather than accountability. Instead of issuing a refund, he only offered to “comp” a meal for me in the future—an offer I have no interest in accepting.

Based on this experience, I cannot recommend Utica BBQ for catering. I had only heard about similar negative experiences after my event. If known, I would have chosen a...

In my opinion The owner, Chance, was very deceitful providing food for our family wedding. A wedding is a huge event, 160 people. He arrived to the venue almost two hours late, he had a very poor display of food. They were in dollar store tins with plastic utensils. No heating source to keep warm. Mind you we paid almost $6000 for this food! He was short food also. We had less people show but still many did not get a full meal. The food was adequate but minimal but arriving late with a short staff ( which we paid for extra staff person to help). We also paid for dishes to be cleaned and he left them at the venue. We had to have someone go get them and delivery to him. Then we picked up and found later that many were still dirty. we had to pressure him a written contract because we had nothing in writing for payments. He kept asking for more money and we felt uncomfortable not having things in writing. Once he did write it, it was not what was originally discussed. He can come up with many excuses for being late and all of the above but in the end he it was more stress and work dealing with him. The texts to many family members harassing for money, we didn’t feel was due. I even told him at one point I considered a order of protection just cause the emails and texts. We don’t know him.We agreed to a 20% gratuity and was certainly not justified for him but just wanted to be done with him. Our venue staff even had to get involved to get him to the venue and make him rinse the dishes and keep on top of things. he was just going to leave the dishes and not rinse them. Just so much transpired with this person/business. So unprofessional, you can tell he knows his business but what he knows best is how to scam people out of services and product...