Jebby's on 17 — Restaurant in North Carolina

My first trip to Jebby's in Hampstead was very early in the wake of Hurricane Florence. I was up from Texas helping a team of retired electrical lineman who were working as assessors to the substantially damaged electrical distribution system. In short, power was out over much of NC.

Jebby's was one of the few places open right after the hurricane passed over and we stopped in with two other teams for lunch. The place was busy with locals, but Chris and the limited available staff were going out of their way to take care of everyone there. Kudos for the extra effort during a stressful and bumpy stretch.

I can't say enough good things about Jebby's. The food is delicious, fresh, hot and if you leave hungry, it's your own fault.

On my first visit, Chris mentioned a reuben with hand battered onion rings. Since that's one of my favorite hot sandwiches, I jumped on it. It was nothing short of fantastic. The next day we were within a few miles of Jebby's around lunchtime, so back we go. This round, I tried the oyster basket. I've eaten a lot of oysters at a lot of places and these were top of the mark, fried to perfection and served with a very excellent cocktail sauce and hot, crispy fries. It doesn't get any better. Next trip, I went with the ribeye, cooked medium rare in a cast iron skillet with asparagus and mashed potatoes. Ho-ly cow good. The steak was tender, flavorful and juicy. The asparagus was a perfect tender-crisp and I'm not sure what's the magic in those mashed potatoes, but I could have eaten them as a meal. Jebby's fresh ground burgers are something of a local legend. Although I didn't try one during my visits, several of our guys went back daily and raved about them. The prices are reasonable, the food is fantastic, the sweet tea is just right and the bar is well stocked. After you've been there a couple of times, they'll know you by name.

Eat at Jebby's, even if you have to drive for awhile to get there.

On a personal note, thanks to Chris and company for taking such good care of a bunch of Texas boys and thanks so much to the very kind anonymous soul who picked up our check during our first visit. You guys are all awesome. We'll be back, but hopefully not while chasing...

Called in an order on Friday. They said it would be 30 minutes. I waited 40 knowing times are tough with getting help in restaurants. Well, after waiting an hour and 20 minutes, we finally got our food....kind of. There was never an apology for the wait. In fact, not only was there no apology, the waitress just thrust the bag at me and didn't say anything other than "Here." They did not include an order of fries even though we were charged for it. The wings I got looked like they were frozen from a big box store and tasted about the same. My son's hamburger was so burnt it literally crunched when he bit into it. The slice of pickle looked like it had been carried in the beak of a seagull for a few miles before being dropped in the sand under the pier at Surf City and then found and then allowed to sit on the dashboard of the head cook for a few hours and then added to his sandwich. And my wife's burger had this slice of tomato on it. That was the icing on the cake. You can be short-staffed and take a long time to get an order out (although you should definitely apologize). You can overcook an order (although my son's burger was absolutely nuked). But you start slicing off the top of a tomato and include the stem....that's a kitchen that just does not care. It has been a year since we last went to Jebby's. We waited that long because our last two experiences were less than stellar. But, this last one will be our...

Waited an hour for a table for 6 just to have the bartender seat a party of 8 of his buddies in front of us and try to justify it by stating ‘they are short staffed’ like that has anything to do with it. He was extremely rude, told us ‘fine then leave’ after waiting for so long. He then had the nerve to ask me if I was going to pay for a drink we ordered and didn’t even get to drink. We were fine waiting a long time because I know every single business is short staffed right now, but this shouldn’t entitle workers to treat people like they don’t matter so they can justify their own means. I would like to thank the very sweet waitress who was very communicative with us and I saw argue with the bartender about getting us seated. She obviously had a better handle on what was going on in the restaurant than he did.

edited for Jeff’s response With all due respect Jeff, you were not there and are relaying second hand information from your staff. Your bartender made a bad call and tried to stand by it by being unnecessarily rude and confrontational. The 8 top we watched walk in minutes before your bartender informed us they would be getting the table that the waitress promised us. We will never throw good money at bad service, no food is worth that. But you already mentioned you have plenty of business without us, so good...