The Hickory Hog — Restaurant in Point Pleasant

We arrived on a weeknight about 6:30 PM to an empty restaurant (red flag #1). We dined in and were there for about 30 minutes in total. During that time the phone rang once for a takeout order and one additional person came in to pick up a separate take out order (red flag #2). If you are ever in an empty place, listen for the phone, it tells you the truth about how well the business is doing especially at dinner time. The next thing was to try the food. I was a bit shocked that this BBQ place didn't have any BBQ smell and was decorated like a generic cafeteria (red flag #3). At this point I wasn't getting my hopes up and knew this review was coming. Then when I saw that the entrees were $30 each I could start to see why it wasn't very popular. Anyway, the server was polite and attentive but couldn't tell me a dish I should try or what they were known for (red flag #4) telling me that nobody is raving about anything specific. So we ordered and the food was out in about 5 minutes (red flag #5). That told me it was all from the refrigerator to the microwave. Ribs can be ordered dry rubbed or sauced and there is BBQ sauce on the table if you desire. You'll desire it because the meat while tender was absolutely flavorless (as were the sides). Not dry rubbed, not smoked, flavorless which meant my dry rub upcharge was a waste (there were no signs of ever having been dry rubbed). On went the BBQ sauce and it started to come alive except that it was a cheap BBQ sauce and was more sweet than Smokey. I recognized the entire menu from Restaurant Depot (including the miscut chicken wings that are the smallest and cheapest they sell) and that very little if any of the apps were made by the staff. It was the freezer apps section from RD on a menu, very generic and no personal touches or sauces. I've been by this place for many years and I can only guess that it was newly sold to inexperienced people who are trying to do what they can but with 4 other actual BBQ places in town they are not in the running and won't last long at this rate. On one search engine, this place was the only one not listed when searching Point Pleasant BBQ online.

I will say everything I had was edible but nothing had any specific flavor of it's own and wasn't seasoned. So overall for $30 a plate I could not recommend this place. Start by dropping plates to $24.99 at most. There just wasn't enough product on the plate to justify the price and I'm a Chef / Owner so I know that not every ingredient has sky rocketed enough to be charging this much for microwaved generic food. Even the cornbread was flavorless. My wife finished half her plate and didn't want...

Let there be no hesitation when choosing The Hickory Hog for some great, soul pleasing, lip-smaking, finger licking BBQ. We were served by the sweetest curly hair waitress who was very pleasant, knowledgeable, and patient. She took great care of us from A-Z she anticipated our needs before we had to ask for anything along with the rest of the team. Now let's get down to the important part...The BBQ food. We tried the BBQ Chicken which was just the right amount of basted heaven sent fresh chicken and the Baby Back ribs. The Baby Back ribs were tender, moist, fall of the bone goodness that you long for. the Cornbread with a thick buttery honey basted deliciousness that I wanted to shove in my mouth whole it was so good!! We also tried the Mac and Cheese-and that too was so delicious that I wanted to go in the kitchen and marry the cook!! We went 4th of July-there wasn't many patrons, I'm assuming it's because everyone is down the shore...but they were missing out! Complete with a parking lot and a comfortable dining room...this is easily my top 3 in BBQ food ! Prices were extremely reasonable and establishment was clean. Please do try them-I mean this with my whole heart-It was a 10 out...

I'm sorry, but this place has awful food. The place was empty inisde during lunch time - should have been a warning! Ordered "steak tips" that i specifically asked if they were smoked as was told yes. They were barely seasoned plain steak pieces with bbq sauce on top. The mac and cheese tasted like Kraft food service cheese out of a can. The wings my son got were a little bit better though. I didn't even finish my "lunch portion" of the steak tips (fyi this was a child's size portion, know that going into it). The owner im guessing she was, was very nice though. We really had higher expectations. There's plenty of great BBQ places around here, sadly this one missed the...