Hog Heaven Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in Durham

I truly do not understand how this place has received as many awards as it has, simply because, the food is not that great.. I tried it three times and gave up. Granted, I grew up on Bob's BBQ in But-mor and I have had Sweatman's ( A buffet set in a chainsaw massacre-esque old farm house, with a buffet consisting of dark pork (close to skin) white pork (inside), pickles, rice, hash and white loaf bread (and ribs if you are lucky) in Low Country South Carolina, but... The stew? It's like this baby food concoction, with barely discernible lumps of meat, vegetables or anything of the sort and actually kind of tastes like a chicken soup. The portions for the price are abysmal. I ordered a combo plate of BBQ and dark chicken. You can get a leg, or a thigh with that. Not both like every other restaurant on the planet. If I got three ounces of BBQ I would have been surprised. The macaroni and cheese is that industrial stuff and again, tiny portion. (you know the stuff, that has that powdery-ish texture and is obviously fake).

The bright spots, however, the chicken is good. It really is. I cannot tell a lie. The waitress, while completely overbearing and attempting to try to earn a tip, was a sweetheart of a woman, she reminds me of a family member of mine. The only thing was, they have an open soda fountain, I am not sure why they even have waitresses....

On the note of the portion sizes again. Something strange about their serving your food is, they give you a three portion plate, but they put the sides inside these little cups inside of the portion area. Which makes the side portions look even smaller. I suspect that they put the sides into these cups and heat them up in the microwave as needed rather than keeping a steam table hot all day. I saw slightly melted styrofoam on more than one occasion.

Overall, Hog Heaven is a strangely ran restaurant that makes me seriously wonder how much and who the owner paid to win the awards that...

Nice location right off the highway. The restaurant inside is veryopen and spacious. Old school menu board without the exaggerated frills and TOO many options like the cheesecake factory.

Layout & ordering process: You place your order at the window and pay. Make your way to the other side and wait for it. It's that simple! It's great!

FOOD: Ordered the dinner combination plate/platter, BBQ and chicken. Along with two sides, green beans and fried okra. Hushpuppies were included free. Portions were small for the dinner combination plate.

BBQ (which means pork, if you are not from the south). Learned that the hard way. The BBQ was not what I was expecting. I was expecting some of the best BBQ in the south, I was disappointed. It seemed more like it was boiled in hot water rather than cooked in a smoker. It lacks seasoning along with the smoker flavor. It needed something more... Hickory wood, apple wood, or even cherry wood.

CHICKEN, looked like it was grilled. Or either deep fried without breading. The good thing was the sauce was glazed on during cooking, as far as I could tell. It was a little dry (white meat). But that can happen with white meat when cooked too long. It was equally not as impressive as I was hoping.

SIDES: Green beans, my honest opinion... they looked and tasted like green beans fresh out of a can and reheated. No real flavor, where's the bacon?

Fried okra. That was good. But then again it seems like it was a fresh from the freezer. Frozen and fry product. It was good.

I am still undecided if I will try this location again. I was really hoping for something amazing, but I guess my expectations...

I enjoy the food and some of the staff is pleasant at times. I most often call my order in and let the person I speak with that I have a coupon. Today I called in 3 BBQ sandwiches to pickup at 1pm and I told the young lady I had a 10% coupon which I always print and take with me. The young lady told me that I couldn't use the coupon and it does not say on there website they were not taking coupons. I asked the young lady why and she said due to COVID 19. So when I get to Hog Heaven a young lady name Jordan working the window she gave me the price. So I told her that they need to put on the website to let customers know they are not taking coupons. Jordan stated we are taking coupons. I said the young lady I spoke with told me due to COVID19 they were not so Jordan stated paper coupon and I said I always bring one. So I asked Jordan her name and the young lady standing beside her. So I told her that was the young lady I spoke with. Then Jordan says to me well she was on break. I say to Jordan she couldn't have been on break when she took my order. Then the next thing Jordan says by raising her voice at me that young lady had not been there in awhile and didn't know and shut the window. I don't understand young people that feel like they can do that to customers that is paying there salary. It's young ladies that work in that establishment that need some real growing up and respect customers. This is not the first time I have encountered with the fresh mouth as I call it with the young ladies there. The owner is a very nice lady and when the boss is not there you don't know what your staff is doing and saying...