Pigman's Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills

I'll try to start with some positives. The signage is cute. The menu is straight to the point. The food came out extremely quickly (maybe a little too quickly). It's a relaxed, self-serve vibe. There's a unique "udder" self-serve dispenser for their range of barbecue sauces.

My family and I were looking to switch things up from the seafood we've been having this week. I have been on a barbecue kick lately and was extremely excited to try what I thought would be an incredible, authentic, barbecue spot. After eating here, I have NO CLUE how this place has lasted 40 years on the OBX. It may have ruined barbecue food for me.

I ordered a half rack of ribs, a side of mac and cheese, and a side of coleslaw. The girl at the counter put my order into the system incorrectly, charging me for an entire half rack of ribs "plate" which comes with beans (that I didn't want), hush puppies (that I didn't want), and coleslaw (that I had already ordered as a side). Not sure why there were no clarifying questions. The girl seemed to struggle to understand our orders.

There is a "boat" section on the menu, described as sandwiches. The three people I was with each ordered one, expecting sandwiches. The chicken tender boat is not a sandwich. It's just tenders. The fried shrimp boat is also not a sandwich. It's just fried shrimp. The girl at the counter input the fried shrimp boat incorrectly (which should come with fries and hush puppies), only putting in fried shrimp à la carte. Not a huge deal, they brought out the sides after we said something.

The ribs were bad. The color of the meat was off putting. You could see a yellow sheen on the surface and the inside was grey. The texture of the meat was gelatinous and bouncy. There was an overwhelming amount of fat. I took two bites before giving up and making everyone in my party try it. It was a negative experience for everyone. We threw what is pictured away.

The barbecue sauce was terrible. Not sure how you can mess that up as a barbecue restaurant, but of the six offered sauces, only one was remotely close to a classic barbecue flavor (but was too sweet). All the other sauces tasted like straight vinegar- extremely sour.

The pork barbecue boat (which actually does come as the advertised sandwich) was so sour due to the vinegar-based barbecue sauce. I couldn't tolerate it, but luckily the person who ordered it was able to get through it by adding copious amounts of the sweet barbecue sauce (which I believe Pigman's call their "Cock" sauce for whatever reason).

I got Starry as my drink from the self-serve soda machine. It tasted like dirty cafeteria soda, as if the machine needed a cleaning or the Starry had somehow gone bad.

The experience spiraled so badly that we ended up hysterically laughing at the cards we were dealt.

I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone in any scenario. Get some ribs from Food Lion or something if you want barbecue food. At least the...

Quick review is the BBQ is good, sides middle of the road.

TLDR version: I would not go back or recommend..

a little more indepth.. BBQ is very smoky tasting which other reviews have mentioned I like the taste of the pulled pork, and the variety of sauces were good. My son got chicken wings and they were ok.. he wanted BBQ sauce with them and he did not finish them so I was able to taste them.. they were average to me, but I prefer a crispier skin and buffalo/hot sauce.. A couple of my other kids got chicken tenders and although they were good size, they basically said the same thing.. average.. the standard sides are baked beans and cole slaw and none of us like cole slaw.. so on top of already semi high prices there was a dollar upcharge to swap to fries and $2 for swap to Mac n cheese.. I just really hate it when places do stuff like that. Nickel and dime you to death on already over priced (and what turned out to be average food) baked beans you ask.. well below average very bland, surprisingly bad for a BBQ joint.. the Mac n cheese was very good.... Overall what I think you should take from my review was mentioned earlier.. we travel here on vacation once a year and we are always looking for that experience that has us putting a star in our mind so we remember next time we come back.. well this place gets a star alright, but a star to remind me not...

I was expecting to enjoy some amazing barbecue. My wife tried their Tuna-Q and My daughter had a sandwich called "The Breezy Boat" it had mac and cheese, french fries and pulled beef. As soon as I walked in we were greeted at the front by an individual who could not describe the specials and stated it was his first day. Not sure why the first person greeting you at the restaurant would be someone who doesn't yet know anything about the restaurant but so be it. There were a lot of amazing options to choose from and so it took us a couple of minutes to finally settle on our dishes. I ordered a whole rack of ribs with the customary sides baked beans, coleslaw and hush puppies. Let me first say the ribs were very tender falling off the bones. I'm sorry to tell you that there was no seasoning of any kind on the meat itself. Don't even believe I could taste salt and pepper. It did have a sauce but bland meat with sauce on it is just not acceptable. I am of Carolina thing but it tasted like there was vinegar in the coleslaw and the baked beans, it was definitely a mist for me. I tasted my daughter's sandwich and we all gave it a thumbs up. My wife and I had two different takes on the tuna she said it was ok I thought it was horrible. They need to make some serious changes before I could recommend this...