4 Rivers Smokehouse — Restaurant in Citrus Park

Great bakery - bakery needs help. This is my go-to BBQ restaurant. I posted a 1 star review six years ago after a bad experience but have had many very good experiences since. What I am writing about today is the bakery. This is also my go-to bakery and I visit it every weekend. Daniela is wonderful and always extremely helpful - and she bakes great stuff. Despite my high opinion of this bakery and of Daniela, I have been very often frustrated by the decisions passed down regarding product offerings. I became a regular here when I first tried their salted caramel cookie several years ago. I would buy at least one every week. I purchased several dozen assorted cookies for a work event because I was so excited about the quality of the salted caramel cookie and the others that they offered, introducing the 4 Rivers bakery to many potential customers. Then they stopped offering it. I moved on to the snickerdoodle cookie - until they stopped offering it (it has been offered on and off since). Then I moved on to the "birthday" cupcake. Guess what? They stopped offering it. I would pickup products for others in my personal orbit, such as the oatmeal cream pie for my middle child - until they stopped offering it. I used get the blonde Texas sheet cake - a seasonal item - until it was out of season. Haven't seen it in a long while. Rotating product selection has a few benefits. Market testing is one. See what the customers respond to and modify your selection to capitalize on expected demand. It provides marketing opportunities that generate peak interest (and sales) at intervals, resulting in overall higher sales and improved customer engagement. Seasonal marketing and incremental revenue. The part that seems to be missing is the "capitalize of expected demand" in successful new product campaigns. I have worked in retail management for nearly all of my decades-long career - still do. I view the 4 Rivers bakery as one of the company's strengths and feel that it represents an opportunity for differentiation and to increase foot traffic that they would not have if not for the bakery. It is an under-utilized asset. This is a great bakery despite management decisions, not because of them. Imagine if they took the same approach to product selection for their BBQ menu as they do for their bakery menu. You fall in love with a BBQ item and then they stop offering it. There have been many restaurants I have stopped going to over the years for just this reason. I see the 4 Rivers bakery as a missed opportunity. Great products and great people should make for a successful business. But from my vantage point, the decision-makers can't get out of their own way. I will continue to hold out hope for a better tomorrow at 4 Rivers bakery - as well as the birthday cupcake, salted caramel cookie, snickerdoodle cookie, oatmeal...

Being from NC and loving good barbeque, I was excited to see the high google rating 4 Rivers has, and was really looking forward to coming here. My visit on Tuesday Feb 1 at around 6:30 was a bit of a let down. While the food looked great, that quickly turned to disappointment when we sat down and started eating. I ordered the brisket platter with okra, Mac and cheese, and corn. My honey got the 2 way with pork and chicken, Mac and cheese, and grits. As we started eating, we quickly noticed literally everything on the plate was cold.....not even Luke warm, but cold..... the meats, the sides, everything. The brisket was so cold it was hard to cut. Hot brisket should easily pull apart with a fork... You actually needed a knife to cut this. I looked around and every one else in the restaurant seemed to be happily eating, so I figured maybe that's just how they do it here. As I sat in disappointment looking at my platter of cold food, I decided to find the manager. I don't remember her name (maybe Megan?) but she was polite and when I asked if they always served their food cold, she said no and happily offered to remake it. She asked what we had, and gave me a number to take to our table. After several minutes, she brought us out 2 more plates that I can only surmise they heated up in the microwave. This time it was warm.... still nowhere near hot but it was better. We wound up just boxing it up and taking it home.

I would like to hope that this was a one time thing, but as I read other reviews, I see several others have written about cold food here as well. As someone who worked in restaurants for 11 years, 4 of those in a bbq restaurant in NC, I know how important it is to serve hot food, both from a happy guest standpoint, and from a health standpoint. We will probably give them another try because we bought gift cards for here. I only hope they get their food temperature issues handled before we return, or what I hoped would become a regular restaurant on our rotation list will likely land on our Do Not Return list. 4 Rivers should seriously look in to this, because for every one who took the time to actually say something or mention it in a review, there are probably 10-15 more who just said to heck with it and will never...

Ordered straight from website seamlessly. Website disguised as using a self delivery system but actually uses Door dash. I say "Disguised" because not once was I informed I was going to usea delivery service like door dash. I think that's important to know. I did not know this and if I had known I would have made a trip to restaurant for a pick up instead. Door Dash marks up prices. Try comparing KFC on Door Dash and KFC App. It's insane. I didn't compare this restaurant because I didn't know they were using Door Dash.

We purchased the 4 entree n 2 sides Meal and the 1/2 Turkey

Purchased for a family of 5 and a toddler. 3 female kids and 2 adults. I was honestly a little disappointed in the portion at first glance. But once I started distributing portions out I was pleasantly surprised. My 13yr old went back for 2nds for another half serving. 1)Burnt Ends was dry but good. We still ate it. We're not ultra critical and needy. 2)Sausage was on-point. Nothing special 3)Shredded Pork was on-point as well. No complaints 4) The brisket was mediocre to say the least.

I was very disappointed in the Turkey portion. The meat holds a lot of water and you can see how much that impacts volume. It was so very sad to open such a larger container only to find a $14 dollar portion that can fit comfortably in one hand. Lol. Consider downsizing that container. Otherwise, the meat was on-point concerning flavor

I ended up with leftovers and good for another serving for an adult. I ended up spending $90 dollars for 2 items I listed and delivered

The reason why I did not appreciate not knowing about door dash is that I could have saved some money picking it up myself and ordering it. I don't mind paying directly to to restaurant if they delivered. Putting money back into the community and not corporations. Small things I try to do towards progress.

Overall, we had a great meal. Price is equal to portion if you go pick it up. I can't complain though. My family loved it and finished off their plate. We're good. Will be a while before I give it another...