Ole Time Barbecue — Restaurant in Raleigh

If you were going to create the perfect NC barbecue restaurant from scratch, Ole Time Barbecue has done it and they NAILED IT!

We popped in here on a Saturday afternoon after a volleyball tournament, hopping to grab a quick lunch before our return drive to Wilmington.

As we pulled up, we were a little bit concerned that we might have a bit of a wait on our hands because the parking lot was nearly full. We went in nonetheless and a booth soon opened up; we were seated quickly. We got the unique “booth for two“ that they have squeezed in next to the door.

The waitress brings a side of hush puppies when she arrives to get your order Simple menu and ordering was quick, food was also out fairly quickly.

I had a barbecue and Brunswick stew platter with coleslaw and mashed potatoes with gravy. My wife had a barbecue sandwich with coleslaw and baked beans.

Everything was delicious! We used the mild sauce and it was tangy with a bit of a kick. The brunswick stew also had some heat especially as i got to the bottome of the bowl. My mashed potatoes were perfectly done, just the right amount of creaminess. Beef gravy in perfect proportion. Coleslaw also nicely creamed, made a good balance against the barbecue and brunswick stew.

Waitress courteously gave us sweet tea refills to go, and we also got an order of banana pudding for the car.

My wife grew up in Arkansas and she said it reminded her of the kids of places she used to go with her Nanny.

OleTtime Barbecue is a little bit out of the way, but definitely worth the five minute venture away from I-40.

Will definitely return next time we’re in...

I love little, independent restaurants with great food, and as I was looking through my DoorDash app, I saw that Ole Time Barbecue had a sandwich that always ranked five star ratings. That put me in the mood for barbecue and I had to try it, and right then...and I'm so glad I did! I hightailed it over there deciding not to wait for delivery!

I hadn't sat down for even a minute when a big bowl of complementary, homemade hushpuppies were placed in front of me. Now, that's what I call service! And, they were GOOD!

I've never had a barbecue pork sandwich prepared the way this one was; it was chopped extremely fine, so fine that I thought it was ground pork; either way, it was soooooo yummy and tender. The potato salad, what looks like mashed potatoes in my photos, were good, too. Their barbecue baked beans were very yummy, just like everything else on my plate. It was all simply delicious, so delicious that I hope the patrons in this packed restaurant didn't hear me, "Yumming!"

My favorite dish, however, and it was some of the best I've ever had, was their homemade banana pudding! It was unbelievable, phenomenal, and full of yummy goodness! By the way, all of their desserts are homemade!

The servers were very friendly and their service was great, but the hostess/greeter/cashier....well, maybe she was just having a bad day; she was cold and rude and shouldn't work...

After seeing the positive reviews we had to try this place and had high hopes. Overall you are greeted by friendly staff and it is a nice little cozy spot for sure. However the food did not measure up to par to our surprise. Everything was very bland. We ordered some fried chicken with fries along with a hotdog. And unfortunately they weren't flavorful. I mean, even the fries were overcooked and dried. The hotdog is made of pork but was too pinkish and didn't taste good. The chicken is very bland, and just crisply (pretty much the only good thing about it). The coleslaw was too much on the sweet side. Overall we didn't find anything that tasted good to talk about.

One thing we also didn't like was the fact when we got the bill, it didn't have the total amount. You have to walk up to the cashier to ask for that. And when I did, she tells you the total and asks out loud how much tip do you want to leave. I felt like I was put on the spot and everyone can hear. Now, I love to leave tips behind, however it should be at the customer's discretion and not to the restaurant. Granted after not liking the food, we didn't like we still left a reasonable tip anyway. Good luck to...