Galax Smokehouse

If you are in town try this place. Nothing fancy but Good food and fast service. Tried the pull pork, not disappointed at all. Great portions. Their sauces are great too.

Very cute place… nice folks… food not the greatest.

We have made this our traditional stop after we’ve hiked some trails for the day. Tami W is the best. Great service and great personality.

My husband ordered pulled pork and he was pleased they had a good variety of sauces including Alabama White sauce. He got cole slaw (chopped tiny) and fried potatoes which turned out to be chips. I got the ribs with beans and macaroni salad. All were very good. We don’t live nearby but we’ll go back there when we’re in the area.

The pulled pork sandwich was very good, and the Texas brisket chili was very beefy. Service was quick and prices were good. Great place to eat and close to the Visitor Center and parking.
Try the molasses based sauce, it had a nice sweetness with a kick!

Best waitress and bbq I have had in a long time at any restaurant. Tammy was the best. I cannot wright a review as good as the pulled pork. Brisket and ribs good as well. Definitely will be visiting this spot again.

All 6 of us loved eating here. We shared our entrees & sides, and we all loved everything. The pulled pork was great, and some of the sides were especially good as well (smoked mashed potatoes, corn fritters, hush puppies, and homemade chips). Highly recommended!

great BBQ & atmosphere. go here & to the Rex on a Friday night!

Great food. So different from your expectation of a Southern Barbecue joint, this place really does know how to smoke meats. Quite a variety of meats and styles.
Serves barbecue that has’t been chewed by someone before you.

The sides were good, the banana pudding was ok. Service was good atmosphere was fine. What was lacking was smoked meat. We ordered the appetizer sampler, and there was not one piece of bark or a hint of a pink smoke ring on any of the meat. The «brisket» tasted like plain roast beek, and it was chopped. I have never seen a BBQ joint chop brisket. Rotisserie chicken from the grocery store has more flavor. The pulled pork was just like what we do in the crock pot at home when we don’t want to fire up our smoker and the rib tips came covered in sauce, oddly the only meat that comes sauced. Probably because it tasted like its boiled. This place may boil, bake, microwave, roast, toast or fry their meat. But they don’t smoke it and it dang sure aint a smokehouse.

This was my second visit and I was severely disappointed. Sunday afternoon around 2:00 pm and restaurant is about half full. After taking our order our waitress informs us they are out of hushpuppies/​corn nuggets. BBQ plates arrive. BBQ pork is average (have had better from Food Lion). Beans are bad (hard to mess up beans). Cole slaw us mediocre (KFC or LJS is much better).
Add insult, it takes 20 minutes to check out because credit card machine is down and the table of 12 beside us all have individual checks.
Never again. Over rated.
Updated — after getting home, I had the worse heartburn ever. I think they must use liquid smoke (there was no bark on any of the BBQ). My dining partner was sick later. Beware

Came here for lunch a month ago during the week. Was first customer in. Staff were friendly. Ordered the pulled pork sandwich. Sandwich had _​no_​bark on it. After a few minutes, I was able to get the manager’s (co-owner’s?) attention and advised, and asked if I could perhaps get a little bark to put to my sandwich. He understood. He and the cook started looking around, he stated something about there not being much bark in that batch. I’ve smoked plenty of pork shoulders, I’ve never been lacking in bark. That was the last I saw of him-didn’t come back to explain, offer, or apologize. The food was average.

Very reasonable prices. Friendly staff. The pulled pork was very good and the sauces I tried were great. The only thing I was mildly disappointed in we’re the sides. I had mashed potatoes and baked beans and they were only «ok».

Stopped in on my way through town for lunch. Service was excellent. I got the $ 8 pulled pork sandwich special with coleslaw and two hush puppies. Food was excellent. Their sauces ranged from sweet and spicy to vinegar based. BBQ was so good I got a pound to go. Highly recommend to anyone who loves BBQ as much as I do.

AMAZING FOOD! Great customer service too!

We stopped here on a drive from Charlotte to the mountains of VA. My husband googled searching for the best barbeque during our route and came up with this place. We ended up getting the appetizer sampler and sharing it for lunch — it was PLENTY of food.
This place is in the heart of their ‘downtown’ area and was surprisingly large with plenty of seating. It looked like it had been here for decades with all kinds of quirky pig-​themed decorations. It’s clearly a hit with the locals. Every meat we had was great, the hush puppies were fantastic and these corn fritter things they had were so delicious. They also have 4 types of sauces at your table — I had some of every type. Something for everyone.
The only complaint I have, is oddly enough, the brisket which was one of our meat choices. It was recommended online and by the server. It was dry, tough and chewy. In truth, had we not dumped sauce all over it, it would have been inedible. Otherwise, the rest of the meats were good. I just don’t recommend the brisket…
All in, we left for under $ 20 and had full bellies. It was good — not quite Smithfield’s good, but good. If I could, I would give it 3.5 stars — it’s not quite a 4 but I would go back if I were driving through.

We went in about 6 on a Friday night. There was a good crowd but tables were available; service was timely and pleasant. My choice in BBQ is ribs and they had one kind of ribs so I took a half slab. My wife likes pulled pork sandwiches and had one of those.
When I ordered a half slab, six bones, I was concerned it would be a small portion but when it came it was a large portion; I looked forward to enjoying every morsel. But when I bit in, they were bland ribs. I started to feel this would be more than enough. I tried all their sauces and none made the ribs tasty to me. Someone has pointed out they don’t fall off the bone. That is true but if they were tasty that would not matter to me. Very disappointing. For sides I got BBQ beans and slaw. I liked the slaw, the beans were good but more sweet than BBQ flavored. My wife said her pulled pork was good but nothing special; she did like the potato salad.
I don’t know whether we’ll be back to Galax but I doubt we’ll be back to the Galax Smokehouse.

I debated between two and three stars on this one.
This is a restaurant I want to love. The area and people are awesome. The service here is upbeat and everyone is happy and genuine.
But I’ve just had better barbeque. When you’ve had great barbeque, nothing else compares. Perhaps I’ve set impossible standards for anyone else to compare. The burger is smoked — I don’t care for smoky flavors. My father wasn’t impressed by the food either.
Tip: the bottle that looks like ketchup is not ketchup. You must ask for it.
2 stars for food
5 stars for ambiance
5 stars for service

I’ve been to a heck of a lot of BBQ spots across the US. All the best over the last decade. My visit to Galax Smokehouse came in spring of 2013 as we were in town filming a fishing video at a nearby stream. In fact, we were there when news broke of the Boston Marathon bombing. Locals swore by Galax Smokehouse and if you are somehow cruising through Galax, it’s a great place to try and brings much local flare. It’s as far from a chain experience as you can get.
If you’ve been to Dreamland in Alabama, Jim N Nick’s any of the popular Memphis/​KC BBQ spots, Galax is a notch down from them, but it’s much, much better than places like Dickey’s BBQ Pit. In fact, some of the sauces were so tasty I bought a box of them and brought them back to CA to share with friends. They continue to ask my when I’m driving through Galax so I can replenish their depleted stash.
I can’t speak for anything other than the pork and chicken, both of which were good. The pork came cooked with excellent taste as did the chicken and add the flavor of their local sauces to them and it’s a sure winner. My friend is from Cadillac, Michigan and couldn’t stop eating, as the BBQ here was the best he’d had, to date. Personally, he enjoyed the corn nuggets and Brunswick stew.
Even if you’ve been to one of the Travel Channel’s best BBQ spots, you won’t be disappointed with the experience here. And, it blows away the platter of fast food spots available within minutes of the interstate.

**************Good Service**************
I’ve never been much of a fan of BBQ, so I suppose even if I’ve had the best BBQ in the world I still wouldn’t particularly like it… just personal preference, but here goes my review.
The restaurant is located in the center of town. I don’t know if Galax has an «old town» and a «new town» but if it does, this is in the «old town» part (very cute by the way). It has a bunch of pictures of the town from «back in the days» and they’re actually really cute. It give the place real character.
Our server was extremely nice and helpful. We all had the pulled pork sandwich. The Mr. thought it was «ok,» the Son thought it was «good.» And thought it was «meeehhhjj» a bit dry.
Again, I’m not big on pork, smoked meats and BBQ. I did like the fact that you could add your choice of sauce, since I don’t like my meat mixed in with the sauce, so that was a plus.
All-​in-​all I like the appearance/​character of the restaurant and the service is great. I will certainly be returning and trying different things so maybe I’ll find something I really like, but so far I give it only:
3 stars for food
4 stars for ambiance
5 stars for service