Hickory Stik — Restaurant in Hutchinson

TLDR; I suspect this is a totally different restaurant for lunch. Meats were from slightly above average to phenomenal. Sides were mostly a train wreck except for the potato salad. Supper staff were lazy. Restaurant was dirty and greasy at 6ish. Get your food to go during supper time!! Went here at about 6ish on a Saturday. First thing I noticed was that the floor was greasy. Be careful walking across the floor to get your drinks. BBQ is greasy, so while not expected, definitely not out of the realm of possibility if they're busy. We wanted a seat by the window, prime real estate in any restaurant. We had a choice of a dirty table, or a dirtier table. No biggie if they were super busy. I'm not the type of person who doesn't take into account how busy a good place is, except only three other tables were seated. Not good. Didn't have to sit long before the food was brought out. A big plus there. Asked for a cleaning rag to wipe my table down because I worked in the industry, so I know there's got to be a bunch of them around. The lady told me the table wasn't dirty, it's the finish on the table. Requested a towel anyway, she came back with one and nicely requested us to lift our plates. I appreciated that. Promptly watched her wiped food bits off of our table. I have to say, the ribs are the best I've ever had. The rub was earthy, and add in the smoke, they were absolutely sublime! The pulled pork was slightly above average, the flavor was good, but not exceptional like I was expecting after the ribs. Tried the turkey, and it was great! They didn't overpower the taste of the bird with the seasoning. The breast meat was moist and the flavors were very nicely balanced. Onto the sides. I tasted the smokey and spicy beans, as well as the potato salad. My guest had Mac and cheese. Potato salad is good, very solid creamy potato salad. One of the things that impressed me is that the potato skins were left on. Speaking from experience, most restaurants peel their potatoes due to not wanting a single customer to bite into dirt from a poorly washed potato. They are against the grain and not afraid of the extra work to make sure that the potatoes are properly washed, and I really appreciate that. It's the other sides that makes me wonder how in the world did they get a 4.7 stars out of over 200 reviews? The smokey beans are canned beans with liquid smoke added, the spicy beans are smokey beans with canned jalapenos added. Not a fresh flavor to be found with either bean dish. And (I didn't try this myself) the Mac and cheese was described as so flavorless, that no amount of salt and pepper could revive them. During the entirety of our meal, the staff were huddled on the border between the dining room and the kitchen doing nothing but gossiping. Not a single one was cleaning anything. I had drilled into me, "if you have time to lean, you have time to clean." So I will count the greasy floors and dirty tables against them in this review. Given everything I have experienced, I suspect that this restaurant is probably best in the afternoon when people who care are working (evidence being the quality of the meat, and the thorough washing of the potatoes), supper time is not the time to eat here. Will I come here again? Probably, but after I try Roy's Hickory Pit BBQ and never for supper. Will I dine in again? Absolutely...

Placed our online when I went to pick it up the guy walked up to the counter and seemed very annoyed at the fact that he had to do his job instead of talking to his group of Co workers like he was doing. When I told him I had a pick up order he turned around and said it's right there then walked off and went back to the group of coworkers. I walked over to where the bag of food was at and started towards the door to leave and realized there was no BBQ sauce so I went back to the counter and made eye contact with the guy again he seemed annoyed that I was still bothering him and I asked for some BBQ sauce he gave me 3 containers said have a nice day real crappy like and walked off again. Just very disappointed in the way he interacted with me. If you don't like your job then quit. Your in a position where you have to take care of your customers so they will want to come back again and again. Your not there just to visit with your coworkers. I won't be...

I've eaten BBQ all over the country. This place ranks near the bottom of the list when it comes to the food quality. Staff was nice, place was clean, but no points for things all restaurants should be doing. Ordered carry-out and waited for the food. Got a two-meat plate with brisket, pulled pork, mac-n-cheese and coleslaw. The meats were obviously reheated, dry and not prepared that day. The mac wasn't better than from a box, and the coleslaw was mostly liquid and not crisp. At 6pm on a weeknight, it took about 15 minutes to get my food, even though I was the only customer there (I guess to take everything out of the fridge and heat it up). The meat's flavor wasn't horrible but the texture and moisture left a lot to be desired. Good BBQ needs to be sliced/pulled/served fresh, fast and hot. The best places sell out in a couple hours. Leftover BBQ is just unforgivable....