Grumpy's Bar-B-Que Roadhouse — Restaurant in South Whitehall Township

Brimstone here with a tidbit that any Food Hound in their right mind will make sure to take note of. Voted the BEST BBQ in the entire Lehigh Valley - I had to find out what all the hub-bub was about; we had to bring along a friend to test his tastebuds in the ways of meat, meat and of course more meat! This great spot nestled in Allentown is a true off the beaten path Roadhouse - no question about it! You can literally smell the aroma of the well-seasoned bbq from about a mile away as you approach this haven of meat-a-tarian nourishment. The walls are adorned with a variety of license plates, beer logo mirrors and a plethora of piggy based paraphernalia! A few things that you should know about Grumpy's is that they are NOT a fast food bbq, they don't sing Happy Birthday, they don't skimp on portions and they certainly do NOT shy away from spices! What you should also know is that their food is out of this world!

Before indulging on the feast that was to come; we sampled a few of the specialty drinks the Grumpster has to offer including the Flying Fish 60 Minute IPA Microbrew. The Locomoko-Tini was sweet and refreshing; kind of like drinking Kool-Aid. In keeping with the theme of the restaurant, the Pink Piggy was trouble in a glass! Prior to ordering - we had the opportunity to view the wood burning Hickory Pit itself in all of its glory... a sight to see and our mouths watered at the sheer knowledge that we would be dining on the house seasoned meats that lay before us. Once back upstairs, we started with a grouping of their appetizers including their Pit Bar-B-Que Wings - large and meaty wings marinated with a boss of a Honey Hot Sauce that offered a tasty blend of spicy meets sweet. These suckers are roasted NOT fried, rubbed with Grumpy's Dust Seasoning and then slow cooked to provide a soft, tender and delicious wing! We tried the Gumbo which was a chunky load of sweet and spicy love - generous portions of Andouille Sausage, Shrimp and Crab made this little kettle a perfect rendition of a Bayou staple!

Next up were the Gator Bites - breaded and fried Alligator meat that has a taste similar to chicken; but a touch tougher served with their own Bistro Dipping Sauce that was BOSS! You would never think that such a creature could taste so good; grab it when you can as this is a rarity on the East Coast. We had the Buffalo Shrimp which were huge, saucy and succulent breaded fantail shrimp as well as the Onion Petals - nice size spicy coated onion petals, crispy and crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. Another Cajun dish that we tried on for size was Grumpy's Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya - this stuff is no joke... Award Winning jambalaya made in a real iron kettle with andouille sausage, chicken, chicken stock, onions, peppers, celery, tomato, secret spices and rice. I could not think of a better way to kick off the entrées than with this helping of Louisiana love!

We started off with the Blackened Prime Rib Sandwich which was an amazing 8oz slab of rosemary rubbed Prime Rib that was pit cooked, then coated with Cajun seasoning and blackened. Grilled Smoked Pork Chops were huge... at least an inch thick and grilled to perfection. The Full Rack of Slow Hickory Cooked Spare Ribs was awe-inspiring. The size of this beautiful rack of ribs almost made me cry... they lived up to their word and did NOT skimp on these fall off the bone, massively meaty dinosaur limbs. We all shared a double platter of Pulled Pork and Bar-B-Que Beef Brisket in which were to die for! Both mounds of meat were SO soft they took turns melting in our mouths - quite possibly the best brisket that I've ever tasted. The hickory smoke really does a fantastic job in adding additional flavor to the meat itself... very happy to dine on this high-quality BBQ. Lastly, we had the Wood-Pit Bar-B-Que Chicken - slow cooked, moist and very pleasantly plump!

A word of advice to the bold... make sure when you come to this joint - come hungry and...

My server Kayla, was awesome. If i could i would rate her 20 stars, she IS that awesome.

All right so I was not prepared since this is my first visit when I made my order for the half chicken and half rack of ribs with the brisket pieces Jesus h Christmas the size of this platter for 30 some bucks was just nuts it was huge and I'm not even going to lie to you I barely ate two of the ribs cuz they were monstrosities, and I ate some of the chicken which I'll discuss down below I ate all the beef brisket that was delicious fired corn very good and the garlic mashed potatoes they were okay couldn't use more garlic.

The food, The ribs were very good I wouldn't say they were perfect but they were definitely seasoned tonight prepared well for the most part I only had one where the out of a half rack where the meat didn't come off the bone very easily... The brisket, amazing. Finally a barbecue place that serves beef brisket sliced not pulled making it dried out.

Okay the bad I ordered the half chicken half rack of ribs... The chicken was just terrible. It was so dry there wasn't enough barbecue sauce that I could pour on it it just it tasted like wood chips and when the server came by and asked me how was everything I very made it clear that everything is great except the chicken and I literally said it sucks. At this point I'd already eaten a good portion of this massive platter so I asked her for it to go box and she goes longing to replace your chickens and I said no no no no don't don't worry about it it's that she goes nope nope I don't want you leaving thinking that the chicken here is bad I said okay well it's going home with me and most likely my kids will end up eating it and I guarantee they'll give you the thumbs up approval no matter what cuz it's free. She laughed.

I cut open the replacement chickens and they looked just as dry I don't know if they're leaving them on the smoker or what they're doing it's just killing it cuz the ribs were juicy The brisket was nice and moist but the chicken man just drier than my ex-wife's cooch when she hit menopause.

Like I said avoid the chicken get the ribs get the brisket I can't speak for the pulled pork or the pulled chicken barbecue because I didn't order that but I can endorse the ribs and I can endorse the brisket.

Every meal comes with two sides you get to choose from a list of sides which are on the back of the menu I chose the garlic mashed potatoes and the fried corn as I said the garlic mashed potatoes didn't really have much garlic flavor to them and the fried corn was actually really good. You also get a piece of cornbread I'll be honest with you it was like a little triangle looks like a wedge you would stick in a door to prop it open that was kind of disappointing but the cornbread was very good I would say drop the chicken from your menu and offer a bigger piece of cornbread and you definitely got me sold.

Now apparently they have a rewards program that Kayla asked me if I wanted to sign up for it via my email and I said no I'm not going to do that and it's not because the chicken didn't appeal to me it's simply because I don't come to a place like this very often this is like a treat for me I don't eat it places like this all the time because when I enjoy the food like I do the ribs I will come here everyday and eat myself into a quadruple bypass.

But again Kayla was great The atmosphere was pretty cool felt like a roadhouse you know I liked it it wasn't like super packed it wasn't super noisy it is mother's Day so that could be a lot of you know and it was 6:30 at night when I went in so kind of kind of the tail into the night on a Sunday but drinks were cold the food except the chicken was really good and my server was awesome I hope she has a great mother's Day and I hope the owners of the establishment read this review and give her a big fat raise.

Cuz I gave her a 35% tip and she was worth every nickel...

Grumpy’s was dumpy. One star feels more accurate, but I’m hoping our experience was an outlier. The restaurant’s high Google rating as well as many of its reviews suggest that the awful service and disappointing food we got were an anomaly. If you check my other reviews, they are almost always positive, but this restaurant earned itself a terrible review and a poor rating.

Service: I believe her name was Nicole, and I do not think it’s possible to have had much worse service. It took her 5 minutes to get us a menu because she prioritized everything, including chatting with her friend, over us. When asked questions about the food, she seemed to not have answers; I think she knew the answers but didn’t care enough to help. We ordered extra cornbread, and we even double-checked to confirm there would be extra cornbread. No extra cornbread came. I tried to attribute this to the kitchen, but when I saw our check, nowhere on it did it mention we had ordered cornbread. Either train her extensively or hire someone else, fast.

Food: We ordered three different entrees, each with different sides. The brisket was pretty good, and the Reuben was alright, but the smoked chicken was too dry and pretty bland in taste, especially since it was smoked. The sides were trash-worthy. The sweet potato fries were the worst I have ever had, from any restaurant, ever. The regular fries were a mix of a bit crunchy and a bit soggy, but we had taken them to go, so maybe that’s why they were pitiful. The brussel sprouts looked great, with some slightly burned pieces, but they tasted like steamed Brussels sprouts. Lastly, two of us felt ill later than evening, and while this may be a coincidence, it ironically summed up...