Grumpy's Bar B Que Roadhouse

09/06/09

Umm, no.

by R Whiten at Citysearch

Gave Grumpy's a try about a year ago, and it sücked. Was in the mood for BBQ and thought maybe that experience was a fluke, so gave it another whirl.

Still sücks.

The warning sign was the chili nachos appetizer, which arrived sans the sour cream. Good flavor to the meaty chili though. Probably should have stopped there.

For the main course, ordered pulled pork sandwiches. A swing and a miss. The barbecue was bland, lacking any real smoky flavor to the meat itself. That might be okay if the offered sauces could help, but they can't. The two variations of sauce provided are a middle of the road, can't decided if it wants to be vinegary or sweet, regular sauce that, in unless applied to every morsel of meat, leaves no impression. Then there's "hot" sauce that attempts to substitute heat for flavor. Except it's not really that hot.

Moving on to the sides, here's where we moved from disappointment to anger. None of the side dishes (with the possible exception of the fries) appeared to have been fresh. From a freshly opened can, perhaps, but none of that stuff came out of the ground within the last month. The greens were an abomination; canned turnip greens, being called collard greens, indifferently warmed with a piece of meat that was more garnish than flavoring. The beans and rice were a bland soupy porridge with zero seasoning. The glazed carrots were fine - my compliments to whomever put them in their can. This lack of fresh produce is particularly appalling in light of the fact that there's a farm market within walking distance of this place, with almost all of this stuff right on the shelf locally grown and freshly picked. There's really no excuse for using canned.

The capper was being served instant tea mix as "sweet tea". For a place that claims to provide southern cooking to serve instant as "tea" in just an insult.

Couldn't face dessert.

Really, I've eaten at tons of dives and hole in the wall joints, restaurants that were literally someone's living room with warming trays on card tables along one wall. So I'm not a food snob. This place just... is not good. There's no excuse for caring this little about the product being put out. Anyone that thinks this is good should have their tastebuds calibrated.

• Pros: You (probably) won't die.
• Cons: The food sücks.