Mac’s Speed Shop

Absolutely the worst meal I’ve eaten in years. The shrimp and grits are deplorable, shame on me for ordering them. The wings are horrible and under cooked, way to much fat on them. The BBQ tastes like Castleberry’s in a can only worse. The potato salad has way to much mayo. The French fries suck. The collards are way to sweet. The tab was also $ 92. Never will I grace the place again.

We have tried it out a few times since they opened. Not bad atmosphere, not a place for a lot of conversation usually pretty loud due to the open environment. First time service was alright although order was wrong. They apologized and fixed it. Everything else was great nothing food wise really stood out. Second time we both tried something new. My husband did ribs. He said seasoning was good nothing that made it stand out. Service was good and they were helpful with questions. Third time we tried new menu items Again and did appetizer as well. It came at same time as food and she was apologetic and helpful. It is a fun place to be can play games when it’s warm etc but food does not stand out. Good selection of beers. We usually try what they have new on tap and that is a plus.

When I searched BBQ last night Macs was the 3^rd listing. Done. Smoked wings were awesome. Brisket Philly wrap was OK. Collard greens excellent. I still think the Charlotte location is better. Solidplace though.

Not kid friendly. I wouldn’t ever recommend taking small children in there. They only have a few booths, the rest are high top tables with stools. I also wouldn’t suggest it if you have a bad back or any other physical issue that would prevent you from climbing into those stools. The service was really good. I tried the wings, which were excellent. Price was good too. My husband was not impressed with his Mac and cheese. His hamburger was huge, and juicy, but the price was a bit high. We probably wouldn’t go back unless we have a date night on the bike.

A great place for BBQ!
The food is outstanding and the staff is very friendly.
The place is set up like a sports bar /​restaurant with plenty of flat screen TVs and an impressive selection of beer. During the day it’s a good place for a family outing and at night it’s a good place to catch a game. And I definitely think Mac’s is one of the best places for BBQ!

Mac’s is pretty good. It’s got a cool vibe, lots of great beer on draft and a nicely varied menu with some tasty options. The Greensboro location is sandwiched between Battleground and Grecade in an industrial area. Their parking lot is pretty tiny (and usually filled with bikes), but there is ample street parking in the area.
So far I’ve only been twice, and both have been nice visits. The first was near Halloween, so all the waitstaff was dressed up in costumes, which helped provide a nice and festive atmosphere.
The first visit, I tried their Carolina Beef Brisket and the second time I went with Pulled Pork. Both are terrific in their own right, but the brisket was very very good. Honestly some of the best brisket I’ve had on the east coast! Tender and full of flavor — clearly their menu is telling the truth with the 12 hours in the smoker, since that’s about the only way to achieve that kind of result. The red bbq sauce they finish it with is also very tangy and flavorful, much like a western NC sauce.
While not as stellar as the brisket, the pulled pork was also quite good. There are better options in the area (because North Carolina), but if you’re here with a bigger party who didn’t want pulled pork, you’ll feel satisfied. It’s tender and juicy, and Mac’s has a number of different sauces to season your bbq to your preference.
I think it’s a definite winner and will be a popular joint in Greensboro for quite some time.

It was late on a Friday afternoon that we decided to go to Mac’s Speed Shop. When we walked in we were greeted with a smile. Since it’s a bar, we headed to the bar, Hello??? This is where we met our bartender, Heather Lemon. They call her Lemon. She was cheerful, helpful and always had a smile. She made our dining experience superb.
To start, we ordered the small smoked sausage sampler. You have a choice of two sausages, so we ordered the kielbasa and andouille. The mustard dipping sauce was my favorite and hit the spot on both sausages. The difference between the two was the pine flavor. The andouille tasted like the smell of pine. It was lightly aromatic in flavor. Very fitting for this time of year.
We also enjoyed some hush puppies. They are oh so moist and battered just the right amount. They almost melt in your mouth. I am very picky about my barbecue joints and these hush puppies take the cake.
Next up I ordered the smoked chicken nachos with guacamole and my husband ordered the beer can chicken with collard greens and mac and cheese. Don’t you just love that name… beer can chicken.
When it arrived to the table, a mound of goodness was placed before me. The chips were salted just enough. On top of these chips were everything you could ever want and more. Oh, and there were huge cups, excuuuuse me, I mean bowls of salsa and guacamole. Golden!!!
My husband’s quarter size beer can chicken was moist with just the right amount of smoky flavor. He chose no sauces. Also, his chicken was not pink. The macaroni and cheese tasted like my moms baked mac and cheese. It brought me back in time. And the collards were cooked with bacon. You can’t go wrong with bacon! It had a sweet and salty flavor.
They have a great beer tap selection. Some to name a few for you craft beer connoisseurs are Pre-​Game Unknown Brewing, Ballast Point Sculpin, Dale’s Pale Ale by Oskar Blue’s Brewing Co. and the Tangerine Wheat by Lost Coast Brewery.
On our way out, I got a «Mac’s Speed Shop To Go» cup. I love my «To Go» cups. You never know when you’ll need one. Each future sip, will bring back fun memories.
If you’re in the mood to eat and share some food with your friends while watching your team on all the large screen TV’s, this is your place. This lively place will provide a fun environment with great customer service and lots of delicious food.
Enjoy my friends!

My wife and I went Friday night for the first time. The food was very good, prices were reasonable. The beer selection was very good.

It’s hard to open up and BBQ joint and carve a niche for yourself in NC, but I think Mac’s does it nicely. First off, it’s created a great atmosphere. Big, wide-​open restaurant that used to be a repair shop, which fits the auto theme well. Outdoor patio has games, a stage, an open air bar, and TVs. Great place to bring a crowd.
As for the food, it delivers. The pork is smokey, and flavorful. Mac’s wisely lets you choose the sauce, with several on the table so that eastern, western, and even the mustard crowd can be pleased. I ordered an appetizer of the smoked wings, and they were unreal. Fall off the bone, smokey, and delicious with the chipotle BBQ sauce.
Give Mac’s a try, they’re a nice addition to Greensboro.

This motorcycle-​themed regional chain opened its garage doors back in August, giving the likes of Stamey’s, Smokey Bones, and Shane’s Rib Shack another competitor. While the more established presences needn’t start quaking in their boots, Mac’s has demonstrated popularity and staying power despite some flaws in its execution.
Housed in a former repair shop, Mac’s picked a good location for its biker bar motif. There is a surprising amount of space here, but be forewarned: it does get quite loud. If the constant stream of chatter and 80s hard rock doesn’t faze you, then it is still possible to enjoy your time here, but be prepared to speak up if you want to be heard.
For such a boisterous, bustling operation, Mac’s service is much better than expected. We showed up on a Saturday night to a nearly packed house yet still had no trouble getting a table. Our order was placed correctly — sans noise-​related miscues — and our food arrived surprisingly quickly. The staff appear to be well-​trained to handle the volume.
The food itself is a decidedly mixed bag. We started with an order of tabasco fried pickles, and the peppery kick elevated this above comparable offerings elsewhere. With an eye toward leftovers, we moved on to a four-​meat combo platter: brisket, sausage, pulled pork, and ribs. All of the meats were cooked well, and none were dried out. The brisket, ribs, and sausage were nicely flavored. The pork was a bit on the bland side, but that was nothing an application of sauce (choose from among red, Carolina, mustard, or vinegar) couldn’t fix. The sides, on the other hand, fared worse. The green bean casserole tasted OK, but the texture was unpleasantly mushy. A homestyle mac and cheese was buttery but not particularly cheesy. Sweet potato fries and coleslaw left no room for complaint, but unlike the app, they weren’t standouts either.
While the pricing here doesn’t scream value, the portion sizes are actually quite generous. For $ 4, we got a very full basket of pickles. The $ 28 combo platter miraculously fit on one dish but still yielded plenty of leftovers.
With the right set of expectations, Mac’s appeal isn’t difficult to fathom. Come here expecting a quiet meal of top-​notch barbeque, and you’ll hate this place. Show up willing to abide the noise for the sake of decent food, and you’ll motor away satisfied.

I’ve been to this small franchise before. I went to the one in Charlotte first. This place is about the same as the one in Charlotte. I’ve always like this place. The food is always good to me. It’s a bar type of place with a lot of tvs and plenty of alcohol. The place doesn’t have but four booths. Most of the seating arrangement are bar stools so if your back is strong you will be ok. The place is super loud so be prepared to yell to talk with anyone you bring with you. Also you will be very close to people because the seats and tables are close together. This place is garage type of building which I think is pretty cool. One thing to keep in mind is the parking area is rather small so once it gets packed parking is gonna be hard to find. It’s pretty popular so just make sure you pick the right time to eat here.

Mac’s Speed Shop is kind of like a commercialized facsimile of a biker bar that serves barbecue. I have to say straight away that I feel like the food takes a back seat to the atmosphere of the restaurant, being much like a loud Buffalo Wild Wings if they specialized in barbecue instead of wings. Likewise, the food is okay — about as good as any chain restaurant — but unless you like being in the type of environment they provide, you can easily find other decent barbecue for less money.
That said, if you are destined for a visit to Mac’s, my suggestion would be to order the Beer Can Chicken ($ 9 for a quarter chicken, $ 12 for a half). The platter comes with Texas toast and two sides, as well as your choice of white or dark meat. I got dark meat, which meant two legs, and the chicken was moist with nice smoky flavor, particularly in the skin. You can order the chicken naked, or get it dressed with one of their many sauces. I got my meal with their VTX chipotle sauce on the side and found it to be an imperfect complement, adding some welcome heat but also unwanted sweetness. For my sides I tried the cheddar grits and the creamed corn. The grits were passable, but not quite creamy, and a bit undersalted. The creamed corn, though, was weird and not to my liking. Besides containing hard, unsweet kernels, the cream sauce sported celery, a confusing and repellant addition I’d suggest they omit.
The other dish I tried was the Pulled Pork BBQ platter ($ 11 for the small platter, $ 13 for the large). The pork was acceptable but not especially remarkable. Although the meat had been cooked in a smoker, it had little flavor to show for it, really just acting as a carrier for the variety of sauces they provide at each table. My preference, to my surprise, was their SC barbecue sauce, in which mustard predominates. The vinegar sauce, which I expected to be my favorite, was too uninteresting, tasting of just vinegar and black pepper. The NC barbecue sauce was a bit better with its tomatoey flavor, but it still lacked punch. Worst was the red sauce, though, which was just watery. For my sides I chose collard greens and green bean casserole. The collards were pretty good — they were chopped fine and doctored with both vinegar and sugar to eliminate all of their inherent bitterness, although I would prefer to taste a little of that in greens. The green bean casserole was another story. Inappropriately hard beans mixed with a mucky, bland glop made for a totally unappetizing item bound for the trash can. Prior to the meal, they had brought out complimentary hush puppies, and these were not bad, being light and slightly sweet. The curveball, however, was that they served them with ketchup — a pairing I’d never encountered before, and with good reason.
There’s one last thing I should mention here, and that’s that almost all of the seating at Mac’s is stools at high top tables. While they’re less uncomfortable than I thought they’d be, I still much prefer a lower table. There are only four booths in the whole restaurant, and they are poorly stabilized — such that when someone moves in the booth behind you, your seat teeters significantly. It was very annoying and difficult to ignore. As such, there are literally no places I actually want to sit in this restaurant, and that’s totally divorced from my feelings about their food. This alone makes me want to avoid this place.
Overall, between the environmental factors and the mostly mediocre food, Mac’s Speed Shop fails to get my motor going. Nonetheless, certain people who love the vibe will flock here to chow down and knock back some beers while watching sports with their crew, so if that’s your style, swing by and see how Mac’s sits with you.

I have mixed feelings on this restaurant. First, I like the outdoor garage feel of the parking lot. It adds character. The service was good and fairly prompt, but apologetic it took them so long to get to our table. No worries, as she was on her game the rest of the meal. The hush puppies before the meal are a nice switch up from regular bread. Plus, they have several BBQ dipping sauces that I found myself trying with the puppies. I ordered dry rub wings, while my husband ordered a burger and fries. The wings were huge! I ate three of them before getting full (along with hush puppies and veggies). This was a personal preference but I didn’t particularly care for the taste of the wings. They had a strong smoky taste to them, which I don’t care for to begin with. But my husband liked them and my daughter ate the leftovers with no issues. My husband’s burger was huge as well. He couldn’t finish it and that’s definitely saying this place serves a «man’s burger.»
What I didn’t like about the restaurant is that it’s noisy. I get that it’s a biker/​sports bar, but we had to repeat things over and over to each other throughout the meal and to our server. Also, the only tables are tabletops with stools. This is not comfortable when you’re as pregnant as I am. My tush hurt for two days after sitting on that chair for one hour. While a small inconvenience, there wasn’t any where for ladies to hang their purse on the chair. Several women, myself included, had to set it on top of the table or another chair.
I would go back and eat there again. But not until they make some alternate better seating. And I wouldn’t order wings again.

I have been here a few times for lunch and have tried a couple of menu items. The décor is very cool and the TVs are sized nicely for the spot. There is plenty of outdoor space that is heated for the chilly nights.
There are a couple of things that bring me back; the Mac N Cheese, Beans, and Pups are constants on my plates.
I have enjoyed the «Little» Sampler which ain’t little. You can pick 4 meats and I opt for the ribs 3 – 4 bones (nice season, smoke), ½ Beer Can Chicken (Top Notch) Brisket-​a couple of slices (tasty but not tender enough), and sausage (Ok). It comes with a couple of sides and a few pups. This is a large meal, but not inexpensive.
GET THE HOG WINGS App! (Pork Shanks) good smoke, meaty and can be dressed with any sauce or opt for on the side.
Brunswick stew is not that great; it’s basically veggie soup, add a little meat.
The onion rings may not be to some people’s texture or taste, but I am really a fan. The rings are well seasoned, thick cut, and very well battered; nothing flimsy here. They are great to dip in the 5 or so sauces on the tables.
The burgers are purdy and tasty and The Beer Can Chicken has GREAT smoky flavor (again).
All in all, this is a cool spot that is large enough to accommodate a good sized group. I have not been here for dinner and drinks (yet), but I will.

We decided to check this place out on a whim one Thursday night when we were in the area and we were definitely pleasantly surprised. The food is BBQ, done just like you’d anticipate in a chain restaurant but better. The menu is not expansive but still too many choices when everything just looks so good. Our server brought us over some hush puppies to start. Normally I could take them or leave them, but these hush puppies? They were good! Our server recommended dipping them in the sauces left on the table and she was right… O-​M-​G! We couldn’t decide what to order and it was recommended that we share the small sampler platter. Wow! Everything, and I do mean everything, was delicious AND there was plenty left for lunch the next day.
It is important to note that with the exception of a few booth style tables, the seating is mostly high tables and stools, making dining difficult if you happen to be accompanied by someone in a wheelchair or a stroller, or if you have a hard time getting in and out of the high stools. The floors are cement, so if you are dining with an active child, be prepared. Falling off the stool onto the floor is a real possibility and will likely result in an injury.

I was really disappointed in this place, especially after all the hype surrouding its opening. The ambiance is not terribly appealing — it sits in a faux garage and the workers are dressed as though they are mechanics. It is bizarre; gives the whole restaurant a grungy, unclean feel in my opinion. Also, most of the tables are high tops which is really uncomfortable.
The table I ate with started with fried pickles and smoked wings. Both dishes had a lot of potential but just disappointed overall. The flavor of both the wing and the pickles was great — but they were both executed poorly. The skin on the wings was not crispy and the batter on the pickles fell off, leaving you to essentially eat greasy pickles.
I ordered the brisket wrap with onion rings. Again — SO much potential and such terrible execution. The brisket was tender with a hint of smoke flavoring, but it was otherwise flavorless. It desperately needed seasoning. The onion ring was over battered; felt like eating rings of fried dough.
On a positive note, it looked like their beer/​alcohol menu was on point. I did not partake because I was at lunch during the week, but the place might be better suited for a beer.
Otherwise, I won’t be returning anytime soon.

I’d been wanting to try Mac’s since they opened, but hadn’t had a chance, I was close by there yesterday so I called in an order for take-​out, didn’t get to dine in. If you call in an order for take-​out, you pick up and pay for your order at the bar.
Pretty neat place with the garage type theme, the smell of the place was amazing as soon as I pulled in the parking lot, a great bbq smoking aroma filled the air. They’ve got indoor and outdoor seating, but it was raining yesterday so everyone was inside and it was fairly crowded when I stopped around 5pm, they had a pretty good crowd of college football watchers as that is what all the tv’s were tuned to at the time I was there. My order was ready when I arrived about 15 minutes after calling it in, so I was in and out pretty quick.
I had the ½ Beer Can Chicken with macaroni & cheese and collard greens. This was the best chicken I’ve had in a long time from a BBQ place. It was so moist and tender, the meat had a perfect pinkish tint from being in the smoke, had a great smokey flavor, I thought it was outstanding. They offer a ¼ or a ½ on the Beer Can Chicken, I got the ½ which is 2 leg quarters. I really liked the macaroni and cheese also, it was great for me. I’m peculiar when it comes to my macaroni and cheese. It was a little creamy with cheddar cheese baked on top, very good. It’s not a glop of that so called mac-​n-​cheese that tastes like velveeta or mac-​n-​cheese from the freezer like so many places have that I can’t stand. I also had the collard greens, they were a different type than what I was raised on. I’d never had collards that were sweet with sugar like these, they were cooked with smokey pork that gave them a good flavor along with some seasoning that gave them a hint of spiciness, the big sweetness just caught me by surprise, nothing wrong with them, just a taste preference for me, I probably won’t opt for the collard greens when I visit, they have plenty of other things to choose from. The Beer Can Chicken is also served with a slice of untoasted Texas Toast type white bread.
I also picked up a Thunderbird Salad and a Black & Blue Burger with onion rings for a couple of other folks. Both of them said there items were very good, the Black & Blue Burger looked awesome, the one that had it said it was an outstanding burger. I did try an onion ring and it was really good also, really good crunchy batter, they come with a nice dipping sauce, it’s kinda like the sauce you get with a Bloomin’ Onion at Outback, really nice.
I’ll definitel be back to try more from Mac’s.

Had a late lunch at Mac’s last week. We didn’t get there until 1:45 and it was still packed. Did get one of the three booths which was more comfortable than the high stools with all the other tables. The server was nice but didn’t offer us the «complimentary» hush puppies so we asked for them. Had the fried pickles which were very greasy, not a fan, no reorder there. We both had the pulled pork BBQ and it was okay. Almost too soft for my tast. Mac and cheese, onion rings, fries and baked beans were all really good. We’ll go back and try some other items. As other’s have said, it is VERY loud and a bit hard to have a conversation when it’s really busy.

This is a tricky review because we actually didn’t get to eat here today. But I’ve eaten at the one in Charlotte several times and the food is fantastic, so I will assume that’s it’s just as good at this location. The smells coming out of the smokers in back was certainly appetizing. Wish we had been able eat here.
The problem is not being able to get a seat. There are only 4 booths for this large place and all of them were full at 2.30 on a Saturday afternoon. They told us a 10−15min wait, but after about 10min I started looking at the tables and 2 hadn’t even ordered, another had ordered but hadn’t recieved food yet and the last one had just tucked in to their huge platters of BBQ. All the other available seats were high bar tables with backless stools, which wouldn’t work for my Mom and her handicap. So unfortunately we had to pass. We would have waited longer if there had been seating at the waiting area, but there was none. You just had to hang around the door standing on the hard concrete.
Another problem is the lack of handicap parking. They have 2 spaces beside the entrance that are very narrow and bounded by giant steel columns. With large SUV’s parked in the adjoining spaces, it was impossible to get our small Trailblazer SUV into either spot, and I doubt a large sedan would have been able to get in there. A large SUV or wheelchair equipped van would certainly be out the question as well. I can’t fathom how this passed code and what lazy government inspector signed off on this. I was able to find a very close spot to the door by going around back and parking under the shed, so if you have anyone with mobility issues like we did, you should check there for a spot.
As a sports bar and biker hang out, Mac’s is up there with best of them. The atmosphere is lively, lots of tv’s, smoked meats and beer; what’s not to like? If I had come with the guys to grab a couple of cold ones and kill some smoked wings with chipotle sauce, I’m sure this would have been a 4. But as a restaurant for an average family it just falls short. On the other hand, that’s not really what it’s trying to be.
I do look forward to coming back with the guys for some brisket, wings and beers, and I’m sure I will wind up updating this to a 4 or 5. This is just a reflection of our visit today and a heads up for anyone who might stop by with a family group and/​or with special needs and mobility issues.

Lunch was «interesting» — it was obvious that the restaurant staff was still finding its «sea legs». We’ve eaten at some of the other locations, and knew what to expect with both the food and the service. The layouts are all pretty much the same — lots of TVs, plenty of tables in the center fronting the long bar area, a few booths around the sides, some outside seating, plenty of smoked meat choices, and plenty of noise.
We ordered the smaller combo with 4 meat choices (with 2 sides it goes for $ 18), a bowl of Chili ($ 7), and Hot Skins ($ 3.25), and 2 drinks at $ 2.50 each. For the meats on the combo, we chose Beer Can Chicken, Smoked Sausage, Pulled Pork, and Hot Wings, with sides of Cole Slaw and Brunswick Stew. Several minutes later we were told the Hot Wings were not available (seemed rather strange to be off the menu at lunch), so we went for the Brisket
The time for the majority of the order to arrive was right at 30 minutes for everything except the Hot Skins, which came out in something just over 10 minutes, this even though we ask that everything come out at the same time. Meanwhile, we were served complimentary Hush Puppies, which amount to 4 small, overcooked pups
. It took reminding our waitress 3 times that we needed Splenda for the tea.
The food finally came out, and was rather a mixed bag. The Chili was «loaded», coming with cheese, jalapenos and onions. This dish was just OK — there were more beans than meat, and even loaded the taste was rather bland, and the onions were the strong red type — putting that type of onion on a bowl of chili is like putting mustard on ice cream, or ketchup on a hot dog!
The Beer Can Chicken was excellent, lots of smokiness, the meat tender and not at all dry. The Pulled Pork was nice, though a bit dry coming out of the kitchen — there are 4 house BBQ sauces on the table (although 1 is a mustard based SC sauce, and really doesn’t count), and 2 commercial hot sauces (Tabasco & Texas Pete), so some table side adjustment can be made, with either the Vinegar or Carolina Sauce being the better choice for pork, imo.
The Brisket consisted of a single, thin slice, which was flavorful, but considerably less than the most tender I’ve encountered. The sauce on the Brisket is a thick, red sauce with some sweetness, and only a hint of spiciness. The sausage, which I’d enjoyed at other locations, was not as good here — it lacked a strong, smokey flavor, and was rather overcooked, texture chewy. The slaw was solid (slaw’s generally slaw), while the Brunswick Stew was full of ingredients (the potatoes should be fully peeled in BS), but lacked any real flavor, at least not until Texas Pete and the salt shaker stepped in.
This place is one that many will enjoy (the younger probably the better) — lots of TVs, beer choices, smoked meats everywhere, and plenty of loud music. But this is not a place built for comfort or a relaxing meal — the benches are hard wood and a little unstable (if someone or ones heavy sit down behind you, you may end up with a roof top seat), and the music is mind– numbingly loud, and if there was a theme, it eluded me.
I think the food will get better here, and I think the service will get better, and frankly I think it’d better. The 3 stars is probably generous for what we experienced, and we’ll go again (we like smoked meat), but we’d expected to see some improvements.