Poole's Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in East Ellijay

After hearing all the hype about Poole's BBQ in Ellijay, GA, I had to come and check it out with my partner and her two kids. Sadly, we left more than just a little disappointed.

First up, the kids' pulled pork platters: Theirs seemed to have an excessive amount of unrendered fat and connective tissue. My partner also had the pulled pork, but her portion seemed a bit better, although they were all room temp. and on the dry side.

Next, my 4 meat platter. According to the menu, this was supposed to come with 4 meats, 4 sides, and 2 breads for $32.50. My first choice were the ribs, but they were out, so I got the brisket, pastrami, sausage, and pulled pork. I asked the server, "it comes with 4 sides, right?" He said yes, and I named my sides. Mac & cheese, baked beans, fries, and tarer tots. At no point did the server inform me that ALL the sides AND meats I ordered were an upcharge. The menu was definitely not clear about that either. I didn't find this out until I got the check. Ok, fine, they wanted to up the check average. Would've been nice to know beforehand though. So now my meal is up to $45.

So what did a $45 platter get me?

The brisket: very dry, mealy, under seasoned. I received one slice of flat, and one slice of point meat. Both were just not good.

The pastrami: Again, dry and under seasoned. Also very tough, sliced with the grain (to make it extra chewy), with a good amount of unrendered fat. Although it had a good smoke on it, the lack of seasoning made it incredibly unenjoyable.

The pulled pork: the flavor was good, although a bit dry. I wish they would've tossed this with some of the rendered fat and juices from cooking when they pulled it. Again, good smoke, but underseasoned and a bit dry.

The sausage: By far the best thing on the platter. This was delicious, but I fear this may not have been made in house, based on the quality and preparation of the other meats. I would get this again, though.

Everything else: The Mac & cheese was pretty good. Just needed a little salt in the sauce. The baked beans were good, the fries were average, same with the tots. The Texas toast and cornbread were also average.

Everything tasted like it was from 3 days ago, and had been reheated a couple of times.

One last disappointment about the food was that, although it seemed to take an abnormally long time to come out (for bbq, and for the restaurant only having 6 people in it at the time), everything was cold, or at best, room temp.

The service: Despite the fact that I wasn't told about the upcharges, the server was very nice and attentive. That being said, it felt as though everyone working there had only been there for about a week. No one really seemed to know what was going on, or really what to do. It was an odd feeling. Like the people who normally run the restaurant weren't there and these people were just filling in. The kids meals said they came with "piggy stickers" (or something like that), but when asked, no one seemed to know where they were. Someone offered to go looking for them. 10 minutes later they had moved on to doing something else, but never said anything to us about not finding the stickers. It was just very strange.

I would give this place a second try, because every place has off days. It's never fair to pass judgment based off one experience. There were so many people who recommended this place, I can't imagine all of them were delusional. But as for this particular experience, I was not impressed. Hopefully the next time...

2023 UPDATE: NOW YOUR MOMMA SHOULD SLAP YOU FOR EATING HERE!! I am sorry to say that although it still has the Poole family name the new owners have none of the family heart or attitudes in what they now serve. They might as well strip the interior of everything Poole because the legacy is gone!!

Anytime we were in Ellijay we made a point to stop and get some good pulled pork from Pooles and we stopped in today not knowing that it was under new ownership and was sadly disappointed in both service and food.

The first glass of sweet tea I poured from the container had the consistency of cider as it was very cloudy and it tasted bitter. I was not the only one who got it too. Another customer apparently was getting the last of what was in there. Instead of refreshing the contained, staff simply placed it under the tea brewer and brewed new tea on whatever remained in the container. Not sure if they ever added sugar for the new batch but it sat under the brewer for the remainder of the 45 minutes we were in the place.

Wife and I ordered the "pooles classic pork sandwich" which is nothing like pork sandwiches served by the family. Pork was served already sauced and overly salted and they dont use standard hamburger buns as expected. PLEASE NOTE THE PORK SANDWICH IS FOUND ON THE DELI SANDWICH MENU - WHY HAVE DELI SANDWICHES AT A BBQ JOINT KNOWN FOR THE BEST QUE IN THE REGION (OR AT LEAST WAS)

Visiting today you would think that they just re-opened as the staff are disorganized and the kitchen cannot get orders out without missing items, which although we did not experience, we saw with other patrons while waiting. Table runners have a hard time with the toy farm animals that customers are given for use in order to table. Some plates were taken to incorrect table in confusion between a bison and bull figure.

I would be cautious with the sauce containers as well since one of the bottles at our table was completely clogged with solidified sauce that filled 1/4 inch of the nozzle.

Portions have been greatly reduced and prices highly increased compared to the prior menu. (Reg pork sandwich combo was 8.98 for damn good food that had nothing left on plate. Today 8 sandwich, 2.5 for the drink and 1.50 for the fries which had been sun lamped - so 12 dollars for a half-eaten plate.) I can understand inflation but come on,....

They don't care about the food, their customers or the legacy of this place. There is no heart left.

2019: All you can say is it's slap your mama good que!!!! (Both my wife and I had the...

dined here with my girlfriend a couple of weeks ago, and we had a great experience, the food was excellent, and we both said we’d definitely come back the next time we were in town. Unfortunately, our most recent visit was a completely different story. We first called ahead, only to be told they were closing an hour early for a private event. No big deal, we just decided to come the next day instead. When we arrived around 5:30 p.m., we were told there would be a wait because the kitchen was backed up. Oddly enough, the restaurant wasn’t busy. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes just to be seated, during which several groups behind us decided to leave after hearing that the kitchen might be running low on meats. We decided to stay, hoping they still had the brisket we came for. While waiting, we noticed the staff standing around chatting instead of cleaning up, several tables were dirty and unorganized. Looking toward the kitchen, it also appeared very dirty, and we even saw some servers eating/snacking right next to the prepared food. They had gloves on, but it still felt unhygienic and unprofessional. After finally being seated, we ordered the brisket plate with sides. Unfortunately, the food was completely underwhelming. The cornbread was burnt around the edges and lacked flavor. Of the three slices of brisket, two were extremely dry, like they’d been sitting out all day. The sauces were the worst part; every single one had the consistency of water. I tried grabbing bottles from other tables thinking we just had a bad batch, but they were all the same. Even worse was the flavor which was mostly just vinegar and for the side they call coleslaw that just tasted like vinegar too.

Overall, we left really disappointed. It’s a shame because our first visit was great, but after this experience, we both agreed we wouldn’t be...