Stopped here after a long day of softball and absolutely loved it. We took the food to go. The…read moresides are outstanding. Green beans are super fresh, not the canned kind that's soaked in grease. The Brussels sprouts and mac and cheese are also super delicious. Daughter had the chicken and I ordered the shredded pork. The bbq sauce is great. The service is friendly, and the food came out fast. We'll definitely come back. Highly recommend!

Small place in the country but well worth the trip! The service was excellent and the food was out…read morepretty quick. Drinks topped off a couple of times. We had the burnt ends, ribs and pulled pork and all were excellent! The hush puppies were way too good! I could have eaten more but they came home with us. Tots were pretty amazing too! Our 11 yr old granddaughter ate the half rack of ribs and only gave us a tiny taste. She said they were the best she ever had.

Nice and hot food Collards are a little too salty. Right…read moreflavor. Beautifully cut and prepared. Good portion. Mac and cheese amazing flavor. The combination of flavors is just right. Right texture and good portion. Ribs are beautifully cooked to perfection. Season very well. Good smoke ring on meat. I paired it with the bbq sauce which was sweet and tangy. Very good ribs. The portion was perfect. Next time I will go with one meat Va two meats since the portions are generous. Hush puppies were pretty good. I like the fact they made a center indentation to make sure they are throughly cooked. The flavor was just right not overly cooked or salty. More of a sweet batter taste. The customer service was pretty good. Really fast service and they move that line pretty quickly. Over all it's a good choice for Carolina BBQ. I will definitely come again and try something new next time around.

I'm so excited I finally got out to try SAS! I had no idea it was a restaurant AND a market - I…read moreknow, I must have been living under a rock, but how cool! I'll preface my review by saying I really tried to not compare this to other extremely prominent smokehouses in other states like Texas, for example (Terry Black's), but admittedly I did a little of that. So with that being said, on its own without comparison I give it a 5/5, when compared with TB's, 4/5. Let's dive in! The spot itself is super cool, I love the stacked wood at the counter. I also love how open it is, plenty of seating (including bar, especially nice if you're solo like I was), plus the self-serve nature of everything. There's a sauce (their homemade sauce is tasty!) and hand wash station, and boxes are readily available to grab. The market itself is worth the visit! Wonderful inventory and great prices, too! Ordering was easy (I'd pre-stalked the menu) and there are tons of options. I went with the 2 meats/2 sides option and got brisket, sausage, mac & cheese with bacon, and yams ($26 after tip). The meat was really the star of the show, that brisket is so tender and melts in your mouth...yum. The sausage had great flavor, though I do want to try their occasional jalapeno & cheddar version. The sides were a bit lackluster for me. The M&C definitely needed some creaminess, and the yams while good didn't blow me away. The hush puppies were really dry, for me at least. The staff were nice and efficient, and multiple asked me if I needed anything as they walked around. All in all, a wonderful experience and I'll definitely be back! Can't wait to try brunch!

We stopped in after a day at the Zoo. The food was terrific! Don't skip the Mac and Cheese!!read more

New to the area, went on the hunt for some good BBQ and came across their profile here on Yelp and…read morethought I would give them a try. Since, I've been back a couple more times. The restaurant looks new and it's very clean and organized. The staff are super helpful and friendly. You can actually smell the smokers from outside when you pull up and that's a great sign to me that the meats will have that delicious Smokey flavor. I have tried their Brisket, Jalapeño Smoked Sausage, Pulled Pork and Smoked Turkey. All of their meats are delicious and have great flavor, and I highly recommend the Brisket. Their sides aren't bad either. I've tried the Mac n Cheese, Baked Beans, Greens and Coleslaw. I enjoyed them all but I think the Baked Beans need more meat and BBQ sauce in them IMO. Their sauces are especially yummy. Try all of them and pick your favorite. I would recommend this restaurant to any visitors in town who are wanting good BBQ.

My husband and I consider ourselves barbecue experts, and Whispering Q met all our expectations,…read moreand more! The slider trios were excellent. The ribs were cooked perfectly and their Kansas City sauce is delicious on them. LOVED their sides - creamy slaw, okra perfectly cooked and tons of sweet potatoes fries. Too much to finish! The chef knows his Q!

Nice little small town restaurant! Bbq was delicious, and…read moreeveryone was super nice! Definitely recommend

This place is amazing! When you pull into the parking lot,…read moreyou see the pile of wood used for smoking! When you walk in the door, the entire restaurant smells like smoked meat! Yummy We were here for breakfast. I ordered the tenderloin on a biscuit with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, with a side of sausage gravy. AMAZING! He ordered a tenderloin plate breakfast! He had been here many times with friends and family when passing through. He really wanted me to try the restaurant! Now I know why! I am looking forward to coming back for some smoked pork sandwiches!!!! Thanks for clean restrooms, excellent staff, and amazing food! See you all again! Most Sincerely!

Lexington Barbecue was a fun stop with friends and exactly the kind of place where it is all about…read morethe food. The dining room is nothing fancy. There is a counter area when you first walk in and booths and tables in a dining room. Our servers were friendly and it seemed like all of the servers were checking in with us to see if we needed any refills. I had the chopped pork with slaw, served simply on a cardboard plate. There is nothing polished or pretentious about this place, but the BBQ was great. Even better were the hush puppies. Honestly, I could have made a meal out of those alone. I did not try the desserts, but others at the table said they were very good. Overall, this was a casual, enjoyable stop with great BBQ and hush puppies worth remembering.

This was my second time to Lexington Barbecue, the first time years ago with a local buddy I had…read moreplayed golf with. I was underwhelmed that time but thought maybe it was because they were out of something I had wanted...a normal circumstance at bbq places. So when driving through recently, I decided to give it another go. What I realized this time is that the only barbecue product they have is pork shoulder...no ribs, no chicken, no brisket. (They do have fried fish) It is very lightly smoked and the sauce is a very thin watery substance. I understand that this is Carolina bbq....the place was packed, everyone looked happy, and someone looked over the divider and asked me if this was the best food I had ever had?? I was polite, but realize now that I am more of a Texas bbq guy....meat being really smoked....perhaps a little bit charred with a thick sauce, sometimes sweet or spicy but always with a decidedly hickory flavor. The place is very friendly and clean, we were seated promptly and the food came out quickly. Great fries and hush puppies!!

Delicious BBQ, speedy and friendly service, and a new clean facility at an interesting location…read more The setting at the airport made fur an interesting meal. I highly recommend.

Not bad but NOT great. If you've never had really good BBQ you'll think this place is great. Worst…read morebbq sauce ever. Sides were good, place is ok.

I first tried Smithfield's Chicken N' BBQ in the early 80's at their second location just off of…read moreHighway 70 in Clayton. The original Smithfield's was opened in Smithfield in 1977, with the Clayton operation beginning in 1979. Since then the restaurant has greatly expanded across the state, now totaling 41, with the 2 furtherest west being in Greensboro and Charlotte. Over the years, I've eaten at perhaps half of the Smithfield locations, and have rarely been disappointed, and in the few where I was, it centered on the service, not the food. As with so much in the restaurant area, things have changed and will surely continue to change with pork barbecue in North Carolina, reflecting changing tastes and changing processes. For example, fewer and fewer cooked over hardwood coals, and very few cook the whole hog - in fact, I think there are only 4 (all in the east) that still do - Skylight Inn, B's, Grady's, and The Pit. Smithfield very much mirrors the changing nature of NC BBQ over the last 30 years or so. The pork bbq for ALL locations is cooked in Smithfield and then shipped to the various locations. Obviously, what you get is less than just off the rack fresh. Still, if I'm close, then a pop in for a combo of bbq and chicken works. I like their slaw. the hush puppies are fair at best, the hot dog totally sucks, and the Chicken Tender Sandwich is really, really good! Don't consider this a destination bbq spot, but I will still go from time to time if driving by. There is some bad bbq sold in NC, but it is most often found at a grocery store or a convenience store - if it has gas pumps keep moving!

Sweet tea I ordered the other day tasted like coffee grinds was in it and cigarette smoke…read more I used to say that this place makes the best sweet tea in town. Unfortunately, I can't say that any longer.

Slinging burgers in a tiny place like Siler City since the 1940s?! Well you gotta be doing…read moresomething right to achieve community institution status like that, and I finally had the good fortune to be in the area of this spot during their limited hours... so I had to stop in. Johnson's doesn't look like it has changed much since it first came to be. Fairly tiny on the inside, and showing a lot of wear on the outside, it's got the look and charm of a place that has spanned over 75 years of service. That said even though it is dated, the inside looked nice and clean to me. There is lunch counter seating, that if you are a tall individual, might be a tight fit for you, but the booths aren't going to be any better. So after jamming my knee into the wall under the counter, I achieved a fine degree of man-spread, and was reasonably OK after that. From my seat at the counter, I had a perfect view of their process and burgers sizzling on the flat-top grill. Each burger hits the hot top with a sizzle, is smashed down (but not quite to smashburger thin-ness), gets flipped, is adorned with a thick chunk of Velveeta cheese, and gets half a bun on top to let it steam up real good. The other half the bun is to the left, where a dedicated person is assembling all the toppings. When ready, they put the halves together, wrap it up, and send it your way. Fast and efficient, but all patties are 100% cooked to order. I also got a hot dog all the way, order of fries, and a fully sweet tea as they were out of unsweet. They were also out of pickles, and don't do grilled onions, negatives for me because I like my first try to be simple. grilled onions, pickles, burger sauce if available. They also charge extra for lettuce and tomato. I just went ahead and had my burger made the same way as my hot dog, all the way. It made for one hell of a mess, but it was delicious. I definitely enjoyed my meal, but to be honest, neither the burger or the hot dog would rank in my top 5 in the state. Doesn't really matter, as at the end of the day, I would certainly come back here because I am sure it's the best burger in the area, and given the amount of burgers and hot dogs I have eaten being "outside the top 5" doesn't mean you're doing poorly. Cash only, so come prepared, but definitely come!

Johnson's Drive In reopened the dining portion in August I was told. So that is where I dined on my…read moremost recent stop. I was surprised how busy it was at 10:30am and all the to go orders they were getting. I was warmly greeted when I arrived and told I could sit anywhere I wanted. I sat at the bar as I didn't want to take up a booth. Then I could watch the action. I could tell that regulars frequent the burger shop as they knew most people by name and what they ordered. The owner passed away a few weeks ago. I could sense something happened from some of the conversations with the regulars. He left a legacy that his parents started with the simple menu and the quality beef. My cheeseburger was served hot with the toppings I ordered and that melted cheese. The fries were also piping hot like I enjoy them and more like steak fries. I will need another excuse to head back this way for another burger.