Carolina BBQ & Chicken

So there I was, driving back to Virginia Beach from Charlotte along I-​85 when suddenly, hunger struck. I’d been wanting bbq for a few days so I decided to stop at the next «Q» house I came to — Carolina BBQ happened to be the spot. As we pulled up, I noticed the sign said buffet — I automatically got happy. The man at the counter greeted us genuinely as we entered — not a simple «hello», but an actual welcome with a smile. Bonus points. My girlfriend and I ordered our drinks and proceeded to the five-​row buffet section. I started off with a salad from the moderately well-​stocked bar — would have liked to see bacon bits, another form of lettuce, and fresh broccoli (it was obviously old). After my rabbit-​food, I hit the main attractions. The buffet was loaded with everything from bbq, shrimp, and chicken, to chitterlins, trotters, and exceptional collards (I love deep south fare). Everything was great and reasonably fresh for being mid-​afternoon — my only caveat was the over-​salted crab cakes whereas my girlfriend actually found a dessert that was too sweet… Perhaps that’s picky, but it’s worth mentioning. All in all the buffet was great, the service was genuine, and the atmosphere was welcoming and straightforward. I’ll stop here again for sure.
Four stars for the service and selection.
Minus one for the freshness concerns.

Nothing is cooked right and the food taste terrible. Not to mention it blew my gut out 5 hour latter! Twelve dollars for that crap isn’t worth it!!! The dishes are dirty half the times! Don’t waste your time or money there!

Solid food, not gourmet, but very good nonetheless, with a always changing selection. You want some decent buffet fare, you are in, or around Butner, stop by and give it a try, I honestly don’t think you will be disappointed, but I hope you like listening to old American Top 40’s, because I do believe that is all they play.

I went here for dinner simply because I really didn’t feel like driving to Raleigh or Durham. I don’t really care for buffet places, but I decided to give it a try. I went for dinner on Saturday night. The food was decent and buffet stations were clean. My only complaint is that the food wasn’t turned regular. Many of the dishes had that dark look on top, that looked like they’d been sitting out for hours.
There was a sign out saying that they offered $ 5 on breakfast on Saturday & Sunday, so we came back to try it out. I definitely would NOT recommend it, not even for $ 5! I got there around 9:30. The restaurant was busy, but there were a couple empty tables… except I couldn’t sit at them because they had dirty dishes on them. We waited for almost 10 minutes for someone to clear a table so we could sit! I asked the cashier if someone was coming to clean the tables. She quite nastily replied, «I don’t clean tables… that’s the waitresses’ job.» At that point, I was annoyed and probably would’ve left if not for my friend wanting to stay.
Breakfast buffet left a lot to be desired. :-l Most of the food tasted like it came straight out of the can/​box/​bag. The French Toast was cheap white bread that had a thin layer of egg on top. Witw??? It didn’t even look appealing. The buffet had good variety, but none of the food was actually good.
The saving grace was the waitress. She was extremely nice and personable. I definitely won’t ever be back for breakfast… EVER! However, in a pinch, I could return every once in a while for dinner.

This buffet is the real deal. Not fine cuisine, but very fine southern buffet cuisine. And wonderful staff. The bbq pork is to die for and it isn’t fatty at all but still it is moist and cooked just perfectly. There are tons of cooked veggies and the salad bar is stocked. Plenty of fish, beef, pork, and chicken treats. It is on our A list and we are heading there tonight!

This place is a buffet, with Bbq, seafood, fried chicken, seafood, and more. I came for the bbq and that’s all I’ll review…
Came here for the bbq and it was ok. Moist, eastern-​style whole hog chopped pork, but no smoke. Texas Pete pepper sauce on the table. The collards had good consistency, but just tasted like collards – not much smoky flavor or fatback in them. The slaw and hush puppies were excellent. Everything was hot and fresh.
They had many other sides available. Most tempting were some sweet yams, but I was full from the first plate and was able to avoid letting the buffet-​style ruin a good meal!
I liked the place, although it was a bit cavernous. Lots of folks there. Pretty integrated clientele, which I always like. Also a diverse crowd, local folks in ties and construction workers.
Weekday lunch buffet was 8.99 plus 2.19 for a tea.
3 stars as a buffer. If it I got this plate out of a kitchen, maybe 2 ½…

So we have been wanting to try this place out since it opened because we love a good buffet. Staff was extremely friendly during our whole visit. There are 3 hot bars, a cold bar and a dessert bar. We went on a Tuesday at 3 pm and the food was fresh. Staff was on top of everything making sure it was adequately replenished. We tried many of the dishes. Our favorites: fried chicken, fried flounder, fried fish, pot roast. The ok dishes were: Brunswick stew, hush puppies, Barbeque, salad bar, pecan pie. There were several dishes that we tried that were not so great. The greens were chopped very small and mushy which was weird. The pork ribs had a different tasting sauce. The mashed potatoes and gravy tasted instant and I question whether the Mac and cheese was frozen. The potato salad also tasted like it was brought in. Banana pudding was gross and was void of bananas. Something that we also noticed was that the food was not that hot. My piece of fried chicken was warm at best. My husband complained that seafood was not crispy enough for him. The price for us was 8.95 which is high for us to spend on lunch and the drink was 2.09(I think). That is high for sweet tea. It was good and fresh but hot and we had to ask for ice twice. We won’t be going there often and we definitely won’t be going on the weekend for 11.95. It is a little disappointing that in less than a month of being opened that they raised their prices on the buffet by 2 dollars. I also didn’t like the fact that someone ordered a plate off of the menu and the waitress got the food off of the bar. All in all an ok place but who knows if it will last in the Butner area.

The parking lot was full when we arrived but when I walked in it seemed like the place was mostly empty. I think that’s attributed to the size of the place (HUGE) vs the available parking. The place did seem to be busy though, plenty of hustle and bustle and almost nobody standing around doing nothing.
I asked for a menu so I could look over menu choices vs buffet. Upon talking to our server I asked if the menu items just come off the buffet and she confirmed. Not much point in ordering off the menu if it’s just going to come from the buffet anyway. So, with that said…
It’s a buffet, and the food is generally okay albeit a little salty. The mashed potatoes were just «yuck» but the mac n cheese was fair. Crab cakes are fair, but salty. Salad is fresh, and shrimp is also good. Blue cheese dressing was watery but at least it didn’t taste like it was cut with mayonnaise like I’ve had at other buffet places. Hot foods were well segregated from the cold and plenty of signage indicating what’s what. Plenty of options from chicken salad to fried chicken, frogs legs to crab cakes, and of course — several varieties of bbq, from short ribs to chicken to pulled pork.
The highlight of the visit was the service. A nice young lady served us, interacted well with my daughter and made sure our drinks stayed filled.
At the end of the visit, it was sticker shock — 3 people = $ 45 & change (pre-​tip) for 3 buffet’s and 3 fountain drinks on the weekend. Now if I’d had a beer or wine with my meal I might expect a $ 45 bill but this was just «yikes»! Better pricing on weekdays, about $ 2 less per person, so it might be better for my budget not to come here on weekends.

Buffet food was appropriate, hot food hot & cold food cold. Enjoyed that there was not too much salt in food! Prices are good to great. Seating is abundant. Staff very friendly & management presence noticed at least 4x during our meal. Only item that was disappointing was BBQ, was too sweet, needs a little red pepper, didn’t see even one red pepper flake