Brooks' House of Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in Town of Oneonta

I’m an avid BBQ lover and it saddens me to have to give this place a low rating.

I was so excited to try out Brooks’ House of Bar-b-q and what I left with is disappointment.

Upon arriving, we walked in and saw the counter to order at. The staff was waiting patiently as we determined what we wanted to eat.

We ordered a dozen chicken wings, half garlic parm, half spicy hickory bbq as an appetizer. As our mains, we ordered a combo plate of chicken and brisket with a side salad and onion rings, and a combo plate of chicken and ribs with Mac and cheese and vegetable which were carrots. As per the menu, all dinners come with a buttered roll and two sides. There’s a $0.60 up charge if you want to switch your roll to cornbread. I ordered two pieces of cornbread too, and got two drinks.

After we placed our order, the front staff didn’t give us any direction as to where to pick up our food or where to sit to eat our food. I had to physically ask these questions like “where do we go to pick up our food?” “Where can we sit to eat our food?” Turns out you just wait until your order is called right where you ordered food. And outdoor seating is available behind the place.

Receiving our order was relatively quick. We sat out back. We ate the chicken wings first. They were good. Meaty flavorful saucy wings. I really loved the garlic parm sauce. It was fresh garlic they used in their sauce and you could tell. This was honestly the best food item I ate from here. The spicy hickory bbq was okay. Nothing to rave about.

Then this is where disappointment settled in. Like I mentioned we ordered the combo plates. Both had chicken. It was very good. Smoked. And the skin was great. Big piece of chicken too. But one plate had the ribs. It was 3 ribs in total which is perfect for a combo plate. However these ribs WERE NOT fall off the bone meat. I needed a knife to cut through them and all they give out are plastic utensils. It was rough very rough trying to get through these. The ribs were juicy-ish. But also needed some type of sauce. The other combo plate had the brisket. Tasted okay, but also needed sauce. The “buttered” roll was definitely not buttered and they didn’t give us butter either. The cornbread was dry as a river. But had no butter to slab on there. The onion rings were greasy like they didn’t let the deep fryer basket drop a tad. Carrots were alright, needed butter and salt. The utensil packet came with salt and pepper luckily. The only thing that redeemed itself was the mac&cheese. That was moist and cheesy and hot and yummy. I would order just this again.

Overall I have to say it’s more like a 2.5 star but I can’t do half ratings on here. If you’re looking for a bbq place around town, please pass by this one and continue to...

We didn't order anything extra and it came to over $70 for two people for a weekday quick lunch buffet. One person had a full portion of ribs (which turned out to be about a half rack) and the other had wings as their meat ($30 - included the buffet, wings deep fried to order). You take your meat ticket to a station near the buffet where your meat is pulled from a pile of precooked meats, being held to temperature. It is understood that BBQ and smoked meat need hours to cook and that a cook to order style cannot be done for BBQ, but the ribs that came from this station were tough and dry. Parts of the meat (the outermost sides, top, edges, etc) were dry. We're not talking about 'this meat was a little overcooked' kinds of dry...we're talking a dry beef jerky. The wait staff were attentive but unable to communicate. The salad bar and hot bar had soup, lettuce, potato salad, chicken nuggets, Mac n cheese, coleslaw and other selections. The plates are tiny - I would say smaller than a household salad plate. We split the ribs and wings so we each ate our meal from those tiny plates. I don't remember if the plate that the wings were served on was larger, but the wings reached the edges of the plate and there was no room for putting your buffet food on it once you brought it to the table. The result? 1: eating like a beast from multiple plates all around the table, or 2: constantly bouncing up and down to get your cold selection, hot selection, etc one at a time or 3: eating your entire meal off of tiny plates. They still bring you bread (and french fries!) to the table but they also have it at the salad bar which unfortunately resulted in us having more bread than we could eat. We were unable to finish our meal, and they offered to box it up. They came back with our food (only the meat that you selected - you can't take anything else with you from your plate like the accidental abundance of bread which probably ended up in the trash 😔) and handed us our food wrapped in aluminum foil and a clear plastic bag, doubled knotted shut. The way it was carried gave 'I clean up after my dog' vibes. During a tour once, it was told that the bottling business of Brooks is now it's main income driver, and this shows. The corner cutting is seen everywhere in the restaurant. Local. Won't...

Don't waste your time or money! We have been stopping here for years whenever we travel through the area, but this time will most definitely be the last. There is no wait staff. You have to stand in line and order, then seat yourself, exactly like a fast food place. While you stand there waiting for your turn to order, you have plenty of time to read the extensive and insulting rules regarding what you're allowed to serve yourself from their limited buffet side dish options. Here's how it works: Order your main course from a blackboard menu. Pay for it and take the token (like a beer chip). Take the token to another counter where they plop your BBQ, ribs, chicken, or whatever you chose onto your plate. Or, if you've ordered take-out, they literally dump it into a PAPER BAG and give it to you with juices and sauces dripping down the soggy sides. Take what sides you want from the buffet. Pay attention to the rules, though, and don't take more than you can eat. The $25-30 dollar price tag doesn't allow you to take any leftovers home except for the main course. Don't forget to get your fountain drink. Try to enjoy your meal. You won't get their signature loaf of bread anymore either, which is probably for the best since you're not allowed to take anything home anyway. When you're ready to leave, you have to go track someone down (remember, there's no wait staff) and ask for a takeout container. BUT YOU WON'T GET ONE. They'll give you a small paper bag to dump your main course into. If you aren't satisfied with that option, they'll offer you a piece of foil to wrap it in and kindly assure you that the bags don't leak. Before you leave, make sure you flip the card over on the table to alert the bus boy or girl so they can clear it. Eat your leftovers at home later, with no potatoes or any other sides, because you just wasted about $60 on 2 fast food dinners that were disguised as gourmet meals. Reflect on your life choices. Write a review to help prevent others from making the same mistake that you did. Note that they have disabled reviews on all...