Cape Fear BBQ & Chicken

Cape Fear: truly terrifying. My wife and I were looking for one of the great hole in the wall BBQ spots along NC/​SC I95 corridor… This is NOT one of them. Canned collard greens, instant mashed potatoes, pools of grease on the fried pork chop. Kind of a shame.

Great home cooking & in a convenient location just off the interstate. Had the large BBQ dinner which was pulled pork with 2 sides (cole slaw & baked beans) & hush puppies. All good. Plenty of pork too! Courteous staff. Quite the locals meeting spot after church on Sunday — knew I had chosen the right spot!

First time eating authentic NC barbecue. Two words YUM YUM. We each had the pork barbecue sandwich. It was the perfect combination of vinegar tanginess and spicy. The hush puppies were awesome. My husband got iced tea ½ sweet ½ not, and he said it was the best he’s ever tasted.
As far as customer service…“Toto I don’t think we are in Baltimore anymore”. Two different staff came by while we were eating to ask if we were enjoying our meal, and did we need anything else !

Great place to hop off I 95 for lunch! Nothing fancy but oh so fresh! Fried fish, double order of collards, hush puppies and half sweet tea. Fish and chicken tenders breaded and dropped in when ordered. Stop here! A Yankee but a southern belle at heart!

Best bbq in Fayetteville and some of the best ribs I’ve ever had. Got the rib plate with fries and baked beans and everything was great. The staff was friendly and food came out fast they also have a drive through around the side definitely making this my go to bbq joint.

Very fast service and excellent southern food! The staff was very friendly and helpful they even offered to ship my BBQ!
Will certain stop here every time I’m in the area. Very cozy and comfortable dining room with the staff going to tables to offer
drink refills.

When I come to Fayetteville NC, this is my go to spot for my chicken and hushpuppies! The Cole slaw is kickin and I really enjoy the potato salad. The customer service is spot on, the people are friendly & I always leave with a smile.

We drove through downtown Fayetteville on a Sunday, and all the fancy restaurants were not open. We had initially driven past Cape Fear bbq because from the outside it doesn’t have much appeal. Even after we got there it felt more fast food than what we were looking for. But… the server at the counter (Sarah) went out of her way to help us figure out what to order (family special for less than $ 25, which included 10 pc fried chicken, 3 sides and a gallon of tea) and then checked in on us several times after bringing us our food. So nice! The fried chicken was hot, crispy and tender. The hush puppies were long, thin and crispy. The cole slaw was fresh and crunchy. The potato salad was creamy and flavorful. The pulled pork was tender and even without sauce was smoky with a hint of vinegar. The sauce was REALLY good. They have both a bbq sauce and a homemade vinegar sauce. My 3 children used the description DELICIOUS over and over. We would definitely recommend this restaurant!

I went for the bbq. Worst food, and bbq, I’ve ever eaten. The «pulled» pork had a consistency of mush and tasted like it had been soaked in vinegar. I wouldn’t even want to feed that slop to my dog. Hush puppies tasted like they came out of a jiffy box.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. The place may be fast food like but it is authentic Carolina barbeque with just the right amount of spice. The fried chicken is better than other places that are famous for it.

Be clear, this is NOT a restaurant, unless you consider McDonalds a restaurant. It appears to be a converted fast food place and is instead fast food BBQ. Paper plates and table ware, fountain drink machine broken and a sign posted over the sink IN the eating area that «employees must wash hands after using toilet». Classy, huh?
Food is tasty enough but my yams had a skin coat over them that suggested they had been sitting for quite a while. Our hotel (Hampton Inn) recommended this as the best BBQ in Fayetteville area. If that is the case, go for pizza.

If you are downtown this is a great place for lunch! So good!!!

Great ‘cue, collards, potato salad, sweet etc!!! Fast friendly service and affordable! !!!

First, let me say… I’m not a huge fan of BBQ and rarely eat it. Now, this place is one of the bests just based on my wee bit of experience. The service is great, the BBQ is tasty without being soggy with sauce, and the tea was sweet. I can’t complain:)

Really authentic southern BBQ with amazing customer service. Fried chicken was crispy and full of tender white meat. only 4 stars because the location is a bit rough but would return for the food an to chat with ‘Donnie’ again! Downtown is newly revitalized and gorgeous … Just a few blocks away.

Wonderful down-​home service, kick ass bbq. Down fall? They started cleaning where they cook the pig in the middle of a lunch rush and it smelled like a cross between feces and a dead body. it was terrible. luckily we had just finished eating. yikes

I give this place four stars because the food was delicious. BBQ sandwich was tasty and not drenched in sauce. The fried fish sandwich took a bit due to being made to order. The sweet tea was exactly what you expect in the south! Only improvement I would like to see is the fries. They were easily forgettable. The staff was extremely personable and it felt like you were just hanging with family behind a counter. Sweet crowd! Will be back.

REVIEW #200… and it’s going to be just a 3-​star «meh… A-​OK» spot.
I’m going to start this one off with the pro’s…
Pros: GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. This was most evident in the fact that I was like a fish out of water in ordering here. After driving around town looking for some other BBQ joints, I had discovered that (almost) everywhere was closed due to it being New Years day. Major fail. This place was open and I really wanted to experience some North Carolina BBQ fare. Although it’s a chain (we’ll get to that later), the service was quite down home, mom n’ pop, kid next door feel. The cashier offered samples, went out of his way to get fresh sauce, get me a fork, explain the menu items, and get our BBQ sauce jarred. AWESOME SERVICE!
Another pro was the pulled pork. WOW, for a chain, pretty darn good. Key, to me, for pulled pork is the tenderness b/​c it can be tasty as hell… but if it’s tough, it’s just jerky to me. This place was super-​duperly tender. Didn’t really need any dabs of their vinegar based BBQ sauce, but a little bit of it went a long way.
Final pro worth noting… THE SAUCE!!! Yes, good good good. I think me likes the vinegar, so that may make me biased. But the vinegar based sauce, mmmmm
Cons: First of all… it’s a chain. Portion sizes (in my experience) tend to be much much more hospitable in the mom n’ pop shops. I’ve been to a good amount of BBQ places and know that BBQ tends to be a bit pricey. No exception here, especially given the portion size.
Hush puppies… flavorless. Now, I’m a California boy, born and raised so I might not know good hush puppies if they slapped me across the face. But these hush puppies come in bushels (lots given on combo plates) and probably b/​c it’s just filler. But it’s not even good tasting filler. Dry as well. I doused mine with the vinegar sauce (partially b/​c I wanted a reason to have more sauce too, :-p)
All in all, it was middle of the road. It was definitely worth the experience. I wasn’t too sure when entering if it was a chain, but it had me guessing. I was confirmed when going inside. Chains can be good, and this one seemed decent. It was just lacking that extra «umph» to make it even a 4-​star rating.

4 stars? Really people??? I mean this place is OK for BBQ, but I was expecting a bit better for one of the top rated Unilocal places in this part of NC.
The «restaurant» is a glorified fast-​food joint (it’s got a drive-​thru!). Food was ok/​good but still not quite what I was expecting. Hushpuppies kinda sucked, pulled pork was good but dry… need a lot of their «sauce», some watery concoction they call BBQ sauce. Perhaps it’s just the way NC does BBQ, but any BBQ place that doesn’t have ribs automatically on the menu and has a little sign saying «available» isn’t really doing BBQ right in my book.

BBQ pork is decent, especially on a sandwich, and it does come with some heat. The fries are ok, but both the slaw and hush puppies are too sweet for my tastes.
The chicken here was a major disappointment — it was extremely greasy, with no hint of seasoning. Really wouldn’t give this place another try.