Wildwood Smokehouse — Restaurant in Virginia

As BBQ lovers from the Southern end of VA, in the Roanoke area for the day, the positive rating for this restaurant drew us for a late lunch. The first tip-off, which we should have heeded, was that is is a very large restaurant, but there was only one other table occupied. The 3 of us in our party all ordered the pulled pork sandwiches, with sides including potatoe salad, fries, hush puppies, macaroni and cheese, and the included coleslaw. Except for the hush puppies, which were obviously fried way too long (very dark), the food looked good. Judging by the buns, the barbeque sandwiches looked generously oversized. However, there was a good amount of empty bun all around, and the pulled pork was much dryer than we are accustomed to. The waitress said that the meat is cooked on site in smokers, but it did not have the characteristic smoky depth of flavor one would expect. The sandwich is served with sauce on the side only, and it is very sweet, with the flavor if honey dominating. The fries were what one expects of fries, these were the seasoned, coated type, crisp and tasty enough, but nothing extra special. They appeared to be like those preseasoned and frozen bagged type. The coleslaw and potato salad were equally tasteless and devoid of seasoning. Cold, wet, and nearly interchangeable. Both looked appealing, both disappointed. The hush puppies, while of a generous serving size, were overcooked to a very dark crust, and had a slight burnt taste. Finally, the macaroni and cheese looked and tasted exactly like the Stouffer's frozen that you can purchase in any supermarket, and often sold alongside fried chicken and potato wedges in gas stations and convenience stores. The noodles had the same overcooked, mushy consistency. Perhaps this review night seem overly negative, but if you read some of my other reviews, it will be obvious that I generally write positive reviews. Especially considering that we had had a long day, eaten nothing all day, and were very hungry and had a positive expectation based on reviews by others, our experience was especially disappointing. Even though we sat down hungry, we left that way, leaving half of our food on our plates, then stopped at a gas station for cold drinks and snacks to hold us over until we arrived home after a 3 1/2 hour drive home. I'd like to think that our bad experience was an aberration, but the empty dining room, obviously prepackaged Mac and cheese, unseasoned side dishes, and poor bun to meat ratio are simply too many negatives to account for an off day. One positive, the staff were...

I don't know if this place understands how to cook good BBQ. Giving it 1 star because the wings were actually solid. The blue cheese was terrible.

Ordered an appetizer and the two-meat combo as my entree. The entree came first. The waitress came over but gave a half-hearted apology for the misstep. not to mention i still hadn't received my drink, which she brought over after the mistake.

Food was terrible. DRIED brisket, who ON EARTH serves DRIED Brisket?!?! Very bland food as the meat had NO seasoning whatsoever. The pulled pork was also very bland.

The green beans were fine, the 'BBQ Beans' were not BBQ-anything. overly sugared and hard to eat.

The BBQ Sauce was THE WORST! It was a mustard based sauce with 'some' bbq in it. and it was really pasty, not like a normal bbq sauce that's sweet & tangy, or Spicy & bold.

I travel for work every bbq place i've been to the Mustard-based sauce is barely touched and I wasn't offered any other sauces. so i'm not even sure if they have one.

at the end, i was charged for everything, terrible service, terrible food, and not even a sincere apology. Then i was provided a sad excuse that they were handling a huge mobile order and so they were short-staffed. I wasn't buying it.

Do not bother going here. it's not worth it. shame too cuz the...

Always interested in an undiscovered (by me) BBQ spot. My buddy had the pork bbq sandwich and I got the dry rib plate. His came with one side, as did mine. They did not put the slaw on the bun.😮 It was his side dish, which meant the Brunswick stew was an add-on. Strange. I also chose the stew as my side.

Impression:. Sandwich was declared good, but Don called the "other" side Brunswick soup. My take was a delicious chunky minestrone like soup. Side bar:. Don is a Brunswick stew master and is on a quest to try as many as possible with the goal being the perfect stew. I have tried his and agree. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone delicious. The red bbq sauce was sweetish, but worked well with my dry ribs. Not generally being a fan of mustard based sauces, I still enjoyed it as a contrast to the red sauce. Yes, I will stop on my next loop through. For the best reason: the dining room staff was attentive and very welcoming. I think everyone of them came by our table more than once. Plus the local boys were out for lunch and, while loud, made the place feel like a family event. A particular one of "the boys," remarked that the food had a lot of love in it. And...