Cue Burger (barbecue and burgers) visited our apartment complex in Chapel Hill. As soon as info about this food truck was emailed to our community and after checking out their Instagram page, I knew my wife and I had to cancel our dinner plans and check these guys out. The pictures of their food looked great. Fortunately, I made the right choice because the food was delicious. If you see Cue Burger parked and selling near you, consider yourself lucky because their "Cueburger" is one of a kind.
The Cueburger is a cheeseburger topped with barbecue pulled pork, Eastern North Carolina style. That means it's vinegar-based. The Cueburger we ordered cost $10 and came with a beef patty topped with slaw, pulled pork, crispy onion, barbecue sauce, cheese, and mayo. It was cooked fresh, wrapped tight, and served hot off the skillet. Because the pulled pork was so tender and juicy, the burger was messy to eat, but it was worth it. The freshness and flavors were incredible. My wife and I were impressed with how moist and flavorful the pork was. The beef patty tasted like it was cooked to medium well or well done. The burger was piled high, heavy, and filling. So far, it's the best burger we've had in the Triangle. It's that good.
We also had one of Cue Burger's Meat and Three Sides Plates ($16 each). They offered Texas-smoked brisket, burnt ends, the aforementioned pulled pork, and a cheeseburger "all the way" (lettuce, onion, bacon, mayo, pickle). We got the beef brisket and it was really good. Super smoky in flavor, a decent amount of fat, and succulent. My only gripe with the brisket was some pieces were too salty. For our sides, I chose hush puppies, spicy collards, and stewed okra in tomato. We also got an a la carte side of mac & cheese ($5) because all of the sides on the menu looked good and we couldn't get just three.
All of the sides we ordered were yummy. The hush puppies were so temperature hot (I'm pretty sure they were deep-fried to order) that they burned holes into the foam box they were served in. Obviously, that's not ideal so Cue Burger needs to figure out a safer and more secure way to serve really hot items like that. The hush puppies were crispy and tasty. They didn't have as much corn flavor as some of my favorite hush puppies (Lexington Barbecue is a great example), but I still recommend them. The collard greens weren't as wet and soupy as I'm used to, but the broth wasn't needed -- the greens were delectable and packed with flavor, though only mildly spicy (I love spicy food so my spicy taste buds are skewed). My wife and I liked the okra in stewed tomato for a couple reasons: One, the okra was served whole. Two, the okra was soft and tender. Finally, the mac & cheese was just downright comforting. Creamy, cheesy, rich, and stringy. It was a classic-style mac & cheese.
During our visit, the food truck's other offerings included burgers and sandwiches made with barbecue ($10-13 each) and a half pound of barbecue wings for $5. Other sides included slaw, hand-cut steak fries, and candied yams. Most a la carte sides cost $4 each, but again, three are included in every meat-and-three.
Service was excellent. There was one cook and one server. The server let us sample some of the truck's pulled pork before we ordered (the same pork that ended up on our burger). It was perfect. Magical. Our order was cooked up in a reasonable amount of time (about 10 minutes).
The business uses Square for payment processing. My itemized receipt was automatically emailed to me.
See where Cue Burger will be next by following them on social media:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cueburger/
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cueburgerfoodtruck/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/cueburger/ read more