Allman’s Bar B Q

I went in to pick up a pound of barbecue for dinner. I stood there waiting for someone to acknowledge me or ask how they could help me. No attempt. After unsuccessfully trying to get their attention without blatantly interrupting their conversation, I left disappointed in the service.
By the way, the bbq meat is dry by comparison to other joints. I’ve been told by a local that they freeze and thaw meat for service. It tastes like it, but the sauce is good.

Love this place. My hometown bbq joint that has stood the test of time. Highly recommend.

Simple, quick, affordable, tasty. What more can you ask?

Still our favorite place to eat a barbecue sandwich and all the fixings. The food and service are always great. Christine is a wonderful waitresses. She goes out her way to make sure you have you need to make a good meal. Renovation is pretty much complete so it looks really nice in there.

Good BBQ. The nicest and accomadating staff. Very casual. Prices are good. We had the pulled pork sandwiches and a number of sides. Baked beans, corn bread and mac & cheese were great. Would definitely come back.

While we were visiting from out of town our friends said we should stop by and give this place a try and we were not disappointed. We tried the pulled pork and we loved it. The potato salad and Mac and cheese were vey good as well. The service was great as well. The building is small but that is by no means a bad thing (I think those are the best BBQ joints).

Heavenly. Simple. Delicious. Super old school Southern café. Loved seeing the local people tuck in for the pulled pork sandwich plate at lunch time. They know what they’re doing.
Don’t compare this place to anything but itself. Comparisons are absurd in this context. Fresh, lovingly prepared, it was great. It’s amazing what they do in such a small space. And impeccably clean.

I go to a lot of BBQ places, and smoke meat myself. Nice atmosphere as far as Q places go. Laid-​back service which may be typical for their, but tough to swallow for a New Yorker. VERY limited menu. The pulled pork was good and the portion generous.
Onion rings and hush puppies very good. The slaw was nice– mayo and mustard base.
MAJOR TIP: No ribs until 3 PM.

AWESOME ribs and great hush puppies! Pulled pork was great, as were the rib sauce and house BBQ sauce. Not too much of a fan of the mac and cheese, as it could have had thicker sauce. Slaw was good, too!

I just like this place! I’ve read other reviews and it’s clear to me that if you walk in with a corporate restaurant expectation, you’re not going to like Allman’s. It’s anything but corporate which, for me is part of the charm. Allman’s has been here since 1954 and I’m guessing they haven’t changed any fixtures since. All that said, it’s about the food! Their BBQ is first rate and their cole slaw is the best I’ve ever had. If you want a modern restaurant feel, keep driving past Allman’s. If you want great BBQ from a friendly staff and an atmosphere that feels like an old Mayberry experience, stop by. You’ll be glad you did.

A friend mentioned Allman’s as «legendary» — so I thought I’d give it a try. Another friend, who lives in Fredericksburg, said his wife hates it. Looked at the Unilocal reviews and it was the same thing: people love it or hate it. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.
The good: friendly service, food came out very quickly, slaw was outstanding, pork was juicy (preferred the minced to the pulled), and the house sauce was unique and quite tasty.
The bad: potato salad was meh, the pork had very little smoke flavor, and the prices were sneaky high (up charges for sides).
The atmosphere teeters on the edge between being a dive (which I love) and a dump. I can understand the reviews which wonder if the pork is boiled or smoked. I didn’t smell that wonderful smell from a pit or smoker which you can smell in the parking lots of most good BBQ joints, so I’m skeptical. The meat had no red smoke color on the ends — more of a uniform tan/​gray color. The pork was decent, but I’ve had much better. I might have given 3 stars for the service and slaw, but the prices tipped the scales the other way. I didn’t like (hidden?) up charges for potato salad and mac-​n-​cheese.
Probably won’t go back. Definitely not worth going out of your way to give it a try, but if you want some Q you could do worse.

Stopped in at Allman’s on a co-​workers suggestion. And I am glad we did! The food was tasty, sweet tea was legit, and the service was friendly. The slaw was delicious! Our server was so nice, spending time to talk about the menu and the different types of bbq found around the south (my boyfriend is from NC, so he has definite opinions on the matter). We left with very full bellys, a go box, a t-​shirt, and the knowledge that we will be back!

Okay, it’s a dive. The seating is limited. It looks I suspect about like it did when it opened 60 years ago. And the pulled pork is southern delicious. And the service is southern friendly. Sign me up for dive any day. Yum.

Great simple BBQ. Came with a party of 4 and we all loved it. I had the barque plate with half a pound of pulled pork, mac and cheese, and hush puppies. The pulled pork was delicious and not dry, and there were four different sauces to put on the meat. Nothing was too salty or bland, so it was right for my taste buds. The sides were also great. My friend got the same thing but the fries instead, which I tried and we both didn’t like much. It needed salt and they did not taste fresh at all. However everything else was fantastic! We all left very full and satisfied. I’m glad i gave this place a try and will definitely be coming back!

I give it 2 ½ stars.
Great looking building and the interior is also old-​style bbq joint décor.
I usually get the chopped pork sandwich with slaw. It’s good. The ribs also are good. Onion Rings are disappointing and so is the mac n cheese, it was dry and not very cheesy. Overall better than some, not as good as most.

Great food. Friendly and quick service.
Pulled Pork Sandwich was a little on the small side but very tasty.
Fries and onion rings were awesome!

I reluctantly tried this place after every other BBQ place in town being a waste of time and I’m glad I did.
While this isn’t my idea of «holy hell this is the best BBQ I’ve ever had’ it is sufficient enough to hold me over while I live here. I’m a bit of a BBQ snob being from the South but I was very pleased that they had a vinegar-​based sauce. Hallelujah someone has the sauce I love. The sweet tea was decent, not my mothers but it will do. I had the pulled pork, potato salad (great!), baked beans that were immediately consumed by my 4 yr old and the cornbread. Their cornbread is legit! Again, it’s not the best BBQ I’ve ever had but this will be my ‘bbq place’ while I live here. Will for sure be back soon!

One star too many! :(Excessive health violations! «Cook» tested the MICROWAVED meat with her BARE HANDS! Dishwasher not handling «clean utensils» by handles. Place is filthy. FOOD is terrible! The pork pulled sandwich was DRY, CHEWY and COLD. The BBQ sauce and cole slaw was TASTELESS!
I’ve yet to find a good smoked BBQ place here in Virginia. Living in Arkansas for many years, I really love the deep south BBQ. North Carolina BBQ crushes Virginia by a long shot.
Sorry, never wrote such an awful review but I don’t believe in sugar coating when the public has a right to know the truth. This was a 2^nd chance at this place too.
I think the original owners would be disgusted too.
DID I MENTION THEY MICROWAVE THEIR FROZEN MEAT AND CHECK IT WITH THEIR BARE HANDS!!!
Cut your losses and close shop before the health department does! :(

This is the best BBQ in the state hands down.
The prices are amazing, the food is amazing and the portions are huge. We mentioned to the waitress that it was our first time going there, and she began bringing out extra food, beyond the already huge amounts of food we had been served. She let us try the pulled chicken, the green beans, their awesome cole slaw and delicious potato salad. There was not a single item that was less then stellar.
Bottom line: GO HERE FOR GREAT BBQ

Like others have said, they sure turn out a bland, dry, and thoroughly unremarkable BBQ pork sandwich. That said, the hush puppies are pretty darn good. Not much else to say except for this little rant.
I grew up in the heart of eastern NC BBQ country, and have eaten at around a dozen BBQ joints in that half of the State alone. Chopped pork in NC means that it is pulled and then CHOPPED, it does not mean minced down to the consistency of sawdust. Allman’s is the third BBQ place I’ve been to in Virginia where, when I ordered chopped BBQ pork, I received pork so finely minced as to almost be like BBQ dust! This is a TERRIBLE idea Virginia! Your barbecue is so universally bad as it is, why, oh why, do you feel the need to chop it down to the mpoint where all the moisture is leached out, and when placed on a sandwich, the stuff just falls out, all over the place!!! There is an art to chopped pork, just as there is with so much about BBQ, and neither Allman’s nor just about any BBQ place I’ve eaten in Virginia seems to have any clue how to do much any of it any justice.
On the plus side, the service was friendly and the interior is pretty charming — it feels like you may have time traveled a bit back to the ‘50s and early ‘60s. But the barbecue? Really, really, really mediocre.