First off a very friendly staff, now for the food!!
The pulled pork, my favorite! It was juicy, tender, and had a great flavor. The brisket… almost everywhere , other than Texas, its dry. Not here!! It was tender, juicy, and had a great flavor. My second favorite and I don’t usually like brisket. The smoked wings… let me preface this with saying I’ve been spoiled. Before moving to the area, I had a favorite restaurant that did smoked wings. He only smoked once a week and did a huge batch that was then portioned and frozen. Sounds a little gross right? Well, when you ordered they then dropped them in the fryer to thaw and warm up making a crispy exterior. These wings tasted great, I’m just not a fan of the soggy skin. Lastly, and my least favorite was the ribs. I’m as shocked as you are. The taste was fine, but again I’ve been spoiled. These tasted like they were never cooked unwrapped to get that delicious char on the exterior. Still tender, still tasty, and best of all not dry… just missed the bark.
They were out of chicken and turkey legs that I’d really like to try. I’ll definitely go back and go earlier next time.
For the sides… the potato salad was good. Moms is still better, but isn’t it always? I’ve definitely had worse from restaurants. The green beans… ehh… could still taste the can a little, but decent. The baked beans… Oh my!! Whoever cooked those today deserves a raise! These were the best I’ve ever had, sorry mom!
At a lot of BBQ places the smoke flavor is enhanced with liquid smoke… that tastes like what one would imagine the wrong end of a cow would taste. None of that here, it all tasted like real wood smoke by someone that knows what they are doing.
It’s worth noting that even the things that were not my favorites were simply by cooking technique… I prefer a slightly different method.
All and all, very good and...
Read moreMy husband and I went here for dinner last night while on vacation. We were looking for a good local BBQ place and this place came highly recommend by some serves at a restaurant in Pigeon Forge and on Google. With that in mind, we were EXTREMELY happy with out decision to have dinner here. This was the best BBQ we've had in a long time. We're from Buffalo, NY- in my opinion we are used to REALLY amazing local restaurants. When we go on vacation it is hard to find great local places- but Bustin' Butts BBQ is a true gem!! From the service to the food everything was great! When you pull up to the gravel parking you'll see the stationary food truck, the smoker, and the family who run the business. They are so kind! They come right up to you, treat you as if you're family, and help you with your order. From there you could get take out or sit on a picnic bench. Luckily, it was beautiful out so we ate outside. We ordered: 1/2 smoke chicken, brisket, ribs, mac & cheese, baked beans, all 3 sauces, and a jar of homemade pickels. Everything was AMAZING!! The chicken was flavorful and juicy. The brisket and ribs were cooked to perfection and flavorful. All of the meat was so tender! The portions were large and did not need any sauce; but I must say, all 3 sauces were great! The homemade pickels were great! Very fresh. The mac &cheese was nice a cheesy. The beans were thiccccck with big chunks of bacon. I can't put into words how great this place!! Hats off to the family that runs it!! If you're in the area and you like BBQ this...
Read moreMaybe we came on an off day for Bustin Butt's because we saw that they were rated 4.9 but we did not experience that level of BBQ. The food came out quick but it was almost cold. We ordered the pulled pork, smoked wings, smoked brisket, potato salad, mac and cheese, baked beans, and a smoked potato. Honestly the only thing that had a good taste was the smoked wings and they weren't fresh. Everything felt like they prepared it earlier in the morning and just tossed it in a microwave or something for about 2 minutes and served it. The smoked potato was hard and had zero flavor. The brisket and pulled pork tasted like they cooked it in an oven. They didn't have fountain drinks nor any fresh iced tea or lemonade. All they had was $1.00 canned drinks. The staff was nice and friendly. The restaurant was rundown and outdoors. I'm sure that if the food was actually Bustin then the exiguous appearance of the restaurant would've added to the personality of the establishment but all the shabby appearance did was make it seem like it was a bad place to eat. Most of their reviews are 5's and 4's with very few 0-3's so I'm thinking they just weren't on their game that day or we came at a bad time. Nice staff, ratty looking restaurant, subpar BBQ, and overpriced...
Read more