Dickey's Barbecue Pit — Restaurant in Tacoma

While i have always been a fan of Dickeys, I had never been to this location prior to today. I was tasked with getting lunch for a meeting and wanted to do something different. I went on EZ Cater (did not use for the order-great search tool, but you save yourself and the establishment money by ordering directly from them if possible) to search, Dickeys came up. I went to the website, and placed my order Monday night for an 1115 pick up on Wed. I ordered the potato bar and added a beans, slaw and cornbread. Crossed my fingers and showed up on Wed. in a rare bit of luck, i encountered no obstacles getting there and was actually 10 mins early. in all honesty, I did not expect the food to be ready at 1115, even though requested, just because that is generally my experience with any place when the timing is so close to open. Anywho....for the record, i was loaded and pulled out at 11:14!! I walked in, and was greeted warmly. I told them who i was, and acknowledged that i was early, and sat and loaded a game on my phone. They were very friendly, we chatted, but based on the pick up/catering order board, i did not want to bother them. 6 mins later, they walked up and my order was boxed, and they CARRIED IT TO MY CAR!!! for me. They were so kind, and sweet, and let me tell you, i genuinely need to gush about this part for a second. I do this a lot. Pick up big orders, not necessarily catering orders, but large orders, and yes, 'catering' level orders as well, and I have NEVER had an order boxed so perfectly. They put the boxes in the back of my vehicle, and I had zero worries about spillage, seepage, falls or any other potential disasters. This was master level Tetris action. Set up was easy, and here I am going to gush again. The price and quantity of food was amazing!!! everything was delicious. i ordered a few extra 'people' to make sure i had enough, again, experience with these kinds of things, lots of men, with big appetites, there is never quite enough. the potatoes were huge! i stopped at the store earlier to grab extra sour cream and cheese, since, again, previous experience with other businesses, they never give you enough. Well it wasn't needed. I not only fed everyone in the meeting, the entire office staff had lunch, and we will still have leftovers tomorrow. initially i was a little bummed at the size of the bbq sauce container provided, but know what, they had that spot on, i still have 1/2 a container left! and those folks poured sauce. So, I know this a bit long, but one thing i notice in reviews, is they are either 'food was good' or they rage about some slight. Well, I am going to rage about what an amazing experience i had, but i also want you to know why i think it was exceptional. The staff were so helpful, they made amazing food, and they made it on time. While I don't know when the next time i will stop in, but I guarantee we will be ordering catering boxes from them in the future, they made me look like a hero (thank you very much) and everything was perfection. I genuinely hope the owner/manager reads their reviews, because the 3 employees working (in front) this morning deserve praise, and acknowledgement. They represented you well today, and you have earned a customer that will absolutely be back, and you will be on my top go to list...

Sad, depressing, not worth the time.

Ok, I can deal with the non smoke meat, I can deal with the Suggs fries, I can deal with no ice cream.

But what I can't deal with is, the small portions. I had the three meat plater. Two pork ribs, small hand full of pulled pork, and one slice of brisket. Then you get two sides. This is a lot for small people. But when your 6'3 and can eat, this is sample at costco.

What made me mad. Is the precooked meats. I don't want to see meat come out of a warmer. I don't want to think how long it's been sitting there. Now my biggest complaint, the cute young gal, who didn't know what she was doing. It's called pull pork, not chopped up dog food. She chopped it up like onions for a hot dog. It didn't even look like pork. Then I asked for brisket. She void the best part. The burnt outside. And gave me just the middle. Then to top it off the small pork ribs, only 2.

I wanted meat, not caring for the sides at all. So to see thsee small portions, I was kinda sad. But willing to buy another plate if worth it. But it wasn't not. The ribs had little meat on one side. The pull pork was dry, even with alot of sauce. And a slice of brisket with no burnt outside and dry tasting. Was not worth it. They don't have butter for the bread either.

Not worth my time or money to come back. The only good thing is the...

Portions are small for the price point! Staff are friendly, but always stressed due to not enough staff scheduled to work. Spicy sausage is delicious, but consistently sold out. I have been going for several years. High turnover and owner appears to be absent. We love the meats, but the dinner rolls are either rock hard or uncooked. Went last night for a meal and even though the restaurant wasn't closed the open sign had been turned off. We ordered in and didn't receive a plastic lid on our sides. By the time I got back to the table with our BBQ sauce, the mac n cheese was stone cold! Then the employee came over to deliver our fried Okra. When we get the food to-go they put it in a paper baggie, but he just walked over to the table and poured it all over my child's turkey plate- right from the metal cookware!!! I watched this happen to the table next to us. Hmmm, no lids, no paper takeout bags and now there are NO napkins! Just a dirty roll of paper towels on each table. I get that it is BBQ, but paper towels on tables is seriously ghetto AF. Cutting too many corners to try and save a dime. Your loyal customers will soon begin to leave due to lack of...