Clearview BBQ — Restaurant in Columbus

I had the very great honor of joining a small group that was invited in to taste the menu items and get a sneak preview on what can be expected when they open back up for business very soon. First off, the place used to be a rundown shack. Chris Dixon and his family have come in and completely overhauled the place and brought it in to this decade. It is now a crisp and clean restaurant that is almost ready to open its doors. Yet it still maintains the character that the old place had. As before, you will place your order at the counter and then you can sit in one of the two rooms to eat. This is not a large place. There are somewhere around 14 tables in the two rooms where you can dine.

I never had been there prior to this visit, but my understanding is that Clearview barbecue was in business for decades. And it seems like people cannot wait for them to open up again.

Believe me, when I say that you will be in for a treat. The menu has something on it for everyone. I got to try a chipped barbecue sandwich as an appetizer when we first walked in and then we were allowed to order off of the menu . They are trying to make sure they have any kinks worked out before they open the doors to the public again.

I ordered a medium barbecue plate with potato salad and Brunswick stew. I got the meat chopped. It was fantastic. The smoky flavor was perfect and it was incredibly moist and tender. And the portion size was amazing. The Brunswick stew was full of flavor. I’m sure I could have eaten a quart of that alone. It was so good.

I believe they will continue to have the Clearview barbecue sauce that was served there before. But in addition to that they will also serve the yellow jacket barbecue sauce that is a family recipe. Both sauces are amazing and come in mild or hot.

In the end, they came around with trays with peanut butter pie and pecan pie. My friend that I was there with agreed with me that the peanut butter pie was some of the best that we had ever tasted. It was very light and airy but full of flavor.

I have no doubt that people will continue to get the same amazing food that Clearview barbecue has been known for these past many decades. I would highly recommend that you come in as soon as the doors open. You will be glad...

We stopped by on a Saturday afternoon to check it out after the remodel and to try the yellow jacket sauce.

The remodel was successful. It was clean and updated. The food prices were reasonable.

We had not been in before, so I don't know what it was, but it looks good now . The split dining room was somewhat odd and felt weird in the back, being in a small, closed in room with strangers, and you could hear all their conversations. I get that they don't actually have dine in service, so the layout was not as important.

The barbcue pork was good and seasoned well. The Brunswick Stew tasted fine, but I suspect it was canned. May not be, but it didn't stand out otherwise.

The yellow jacket sandwich was ok, but it tasted like the bread was soaked in yellow jacket and butter, and was borderline mushy. The yellow jacket sauce was very salty. The red bbcue sauce had a strong vinegar taste to it.

The scrambled dog was made ahead of time and placed in the fridge with chili and all. It came out cold through and through, and the bun had time to soak everything up and get soggy. I'm not sure how they cooked their hot dogs, but I was disappointed it didn't have any grill or griddle marks on it. I'm pretty confident it was also canned chili. I was pretty disappointed in the food and couldn't finish my soggy, cold dog. 😕

I don't think we will be...

Brunswick stew was good. Chicken was dry and plain. Ribs were lacking flavor and hard to take the bone. Mac and cheese tastes like it’s made out of a Kraft box. BBQ slaw was interesting and the traditional slaw was ok but nothing special. Overall the food was ok but this place is definitely not the type of place where you should go out of your way to find. I saw good things when I was reading about it on a Reddit post so my wife and I wanted to check it out. Also, when we saw the good and high volume of reviews on Google, we knew we had to check it out. If you were hungry and wanted grub, this isn’t a bad place to stop by but everything we got was like chow hall or cafeteria food. The place looks run down so we thought it was the aesthetic they were going for but after eating here, it seems like they just don’t really care. Flies were everywhere and my wife and I were fighting them off from landing on our food the entire time. If they were trying to go for an unsanitary atmosphere, then they definitely hit that nail...