Fort Mill BBQ Company (food, friendly, best)

[ftmillmit]

Recently tried the Fort Mill BBQ company and enjoyed the food. 521 BBQ in Indian Land is great but a little bit of a drive from Baxter/Tega Cay.

But one of the best BBQ's I've had lately is served by a guy (can't remember his name) who pulls up a trailer on a empty lot next to Wendy's on Hiway 160. Excellent food and a single plate serves two of my family.

[Wiggin]

I went there last night for the first time, and I have to say this was some of the worst BBQ I have ever had. We had the pulled pork, and it was VERY greasy and had ridiculous amounts of fat and gristle. In all my years of eating BBQ (I'm from eastern NC, and grew up on pork BBQ) I have never seen the meat sitting in a puddle of grease like this place had...and believe me, it was not just the juices from the sauce.

The one thing I demand from BBQ (and something you find in almost all quality BBQ joints) is for it to be relatively clean of debris, which this was not. By the amount of fat, and the huge chunks of unchopped/pulled meat, it seemed as if little effort was put into prepping it to serve. I'm not talking about the occasional little piece of fat/gristle that might have been missed, but big pieces, and lots of it. IMO, that is completely unacceptable; heck, even the backyard pig pickin's I've been to served cleaner meat than this.

As for the flavor, I thought both the meat and sauces were ok, but nothing special (I tried both sauces). Personally, I prefer a sauce with a little more zip and vinegar flavor to it (I am from Eastern NC after all), but that's my personal taste and not a criticism as I can see why some people might really like them. The sides we had were good, although the mac-n-cheese looked like it had been cooked much earlier and kept hot since there was a graininess to it rather than a creamy consistency. But according to my wife (who was the one who ordered it) it still tasted fine.

Overall, the grease and debris in the pork made this a very disappointing dinner. I do not know if this is typically how they serve it, or if, for whatever reason, they just forgot the step of cleaning it up before serving. Either way, it is very doubtful we will ever go back.

[Allen Shadd]

Here is a pretty good review of BBQ variations throughout the southern states.


YouTube - The BBQ Song

As for Fort Mill BBQ, I had lunch there a couple of weeks ago. I guess I'll give a quick review of my own, this thread needs just one more. For lunch I tried the standard pork lunch plate w/ fries and slaw. I was a little ahead of the lunch crowd so it wasn't crowded at all, service was fast. The only thing I didn't care for about the service was the lady asked me if I had been there before, I said, no, so she said "Let me tell you a little bit about our menu then", and proceeded to read the menu for me. I've never understood places that do this, as if I can't read the menu. The food came quickly enough, and more than generous portions. The taste was good, for my tastes a little better than average, not outstanding though. The price, although portions were large, were a little high for lunch prices imo. A lunch plate w/ tea was $12 before a tip. Not outrageous, but a little high for lunch is all. I'd give FM BBQ 3 out of 5 stars, I'd go back but not out of my way.

[FLRich]

I got to agree Allen...I may not be from Eastern NC but one of the several reasons we moved to the Carolina's was due to the BBQ, we are fanatics in general of all BBQ be it TX, GA, or Carolina. The BBQ was OK, the side (Mac and Cheese) was OK also. I hate to be rough since cooking especially BBQ is such a personal thing and I don't want to hurt any feelings but I would not call it outstanding. Personally I like 521 better out of a storefront and Ron's out of a trailer, its NOT bad but personally I like the other sauces better and yes the other pulled pork does seem to have less fat than this one here.

It is a place where I would visit again EXCEPT for one thing...I found the prices not to be a little high but VERY high. The sandwich which came with a small side and the additional tea came out to either $8.99 or $9.99 I forget which since I visited a couple of weeks ago, think it was 9.99 since I said to myself WOW..same price as a dinner at Carlos cafe without the drink and you got to doggy back it over there each and every time! The cost considering it's a lunch and the portion received was quite "proud". I did not find the portion to be larger than Ron's, Grahams, Burkes, or 521 so no reason to increase the price.

I have ate BBQ at hundreds of locations accross the carolina's and the country and I don't think I have ever paid this much for a sandwich side and drink. I know it's Tega Cay...but still if you expect to survive you are going to have to work on those prices again. You may get some repeat customers who have money to burn but I am afraid that you may also get many who will eat once but never to return again once the prices have been discovered. Question this..Ft Mill BBQ was not the first restaurant at this location, the prior restaurant really did not have competition in the area for what they served and the quality was very good..why did they not survive ?? I would venture to say one of 3 things or a mix of all. 1) poor drive by traffic from the location probably due to local ordinance, only can be overcome by good expensive advertising if you can't have a big sign to be seen from far off on the roads. 2) Poor Money Management, it's expensive to start up a kitchen and possibly not enough seed money to carry the business long enough before the customers became regulars and word of mouth spread to turn a profit 3) Price...we are in a recession people!! I don't care if you are a pooper scooper or the VP of a bank EVERYONE is feeling the heat of our administration and economy. No one knows if it's going to get better or worse and people are pinching pennies. Fewer people are eating out and the few that will try may do it once but never come back again since it's too expensive to afford. I don't wish bad luck on anyone but to move in to the same place that another food establishment could not thrive in then do it in one of the worst recessions known and try to charge as much as they are is just asking for trouble...I hope I am wrong, hate to see small business suffer in any way shape or form.

[bibit612]

I agree with Rich. The price is a little high. DS and I tried it for the first time and we racked up a $18 bill for TWO!!! Three of us could eat at Quiznos for less than that. Now I know it's BBQ but it's not something I would call memorable. As far as the location is concerned, there is enough traffic generated there (Red Bowl is thriving very well) so Dutch Mill and Ft Mill BBQ must not be doing something right if they are not attracting customers. It's disappointing because I want that area to thrive! There are enough vacant spaces around here, like the building across from Lowes Home Improvement.

[FLRich]

I never said they were not thriving but that remains to be seen. Many new places will do well at the start and taper off quickly when it comes to food service. I went to school for Marketing even though I decided to get into Engineering. One of the first things taught about retail is LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. The Red Bowl does well since it advertises both in print, radio and TV media, TV lightly but quite a bit of print and radio. It has also been established for a long time prior to the recession with a base clientel so location does not apply AS MUCH (did not say at all) than it would with a new food establishment. Actually the Lowes Food and Red Bowl will help due to the bit of walk by traffic it creates for new businesses there but it can not live on that alone, needs to be seen from the road much better so that people know to slow down and pull in if they happen to be driving by and want to eat...out of sight out of mind. Some local print media and maybe some radio spots will help too at the start but that get's expensive and since the prices are expensive to start with I'd hate to see the markup to pay for the media.

All I can say is at 1:30 for lunch there were 3 others in there, a bit late so I can't judge that. Went with another couple to the Red Bowl a couple of Saturday's ago...never thought of the BBQ joint honestly and I had not been there yet...glad I did not suggest since we sprang for dinner for all 4. I honestly think it would have been more expensive than at the Red Bowl! There was a band playing outside, it did catch our eye and the only reason I stopped by for lunch a few days later. At about 9-10pm when we left the Bowl there were not that many people there even with the live music. But things like that, live Music may add the spin necessary for people to swallow the cost a bit more and smile.

[cltsig]

Went there for dinner last week. Neither of us eat pork and pretty much everything there had pork in it so our options were limited. I had the beef dinner, my wife the chicken. We paid $24 with a $4 off coupon for 2 of us w/o any alcohol which is steep. I had 4 pieces of dry beef and the 2 of the 3 sides (I think) w/o pork, cole slaw and fries, and was hungry when I left. The fries were good, however. My wife's half chicken was kind of fatty and not very meaty. The soggy white bread was left untouched. The sauce was really runny so you couldn't really get any on the meat unless you gulped it with a spoon.

Pretty disappointed overall at that price point and needless to say, we won't be going back.

[ftmillmit]

BBQ in the Carolinas IS pork. If you don't eat pork, you shouldn't go to a BBQ restaurant.

[cltsig]

Originally Posted by ftmillmit

BBQ in the Carolinas IS pork. If you don't eat pork, you shouldn't go to a BBQ restaurant.

So extending this logic, BBQ restaurants in the Carolinas should sell nothing but pork. If so, why do they sell chicken and beef if BBQ in the Carolinas IS pork?

[ihatesigningin]

Well, let's see. I don't eat pork either but there is plenty of other stuff on the menu besides pork. You can go to Captain Steve's and get a steak or you can go to Burger King and get a veggie burger, so saying that you shouldn't eat at a bbq place if you don't eat pork doesn't make any sense.

We got a burger, a pimento sanwich, some slaw, and some mac n cheese to go. The burger was burnt on the outside but pink in the middle. I normally like my burgers well done, but even the outside of the burger that was cooked wasn't too tasty. 5 Guys, Hardee's, Eat Here Now, Towne Tavern, Topz, and Showmar's all have better burgers and they're all cheaper (except for maybe Towne but that's a really big burger). The pimento cheese was good, but it is spicy (it states this on the menu). Mac n cheese and slaw were ok, but for $15 not really a good value for what we got. I have to agree with some of the other posters that the prices are a little on the high side. A lot of restaurants are slashing prices and offering more specials. I can think of a much better meal we got for $20 on Sunday and that was for 3 people. The people working were very nice and it seemed genuine and not forced like some places.

I didn't get any beans, but I agree that anyone can put their stuff in a can of Bush's and heat them up. Just because a lot of time and effort goes into something doesn't necessarily make it good. The Panthers have been practicing for a while and they are 0-2. However, if you are going to invest a lot of time making beans, you may as well use fresh beans which is the true southern way. Really, it's not that difficult; you soak em and cook em. To me this is better than some sodium laden canned product. Even Cracker Barrel uses a lot of fresh beans.

So, overall, the place is average, slightly overpriced, and can't cook a burger (hopefully their bbq is better). Needless to say, won't be my first choice going out to eat.