Smithfield’s Chicken ‘n Bar-B-Q

Smithfield’s Chicken ‘n Bar-​B-​Q is the hometown brand. The company started down the road in Smithfield, and it should surprise nobody that they serve chicken and Eastern NC style barbecue. For the uninitiated, Eastern NC style barbecue sauce is vinegar based and slightly spicy. It is also known as the superior style of NC barbecue. Anybody who disagrees is simply mistaken.
Outside of chicken and barbecue/​pulled pork, Smithfield’s also serves fried shrimp and catfish. Menu items average slightly over $ 10 for platters, under $ 10 for sandwiches. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with hushpuppies and a sweet tea for $ 7.53. I tried to ignore the fact that the cashier was coughing without covering his mouth, but ew. Dude, cough into your sleeve. Couple that with the fact that he was dressed like a manager, and things are slightly questionable.
The food was good, but there is a high bar for barbecue in the South. Smithfield does manage to set itself apart with its friendly service. Despite being a fast food restaurant, employees regularly walked through the dining room to offer drink refills.
Coughy McCougherson aside, I had a good dining experience. Smithfield’s is not quite good enough to go out of your way to find, but it’s a good choice for a meal if it’s convenient to you.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the food at Smithfield’s. Normally, I avoid this sort of chain, especially for something like BBQ, where the quality (and style) can really vary a lot from restaurant to restaurant.
Then one day, my wife brought back some leftover BBQ from Smithfield’s and it was pretty tasty. So I finally got myself into one of their restaurants and had a great meal. The BBQ is very tasty, with a great sauce that reminds me of Clyde Cooper’s. The fried chicken is really good, too.
Overall, much better than I was expecting. The restaurant was also clean and everyone who worked there was friendly and helpful. My only complaint was that the banana pudding was artificially-​flavored commercial pudding (tasted like Laffy Taffy) rather than vanilla pudding with sliced-​up bananas in it.
Everything else was great, and I’d definitely go back.

Really excellent BBQ. Fried chicken hot and crispy. Great service. Place is super clean. .If you are are going to Walnut Creek for a concert, stop here first! You cannot go wrong..

I was passing by on the way home and it was lunchtime and once I saw the sign I knew it was time for some Brunswick stew, hush puppies and chicken. My experiences with Smithfield’s have always been good ones and this restaurant was the same, consistently good food, plentiful, clean restaurant and excellent service. I had the two piece chicken with barbeque sauce. I remove the skin and eat it with the coleslaw and it is a wonderful meal. I know the chicken is fried, but it doesn’t have any breading on it, so once I take the skin off, it tastes great and I can tell myself it is remotely healthy. I like that the servers refresh your beverage, and all in all I had a delicious lunch at this restaurant.

As someone who is used to a thick BBQ sauce, I was unpleasantly surprised by this restaurant. The server had to wrap the takeout box in saranwrap to keep the relatively thin sauce inside the box. The sauce smelled primarily of vinegar and the chicken and sides were ultimately inedible. At most, it could be equated to chicken pieces bathed in a strongly vinegar based soup. While the service was personable, prompt and pleasant, I feel as though the food was sub par. If you enjoy a very strong vinegar base to your BBQ than this is for you. If not, steer clear!

Everything is always so fresh!!! I just started ordering the chicken tenders and its definitely not the tenders you see at fast food restaurants! Its like real chicken (not that the other stuff is fake but you can definitely tell the difference)!!!
The bbq is okay but Im a chicken tender girl now :) i went in the other day and discovered that the staff come around and refill your drinks! I loved that, thought it was so cute!
The location is okay, right off 40.

This is a must do stop for us when we’re in NC. The bar-​b-​q is scrumptious as well as their hush puppies and iced tea. The food is affordable and staff are very friendly. The establishment is always clean and accommodating.

Wow. Delicious fried chicken. BBQ is delicious too — try the pulled pork. You need to eat there twice to try everything