The Original Carolina Barbecue — Restaurant in Garner

My wife and I reserved a Wedding Rehearsal Dinner at Carolina Barbecue on June 6, 2015 at 6:00 pm. The dinner end up being a disaster. MY wife and I with a few more people, arrived at the restaurant earlier to make sure that everything was set up for the dinner. The dinner was held in their large banquet room. It was extreme warm in the banquet room. My wife went to sit down and the chair she was planning to sit in tip over and she fell on the floor. It really frighten her and we ran to assist her and to see if she was alright. It took us a while to get her up, so far, she seemed to be okay. No one from the restaurant assist us or checked to see if she was alright or took out an accident report. Of course, it is a liability on their part. No manager came to us to see if she was okay. The next incident was once we start eating, the waitress was bringing a picture of drink or water to the wedding party's table, and spilled the whole picture of drink on the table of the wedding part. it spilled in some of their plates and on the grooms clothes. They clean the liquid off of the table and mobbed up the floor. A couple of people from the wedding party asked for clean plates and the waitress was hesitate of giving them clean plates. I insisted that they give them clean plates, because their plates was filled with liquid from the spill. No manager came to our group to apologize for the spill and talk with us about accommodation for that incident. At the end of the dinner, we the lady who was ringing up our bill, to give us senior citizen discounts for the 6 senior citizens that were in our party Of course, They decline the discount for seniors. We were very disappointed with Carolina Barbecue, in the way they mistreated our group. We had a group of...

We called in a to go order. The man who answered was really polite and nice. Unfortunately that is the only good thing I can say. My husband went to pick it up, went up front and they told him to go around to the side of the building (it's a walk up take out area). He goes up and there is a line of people waiting to order take out and then others walk in through a door to pick up orders(ones who called in an order). Him and another gentleman were there. They handed the man his food and then told my husband (he couldn't even get a word out before they assumed) that he needed to get in line(the line of people ordering). My husband said he already ordered the food and they said it didn't matter ...get in line. Soooo he had to wait behind a ton of people to order just to grab his order and pay. Which defeats the entire point of calling ahead. Not just that, they were SO rude. They have an area to grab your order and cash out so I honestly don't understand why they sent him to the back of the line. They didn't ask the other gentleman to do that but it was clear the employee was only helping "certain" people. He asked for sauces and butter. (We wanted bbq sauce, butter for the hush puppies and then the potato should have sour cream and butter...). Nope. They ignored him lol. We won't be back. Spent $30 on two people are were met with rachet, rude, unprofessional behavior. The food was okay. BBQ was dry, again the sauce that they are known for would have been nice. Shrimp burger, Brunswick stew were good. Veggies were bland. Potato unfortunately I didn't eat because there wasn't even butter lol. Hush puppies good but those corn sticks are hard as rock. It just wasn't even worth excusing the...

I live in Rhode Island, but this is my home state, and this is one of my favorite restaurants and must-haves when I come home to visit. Most of the food is flavorful, and we just don't have this in Rhode Island. BUT, there are some issues at my favorite eatery:

1. Drive-thru is never quick. I'm not sure if it's because of the type of food; but trust me, this is nobody's fast food drive through.
2. I usually order a barbecue pulled pork sandwich with NO coleslaw; and 50% of the time, they put coleslaw on it. This happens so much that I'm forced to check it before I pull off; and yes, I often have to return it. That drives me crazy! And before you say who eats a barbecue sandwich without coleslaw--ME--I hate coleslaw; and from what I hear, they're coleslaw isn't that great.
3. When you place an order for pick-up, one of my pet peeves is that it's ready when I get there; that really grinds my gear when they prepare it when I arrive--that defeats the purpose of wanting to pick up and not wait; I've had to wait too many times, especially since I don't get there until after 5 minutes of the estimated time they said the food would be ready.

PROS: dine-in is fine. The workers all have that Southern hospitality. I love their barbecue pulled pork, and they're fried chicken is fine. The banana pudding is amazing. I'VE NEVER HAD LEMONADE OR SWEET TEA AS GOOD AS THIS PLACE. SUPER SOUTHERN SWEET, AND THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD BE PEOPLE. I love the hush puppies too.

Final Thoughts: Chicken and dumplings need lots of work!!!! Lots of work. OMG...I had got my mouth already. from chicken and dumplings, and they were over-cooked, water downed, tasteless--they need to do...