Cousin Gary’s Family Restaurant

Cousin Gary’s is a treasure. Homestyle buffet, very reasonably priced, a natural Mayberry ambiance –not a forced, touristy one. The fried chicken is tender and moist. The buffet has a pretty good variety. Breakfast is my favorite but lunch is also good.

Enjoyed the breakfast buffet. I believe it’s available every morning. Amazing biscuits! Good variety of breakfast options. Nice staff.

I’m visiting some from that live here. I’m from Denver, Co. My friends said we have to eat here. I’m so glad we did. The service is awesome. I had the buffet. It was outstanding. Small, but outstanding. The fried chicken is the best I’ve had in many years. It’s a small place, but well worth eating at.

We were in Pilot Mountain any way, so we decided to give Cousin Gary’s s shot. This is a breakfast/​country cooking buffet place that also happens to offer pork barbecue, which is the reason we stopped by.
It is located in a worn looking strip shopping center, and there is nothing about the restaurant that elevates it above the rest of the center — kind of tired, and more than a little shabby. The buffet is rather small, with the usual items found on a small Southern city buffet. You also can order off the menu, and there is even a drive thru. Service is generally plodding and rather unfocused.
We ordered a Cheeseburger, a Hot Dog, and of course, a Chopped BBQ Sandwich. The hot dog was pretty good, decent chili, and a good toasted bun. The Cheeseburger had so little cheese that it didn’t really qualify as a «Cheese“burger. Size and taste were rather ordinary.
The BBQ was almost asuredly a commercially procured item, with too much sauce, and too little flavor, and I doubt they even missed that small amount of slaw. Wouldn’t order any item again, even the hot dog, ’cause we wont be back.
The shopping center in which Gary’s is located is right beside Aunt Bea’s — a form of double jeopardy.

All right this ain’t my type of place but every member of my family loves it so what can I do? When we all get together (once, maybe twice/​yr) if noone prepares breakfast we all meet here.
This used to be Pizza Den when I was in high school which meant at least once a week I was here with the baseball, tennis, basketball team. Now it’s a down home countryfied place to come get filled, fat, and into the hospital.
Cousin Gary doesn’t cater to the vegetarian unless you want grits and home fries. Tons of bacon, sausage, pork chops, and country ham await your visit. Three inch thick biscuits and pancakes round out your starch requirements. O and the eggs, melt in your mouth scrambles. Combine all this with the sweetest tea (cali youre missing out) youve ever tasted and three alarm second hand smoke and you got Cousin Garys. Ive been waiting for them to go smoke free but five miles from the 2^nd largest tobacco manufacturer leaves me to believe that it ain’t gonna happen. Awesome food, awesome people, and smoke. Well if you dont die from the cholesterol you damn sure will from lung cancer.