Whole Hog Cafe — Restaurant in Little Rock

Top notch barbecue! If you are passing through Little Rock, it is worth the drive 100%. I been a patron for about 10 years. It is very consistent in quality. The pit-masters are phenomenal. The prices are reasonable. The portion are healthy. The staff are very nice. Decor is functional and clean. You order at the counter and they call your number. It is a seat yourself establishment. Drinks come in to go cups and with unlimited refills. They do serve beer and wine which is brought to the table in glass. The restaurant can seat a hundred plus. They have a dedicated to-go counter. They do catering as well. There should be no reason you should leave full and happy!

Proteins: The proteins are fantastic. They are the star of the restaurant! They have brisket, pulled pork, chicken in three forms (half chicken, pulled, and sometimes quarters), burnt ends, two types of sausage, (classic and jalapeño cheddar), turkey, and baby back ribs. Chill is served fall and winter only. The brisket it is wonderful. It is not heated in juice. Just kept in a warmer. The pulled pork has the right level of bark, great smoke flavor, and was still moist. Pulled chicken is a mix of white and dark with no skin. It is always moist with a hint of smoke. Chicken quarters and chicken haves are juicy, with soft skin, and the perfect level of smoke. Brisket burnt ends are wonderful and packed with moisture, seasoning, and smoke. All the sausage is perfectly cooked and juicy. I believe they make their own sausage. Turkey is breast only. It is moist with no skin and superb. Ribs have great bark, perfect smoke, soft with still chew. The are not over cooked resulting meat falling off bone from plate to mouth journey. They have a great smoke ring. The chill is meat based with brisket and does have red beans in it.

Sides: As far as the sides, all are restaurant made. They have macaroni and cheese, collard greens, baked beans, coleslaw, garden salad, Cesar salad, potatoes salad, chips, and baked potatoes. The macaroni and cheese is made from scratch. The cheese sauce is yellow. The collard greens are perfectly seasoned with a hint of black pepper. They are not sweetened. They are not cut to small nor like spaghetti noodles, perfect size with still chew. Backed beans are just the perfect level of sweetness and savory. They put chopped pork or brisket into them. Coleslaw is always crunchy with a perfect level of dressing not too thick and not too thin. It is coated generously and not soaking in sauce pool. You can tell it is made daily. The garden salads are mostly iceberg lettuce with a few added items like carrots, cheese tomatoes, and croutons. They are just good. Cesar Salad are romaine with parmesan cheese, and croutons. All the lettuce are fresh and crisp. They provided prepackaged salad dressing so you can dress your salad as you wish. Potato salad is a white dress salad and rock solid. The chips are individual bagged premium chips of assorted flavors. The baked potatoes are fairly large, grade A size. They appear to be smoked as well can come with butter, sour cream and chives.

Food Specials: Loaded baked potatoes (optional meat) are normally really large and you can get any protein on them. Barbecue nachos are great as well. They have your standard ballpark aged cheddar cheese from a can, (meat choice) and pickled jalapeños. Cesar salad with chicken are great!

They serve Coke products on fountain. They also have sweet and...

(official review) Buy the real Arkansaw D : to the owners or conglomerate who own whole hog's barbecue, for a small restaurant chain who has as many awards as you do, you need to be evaluating your staff at the Cantrell location!! I am a man who is well-traveled and well trained in the culinary arts, having run several restaurants myself! My experience at this location was quite trying on my patience,,, but let's get to the brass tax of it all!!! On 4/2/2023 , I purchased a whole hog platter and a sliced brisket sandwich meal, of which only two of the sides were correct and two of the sides were incorrect and we're substituted with something else that was not brought to our attention until I said something about!! It !! Your staff did not maintain proper temperature on the brisket therefore it was hard and tough, the small rack of ribs that came with the platter took two hands to separate and was also tough!! Ribs and brisket shouldn't be like that especially yours!!! It has been my experience that if small food chains do not maintain a one-hundred-percent 5-star rating they will fale!!! This I can assure you!! As far as the portion control you guys were spot-on!!! And as far as service with a smile also spot-on! The caramel cheesecake is absolutely brilliant!!!! But I at this time in all good conscience and all the travels in this country that I do, will not recommend the Cantrell store location to any of the wayward travelers that I encounter!! Please take my words to wisdom!!! I hope the Cantrell store...

This place has got to be the most awful BBQ I've ever eaten. I came here because I saw it had great reviews while I was stopping over night in Little Rock. I should have eaten anything else but here.

It's located in a strip mall. We came here for dinner and sure signs I should have known to stay away was there was hardly anyone here for dinner time. The store has a ton of BBQ trophy's lining the room, which completely fools you to thinking this place is going to be good. I'm surprised there are so many trophy's, since it appears to be a chain with multiple locations throughout the state.

I ordered the Ultimate Platter, since I figured it gave me a good sample of just about everything they had to offer. Hmm where to begin, everything was cold. Not a single item was hot or remotely warm. The cheesy corn was watery corn. The baked beans were nasty. The roll was about the only okay thing on the whole platter. The meats were all cold. The ribs were dry. The chicken was dry and tasteless. The beef, I'm not even sure I even got any. The pork was also cold and tasteless. The potato salad was marginally okay. Everything was terrible. Even the atmosphere was terrible.

I have no idea how this place got sure great reviews. Everything was awful, from the food, to the atmosphere to the seating. The presentation of the food was just as bad as the taste of the food. I would never come back nor recommend this place to anyone. If it were possible to give this place 0...