Whole Hog Cafe - Conway — Restaurant in Conway

My coworker and I were freed from the fluorescent lighting of our cubicles for lunch a few Saturdays ago. As we stood and talked about our lunch plans, one thing was certain: we required meat—smoked meat, and lots of it. Our decision was an easy one and made without much deliberation. We were going to the Whole Hog Café and we were going right then!

The drive was a long one. It wasn’t because of the distance or traffic, but in anticipation of the tender, smoked goodness that awaited our taste buds.

We drove closer.

“There it is”, I shouted, pointing cheerfully at the restaurant. We exit the interstate and take a right, and then another. “I don’t remember it being this far back”, I say. The drive was slow, weaving through the unfamiliar parking lot. I consider abandoning the vehicle and sprinting my way to our culinary destination. We pull into the parking lot just before I manage to break the passenger window with the buckle of my seat belt.

Opening the doors to the truck, we could already smell the perfume of cooked meat-goodness inside.

We walk in. Greeted by a tastefully decorated dining room, I make my way to the giant menu sign. “I’ll have one of everything, please!” “Wait”, I think…”Remember what happened last time….Alright. I’ll have a pound of pulled pork”, I tell the lady at the counter. I do not intend to share. My hand is shaking as I had my card to the cashier. I am almost there. I almost have it.

I sit down next to my companion at the nearest table. I hear #94 called. “It’s alright, only a couple more minutes” I assure myself. Number 95!....96!....97! I begin to sweat. My number is next: Number 98! I rush to the pickup counter. The gentleman was tying the bunny ears of my plastic sack. “Sir! Unhand that meat package. It and I have business to attend to, and knots in the packaging will only serve to defer that business!” Before snatching it out of his hands and hastily making my way to the exit, I mutter a quick “thank you” and I’m on my way.

After arriving back to the office, I reached my desk. I rip open the plastic barrier that shielded my prize. A Styrofoam container was revealed, wrapped in a few layers of clear plastic, likely to prevent spillage as I traveled to my final destination. “What thoughtful beings they are”, I remarked. I have no time for leakage or otherwise wastage of the precious pork meat inside. Clearly they were looking out for me, I expected no less!

I tear off the final layer and open the tray. There it is: my one ring, my precious. Throwing the BBQ sauce aside for now, I spear the shredded mass with a plastic fork. Lifting it up, the fork bending under the weight, I open my mouth and shovel it in.

That’s it, just as I remembered from years prior. A tender, juicy mouthful of angelic flavors flowed through my taste buds. I was reminded of a better time. A time with unicorns, no monthly rent payments, and very little responsibility.

I experienced sadness twice during this meal fit for a king. The first, when I bit my tongue due to my vigorous chewing; and the second, when I looked down to find that I only had eight or nine bites left to eat. I sat there after the meal, stomach full and out of breath. I ponder the meaning of life and know that surely this barbecue is related in some way. I knew that my next meal and meals for weeks to come will taste bland and flavorless, like plain oatmeal.

I am happy that I had the opportunity, NO, the privilege of dining there...

9/19/25 update: Came by around 4:45 on a Friday. Almost empty and nobody in line. Trainee on register was left on her own mid-order by the person helping her. Took 25 minutes to receive order. 3 Minute drive home but Okra was luke warm and mac cheese was slightly warmer. Just on first half of the store I counted 15 flies (some dead, some alive) on the window sill next to the tables. Crumpled napkins scattered around the sticky floor. Budget sub hung on wall near ceiling aka bad acoustics. Soundbar crooked under TV. Lack of attention to detail?

No hidden charges for card processing (aka no passing on cost of doing business to customers in a dishonest way rather than having accurate product prices).

Nice to see utensils included and sauce containers marked with the number of the sauce. Sauce 3 not spicy; just regular tangy BBQ. Sauce 5 decent sweetish sauce. Roll had nice consistency and seemed fresh. I understand why people say the mac seems store bought. It's barely competing with most fast food mac cheese (only Chick-Fil-A seems to have good mac). Added ground black pepper and Tabasco to mac to give it a push. Needs more flavor and/or cheese.

Much more meat than I expected, though I may not have ever ordered ribs in my life and I just expected less meat. Ribs were tender and delicious and not much fat/gristle. Some crispy/textured parts of sauce or meat on it -- very good. Star of the plate for sure.

Banana pudding was good, though I don't have a frame of reference to compare to.

I provided a better pic of the menu since the other pics sucked.

Updated review from 1/5 to 3/5, service from 1/5 to 3/5. Food from unrated to 3/5. Atmosphere from unrated to 2/5.

Original 2024 review which shows when logged in but is mysteriously missing from public view: Doing delivery job as a side hustle and the instructions provided by the business are to go to red buckets and call the number on the sign. It says "do not enter the store". The red buckets are behind the store, tucked against a fence, all in 1 spot. I called and explained the situation and was told to come in, by some lazy sounding girl slurring her words. It sounded like she was asleep or something.

When I got inside, it turns out she's wide awake but she's just lazy and useless. I'm standing here waiting and she ignores me and helps other people. Eventually I'm able to come up closer to the counter so she can't avoid helping me and she just says "yes?". I explain I'm there for a pickup of an order and gave the name of the person who ordered.

She says NOTHING to me, then calls out an order number on the microphone. Then a little kid walks up and she says "yes?" to her. The little kid asks for a to-go cup and the employee immediately gives her the cup. She still has not responded to me AT ALL. She instead just turns around and walks away. Useless.

I waited until another employee was available to speak since this one clearly isn't willing to do her job. I explained the situation to the next employee, and she turned around and the order was right there on the shelf (it's been there the whole time). This employee packed it into a bag and was great to interact with. However, by this point the entire experience was overshadowing the nice employee. The nice employee was a short one. I don't remember much about her. The useless one was a...

My boyfriend's mother orders from here almost once a week. It's usually her favorite, but last time about two weeks ago, they charged her the full price of a loaded potato with pulled pork but she did not receive the pork. So she called and spoke to a man who she sees a lot and he apologizes and tells her he took down her name. So she returns this week. The cashier was friendly but when we told her about the incident, she said she didn't know it happened and would try to find a record of it. She said the man wasn't working that day, because he only works the day shift, but that very same man walked outside the back door and passed right in front of our car. So we place our order and ask for a hot fudge brownie. The cashier nods. She then asks us to pull around for some reason. We pull up by the fence while another vehicle places and then receives their order. After about ten minutes, she comes to our vehicle with our order. We look in the bag and see that there is no brownie. The cashier says "Oh, you wanted a hot fudge brownie?" so she apologizes and goes back inside. Another five minutes, she returns with a small brownie wrapped in saran wrap. I ask her if that's a hot fudge brownie, and she repeats "Oh, you wanted a hot fudge brownie?" and goes back inside. 15 minutes pass. The sun was up when we arrived but now it was almost dark. We pull around to the drive thru and as soon as the bell rings, she appears in the window. She looks shocked to see us. She runs to the back and returns with a styrofoam dish, along with the brownie in saran wrap. She says they're out of hot fudge, so she put whipped cream on it and heated it in the microwave. For her sake, we did receive a free brownie. Also, a previous time I have ordered from here, we had the same issue. Ordered a hot fudge brownie and drove off before realizing that I was not given one. It was the same cashier. Friendly, but maybe a bit distracted. Overall this experience took 30 minutes, we were only given two dollars off an order that should have been at least four dollars off. We were hypothetically lied to, and...