Surf City Barbeque and Catering — Restaurant in Surf City

Smokin Tonys or Surf City BBQ. That was the tough choice before us while vacationing here in TopSail NC as we looked to enjoy some BBQ food. In the end, Surf City became our choice solely based on the fact that they served complimentary hush puppies and my girlfriend had never had them before.

In all, we had an excellent dinner at this restaurant with one minor quibble. More on that in a bit.

Upon arrival, we were warmly greeted by the hostess who also became our server. She was a real sweetheart of a woman and we enjoyed her southern hospitality (we are northerners, BTW).

We immediately received a complimentary order of hush puppies and a plate with the most containers of butter I have ever seen at a single sitting. My girlfriend and I loved the hush puppies so much that we placed an order for another 6 (which were only $1). That batch was even fresher, coming directly out of the fryer, and we loved seeing the butter just melt across each piece we broke apart and noshed on. The hush puppies here are worth the trip alone.

We wanted to both try the fried chicken as it was made fresh to order (you need to wait 20 minutes which is fine). So, my girlfriend and I both ordered the fried chicken and pork combo.

Now here is the minor quibble we had...

Maybe we didn't specify what we wanted and it was our fault, but the pork that is included in that combo is pulled. We had hoped to enjoy fried chicken and pork ribs. It doesn't look like such a combo exists and the menu description doesn't tell you what kind of pork you are getting. It didn't ruin our meal as the pulled pork was very good (especially with the side of BBQ sauce), but it did take us by surprise.

The sides of green beans, potato salad, fries and cole slaw we got with our meal was all excellent. You can tell that everything is made fresh here and it has that home cooked flavor.

We had a lot of food to enjoy and were completely surprised by how cheap our meal was. Two dinners cost under $30 which is pretty incredible to what we are used to paying up north. The atmosphere of the restaurant is very nice and again, we really enjoyed how sweet our server was to us.

Next time we come down this way we are absolutely going to return and we'll inquire whether we can actually get pork ribs and chicken in...

We were so excited to find this local bbq spot. Upon entering, it had a charming, rustic vibe. We were seated quickly and the person in charge of bringing our drinks was efficient. From there, the service went downhill. Our main server, Sarah, came to take our order about 10 minutes later, but then we waited over 30 minutes before the food arrived, even though tables seated after us got their food. When we asked the server why it was taking so long, she did go check with the kitchen and came back to say it’s because we ordered the pork tips, which takes longer. I remembered that the menu had noted that the fried chicken took longer (allow 20 minutes) but it didn’t mention anything about the pork tips, which apparently takes even longer. Oh well…if that were the only issue, we would have just chalked it up to a busy kitchen. It wasn’t the server’s fault. But then when the order finally arrived, we asked where our order of cornbread was, and she said that their cornbread was the “flatbread”, a piece of which came with a meal. We were surprised at this, since when we ordered, we said we wanted an “order of cornbread”, and she wrote it down and never mentioned that it wasn’t actually a separate item on the menu, or that it wasn’t the traditional cornbread. Why hadn’t she mentioned this when we ordered it? Again, oh well. She dropped off the check and after this, she never came back to check on us. Ever. I wondered if they had any other bbq sauce other than the vinegar based one provided on the table, but I never found out. It would also have been nice to get to go boxes for what we couldn’t finish. Then, as we were leaving, we heard another server at another table talk about their specials that night, which we were not offered when our server came to take our order. The food itself was fine, although my pulled pork was a bit dry. The bbq sauce I doused on it was sharp, acidic and runny, so I also added ketchup, which was available on the table. Not ideal, but I didn’t want to bother the server as she clearly didn’t want to stop at our table. As we went to the check out counter to pay the bill, I noticed that they sold a honey bbq sauce. I would have loved to have had that available...

It was a warm and humid summer day as I ventured to Surf City with 23 of my closest friends. At 4pm my I gave Surf City BBQ a ring and asked "what up 24 in a hour cool?" and you know it was.

So there we were riding in the bus headed to this joint and let me tell you we WAS HUNGRY. Some of the ladies were HANGRY. So when we showed up and sat down and were immediatly given FREE HUSHPUPPIES we were happier than a puppy with two... Well anyways we ordered a second round of them puppies (not free but $2).

Being the bossman of the group I ordered a special appetizer for my table. BBQ Eggrolls. LET ME TELL YOU SON. You don't need no chinese to perfect the eggroll these folks have done it. Excellent.

For the meal many of us got BBQ mainly because its in the same. Good out east BBQ. The sides were good to. I am a mac n cheese connoisseur and let me tell you that mac was good. The brunswick stew was good too. I tried a bite of the lady beside me's chicken tenders they was good too!

I got one negative we done filled up and we didnt have room to try the nanabuddin. Maybe next time!

Highly recommend. This place can stretch your dollar too!

Also love a good establishment that knows the Lord and his goodness. Without Jesus we wouldnt be chowing down on good bbq today. So they...