Carolina Kitchen & BBQ Co. — Restaurant in Sparks

Since i cant reply to the owners comment, ill reply here.

Yes i did offer to pay and yes i did give a time when id be showing up. Thats disgusting that you would lie in a reply in a review and try to say your lines are recorded? If so please present the recording. And if it was recorded, you recorded illegally as i was not notified. But that is neither here nor there.

The food itself is really good but it is extremely small portions for the amount money that you pay. My biggest issue is I called ahead and placed an order to be ready by 11:35. I showed up at 11:40 and my order still wasn't ready after a few moments of waiting at the counter I tried to ask the employee standing at the counter how much longer till my order and she completely ignored me and then chose to help another customer instead. My order was still not ready for an additional 5 minutes it was ready at 11:45 when it was supposed to be ready 10 minutes prior. As far as I can tell from what I saw behind the counter they didn't even start my order until after I arrived. What's the point of ordering ahead if the food's not going to be ready when you get there? I even offered to pay ahead of time so that she knew the food was going to be paid for. If they had been busier it probably would have taken even longer to get my food out and that is not okay because I have to get the food to a person by a specific time due to their work lunch break. The same employee who was at the counter sounded like the same employee I spoke to you on the phone and she seemed to not really want to actually do her job. I felt like she was extremely short with me on the phone. I'm bubbly I'm so sure that's just who I am and she seems like she didn't want to have anything to do with it. She's having a bad day she needs to keep her attitude at home instead of letting him boil over into her job and possibly...

Full disclosure: I am a native of Western NC.

This is an interesting take on Eastern NC BBQ. I had the pulled pork (technically, the staple of Eastern NC BBQ is chopped pork), two pork ribs, fries, chili, cornbread, and sweet tea. Since it was Friday they offered fried cod so I had a piece as well. And peach cobbler. Of course, I had to take some of it home.

The pulled pork has a good flavor, vinegar based, and served sopping wet in its own little tray. That was unusual to me as traditional Eastern NC BBQ is served dry, with sauces on the table. So an oddity there but no big deal. The ribs and peach cobbler were decent. The fish is fine although thin and with a heavy British style batter.

The chili seems like some type of beef and tomato stew completely covered in cheese and is outside the bounds of what I think of when I think of chili. To my surprise, there is no ground beef whatsoever. Not bad, just unexpected. And more similar to a stew in consistency than a typical chili from say Texas, the South, or Cincinnati where ground beef is the main ingredient.

This is the first BBQ restaurant I've been in with no BBQ sauces on the table. To start, you have to order your meal from a video screen at the counter and one of the screens requires you to pick one from four BBQ sauces available: hot, mild, mustard based, and "moonshine"??? So I just went with the traditional South Carolina mustard-based sauce. I still have no idea what the mysterious "moonshine" sauce is all about. Or how hot the hot is. Or how flavorful the mild is. You get to pick one. Guessing in the wind unless you've been before and know already.

The verdict: decent, several oddities, no hush puppies that I know of, odd hours (they close at 7:00 pm on Friday, 5:00 pm on Saturday and 4:00 pm Tue-Thu). Skip the fish and chili. Try the ribs. Consider...

I LOVE bbq and my boyfriend and I wanted to try a new spot. We ordered this through Doordash for lunch and portions were good but food was eh. I got the pulled pork combo plate and boyfriend got brisket fries. My plate came with pulled pork and 2 sides and corn bread, I got mac and cheese and fries as sides. I ate the corn bread and it was ok, I think boxed kind taste better. The fries were also ok, they were krinkle cut and they gave a good amount. Mac and cheese was really creamy but no real flavor, it didn't have much taste to it. I love pulled pork and get it at almost every bbq spot I go to. This one made me loose my appetite after a few bites. It had a weird smell. I grew up around many dairy farms and for some reason the smell of this pulled pork made me feel like I was at the farm with the smell of the cows. I tried to keep eating thinking it was me but I let my boyfriend smell and he said the same thing. Best thing on this plate was the pickes!! Boyfriend's plate he said was OK, it was the same krinkle cut fries, loaded with cheese, sour cream on the side and the meat. Most places I've had the meat chopped up and spread over the fries, not sure how most people get their brisket but they gave full slices of brisket just laid on top of the fries and drizzled with the cheese. Other places have given it chopped or brisket tips. Definitely would not be going back to...