Ford's BBQ — Restaurant in Tucker

What is with this place?

After literal months of no one answering the phone when I call, I tried again today. Called the first time and it rang and rang; no answer. Called again a few minutes later and YES someone finally answered! Hooray! (Or so I thought)

I have been working hard and decided to treat myself to some ribs. Ford's BBQ makes a big deal over touting their ribs and posting them on their social media accounts. Yum! I'm going to order a full rack and eat to my heart's content.

Guess again. They are OUT OF RIBS. The rib place. Out of ribs. At 3pm on a Friday afternoon... Dinner hasn't even started yet.

Was a frequent visitor until the mismanagement of this restaurant became apparent.

The staff is very friendly and the food is great (albeit overpriced) but the management clearly needs some work.

1 star. Just go up the street to City BBQ or even Old Hickory House. Skip Ford's.

Edit- It's been a month since I was contacted by Ford's BBQ management to apologize for everything and offer me a $25 Gift Card to return.

Well, I'm here to say that they were not good on that offer. No gift card was ever sent/received. I have contacted them multiple times since, with no response. It seems like I am just being ignored now.

What nerve to offer a clearly empty apology, a $25 gift card, then not make good on your word and ignore all of my attempts to contact since. I responded with my address as they requested to send the gift card and haven't heard from them since. Again, it's been weeks and weeks.

They have made it clear to me that they don't care about their customers.

There are so many good bbq places in Atlanta. Skip this one.

High prices and poor customer service make this a HARD PASS.

Update: Still no response from the restaurant in regards to the past discretions, however service and Management seems to have improved. +2 stars

Update: Apparently the restaurant has now chosen to respond, and it seems as though the restaurant has "no records" so here's the email I received from the staff back on 4/10/2021: "Hi Jacob-

We are so very sorry for your recent experience with Ford’s BBQ. We completely understand your frustration with the difficulty of placing an order with us. During busy times, usually Thursday – Saturday, we cut off our phone for carry-out/pick up orders, encouraging folks to place those carryout orders directly at the restaurant with a member of our serving staff. We do this to ensure that everyone is guaranteed that their order is complete, fresh, and delicious.

During the times the phone orders were cutoff, our staff thought that the phone was going to voicemail with a message explaining our reason for not taking phone orders and offering the option to come to Ford’s and place an in-person carry-out order. Unfortunately, the system that staff thought was in place was not active. Management was not aware there was a problem because staff was not aware there was a problem. Your email, along with a few others, was our first alert about this situation. We thank you for reaching out to us. We can’t correct a problem we don’t know about!

At this time, we are working to get our online ordering up and running. We are still working out the kinks in merging on-line website ordering and phone in carry-out orders. Growing pains! Upgrading our carry-out service is still in process and likely to take additional time but we are going to get the phone messaging snafu squared away immediately.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience you experienced while trying to visit Ford’s BBQ and again we thank you for bringing it to our attention. We love being a part of the Tucker community and are continually striving to be the best community partner we can.

We would like to offer you a $25.00 gift card with the hope that you’ll give Ford’s BBQ another chance. If you would like to provide us with your mailing address we will send you a physical gift card or you can provide a name and we will leave your name with our managers.

Thanks for your patience with us as we grow,

Ford’s BBQ...

My wife, three-year-old son and myself visited the Tucker location of Fords today for the first time and unfortunately, had a very underwhelming experience. First of all, my wife ordered a sweet tea and our server brought unsweetened tea two times in a row before we gave up on the sweet tea idea altogether. They had items that were sold out four hours before closing. I understand how barbecue works and that can happen but to have Chicken, Brisket (Texas cheesesteak made with brisket)and ribs all gone from your barbecue establishment means you might as well close up for the day. Not to mention 86 items should be mentioned while seating not after ordering appetizers. Finally, we both ordered chop brisket (which I was puzzled on how they had that, but couldn’t make their Texas cheesesteak sandwich) the chopped brisket sandwich came to the table and was 98% fat! I’ve never seen brisket look like this, it looked like a pile of fat mush. By far the worst looking brisket I’ve ever seen in my 35 years of enjoying barbecue all over the country. We had them swap out those for pulled pork sandwiches, which ended up being fine, but the damage was done and that location definitely left a bad taste in my mouth(pun intended). Unfortunately, I have been to the Oakhurst neighborhood location two times and I have to say it seems like consistency is an issue for the folks at Fords. My first time going everything tasted great. I went with two friends, and we got everything from alcoholic beverages to an array of appetizers, and all of us had different entrées that we enjoyed. Second time I went was after 5 PM and the same thing occurred there where they had items that were sold out, and my meal ended up being lackluster. In a state where there are barbecue pits every 5 miles it seems like there might be other choices that I will ultimately pick moving forward, but I am disappointed as they were one of the closer “innovative” barbecue establishments to my house. Hopefully, they figure it out as it seems like unless you’re going for lunch it might be a dinner...

After completing a full day of work and then my graduate studies, I felt the urge for some good BBQ.

As a thirty year Tucker resident, I did a quick search to see if there were any options in the area and saw this establishment on Mainstreet. Google listed its closing time as 9pm. A quick glance at my watch, I noticed it was 8:30pm. I swiftly gathered myself, left my online course early and arrived at the location around 8:35pm.

I entered the establishment and approached the bar to ask if I could place an order to go. The "gentleman" at the bar said they were "out of everything." Confused, I asked, "you don't have ANY food?" His retort was, "you can have a beer." I politely declined and exited the restaurant. Furthermore, while exiting, the bartender suggested that I come back tomorrow. I again politely declined.

As a business man and individual who has worked in the restaurant industry, this experience was unacceptable. That was my first time and last time walking through that door. To be fair, it was toward the end of the night, but not 5 minutes to close. I purposely attempted to place a to-go order, so as to not inconvenience any servers.

This establishment made ZERO effort to serve this customer. Maybe their hours should have an asterisk adjacent to it (*or when we run out of food). I doubt there was NOTHING he could have offered me (other than beer), he just wasn't willing to do it...now that's customer centric.

My true rating is zero, because that's the amount of effort that was made to a first time customer who walked in once this restaurant was informally closed for business.

Your food may be purported to be good, but your service, in my...