Lefty’s Bar-B-Q

Great place to eat, the food is great, the service is great and we go there every chance we get. When you go there ask for Shannon, she has a great personality. Give her a hard time and she’ll give it back. But be careful she always wins.
When you go you won’t be disappointed.

The two stars is strictly because the service was good. I stopped here on my way home to Asheville from Nashville. Both towns with good barbecue, but I’m always interested to try other places when I see them. I read the reviews first which were mixed. Unfortunately, the poor reviews are accurate. I got a brisket sandwich. The brisket was soft and there was a good amount of it in the sandwich, but it wasn’t hot and it was completely devoid of juice or any flavor other than smoke. But the building doesn’t smell of smoke. The outside doesn’t smell of smoke… so where is this flavor from? There does look to be a smoker outside in a separate shed, but I’ve still never known good barbecue to not permeate the air surrounding the establishment. In any case, I had to slather sauce on to make it taste like anything. The mild sauce tasted like Sweet Baby Ray’s and the «hot» tasted like SBR with chilula added or something equally as simplistic. Not bad, but not anything special. There were many people working and very few customers, so great service. The onion rings were delicious, though. That, they nailed. I will not make this highway stop again. Well, if I do make this stop, I’ll probably just go to Wendy’s.

Outstanding BBQ beats any I’ve ever had next to my Dads. The regular sandwiches revolutio don’t be fooled by the menu their potato salad is excellent and the onion rings are homemade and the fried okra is great. If you looking for a nice place to stop this would be the place

Got pulled pork and ribs. Both lacked flavor. Taste like it was make in an oven. Thankfully their sauce was above average. Comfortable setting other than the drama between the staff member. Also, baked beans and chips were amazing.

Just had the pulled pork sandwich, very good also had slaw, and potato salad very good as well. Staff very friendly , nice clean place ! Will stop bye if in this area for sure, good value also

Absolutely horrible! I’m not sure what the smoker is for because your food comes straight from a microwave. However, the restaurant is clean, and the staff is friendly. Keep driving

Visiting BBQ restaurants as we travel across the US is one of our favorite things to do. This was the only place we knew of around Crossville. Thus, we stopped for the brisket. Now not every place in the country serves brisket and we know that. This place at it on their menu but at 5:00 they were sold out. That’s a little early in the day to be sold out but we know it’s a small town so they probably don’t cook a ton of it. Face it, good brisket takes a long time to cook too. Needless to say, we were disappointed.
Instead we ordered the pulled pork sandwich with baked beans and cole slaw. There was no doubt the pork sandwich was very good and so was the cole slaw. The beans had a very thick base and meat in the sauce mix. They were just ok but didn’t really care much for them.
The owner was friendly and visited our table often to see how we were doing.

Very clean, friendly staff and great food. Love the home made chips and Lefty’s stew is a must!

A friend and I visited this established on July 1^st. Just wonderful. We were impressed by our server, a young blonde lady just out of high school, she could remember everything. I’m always skeptical of bbq places but decided to give this a try as soon as I saw the smokehouse out back. I was not disappointed. My friend had the 3 bone ribs, which he loved. I had the lean pulled pork with potato salad and green beans. The pork actually was lean, and devine. The green beans and potato salad were items reminiscent of mom’s cooking. Simply wonderful. Included with meals are bread slices and butter, also good. I tried the sweet bbq sauce and the hot. The sweet was very good, and the hot, as well. The hot had just the right amount of heat and very flavorful. To end the meal I decided on the blackberry cobbler. Just heavenly! My thoughts are that I can’t wait to be back in this area to revisit and that the owner of this establishment is obviously involved on a day to day basis with high standards for quality food, a clean restaurant and friendly employees. Highly recommended.

Great catfish! Loved my coleslaw and potato salad sides. We also had the pulled pork. It was delicious and my husband loved the baked beans. Definitely worth going again on this trip :)

Very good pulled pork sandwich. The homemade potato chips were great. My only complaint: the HOT sauce was mildly spicy (but, to be fair, I am a dedicated chili-​head, able to take the heat that makes most people cry) when I asked for Tabasco, all they had was Texas Pete. Just the mention of that crap when I asked for Tabasco got 1 star deducted. I talked to Lefty after our meal, and I’m sure they will rectify this one little problem.

I just stopped in on the way to Nashville. It’s pretty pricey. A large bbq sandwich was $ 8 without any sides.
My sandwich had microwaved meat on it that burned my tongue. Excess water (i guess the meat sits in water) made the bread soggy. The bbq meat itself was bland.
Oh and the homemade potato chips were stale and bland.
Overall, I’d say a waste of time and money.

Very good food !!! Great service and friendly family environment. Owner and waiter were super friendly and very attentive. Great place to eat !! Pulled pork was delicious, bbq beans were super! My mom had the beef stew and fried cornbread !!! Oh my !!! So yummy !!! Will def eat there again !!

Yes i was surprised of the good reviews as well. Ate lunch one Sunday. I had pulled pork sandwich. extremely dry. Was hard to choke down. Sauce was ok. Was strange because the manager or owner came around to everyones table but ours and asked how everything was… uh ok. Think most people stop thru from interstate. Big Boys is wayyyy better in my opinon. Watress was super nice tho.

BBQ sauce
I had the pulled pork sandwich which was cooked great. Only reason I am not giving five stars is because there is no regular BBQ just mild or hot.

I have not idea on how this place has any stars…
I have to be honest there maybe something on the menu that deserves four stars, but it is not Brisket… Driving through, I was craving some BBQ, and looking on Unilocal selected this place.
I should have known as at 6 pm there was not a person inside. I did not have a chance to look at the product as we got the food to go, but upon opening the box I was discussed. The meat was so dry I am not sure l my dog would eat it. It was rather expensive ($ 23 for a pound or something like that)…
It was the worst Brisket I have ever ever looked at or tasted
Please save your money and get something else if you have to stop here…

The ribs here literally DO fall off the bone. You have to add your own sauce… regular or spicy. I opted for the hotter, and it was not so mouth-​burning as to make it unpleasant. The sides are good– especially the tasty beans with bits of pork in them, and the fried okra. My husband thought that the pulled pork was average. I tried my mom’ BBQ chicken — the skin should have been crisp. I like the type of BBQ that is swathed in sauce — so this Southern Style takes some getting used to. It just makes for dryer meat. My dad and husband really loved the home made peach cobbler. Owner Bill is a great guy.

The bread they give is wonderful.

Entering Lefty’s BBQ was like entering a family’s home. This feeling has a lot to do with the friendly service, but also has to do with the dozens of hanging baseball caps, the UT Volunteer Christmas tree, and the homey interior that looks more like a big house than a restaurant.
We took our food to go and ordered the Family 4 Pack that included a lot of BBQ pork, pint of beans, coleslaw, and buns. The pork was good, but the BBQ sauce on top of the pork was an excellent combination! I am a big fan of their sauce! It was on the sweet side, and I could have it spicier, but as I said it was excellent as is. The beans were really good, but the coleslaw was only okay.
Story time: My dad was talking to the owner about the baseball caps and he was saying that he had all these hats at home, but his wife gave him an ultimatum. Either he takes the hats away or she will take them away. So he decided to move them to the restaurant up high where she couldn’t reach them! He wanted them really high in the main restaurant, but apparently that is a fire hazard, so now he has them in the entrance. They bring a fun and light atmosphere to the place!