Hickory Road BBQ & Catering Co.

After enjoying Hickory Road in Auburn I thought for sure I would love the one in Lincoln. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed. The service was fair. I ordered a hot ham and cheese sandwich. When it came out, there was no cheese. I told the waitress, and she just gave me a blank stare. Rather then her offering to fix the mistake I actually had to ask her to bring me out a piece of cheese. So I had a hot ham and cold cheese sandwich. The macaroni was disgusting. Talk about no taste!

Been back a couple more times since my original review. The food is still good, but as another reviewer mentioned, there’s no flexibility in the menu at all, so if you want a change (e g., no bun, but would like a piece of cornbread), they will not substitute and will charge you full price for the added item. Most restaurants allow similar substitutions, so this is a bit dissapointing.

I Am in KC all the time, this place holds their own with the best, GUARANTEED. You gotta get down here, If you think Daves is good you are mistaken.

Food was pretty darn good and the service was excellent. Out food was delivered in a good time and it wasn’t crazy busy. The interior also looks very fresh and clean. Good place for any number and a good amount of TVs.

First time eating here. It exceeded our expectations. Started with warm chips and an awesome homemade salsa. Not what you would expect from a BBQ place. The homemade sauce complimented the tender brisket and pulled chicken. The potato salad and coleslaw were homemade as well and full of flavor. The baked beans had a smokey flavor. Our waitress was friendly and attentive. We will definitely return!

This place is new (opened July 31, 2015) and has a great cabin feel. But what really counts – the BBQ! It was great! Plenty of food, good price, and a variety of BBQ sauces if you want to add. The baked beans were nice and spicy, the potato salad and coleslaw were both great, and my daughter would have probably just lived on the Mac and Cheese :)
Full bar so everyone is happy!

I’ve eaten here twice now. Once over the lunch hour and once later in the afternoon. Both times I thought the food was excellent. I recommend it on that alone. I see from the reviews that service is generally considered good. That hasn’t been my experience either time was there.
The first time I walked in, there were probably about 8 to 10 customers in the dining area. A waiter was standing by the bar reading something on his cell phone. There was no sign indicating whether I should wait to be seated or I should seat myself. I waited for the waiter to look up from his phone. He didn’t. So I sat. I waited about five minutes before he came over. He was fairly attentive after that.
Today was different — the service was poor throughout my entire visit. I came in and sat down. I was the only customer in the restaurant. A different waiter was working this time. He was quick to bring me a menu and ask me what I wanted to drink. After quite some time of visiting with the bartender, he came back with my drink and asked for my order. What I ordered comes with two sides. Because I’m diabetic, I rarely order the sides because they’re normally full of not-​so-​good carbs. The waiter asked, «What sides?» I told him I didn’t want any sides and to just bring the meat. He said, «I’m going to charge you for them.» He was actually kind of rude about it. It caught me by surprise because I sure hadn’t asked him to discount the price. I simply said, «That’s ok.» My meal came quickly sans napkins — BBQ without napkins — well you get the idea. About halfway through the meal, he brought some napkins. While he was having more discussion in the back with the bartender and a waitress, my drink ran dry. Well, just as I was ready to go get him, he brought me my bill. I raised my glass and he did bring me another drink.
I will come back and eat at this place because the food is really, really good. I hope, thought, they work with their wait staff to be more attentive to the needs of their customers.

4 of us ate here on a Wednesday night. Speedy service, great tasting chopped pork and the ladies loved the brisket. Baked beans are very flavorful and my coleslaw tasted great. The onion ring appetizer is made of onion straws is fabulous, loved it. Will gladly return soon to eat other items on the menu.

If you like BBQ his new restaurant in South Lincoln is worth a try. They have newness issues as most restaurants do when first opening but I am hopeful they will read and learn from their customers. First… Here is some non food feedback Had I not read the article in the Journal Star the restaurants sign would have confused me into thinking it was just carry out or catering. But once inside it was clear the owners spent a lot of money to provide a clean and refreshing atmosphere… they just need a little décor to finish it off. The raised half booth/​bar stool tables in the bar area need to both have foot rests. If you are like me I hate sitting with my feet dangling down, makes me feel like I’m back in kindergarten,
Now for food and service. I wanted to try their burnt ends or ribs but they were out of both, which was disappointing. My wife had the pulled pork which she said was very good and I had the Big mouth brisket sandwich. The Big Mouth has a bit of sausage in it and at first bite it was awesome, not quite Slovacek sausage worthy but great flavor. I ended up taking half of it home to have later, and what I discovered when I went to the frig for a late night snack floored me… I opened up the sandwich face and discovered very little brisket at all! only small bits of sausage and a fragment of brisket. Now I know you’ll say that my wife snacked first, but no! Not sure what happened but the first bite and first half was great. My sides were beans and potato salad, not great beans but OK. They would do well to add some crushed pineapple, brown sugar, molasses, spices and some more bacon to kick it up. I intend to return to the Big Mouth for round 2 because I have a little Sherlock in me.
Service…one word outstanding… but it was a Wednesday Night at 7PM… other than what I have mentioned the menu is what I consider very worthy. I hope they make it.

Decent BBQ and closer than Kansas City. The restaurant is clean, the food is not expensive, and the taste is A-​ok. They have a more Carolina taste to the ribs. The brisket, ribs, and pulled pork were all juicy and good. The service was very friendly which was a refreshing change. I can see this being a good bailout from cooking after work.
Overall, good food, good service, decent price.

The food was great, however that was the only redeeming factor on our visit. The system for seating patrons is a simple line, so if you’re a group of two (which we were), and there’s an empty table for two, but a party of eight in front of you, you’re waiting for that party to get seated before you have a chance. After our 20 minute wait in line, it was appriximately 10 minutes before we got our drinks (pop mind you, not alcohol). We promptly placed food orders when we sat down, which we had to change as they ran out of a bulk of their menu items by 7, but that didn’t prevent it taking an hour for our appetizer (fried pickles, which were pretty good) to come, and another hour for our two burgers to come (all the while we watched others who got there after us get their food before us). The wait staff was nice when we got to see them, but overall it appeared that they were drastically understaffed, which seems kind of ridiculous for a Friday night. The manager came by and gave us $ 10 giftcards for the wait, which was a nice gesture, but didn’t really do justice for the near 3 hours we spent there to ultimately box up most of our food. Bottom line, good food, but a long way to go in service.

Wow! The service is FAST and the food is better than any BBQ in the Lincoln area! Get there before the secret is out and you have to wait over an hour! Tip: the Burnt ends are incredible

We pull up having another hankering for BBQ but not wanting to deal with the heat of ribfest. I did my research and wanted to find something fresh and new. My fiancé noted when we got there that the sign only says catering and To go, he was convinced it wasn’t an actual eat in restaurant. They may want to throw that on the sign to clarify for passerby’s. The restaurant has obviously had a complete overhaul from the last time I had been here when it was a sushi restaurant many moons ago. It was clean but stark. Nothing to adorn the walls at all, literally nothing… We were seated promptly and the staff seemed to be happy to be there. She took our drink order and I had noticed when we walked in that in the back there was a full bar so I asked for a drink menu. She said they didn’t have any?! I had no Idea what to order, I usually like to try mixed concoctions and house specialties.
Service was really good. We tried all 3 sauces provided at the table. The mild and hot varieties were great, so good I kept switching between the two. The 3^rd sauce had a pepper base that was a bit much. Not in a spicy way just overwhelming black pepper.
We ordered the little feast. 2 sides, half ribs, sausage instead of chicken and sliced brisket. The quality of the meats was wonderful and beat any chain we have been too. The meal came with breadsticks– interesting but would prefer corn bread with BBQ. It also came with buns? I inquired as to why because I found it really random but she said to take home with your left overs and make BBQ sandwiches which I thought was pretty clever. The meal was slightly higher then at the chains but the freshness and authenticity of the meats made that ok.
ONION RINGS!!!
You have to try them. They have just become my new favorite in town. Fun tip– my fiancé was not having the generic ranch it came with and desired something closer to onion blossom dip. So he mixed the hot BBQ sauce from the table with the ranch and it was like a party in our mouths! We couldn’t get enough of that. Give this place a try, I will be back for sure!

One new restaurant near home. Clean. I enjoyed all side dishes and Sweet bbq sauce. I wish they could make more chilly spicy sauce. They had black paper flavor spicy that was not spicy enough for me

A nice place. Looks really nice inside. The food was great overall. The beans a little spicy for my
Taste but still really good taste. Let’s hope they stick around the neighborhood.

Wife and I stopped here for lunch on a Sunday. Place was pretty quiet but they had just opened a couple days prior. Our waitress was very pleasant and the food came out in good time. I had the pork sandwich w/​fries and baked beans. Everything was good. I am looking forward to returning and trying some of their other choices.