BubbaQue’s

Took a friend here for his birthday yesterday, he’d raved about the place when they opened. He has significantly backed off that opinion after repeated visits and feedback he’s heard from coworkers and such.
He ordered pulled pork and two sides he’d tried already, knowing ahead of time that he wouldn’t like them. All the sides they have, and not one healthy alternative as he pointed out. No crock-​potted green beans, no collards, nothing. Cole slaw soaked in white stuff doesn’t count as healthy. Both of us just ordered water, because I’d read here that they can’t do sweet tea right (and my friend backed this up). I looked and looked at the menu, saw pulled pork and baby back ribs, but not a pulled pork St Louis ribs combo. I ordered one anyway (yeah I know restaurants hate when people order off the menu, but it was a simple change I thought). The girl looked at me and said sorry, they don’t offer that. I asked if it was extra, she said no, they just couldn’t do it. I said ‘so there is no way in this whole wide world that those two items could possibly be put on the same plate?’ and she said no. The girl at the next register looked up and asked what the problem was, and girl #1 said ‘oh, he just wants the pulled pork with St Louis instead of Baby Backs’. Girl #2 said ‘yeah, they are the same price’ and looked at me and said ‘what’s the problem?’. I shrugged my shoulders and said I didn’t know, it must be against the law, and she must have picked up that Girl #1 was being a soup nazi. So Girl #2 reached over, pushed buttons on the register, and told Girl #1 she’d just have to go in the back and tell them to switch it. I said I didn’t want to get anyone fired, and was told it wasn’t a big deal. Apparently it was though. To Girl #1’s credit, I did see her go to the back afterwards, I assume to tell them of the change.
We sat down, our food was brought to us rather quickly. I knew not to get the mac and cheese because of what I read here, and again my friend backed that up — they can’t get mac and cheese right. I had the beans and picked the pork out of it — the rest was just meh. None of the sauces they have could have saved them. They didn’t get pork and beans right. On to whatever the Bubba Stew was supposed to be — it was meh.
On to my main course, which by the way was $ 17.99 (I guess I was pretending it was my birthday, too). I got a pile of pulled pork that was probably enough to cover 1.5 pieces of the bread they bring you. Not a lot at all, even if I’d only paid $ 7.99. And then on top of them were four meager dried ribs. Four. I looked over to the guy at the table next to me and wondered what he’d ordered, because it was a huge stack. I’ll bet he didn’t pay $ 17.99.
Eventually Girl #2 comes out and asks how everything is (shouldn’t there be a manager on duty doing this? Never saw any type of authority figure). I pointed at the guy next to me and asked what he’d got. She said those were the St Louis ribs. She then looked at my plate and realized I’d gotten the baby backs. She ran to the back and brought out about 5 St Louis ribs, and apologized. I said ‘no big deal, but for &17.99…’ at which point she offered to go get me more if I’d wanted. That was a nice acknowledgement. Too bad she doesn’t work in the kitchen. And too bad we even had to have the conversation to begin with. My friend told me I was outright robbed.
Now, on to the ribs. They were, and quote me here, Friggin’ Fantastic. I LOVED them. BOTH kinds. The Baby Backs had a dry rub that was to die for (in my opinion). The St Louis were moist and pulled right off the bone. The pulled pork was great too, especially with the thinner vinegar-​based sauce. I hear the turkey is excellent.
Let’s go back to the scoreboard:
–Can’t do sweet tea right.
–Can’t do pork and beans right.
–Can’t do (insert side item here) right.
Not being able to do sweet tea right? Huh? Or beans? Or mac and cheese? These are fundamental staples of BBQ joints across this great nation of ours. I’ve had awful BBQ but savored the sides at more than one BBQ joint. Messing up on sides but getting the meats oh so right just doesn’t add up. THIS IS A VERY, VERY EASY FIX. Why not bump up the effort here, just a bit?
If I return, and I probably will, I’ll just order a pound of meat and that’s it. But I will go home, drop it on my bathroom scale, and head straight back if it doesn’t weigh a pound. Oh, and most of the sauces were pretty good — though I tire of the trend to use the word ‘heat’ when there ain’t none. Seating was okay but we were at a high top table and it felt like everyone was eavesdropping on us.
I almost wrote this review using the same broken english that Bubba uses, but I do want people to actually read this.
I’m not NOT recommending this place, but I am warning anyone still reading about this place. Like I said, I’ll probably go back, but with my bathroom scale tucked under my arm.

I’ve been to this place a couple of times for lunch now since it’s closer to my job than home. Like Peter M. already mentioned, two really good things about this place is their pulled pork and variety of sauces (especially the vinegar based sauce, which you don’t usually get in this area). Really, all of the meats (chicken, pork, beef, ribs) that I or my coworkers have eaten there have been good at worst (but be aware that the brisket comes with sauce on it already). I also love their brownies, which are just big blocks of slightly doughy chocolate gooey-​ness.
As far as the sides are concerned, they’re not outstanding. The Mac and cheese and French Fries are reminiscent of what you’d get in a good high school cafeteria. The fried Okra is good, if they don’t over fry it too long (they only did that one of the two times I’ve ordered it so far) and if you want ranch, just ask for it. Their Sweet Potato Fries would be pretty good if they were cut in uniform sizes, but the size of the pieces ranges from something that looks like half a McDonalds fry to a full potato wedge. So, of course, the cooking consistency is all over the place.
I like barbecue places to have good sweet tea (I hold most sweet tea at a barbecue place to the standard of the tea at David’s Bar B Q). Unfortunately, the sweet tea here is disappointing. It’s probably some kind of generic store brand. But I’m perfectly fine with drinking soda, especially since they bring your food and refills for you.
They do really go out of their way to make this place look like a redneck family reunion exploded inside it. There’s even a couple of tables that have coolers and truck beds as benches. Thankfully, there’re 3 flat screens on the walls to pay attention to instead of all that.
I’d probably have put this at 4 stars If I could find two sides there that I like instead of just one. But there’s still a few more I haven’t tried.

This restaurant just opened and the food is pretty good for a chain. They best part about it is the ten different sauces that they make with strange names like tractor grease, pine tar, Mississippi mud and so on. The moonshine was my favorite, it is a North Carolina vinegar based sauce which you rarely find at restaurants in Florida.
The pulled pork is quite good and moist and the baked beans are think and have pork in them. I would stay away from the mac and cheese though. The fried okra is quite good and tasted fresh. The toast they serve is weird as it is only toasted on one side and like a soggy piece of white bread on the other. They also offer smoked turkey, St Louis ribs, baby back ribs, chicken and brisket.
When you walk in you wait in line to place your order and then sit down. A server brings out your food and walks around yelling out your name in order to find you, which is sort of strange. They also over do it on the fake redneck misspelled words.