Family BBQ Hickory Pit — Restaurant in Livermore

Went for the early dinner special. The price is good, the plate was big, looked filling.. but, I ordered the ribs with fries, a salad and water with ice. The ribs had barely any meet on them and were over cooked as if it was rewarmed from yesterday. I dont want to have to drench it in bbq sauce so I can force it down. That was not filling altho it looked big on the plate, maybe 15% of it was edible. The small salad with ranch was drenched in salad dressing. Now I like a lot of salad dressing.. but this was overkill. I dont need my lettuce floating on top of the dressing. Be sure to ask for it on the side so you can put on how much you like. The ranch dressing itself tasted good tho. The fries were a little over cooked and tasted like it was cooked in old oil that hasn't been changed in a few days. When the regular potato fries come out looking like sweet potato fries and the same color, you know theres a problem. I didnt even finish them, not to mention there was a hair in the fries. Before I even got my food, the waitress, who was very nice, brought me water with ice. As I sat there waiting for the food, I took a look around as this was my first time going here. The ice machine is old, dirty, and rusty. The motor on the back was dusty and dirty. It doesnt look like it's been serviced or cleaned in years. The machine looks like it could be 30 yrs old or older. Maybe I've watched too many episodes of bar rescue with John taffer, but I'm skeptical and worried about whatever is most likely growing inside this ice machine not to mention the obvious rust. The back bar area is older and doesnt give the appearance of cleanliness. I'd like to give it the benefit of the doubt and say it's just old.., but I cant in this case. The other food plates I saw go out also looked big and filling. The food on those plates looked ok visually, but who knows. But then I saw the waitress use her bare hands, un washed, to squeeze open an already sliced baked potato to pile in 2 scoops of butter from a giant tub. There were small flies buzzing around that I kept having to swat away. That alone tells you just about all you need to know about their cleanliness. You know they are landing on everything all day and night.... As a business owner for 30 years in various industries and having worked in the bar and restaurant industry myself for 15 years which I still work in, theres a lot of things I'd change, update, and do differently here. I've usually got an iron stomach but I'm still feeling a little uneasy a few hours later. I'm not sure I'll be back again unless theres a little updating of the service items and the...

I started with asking for a tuna melt with no tomatoes with a side salad. Orders came to table and immediately notice I had tomatoes on my sandwich. Server immediately returned and brought it back. Then after finished my salad, noticed it wasn't a tuna melt but a turkey melt. Server never returned to our table so I had to walk to the counter to let them know. They then fixed the sandwich. Then when I got the bill, added an ice tea on my order, that I didn't order. Simple stuff that wasn't a difficult order. The atmosphere is cheesy with plastic flowers everywhere and a quite large religious corner not appropriate for a restaurant. Definitely not a BBQ vibe. It was empty but also my first visit since the move. Personally, not a good choice for bbq and the vibe isn't what...

First off, I understand this is a newly opened location. The servers and hostess were great. The kitchen and management staff are obviously new, looking at the ingredients on the menu. I ordered a lunch special. I promptly got my salad, but my main course was not out after more than 30 minutes. Customers sat 20 minutes after me had their food when I decided to leave due to being over my time allotted for lunch. The server did ask repeatedly for my order, again great job. The inexperience, or understaffed kitchen staff was the issue. I could not tell you if the food was good or bad, but ownership may want to bring in some veteran staff to not only teack5new staff, but account for the excitement of the...