Countryside Bar-B-Que

Working in the mountains today, I came across this BBQ restaurant. Being married to a Texan, I was torn between the pork option and beef. So, I thought I’d use this experience as a taste comparison. First, the pork was excellent. It had just enough to fat to make it slight moist. It was great!!! The beef brisket was smoked to perfection! Wow! And it it got my wife’s lone star approval ;-). Another great recommendation if you’re traveling in Marion just east of Asheville. One interesting note, the POTUS ate here in 2011; so at least we have one thing in common!

Great ribs! Had a half rack special, smoked perfectly and fell off the bone. Got Mac and cheese and applesauce as sides. Mac was decent, applesauce was jarred– meh. I was really hoping for homemade apple sauce because of the orchards/​local apples sold around here. Attentive service. Will return if in the area.

Followed sign off I40. A mile, turn right at first light then on left. Walk in seat yourself, greeted right away. Enjoyed fresh pork bbq and chicken combo. No need for sauce, but saucepan warm bbq sauce provided for dipping or pour over. Hush puppies were plentiful and tasty. Family atmosphere with country music softly playing in background. Hospitality is great — as a first timer, not a local, I felt cared for and welcome. Learned three in kitchen and one in dining room have been here from the start, 25 years! That translates into a good dining experience. Check them out, you’ll be glad you did!

Every time I have had food from here I have gotten sick. The only time we go Jere is when a group wants to. The food is so bland, it tastes prepackaged and under seasoned. It gives BBQ a bad name.

What a great find! Spur of the moment trip to the mountains and needed to stop for breakfast. Just what we wanted! Food was wonderful and the service was excellent! Really cute place… very clean. I highly recommend the Pecan Pancakes!!!

Great food, great staff. Delicious barbecue! Go Tuesday, Friday or Saturday for the ribs. Our favorite stop before getting to Asheville.

The service was great. I had a half slab of ribs and my husband had a hamburger. The ribs were great and the BBQ sauce was delicious. Straight forward old fashion meals.

Go here and never be disappointed. They have great barbecue, and an awesome Sunday buffet. It is a place you definitely want to visit a couple times if you can while in Marion.

The Chopped BBQ is a giant serving of pork shoulder with two sides ($ 8.95). Moist but not fatty. Slight smoke flavor. Low bark content.
The pork is both pulled and chopped. A thick tomato based sauce with kick is provided in addition to the vinegary, peppery based liquid sauce in a jar. Both are excellent.
Buttered corn and fine chopped cole slaw accompany.
Quick service. Polite servers. Ribs served Tuesday nights only until they’re gone.

Sooo tired of Mexican. So my car drove me to Countryside today. Special on the board — Grilled marinated spicy chicken with Ghost cheese. Okay. What is Ghost cheese? Is it a Halloween joke? Did someone misspell Goat cheese? Did someone use a ghost shaped cookie cutter on some cheese? The waitress went and asked. «The chicken is already spicy but the Ghost cheese is like pepper jack with Ghost Peppers». Sure, I’ll bite, but you’ve scared me, so please put the cheese on the side. Tasted them seperately then decided to just slap that cheese on there and go for it. People around me probably thought I was having a heart attack. Sweaty forehead, heavy respiration, drinking a gallon of sweet tea… It was indeed hot, very hot. It danced along that fine line between «burns so good» and «Oh God make it stop!». Nice!!! Kudos to being brave enough to put an item like that on the menu. It’s an hour later and I can now feel my lips again. Now I’m trying to figure out a way to mainline Prilosec OTC. 30 feet of intestines will pay the price later. The food was good, the service fast — in and out in less than 30 minutes.
Fast forward to some internet research — the Ghost Pepper aka Bhut Jolokia was certified the hottest chili pepper on the planet in 2007 in the Guiness Book of World Records.

This is an awesome place for the whole family. Their menu offers many choices.
Everyone in the restaurant was very helpful and friendly. They took our beverage order as soon as we arrived, entrée order shortly after, and after a few sips of tea… the food was on the table. Let me just say, the chicken was falling off of the bone.

– Miserably, sweltering, hot inside the restaurant. They had ceiling fans, but they weren’t turned on. I guess that it felt good to the senior citizens who wear sweaters in July.
–Their «famous» barbecue buffet is only on the weekends. When I learned this, I should have just got up and left right then and there. It would have saved me a lot of aggravation.
– Zero service, as in my waitress took my order and I never saw her again. Some young, apron wearing, dude from the kitchen brought out my food. I had to ask a different waitress, serving other tables, for a drink refill.
– Bad recommendations. Everything that «my» waitress recommended was horrible. To add insult to injury, I saw some nice looking salads on other diner’s tables. Respectable looking seafood, etc., but my she-​devil waitress didn’t tell me about any of their more popular dishes. Thanks a whole lot! I regret any tip that I may have left her. I’m sure that they probably do have some good food items here, if I had only known what to order.
– Crowded with uncouth hillbilly locals, who showed their lack of manners when exiting the parking lot. I had to wait ten minutes for all the Dodge Ram trucks and the Chevy Silverados to leave, before I could finally back out of my parking spot and get the heck out of Dodge. No one had any manners or showed the slightest bit of courtesy.
– Remote location. The place is practically in the middle of nowhere, and not worth finding. I can’t remember a more miserable dining experience — without getting food poisoning.
Their claim to fame is that President Obama ate here on a swing through the state during a presidential campaign. As far as I know, he hasn’t been back to another NC BBQ restaurant. After eating here, I can understand his reaction. I’m never coming back to this joint.

Great local BBQ spot! Service was excellent and the people were very nice. Definitely would stop here again.