Smok'y Blues Barbeque — Restaurant in South Carolina

The restaurant is in a small shopping strip kind of off the main road, but it wasn't hard to find. As I pulled up, the staff were relaxing outside chatting with a customer. Inside, the restaurant was empty except for one table. A gentleman came inside and cheerfully explained the menu to me and took my order. He was pleasant through the whole meal despite me being the last customer of the day, but I did make a point to be on my way by their closing time.

I found the pulled pork to be quite good. It did indeed seem to be cooked over wood, although the smoke flavor was just hinted at rather than made obvious. It was moist and flavorful, with the meat, the smoke and the seasoning combining equally rather than any one overpowering the other.

The beef hash, which is more of a stew and served over rice, was good and filling. It's not technically barbecue as I view it, but it's been traditional in the area for a long time and I can see why. Like the pulled pork, it was seasoned simply which let the flavors of the meat come through.

I was impressed by the sides. They seemed to be home made. The beans were better than most, kind of sweet but balanced out well. The potato salad was made with unpeeled white potatoes, which is a little different, but the heavy dressing made it work really well for me.

They offered the typical mild, hot and mustard sauces. I rate them as average, giving the mustard a slight edge as the best for the pork, but then I usually lean towards mustard sauce anyway. In addition, they had two specialty sauces; blackberry and moonshine. I've honestly never seen either of these before, but I was curious to try them.

I thought the blackberry would be overly sweet like syrup, but it was actually quite good. It had just a hint of berry taste and wasn't any sweeter than a normal sweet sauce. I was not a fan of the moonshine sauce. It was sweeter than I expected and just didn't seem to add anything to the meat.

Friendly service and a giant plate of good food made this a memorable stop for me, one I would come back to again if the opportunity arises. It's worth the short detour off...

I travel all across the south and make it a point to try as many BBQ joints as possible. Normally I use ribs as the test but today I saw brisket on the menu and the wonderful woman working the register convinced me that it was done well, so I took a chance. Thank goodness that I did!

A native Texan, I'm very particular about my brisket and after speaking to the cook about his time spent in the lone star state I could tell he had picked up a few tricks. The smoke ring was a deep red and the smoke flavor wasn't burnt or overpowering. In a word, great.

The pulled pork was up to par and I wasn't over the moon for it UNTIL I dabbed a little of the homemade Moonshine BBQ sauce. WOWZA! It was a next level type sauce. Sweet with a finishing note of smoked apples.

In the end, I took a plate of ribs for my coworker and a bottle of the housemade sauce for this weekend.

Smok'y Blues is the reason I BBQ crawl. Hometown, strait-forward, clean BBQ and friendly faces. Try it out. 5 stars....

Truly amazing little BBQ gem.

Ribs: Some of the best ribs I've ever had. Moist but dry and lean at the same time. Nice coating of dry rub and crisp on the outside. Smokey and a huge portion (5 large rib bones) for 12$ with 2 sides. I had to bring some home as leftovers. This was our favorite dish.

Sides: We tried Collard/black eye peas, Carolina slaw, and green beans. The collards and carolina slaw were the favorites. Collards and green beans well seasoned and goes great with their homemade pepper sauce. Slaw was crisp and tangy.

We also tried pulled pork which was real lean and tasty as well. Brunswick Stew with homemade cornbread was delicious. A little sweet, tangy, and hearty.

They had a plethora of homemade sauces to go with the BBQ and homemade deserts to finish it all off.

The owners were warm and welcoming and it truly felt like some good home cooking.

Highly recommend...