Carolina Barbeque — Restaurant in Newland

Our visit was around 11 AM Saturday morning, April 19, 2025. Other than the staff, there was only two other groups in the restaurant, though other patrons came in later. My wife and I ordered a small BBQ plate with fried okra and coleslaw, and a large BBQ plate with fried okra and potato salad. We had banana pudding for dessert. First, the good…The atmosphere was appropriate for an old-school barbecue place. The fried okra was excellent. The potato salad was very good as well. The coleslaw was OK; nothing special, but not offensive in anyway either. The sauces were very flavorful, and the self service station was a nice touch to try as many and as much as you wanted. Later, we had the banana pudding which to me was exceptional. The staff was friendly and the service was good, and the food came out in a very reasonable time. Now the bad… The barbecue was some of the worst I’ve ever had at a restaurant. Not only did it come out lukewarm, it was somewhat dried out, and there’s no way to know, but my guess is it was cooked early the day before. It certainly was not fresh. It had virtually no smoke flavor to it at all, and overall, it tasted old. I didn’t finish it. I’m sure at one time whoever started this place felt pride in the barbecue they produced. My guess is that they no longer have hands on the preparation and so forth with the barbecue. It’s a barbecue restaurant so, I’m giving this a pretty crappy review because the barbecue, which should be the main thing was the least enjoyable. In fact, it was not enjoyable at all. Our friends had the ribs which were a little better. But not much. The onion rings still had what appeared to be uncooked batter up next to the onion itself. Most likely these are pre-frozen and thrown into hot oil. They were pretty terrible. There’s potential here… But someone who cares needs to have a hands-on approach to this and start working out the details of making this restaurant worth coming too. Because unless you like really good banana pudding, fried okra, and potato salad, it’s not. Especially if you want...

We arrived and placed our order and paid for food. We watched our food come up and sit in the window as the employees walked passed it several times restocking straws and Togo bags. We even heard the cook say order up when order placed behind us came up, 2 employees walking around trying to find others things todo than pull the food from window, I would’ve gladly picked up the food from the counter. But after watching it sit in the window for 7 minutes we decided it wasn’t the place for us. We returned our drinks and requested a refund. When I placed my order I was asked to tip, I did not as I hadn’t received a service as of then. No one should . EVER. tip before hand!!!

Response to Owner:

My rating of 1 for your establishment was 100% accurate.

If the ticket I am signing has a space for a tip then you are asking for one. You can have it removed if you don’t want it there.

That was not what we ordered and you were the guy working in the kitchen??? I don’t think so. The food was up in minutes and sat in the window while it was ignored for a serious amount of time. You are either misinformed/lied to or are lying, I’ll let you decide.

You complain we were rude. Again you are either misinformed/lied to or are lying ,again, I’ll let you decide.

We simply got up and asked for our money back. The girl at the register just looked at us and said “that’s fine” no effort to correct or get a manager. Why would I waste more time to talk with the person already running this train wreck. Seems it would have been offered.

Your main failure here is not taking the opportunity to correct the issues you have and growing your business by accurate reviews, that look to me to be plentiful in the negative direction.

Grow up and treat your business like something that you are proud of.

If the ladies at the counter were your best and 4 or 5 years employees, you should...

I don't like to share a negative review unless it is helpful for others to make a decision.

I really love BBQ. My husband ran a BBQ stand so I know good BBQ and what it takes to make it work. This was not it. The pulled pork was nice in some parts, others were hard and crunchy with very little if any smoke or pink color from smoke. My potato salad was crunchy as the potatoes were not cooked all the way through. The flavor was excellent, I just wish it had been cooked. The coleslaw was ok. The hush puppies were delicious and we ordered an appetizer of the fried cheese curds. Those were fried to perfection and delicious.

The staff were friendly and kind and while we were one of maybe 3 or 4 groups present, our food arrived quickly and hot.

The interior was nicely decorated for the style, but could use some new table cloths. Some were stained and faded while others looked new. The stage had become a storage area for overflow boxes of things.

Lastly I used the restroom. I only included a picture so you could see what I saw. The sink was so dirty. The ceiling was missing light covers and the vent was covered in some kind of black dirt. If I didn't have to go so bad I wouldn't have. It did make me wonder if this is the level of cleanliness in the parts of the restaurant you CAN see, what does the kitchen look like? 🫣

To the owners: please take some time to fix these things. We need good...