4 Rivers Smokehouse — Restaurant in Orlando

Being in the restaurant business for over 35 years and having been subject to reviews written by Karen who can't understand why it takes 30 minutes for a made to order souffle, I normally wouldn't bother writing a bad review. This place is new but the chef/owner - restaurant company behind it has several other locations, catering, even published cook books. I was in such dismay about what was in the familiar styro containers, initially by the lack of weight, then visually, then ugh.

We ordered through the drive thru and we're made to wait, and then pull into a parking spot. The bag arrived and we drove home, a 4 minute drive. Upon opening our entrees we found none of the sauces we requested and the food was cold, all of it. Not cool or kinda warm, cold. Issue your staff some thermos...

Two strips of brisket were flavorless, dry, and really, this is the portion size?

The pulled pork was stale, extremely dry, and again, flavorless. The BBQ sauce provided was also flavorless and kinda made this bad food worse.

The very tiny leg/thigh was, very tiny. It had relatively good seasoning and was the only meat that had any semblance of smoke. Flavor was, good, but portion size is pathetic.

The greens were flavorless and tasted like they were from a can. Big chunks of pork in with them, but, strangely, not salty. Not good.

The corn was pretty good and seemed fairly fresh, fairly but possibly IQF cut corn. I was using the corn as an additive to the meats so I could get through the excessively dry protein. Just good.

The Mac and Cheese was way, way overcooked, the sauce tasted like artificial cheese and there was a slight chemical aftertaste. I had two bites and couldn't take another. Horrible bad.

The sweet potatoes tasted like yams from a can seasoned with pumpkin pie spice. Not horrible but basically dessert level sugar. Meh, good.

The cornbread was okay, and the only thing out of everything that I ate all of. Good.

We were looking forward to this place opening given that Cecil's down the street is worse than prison food with Sysco brand #10 cans of everything dumped into a steam table. But oh well. You are far better off getting food from Hungry Pants or even Tijuana Flats, both right across the street. I kinda miss the fried burger joint that was in this spot previously. Gnarly, oversized burgers that dripped delicious cheese and sauce all over the place. It was a five napkin minimum burger. Too bad there were 10 other mediocre burger joints within a quarter mile sapping their biz.

Yes, again, they just opened. And again, this is a seasoned restaurant company. A good restaurant owner or management team should be there open to close, every day, until it's right. Unless this is your standard, barely edible?

Fix your food and raise your prices. I'd pay $20 for a few more ounces of protein and sides. The lack of good BBQ in town warrants these things.

Get rid of all the damn styrofoam and single use plastics. My gawd it's 2022. Get Green. Save some $ and scoop the sides into the...

I was once a 4 Rivers evangelist. I remember having to park across the street, I think at a church, to get to the first one on Fairbanks to eat. And, I did so with no complaint because the food was awesome. I since been there and others likely hundreds of times over the years. However, it's starting to feel more like a fast food chain- and an expensive one at that. Today I went to their new location on South Orange Ave.. When I got to the person cutting the meat to place my order, this other worker swooped in and asked if this was dine in or take out. I said, "take out." He then said, gesturing to an area set aside, "we have a super fast express area here for your convenience," motioning me over. Mind you, I was about to place an order with the guy cutting the meat. I complied and moved to the other area and placed my order with a worker at a register, which proceeded to take 20 minutes to get. That made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I was about to get my food directly from the folks cutting and serving and then had to needlessly wait. Far from fast, express or convenient. I got right home and opened my food and it was cold. I bought three sandwiches and sides (over $40) and there was no markings on the sandwiches indicating which was lean or moist or pork or beef. The meat was dry, the fries were soggy and the coleslaw was dry and tasteless. The quality really feels as though it's been going down for years now, this visit convinced me that it's time to find a new BBQ restaurant. I used to be such a big fan and now they...

One of the employees spit in my food! Four rivers was running a promotion where they were giving out free sandwiches to teachers for teacher appreciation week. We went in to order dinner, and they said they ran out of buns and could only offer my wife (the teacher) a pile of meat. I asked if they could substitute it for regular bread, a cheese grit, or literally anything. The guy said “we can’t substitute it for anything, no exceptions.” Way to appreciate teachers! I gave him a hard time for being so ridiculous, and ended up ordering a six shooter as we’re not animals, so we don’t consider a pile of meat to be food.

The cashier was a white man with long hair. He disappears into the back of the restaurant for about 10 minutes, and comes back with the “food.” Not until I got home did I realize what he’d given me. A piece of cartilage on top of a cheese grit, flooded with coleslaw mayo juice. There was so much mayo juice that there was a puddle inside of the bag that spilled onto the floor mat of my car.

Why was there so much coleslaw mayo juice? It was to disguise the flemmy spit that I saw when I poured it on my plate.

This is beyond disgusting. Those employees should be fired, and this place should be shut down. If you want four rivers, go to the one in...