Bar-B-Q King

The BBQ fried chicken is amazing and completely lived up to all the excellent reviews. I stopped here on my way back to Ohio, just to try the chicken! The sweet tea was perfect too. Fantastic! Staff was very friendly, prices are great too. I’ll stop again the next time I’m in Charlotte :)

This restaurant is absolutely amazing. Hands down, the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. The bbq fried chicken is just outstanding, and the skin is crispy, and the bbq sauce has a subtle flavor that compliments the chicken perfectly. Also, for dessert, get the apple pie with ice cream. The best apple pie I’ve ever had in my life!!!

I hit lunch here about once a month (a bit of a drive from work) and have always went with their famous BBQ dipped fried chicken platter. However I mixed it up and went with 2 of their hot dogs «Carolina Style» and I have say, one of the best hog dogs around. I got these as take-​out so the bun was a little soggy when I got back to work (but most people will eat these in the parking lot). The slaw, chili, onions, and mustard combination over a big boiled dog = A+

Excellent customer service very friendly staff.
Food is awesome. Highly recommend their barbque sandwich its mouth watering awesome.

Fire flames. Hard to have a complaint here, came down from NY to visit a friend at Wake Forest so we ventured over o Charlotte for a day and boy was this good. Chicken, Pulled Pork, fries, hush puppies, all for like under $ 10. The only tough part was taking down all that grizzy grub in a backseat. Flavortown, USA.

Came here after reading the reviews and had high high expectations for the BBQ fried chicken. It was good but not great. I would probably prefer the regular fried chicken as the meat was very tender and juicy. It’s definitely a throw back place and very similar to South 21 here in Charlotte. Bring cash as they don’t accept cards and this is a drive in so good is brought by car hop.

3^rd time here even though I live in Oregon, I saw this on triple d one night. The food is homemade and fresh. The fried chicken is very good, which I had on my first 2 visits. On the visit I got the west side burger and onion rings. One of the best burgers I’ve ever had and the rings are great, no frozen deep fried rings here! They are fresh and crisp. I’ll be back.

First of all, I LOVE fried chicken! I saw this place on Diner’s, Drive-in’s, and Dives. Everything I saw looked awesome, but what really sold it for me was when they took that juicy, crunchy, delicious piece of chicken and dunked it in the BBQ sauce.
When we were in Charlotte one weekend I knew what needed to be done. We had lunch at Bar-​B-​Q King with high expectations because of what we saw on TV. I will definitely tell you from experience that it is a must to come eat here. I ordered the bbq dipped chicken with onion rings. The chicken was very moist and flavorful. The sauce that it was dipped in complimented it very well. Onion rings were crunchy and not greasy. I hate when you bite into an onion ring and the whole onion comes out and you’re left with just the batter. These did not do that.
Coming here was a great experience. Very old school. Drive up and order by pushing a button on a box then wait for them to deliver the food to your car window. This place is awesome and has become a must when in the Charlotte area. If you are flying in to the Charlotte airport it is only 5 minutes from there.

Food was meh. People behind the counter were not very friendly — very courteous but all business — no smiles. I didn’t realize that it was ONLY drive up — no place to sit and eat — had to take my food with me to go to the airport so in fairness — probably was somewhat part of why the food was only OK tasting. It came highly recommended so maybe I just had a fluke experience.

It’s cheap, the food is the same I’m sure as it’s been for 60 years. There is nothing fancy going here it’s pulled pork beans and bread and fries. The pork was pretty damn good, we aren’t locals so we went out of our way to find it because we saw it on triple D on food network. I would say it’s a one and done kinda place. The drive in part was neat. Worth a one time trip to it.

I had an amazing meal that consisted of fried chicken (with homemade bbq sauce), pulled pork (aka bbq), homemade onion rings, homemade coleslaw, homemade hush puppies, and fresh brewed sweet tea.
First, let me tell you that the place is very unassuming. It’s a old style southern drive in restaurant complete with metal trays and radios to call in your order. I explained it was my first visit so they sent a waiter out to show me the ropes. He explained what the platter combo was and, even though it was too much food for me, I wanted to get a «tour» so it was the way to go.
I had stepped out of my car to stretch my legs and was invited in to enjoy my feast. I gladly took them up on their offer as I’m not a fan of eating in cars. The staff was great. They wanted to make sure I was enjoying my meal and had whatever I needed. I also got to meet the owner and we spoke for a good 15 minutes. He told me that the recipe for their sauce has been the same for over 50 years and is made from scratch daily. When you taste it, you will get how important that is. Being from NJ (yes, I’m a Yankee) you hear about a Carolina bbq sauce and it being vinegar based. All I can say is any preconceived notions you have about this type of sauce… you’re wrong. The sauce was fantastic and complimented pretty much everything on my plate. I was dipping onion rings and hush puppies in it. The fresh coleslaw had a sweet side to it that balanced it out. AND THE FRIED CHICKEN WAS THE BEST I HAVE EVER EATEN!!! I am getting older and shouldn’t be indulging in chicken skin, but I couldn’t leave anything behind.
So in conclusion, the food, the people, the best.

We went fairly late after arriving into Charlotte from our drive from Atlanta. You pull up into a spot and a runner comes out to take your order, then brings you your food and you pay for it. You can also go up to the walk-​up counter yourself.
I ordered fried fish with fries and coleslaw. My brother got pulled pork with onion rings and coleslaw; it also came with two hushpuppies. You also get a bread roll. The food was okay, but I wasn’t particularly impressed by any of it. Prices are inexpensive and portions are decent though.

BBQ King (which was featured on Diner, Drive-​ins an Dives) is my go-​to for comfort food for those days that happen once in a while … Bad days, good days, days where it’s raining outside, days where the scale is in my favor, days when the scale has a glitch and I’m five pounds heavier, days between Sunday and Monday, etc. I love the BBQ Friend Chicken. Great taste. Good value. Nom. Nom. Nom.
Location: ³⁄₅
It’s right on Wilkinson which is a pretty big, busy 4-​lane roadway if not divided highway. Not the easiest to navigate into and out of but it’s well worth the hassle and potential car wreck.
Atmosphere /​Ambiance: ³⁄₅
BBQ King is an old-​school drive-​in joint where the car hops come to you car with your grub after you placed your order in a Charlie’s Angels speaker-​box. Think of Sonic but ya know, like back in the 60’s and stuff. It probably hasn’t been updated much since then either. But yeah, who’s going here for a date? PSA: I would love to be brought here for a date, but that’s just me.
Cleanliness: ⁴⁄₅
See above. The facilities are dated but my food has also been on point in terms of hair to food ratio.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
The Car Hops are cordial and friendly. The staff inside are likely as well.
Food: ⁵⁄₅
Dear Little Baby Jesus, that BBQ Fried Chicken is amazing. It stays crispy even while slathered in tangy BBQ sauce. I can’t string the words together that’ll do justice to this culinary masterpiece. I love BBQ and I love fried chicken and I have become some what of an aficionado so yeah, I know my stuff. You will not be disappointed. The hush-​puppies are legit too.

I don’t know maybe it was a bad night I went on. The place is original to car hops from back in the day. Prices ok. Not like super cheap but the menu has variety. The food was homestyle, bland, and majority of plates are fried. Sweet tea… terrible.
They do accept debit and keep a crowd.
I’ll try again in time and choose a different platter.

What I LOVE:
*Onion Rings
*Cherry Lemon Sprite
*BBQ Fried Chicken
Down home good eats. Seriously some of the best «fast food» you can get. The food is delicious. The BBQ fried chicken is my favorite because it still retains some of the crispiness from the fried goodness and the bbq wins me over. It is tangy and vinegary with just a tinge of sweetness and delicious spice.
The onion rings are crunchy with nice big pieces of onion on the inside.
The Cherry Lemon Sprite is the business. I am not a big soda fan but this will blow your mind. It is just delicious and I MUST have this every time we eat here.
To be honest, I haven’t been disappointed with anything I have ate here. From the mentioned to rib eye sandwich plate to the sliced pork bbq sandwich.
Just do it. Enjoy it and I promise you will not be mad at yourself.

The fried catfish was fresh and yummy. However, their pulled pork is a little too vinegary to my taste.
I regretted for not trying their BBQ chicken because it looked and smelled delicious.
Based on the conversation with a staff there (may be the owner), they specialize in chicken and pork. They don’t do beef.
They still have the 60’s drive-​in style (similar to sonic). You can put your order in while sitting in your car and they will bring the food out. Coolio.

Saw this restaurant was featured on triple D and figured we had to stop by on our way home from Spring Break.
As soon as we pulled in, David greeted us and told us about their famous dishes. We told him we were passing through and he immediately told us we had to get some pictures. He took a few for us and went above and beyond to make our visit special. His 15 years of experience showed and you could tell he loved every second he worked there.
Once we finished up with the pictures we went inside and placed our order for their combo that had everything Guy tried. We didn’t want to eat in our car as we’d been driving for a while, so they set up a nice spot for us to eat in their quaint entryway. The food was incredible. Chicken was juicy. Hush puppies were the best I’ve had. Wasn’t a huge fan of the onion rings (too bready), but they were by no means bad. Prices are comparable and we walked away full for under $ 40 for 3 of us with dessert.
This place deserves 6 out of 5 stars. The staff were friendly, food was great and the area was clean. Wish there would have been some tables outside to eat at, but it’s a drive in, so if you want to eat outside you can eat by your car.
Stop here for a great meal and awesome memories.

I stopped in here while on a road trip because I saw it on Triple D. I love BBQ and southern BBQ is one of my personal favorites so I was super excited to check this joint out.
Sadly, the condition of the facility, the payment process and the food left me feeling so so about this place.
The drive up lot is huge and there are plenty of stations to order food at. However, many of the stations were run down and dirty. I think they could improve buy cleaning them up and replacing old equipment.
The payment process is whack. Bring cash, unless of course you don’t mind someone taking your credit card and walking away with it to ring you up. They should do it at your window as the technology is not that expensive.
The food was a saving grace. The pulled pork sandwich and hush puppies were downright slammin. I’ll be honest, it seemed liked it was hitting every tastebud just the right way. I could have 10 of each!!! This is comfort food at its finest.
I’d come back but only because the food is really good.

We visited based on Guy Fieri’s recommendation on «The Best Thing I Ever Ate». We were not sure what to make out upon arrival. It is an older drive in style restaurant. The ordering microphone did not work very well so a gentleman came out and took our order. We ordered the ½ chicken to split as we just wanted to try and see what all the fuss was about. We received a large bow with 4 pieces of what looked like fried chicken with a red hot sauce all over it, some cole slaw, and french fries. We drove off and ate it while driving. Once we saw that it was fried chicken we felt that it was not going to be that good. After eating a few pieces I was still not impressed but kept eating. All of a sudden it was gone and I was licking my fingers wondering where it all went. Should we go back for more? I think the red hot sauce has some sort of additive substance that once you have some, it leaves you wanting more.
Skin on chicken was delicious. Sauce was awesome.
Cole slaw was great. Didn’t eat the french fries.

Visited ’cause Fieri featured BBQ King on both DDD and Best Thing I Ever Ate. Really? Like other reviewers stated, the food is good but not great IMO. I ordered the chicken with onion rings, and chose to eat in my car – big mistake. The entrée is very messy and carving my way through it with a plastic fork didn’t cut it. By the time I finished wrestling with it, I had more sauce on me than was on the plate!
I am willing to try them again when I can eat from a table. Maybe I’ll be more inspired, or should try something else. For now I’m on the fence.
Notes: Great service. Fast. Friendly. Easy to find. Good value. Cash only.