Smithfield's Chicken 'N Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in Zebulon

At one time this was one of my favorite places to eat. It is pricey for fast food but they had great service AT ONE TIME.

This location went down hill so fast I am in dismay at how it could have ever happened and turned me away from Smithfields for life. It started when they hired an older lady to work the register in the front. She was rude, had zero courtesy and treated each guest as if she was doing them a favor by taking their order. I wrote corporate and never received a response back. I bit my tongue and after a few weeks tried it one more time. On my last visit the food was just awful. The hush puppies, as pictured, were greasy and uncooked. The extra buy one get one "to go" as I told her was delivered by the old lady with a bag under the stews and no spoons. I asked why they weren't bagged like they had been doing for years with two spoons in the bag, her reply was simple...."the bag is there Sir so I don't see a problem.....". I had to go up to the front to retrieve spoons so I could eat the stews later. Drink refills at one time were something the clerks were great about, they would walk around and ask you if you needed a refill but not anymore....if you want it you had better go up front. When I asked for a refill, the same lady in a loud tone said to remove my top if I wanted a refill as she didn't know who had a disease now a days. Again, something I had not experienced in my 37 years on this green earth. You may think this lady had a racist point of view as I am Hawaiian/German mixed but I witnessed similar behaviour with other whites, blacks, and latino guest. The only crowd she seemed polite with were white elderly above the age of 70 +/- (or around her own age). To sum this up, you typically get what you pay for in this world with this being one of those rare exceptions. At Smithfields you get what they want you to have and nothing more. Corporate and local management do not care or respond to inquiries of poor service and appear blind to being proactive in day to day operations. My mother did not raise a fool, if they don't want my business I have no problem taking it elsewhere as I will never step foot in this establishment...

Let me start by saying if you own a franchise of fast food, this place can give you many tips on what to do right .. The managers were out standing!! They never stopped helping their help or giving direction. One Manager had to leave the front and help in the kichen one Manger was bring out the food with big smiles on their faces which carried over to their employees with big smiles also .. The movement you are witnessed is called very good training .Each employee is given 2 weeks of training period they must know their job requirements before they move another job .. we had 8 people in front of us it took 10 min of a wait to make our order and seated .outstanding !! Now the food . The potatoe salad brought a tear to my wife as it was the way her grandmother made it .. The best part was the chicken!! It was the best fried chicken I had in years .. Yes, years! Hushpuppies and barbecue bake beans were off the hook good .. it was so pleasant to see so many people so happy to serve us .. Every time I'm in the area, I will be back for the chicken and see if it was just the weekend staff or everyone .. Smithfield keep up the work and prove it can be...

I have been to this location many times had no problems before until tonight. I went in to order dinner for me and my family takeout. I ordered sweet tea with my meals. I was given the sweet tea’s waiting for my order when a gentleman come up to me and told me that the tea had salt in it instead of sugar. He told me that I needed to get something else to drink, so I open the lid and took a sip and sure enough it was salt instead of sugar. I went to the register and told the employee behind the counter that the tea had salt instead of sugar. He says back to me “yeah I know” The employees was aware that the tea had salt instead of sugar and still served it to the customers. why would you give me tea that has salt in it instead of sugar if you are aware of it??? I was not the only customer that was given Salted tea. It is wrong to know that the tea has salt instead of sugar and still serve it. I then was given Sprite that tasted terribly. The employees are unprofessional/rude and very poor customer service they did not care about serving customers salted tea. I will be contacting the corporate office. I will not be...