Moore’s Barbeque

Been coming from Florida, since 1988, with my Mom and sons. Both my parents born in new Bern, as well as myself. My Daddy, CE Mayo, of the police Department, was a motor cycle officer back in 1959. left after his Death, …BUT, couldn’t keep Mama away from him … or MOORES BBQ !! I mean that from my HEART ! not only is the food, the BEST southern BBQ cookin you’ve ever tasted … But the Prices are Unbelievably, inexpensive !!! to keep you coming back for moore !! :) People now days, forget to appreciate ‚…The Good old cookin, from the HEART and SOLE, and share it … without charging some crazy price to enjoy !! Let’s get real,. It’s, Great food !, Relaxed Atmosphere!, Good People!, Awesome Prices! It’s Knowing, when you LEAVE… You are Satisfied, and Happy !! I Hope ‚… or MANY YEARS… EVERYTHING stays the same !!! Sometimes Change,… Is not so good !! MOORES BBQ, Will always be a Special place to eat, for my family… Hopefully for many «MOORE» years to come ! Sincerely, Rhonda Mayo, of Daytona Beach, PS, Tommy is one «Awesome Guy»!! Thank you, Tommy ! xo … For the «NEW GUYS ON THE BLOCK»,…If you do it RIGHT… You won’t change what works ! :) Feb. 19, 2016 Sincerely, Rhonda Mayo XO

Unfortunately, Moore’s Closed last night, 2÷10÷16. It’s my understanding that Moore’s will be back, under new ownership, in several months.

Everyone raves about it. We wont be back. Smithfields is better and gives more for the same amount. Not impressed at all.

We actually killed time at our hotel in New Bern so we could have lunch at Moore’s before driving to Kill Devil Hills. We knew we could not check into our condo anyway until later in the day. We had been in New Bern 2−½ years earlier and were unable to find time for a meal at Moore’s. This time I was determined not to miss it.
We each ordered a barbecue sandwich which comes with slaw. The cost is modest for these nice sized sandwiches. These are a good value and as I write this review a few days later, I could use one right now. I really enjoyed this pure, clean chopped pork. Their sauce is very simple vinegar with some red pepper flakes but not much if any salt and certainly no sweetness. The meat came pretty well dressed with the sauce but I did splash a little more on. I would have liked a little more slaw on a sandwich this size. For future reference, I would just order a side of slaw and adjust it. If I lived in New Bern, I would have one for lunch one day a week for sure. This is classic Eastern NC barbecue.
I also ordered a brisket sandwich. I really did not need this much food, but wanted to see what they were putting out. My advice based on one try is stick to the delicious pork. I admire the old North Carolina joints that focus on one or two things. In this case I cannot give a glowing report on the brisket. You know how sometimes in judging competitions they will sometimes throw out the low and the high and average the remainder? In this case I am throwing out the low, the brisket. I rate Moore’s on what they are in business for and that is the pork. The brisket was just roast beef and not really very good roast beef at that. It did not have much beefy flavor. It was not smoked and I cannot see how it is a beef barbecue. It was not tender and had a significant portions of fat included. It was served on a bun which I did not eat with some tomato based sauce.
A strong four stars for the pork at Moore’s. We won’t discuss the beef any further, leave it to the Texans.

Local gem. Ribs only on Saturdays. The best! All the sides are good also. Great prices.

The epitome of what eastern Carolina bbq should be. I love my Georgia style bbq but when I’m in NC this place is a must go. Vinegar in your bbq might sound disgusting, but I tell you what, this bbq is mighty tasty. Moore’s cooks up bbq like The Varsity in Atlanta does burgers. It’s fast food style, not sit at your table and be waited on. Perfect for me! And yes, the sweet tea is good.

Love it! The service! The quality! The freshness! The brisket flavor defines low and slow!

As not a big BBQ fan, can’t vouch much for the food. However the establishment itself feels dirty.

I’m probably biased b/​c I grew up in NB but I’ve always like Moore’s the best. But these days when I visit NB I usually don’t eat BBQ in the restaurant. I get 5 or 10 lbs and take it home to freeze so that when I’m at home I can get my eastern NC BBQ fix. I get the oysters!!! Loves me some fried oysters and Moore’s really does them well.

The brisket is spot on. I’m not a NC BBQ sauce fan. However, this place so far has the best brisket I’ve ever eaten. The owner is extremely nice and the food is outstanding. You can’t go wrong stopping in for some BBQ.

Great place for BBQ in New Bern, and really in the whole area. We came during the late lunch time and it was still quite busy, but the staff was friendly and the food came out quick.
Pork sandwich was fantastic, as was the sauce — a good punch of vinegar evened out with nice spices. The slaw was fantastic as well. Hush puppies were very good. Fries (crinkle) were good but nothing fantastic.
Prices are very fair for the quality of the food, and you get a ton of it. The restaurant is nothing fancy, but is kept clean. Certainly would return!

BBQ comes in a variety of styles — salads, sandwiches and meat alone. They have fried chicken and an abundance of sides.

First time here for work and I will be honest I’m a bbq snob. The pork was fantastic and prefect blend of Carolina vinegar and meat so it was subtle. The brisket was really tender and flavorful. The stew was very good. My only complaint is they put a a lot of heavy molasses based sauce on the brisket which should be left to the customer to do. Other than that excellent bbq and I’ve eaten all over the south.

How can you get excited about over cooked BBQ? It has down east atmosphere all right but the food is served in styrofoam and little plastic utensils and worst of all is trying to deal with the extra indifferent and rude cashier… Please replace her or put her in the kitchen where she can’t offend customers with her surly attitude. I go there for the brisket which is just Ok.

We got the pulled pork take out combo and 1 lb of chopped brisket and fill slab of ribs. 1^st off, pulled pork and chopped brisket (only way it was available). The food was good.
The only gripe we had was the staff. They were not helpful at all, almost rude.

Nothing could be finer than to eat barbecue in Carolina. And the best dying’s eastern style barbecue there is on the planet is Moores barbecue in new Bern North Carolina
Now I’m a purist so when I go to a barbecue joint I’m not there for the chicken and I’m not there for the crackheads and I’m not there for the potato salad although I know all of that is good at Moore’s I’m there for the Q eastern style pork barbecue. Tommy Moore and his family and team have been making some of the best barbecue for generations now they’ve been making barbecue since 1945.
And to top that they hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest barbecue slaw sandwich it weighed over 1000 pounds wow.
So the next time you want eastern style barbecue Moores barbecue is where you want to get it and when you’re there tell Tommy more John Demers from the Rustybucket kids club TV show said hi.

As a pilot I travel around the country A LOT and eating BBQ is one of my guilty pleasures. This establishment is is far BELOW average, don’t say that roasted chicken with bbq sauce is bbq chicken and the brisket was very gritty. God forbid you order a combo and don’t order it correctly the rude short haired woman behind the register ridicules you.
My recommendation is go to McDonald’s, you going to spend the next 30 minutes in the bathroom anyways so save a few bucks!!!

Thanks to a friendly debate with fellow Unilocaler Fred B. on the best Eastern NC BBQ, I decided to mimic his showdown and rate the cue myself. The showdown consists of testing and rating in order the best Eastern style BBQ via the «BBQ Alley» which is basically a stretch of Highway 70 that makes stops in Goldsboro, La Grange, and then New Bern. You could argue that this may be the best stretch in the state for BBQ. It has merit anyway.
Like Fred B. I bought a pound each of chopped BBQ at Adams in Goldsboro ($ 8.99), Wilber’s in Goldsboro ($ 9.35), McCalls in Goldsboro ($ 10.66), Ken’s Grill in La Grange ($ 7.50), and finally Moore’s in New Bern ($ 8). I will use this preface for each review. I did a review on each place like we typically do for Unilocal.Then to really make this a showdown, my parents and I tasted these BLINDLY by a number and ranked them. To really sell it, we each tested it twice blindly just to make sure we got the same ranking for our favorites. We did. So each place will have a normal review, and then our blind taste test ranking. We are super excited to do this.
Review:
Neat place in New Bern. It has a sign for some Guinness World Record thing which I don’t know much about but I think whatever it is speaks for itself. You could probably Google this and find out why. They obviously use wood as indicative of the large wood stack in the back. It isn’t as hole in the wall as other places but it is still much like a small diner.
I met the owner as he saw me taking pictures. We chatted a bit and he gave me a hat. I also met a manager. I think his name was Brian. They were happy I was Unilocaling and generally seemed interested in what I was doing. Glad people care and are outgoing enough to get out and talk to people.
The BBQ is excellent here. Of the five places we sampled, we thought this BBQ had the smokiest flavor. We thought that the smokiness was the prominent flavor in this BBQ. Yes there was some vinegar and pepper taste, but this clearly was secondary. The smokiness however was excellent. We noticed the coloring of the pork was lighter than the rest of the places sampled. We didn’t know if they used a different part of the pig or why this was. We also thought the texture was a tad finer than the rest. None the less, very good and a reorder!
The smell of friend seafood emanated from here and that sounds like something worth trying.
Blind Test Smackdown:
Remember, we tasted all these blindfolded and ranked them after we tried them all. It is amazing what you pick when you can’t use the sense of sight. We agreed that all were excellent and this is a matter of taste preference and nothing more, as Fred B. mentioned. We would all eat the BBQ at each place without question again. It is a matter of what you like and when. This is how our blind test went in order of preference:
Me: Moores, McCalls, Kens, Adams, Wilber’s
Mom: McCalls, Wilber’s, Kens, Adams, Moores
Dad: Adams, Wilber’s, Ken’s McCall’s, Moores

Had not eaten at this venerable (been around since the mid 1940’s) Eastern NC BBQ joint in a number of years, so today we set it as the eastern most point in our latest barbecue run into the Eastern part of the state.
Nothing fancy here — fast food ordering style, functional eating area with colorful tables and basic diner type chairs, paper plates and plastic forks & spoons, house sauce and Texas Pete on the tables. They still cook the whole hog, and they cook with wood, real wood, at least 50% of the time — they do use electric too. Go around back, on the right side of the restaurant, and you will see one of the largest stacks of wood in the Eastern part of NC.
We tried the chopped pork in combo with BBQ Chicken, dark meat (around $ 7.50) with slaw and HPs. The pork is tender, moist, with a touch of smokiness, and it is well sauced out of the kitchen, giving the meat some really nice heat — similar in that aspect to B’s, Ken’s, Doug Saul’s, and Howard’s. This is just fine Eastern NC BBQ — few do it better. The house sauce on the table is super, some of the best Eastern style you’ll find.
The BBQ Chicken is very good, not quite up with the pork. The chicken is moist & tender, and the sauce is rather thick & red, but is not overly sweet, like much you encounter. They also serve some great Fried Chicken here. The mayo based slaw is nice, the HPs are really great — just a hint of sweetness, nice cornmeal flavor. The FFs are not good at all.
Also tried a small fried seafood combo of Trout and Shrimp ($ 7.99) and this also was very nicely done. The Trout was fresh tasting, great texture, perfectly fried. The Shrimp were somewhat larger than popcorn shrimp, which I prefer, but they were also fresh tasting, well fried. They also serve some very nice Beef Brisket here, and Ribs on Saturdays.
Friendly, efficient service here, and the time fot your order to come out of the kitchen is short. Took 2 pounds of chopped pork and 2 bottles of sauce home, wont hold till we can get back, but it’s a start.

One of the all-​time great traditional eastern NC BBQ joints sits on the side of Highway 17 north of Jacksonville, NC, on the south edge of New Bern. It’s shredded pork BBQ with the vinegar based sauce, just the way the good lord intended it to be: NOT AWASH in vinegar, just a light, barely there tinge. Hush puppies done right, good cole slaw, delicious, refreshing, properly sweet, not nauseatingly overly sweet (You hear me Smithfield’s!). BBQ chicken, fried local shrimp and flounder, and fried trout, fish sandwich and shrimp burger pretty much round out the menu. People will drive a fair distance for Moore’s barbeque — and it’s well worth it,
P. S. And it is «barbeque» at Moore’s and primarily among my people in general, no matter what this heathen spell-​check says (though you will find «bar-​b-​cue» and «barbecue» even on some of Moore’s own old billboards.
See their web site at:
for full menu and photos of the 2010 Guinness Book record setting BBQ serving event!