First Class BBQ — Restaurant in Hempstead

Don't let the trophies fool you. ... Winning at Cook-offs don't equal great dining experience. Stopped in on a father's day Sunday with my kids since we were in the area. I'd had great dining experiences here in the past, but it's been a couple years since I'd been able to come back. What caused the two stars?

First, the lack of the smoke smell when we parked shoulda been a clue the pits were cold, kinda like the BBQ we got. A swarm of tiny flies all over the tea and soda station. The restrooms were out of order, They were out of half their sides 45 min after opening. The overly salty taste and consistency was a dead give away they used a canned or packaged cheese sauce on their Mac n cheese. On All 4 of our plates, they tossed in pickles in the sandwich basket leaving the bottom of ALL of our sandwiches soggy with pickle brine that soaked into the bread... Couldn't even pick them up and all our meals tasted like pickles whether you wanted it or not. Wound using a fork to take them apart to eat them. The Cowboy beans honestly seemed just to be a couple brands of canned beans mixed together. I could imagine the other sides (that they were out of) would come out of a can or carton too . ... The sandwiches were served on regular sandwich bread. The meat loaf was dry, completely lacking the smoky flavor one would expect in a "smoked meatloaf" Their bbq sauce was almost too sweet to tolerate, so it was useless to help the meatloaf. Its super glossy appearance, leads one to think it's mostly some sort of syrup, once again probably not site prepared. The slices of sandwich bread were thicker than the chopped beef layer on their chopped beef sandwich. Same for their sausage sandwich. All in all not worth the 80$ I spent here by a long shot .

Driving around town after we left, we passed several other restaurants with full parking lots ... We were one of two occupied tables at noon on a Sunday at "First Class" I guess the locals are on to the place.. Travelers should beware and not get fooled by the dusty trophies.

It pains me to no end to say this, cause I really prefer small family local places to the chain and big corporate choices .. pass this place and stop at Buckee's. Same price for twice the serving, quality and freshness ... Plus no flies and their...

I had seen a billboard advertising it along the freeway and was going through the area one day and thought I would try it out. It was just before noon so there was a decent amount of customers there. I decided to try a basic chopped beef sandwich to go since I was short on time. They had it ready almost immediately and I paid a little over $12.00 for it. I got out to the car and opened it up to scarf it down and get going. When I opened the styrofoam container I was pleased with the amount of onions and pickles but the little container of BBQ sauce was almost empty and only had about a teaspoon of sauce in it. The bun and chopped beef was about average for a chopped beef sandwich. As I began to eat it, every single bite had about a 60/40 ratio of fat to meat. I don't mind a little bit of fat but that ratio was ridiculous. I couldn't believe that they would serve it like that unless someone ordered it that way. I don't know if this is typical or just a careless employee but I won't waste my money and time there again. Also, the taste/flavor of the BBQ was just below average at best. Sadly, I would much rather stop down the road at Bucee's gas station and get their BBQ version - better meat w/less fat, better tasting and a...

My two meat one side "plate" was nothing to write home about. The brisket had very little flavor. The sausage as you can see in the picture was so dry it had to be drowned in sauce to eat it. Speaking of sauce, the sweet bbq sauce was inedible and Kraft makes better tangy sauce. This is even worse than Walmart brand. Notice in the picture it has potato salad rather than the mac n cheese listed on my receipt. The girl only gave us one mac n cheese. My husband pointed it out to her and she told him that he had only paid for one. I took the receipt back to the counter to show her that we had paid for TWO mac n cheese. She was annoyed that I pointed that out to her so she told me they ran out of it. She didn't offer a replacement side dish. I told her to give me a potato salad instead she got attitude. It was terrible potato salad but I ended up being happy that I didn't get the mac n cheese. The mac n cheese was refrigerator cold and also tasteless (I tasted my husbands). The other reviews on here made me think I was going to have a positive experience. All I can say about those reviews is that must be shills, friends and relatives of the owners. See my three pictures. Yuck in the salt shaker, 1/4 of the...