City Barbeque — Restaurant in Woodstock

It was the first and last time we go. When we arrived, it wasn't very busy, but it took the staff about 10 minutes to acknowledge us and take our order. Not off to a good start. We took our seat and waited 30 minutes for our food.... they never called our name and just threw out the food. I went to get a refund, because it's been a half hour and no food. I told the staff, they said they called the wrong name and apologized and started on our order. As we sat and waited, we noticed that the entire staff was all over the place. The drive through attendant was delivering food to tables, packaging togo orders, taking customer orders at the main register, and at one point went to the women's bathroom, went in came back out quickly and all this while never changing her gloves. The cook who touched all the meet, gave a different customer a refund and gave him cash in hand with his gloves on and then proceeded to go back to the meet and serve it without changing gloves. He also went to drop off an order outside the restaurant to a car and, with the same gloves, opened the doors in and out and went right back to touching food in the same gloves..... another staff member gave a customer a side of greenbeans in a cup and that customer said they didn't order greenbeans so the staff member took it back and dumped the greenbeans back into the hot tray with the rest. Last but not least, the cornbread trays with cornbread in it were just set out on the order pick-up counter with trash next to it, uncovered, and anyone could literally touch it or sneeze on it. I watched as the drive-through attendant "with the gloves they never changed" grab that cornbread and bag it for togo orders. It was very disappointing and against my better judgment we ate the food.... I felt disgusted and took a few bites and threw it out and left. I wish I had taken videos of what I saw, but i didn't expect to experience that kind of unsafe/unclean food handling. All I managed to take a picture of was cornbread sitting out on the order pick-up counter with trash next to it. I don't normally leave bad reviews, but this was just wrong on so many levels, and I hope no one gets sick. And yes, the cornbread looked like...

Love the drive-through option at this location. It makes me feel like the food will come out fast and it did. Customer Service is nice and the building is pristine as I expected for the Woodstock area. I’ve eaten at City BBQ chain several times in Sandy Springs. It’s funny that most locations have the same rating (4.3 or 4.4). I believe it’s because this place is incredibly consistent. You know when you come here that you can find something good to eat. Not everything is on the wow level, but it’s good and that’s a good thing.

Not many meal deals and the menu isn’t very elaborate but some variety. The ribs and everything fried is pretty good. Prices are fair in “today’s market pricing” although at mom and pop shops you may get a bit more quantity, but maybe not as much consistency and speed.

The little brisket platter at $11.49 looks small but it was enough for me. When you add two sides & a drink + a tip if you’d like, you’re $20-$25 for a lunch barbecue brisket meal. You could get the sandwich with a side for less if you want the breading and less meat. It had a little smoked taste, which I liked, I prefer long cuts on the brisket instead of these squares, some cut thick and some cut thin. Looked dry-was a bit dry on first bite but easy to chew, when I dipped it in the barbecue sauce, it was fine. I was looking for that pink smoke rim on the meat.

I am particular about mac & cheese, coleslaw, potato salad, so to save my stomach any issues I typically pick the safer options which are green beans, baked beans, fried okra, hush puppies, french fries, onion rings. The green beans were delicious with a good amount of meat inside. Not sure if it was turkey or pork. The okra taste was delicious but because of the oil, I definitely needed that soda to wash it down. I was quite sleepy after this meal.

Overall, because of the consistency and cleanliness, I’d recommend and come back here. I could order the ribs and brisket again, wish they had more sides like collard greens, baked potato, steamed okra, peas, southern style potato salad, corn on the cobb or kernels, corn bread. It does say city BBQ, not...

I am docking a couple of stars from this location as I’m new to the area and have been a patron of the John’s creek location for the past few years. They really set the standard for how this food should be prepared - and this is the second time I’ve ordered fried okra from this location and it was disappointing both times. A good fried food should have salt and pepper in the flour otherwise it just tastes like flour. The first time they were undercooked and it was floury mush and went straight in the trash - this time they were at least cooked more but still tasted like straight flour. Additionally, I ordered banana pudding which was not included in my order. It’s a huge pain to get refunded through corporate when employees forget items - I sat on hold for 10 minutes and they asked me 100 questions, was not happy about that. I understand mistakes happen so that was not the issue as much as the hassle it was to get refunded. I managed restaurants for years and still manage a large staff and it starts at the top. You should have a dedicated expo to double check every order for consistency, and correctness before it’s handed over to the customer. If the okra looks like mush it should be going in the trash and the kitchen should be making another order. Food should pass through multiple checkpoints before a customer receives their order: The cook/kitchen The expo The server/cashier The girl in the drive thru was super sweet so I appreciate that. I’ll come back because I liked the bbq and the beans so you have that going for you but I’ll definitely be double checking every order before driving off and I guess I won’t get the fried okra which makes me sad bc it’s my favorite when cooked right. Advice to management, spend a little extra time on consistency and ongoing training. It makes a big difference. My calendar has scheduled staff trainings through the end of the year to...