Archers BBQ

Local down home style barbecue tucked away in a nondescript shopping plaza on Kingston pike. Parking is limited but there is plenty of seating. I got The big boy plate with the pulled pork and pulled chicken on Texas toast with collared greens and pinto beans with onions in them. The pulled pork is fantastic and up there with some of the top places in East Tennessee. Pulled chicken feels weird because what I love about smoked BBQ chicken is the delicious skin. One of my dining companions had the dry rub ribs which were exquisite. The rub is sweet without being sugary and keeps the ribs juicy. Two of my other dining companions and the pulled pork platter because that is where it is at here. The Texas toast rocks and the sides are quite good here especially the loaded potato salad and all of their beans. My two small critiques would be the coleslaw is runny and mayo heavy but that is how folks like it I know and the Texas toast needs garlic and chives. I certainly would say that archers is top 5 East Tennessee and top 2 in Knoxville, Calhouns on the river is going to be nervous with this place opening.
P. S. ⁴⁄₅ stars because the pulled pork is good but could benefit from a more robust rub, deeper smoke ring, and some either apple or nutty wood like pecan. A ⁵⁄₅ in my book is Pecan lodge in Texas. I would love to give archer a 4.5÷5 but 4 will have to do. For the Knoxvillian this is a must eat.
P. P. S. The prices are out of this world reasonable especially for Togo you can barely cook it yourself for these prices.

Great bbq — moist and tender meats, solid selection of sauces and the sides were top notch

Yum… Got the carry out special for 26… Bargain of the year… Mason was super friendly and helped us make our selections. He was awesome the food was awesome and the chips were to die for.

Good ribs, green beans, and sweet potato chips. All gluten free, but all made with sugar so beware if you are sugar free.

Not the greatest. The meat had no smoke to it and the Texas toast was a hamburger bun. The baked beans were very good and the potato salad was very unique. The sauces were actually very good and what I believed the only thing that saved them from receiving a single star.
I would not recommend them.

I love Doorstep Delivery. Always on time. Food still hot, etc. But, the food from Archers is HORRIBLE. Almost unedible. I wish you wouldn’t work with them, but I understand you need as many places as you can get.
Buddy’s is 10X better. In fact, the sauce to Archers Barbeque is so repulsive, I am going to Buddies today to buy their sauce. Archer’s also sent applesauce in a hospital like container where you take the foil top off with your fingers.
Their banana pudding was NOT banana pudding. It had a banana in the midst of whipped cream. No flavor of banana at all.
I know its not my place to complain about a restaurant you serve, but I will also Unilocal Archers. The absolute WORST barbecue and sides I have ever had. In fact, the sweet potato fries were fried in rancid oil!!!
I love your service though and will always use you for delivery as your delivery people are always so nice and prompt and never ever seem exhausted.
So for YOUR service I give it 5 stars.

Pulled pork sandwiches all the way around. 4 thumbs up. The sweet potato chips were perfectly crisp and sweet. The potato salad was like known we have every had before and so delicious! They have 6 sauces that you can pick from. We tried all six and the consensus was that the original was the best!

Delicious! We stopped here on our way to Bonnaroo and I’m SO glad this was suggested to us. We were craving some good Southern BBQ & this place hit the spot. I ended up getting the pulled pork sandwich and just topping it with regular BBQ sauce, but they have a couple of interesting options to choose from. Would definitely recommend!

Delicious BBQ! We read about Archers in the newspaper and love to try to BBQ places. The pulled pork was top notch and the original sauce was the perfect blend of savory and spicy. The space in Bearden is utilitarian. The wait staff leaves something to be desired. We shared that this was our first time to Archers and rather than take the opportunity to tell us about the menu or make any suggestions, we just got blank stares and were asked if we were ready to order. We were the only customers in the place, so it wasn’t as though we were holding up the line. Go for the food – you won’t be disappointed.

Omg — I’m from Texas and this was some seriously amazing BBQ. Get a pulled pork sandwich with the slaw on top. You won’t regret it! The loaded potato salad was to die for. All I all, a great lunch experience!

Tasty little bbq joint located in what looks like a old roadside motel. I had the pulled chicken and collard greens and my partner had half slab of ribs and baked beans. The chicken was plentiful and tasty and the mustard based bbq sauce was a great addition. The collards were decent for a restaurant but definitely will be enjoyed. I was told the ribs had great taste and the meat was tender and easy to remove from the bone. Baked beans were great but a little on the spicy side.

Good, casual bbq sandwiches in chicken or pork. Table side has an assortment of sauces to either drown in or top sparingly, whatever your flavor or choice. Pleasant staff and owner.

We tried this BBQ based on the reviews but came away disappointed. The pictures on the website look nothing like the food we paid for. The ribs were not smoked long enough and had a wet fatty taste with almost no sauce. The pulled pork was dry. Maybe we visited on an off day but nothing seemed to go right about this meal. Even the sauces were very runny, not one is them, all 6! The staff was nice and friendly so I have to give them credit there. Also, my buddy had a chick who came in wearing a sun dress prematurely (given the temperature) give him the eyes, she was totally into him. But this review isn’t based on that.

I really like their BBQ! I had a bbq sandwich and collards greens. Best collards from a southern restaurant I’ve had in a long time! I’m extremely excited to come back for the food.
This one is located in the Bearden area. There are bus stops around too! It is a bit smaller than I thought however so I would not bring overly large groups.
The staff sat around doing nothing when I went. I don’t think they cared less about if they worked there.

Let me begin by saying that I really wanted to like Archers.
I’ve had some of their sandwiches before at events they’ve catered, but I finally decided to go in today and try the place.
We went around 2pm and the place was empty. We got a platter, which came with two sides, a sandwich meal, and a third of a rack of ribs.
I got pork for the platter, which came with Texas toast, and for the sides I got coleslaw and sweet potato chips. My girlfriend got chicken for her sandwich and we got potato salad as that side.
The pork was good, moist and flavored. Nothing special, but it was pretty average.
The ribs had a dry rub on them, which was pretty good, but pretty generic at the same time.
On the other hand, the chicken was pretty dismal. It was completely unflavored and uninteresting. Not even the sauces could save it.
Speaking of sauces, they’re the saving grace. There’s six sauces, each representing the flavors across the nation (Carolina, Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City), an original sauce, and a moonshine vinegar. The four regional flavors are all quite different, but each is pretty solid. The original is decently bland, but if you’re into that sort of thing, you’d probably be a big fan. However, the moonshine vinegar was amazing. I would put it on basically everything. Really tasty stuff, and it combined with the other sauces pretty well.
The toast was alright, but the bun on the sandwich was just plain bad. Bread usually isn’t a big concern to me, but if it’s bad, that’s a huge blow to everything else.
As for the sides, the sweet potato chips were good, but had clearly been sitting under a heater all afternoon, which left them with a slightly warm temperature, which was pretty awkward. The coleslaw was fine, but again, nothing special. But, the loaded potato salad… holy crap. It was so freaking good. With bacon flavors, and not too much dressing, it was great.
As for price, I’m happy to pay a lot for great barbecue. In fact, I’m happy to pay a good deal with good barbecue. However, for mediocre food, I could have gotten a much better barbecue meal elsewhere.
Overall, Archers is just fine. It’s not great. It’s not bad. Pretty average stuff, which is really disappointing given all the things I’ve heard about it. The sauce is delicious, as is the potato salad, but things like bad bread really put a damper on a meal.

The BBQ is good, but the staff acts like they have better things to do than help you. One jerk threw a bunch of plates and scared my children because someone didn’t buss their table. Then he verbally harassed a customer over the phone because they hadn’t picked up their order yet. «We’re in the fresh food business.» He said. Knoxville has better BBQ and much better service.

Hey, Archer’s has great bbq! I am very familiar with their pulled pork, which is amazing. In my opinion, smoking meat is like an art form. It’s just beautiful. The meat is so good here, but if we’re being completely honest about what sets it apart… I’m going to say it’s the scratch-​made sauce collection. Memphis style, spicy, Carolina mustard – there’s a sauce for everyone. I like to put different sauces on each bite… it’s just FUN.
Can’t forget about the collard greens and the sweet potato chips! Very memorable. Also, the brookie (brownie and chocolate chip cookie batter swirled together and baked), is an incredible idea! Who hasn’t had this dessert fantasy?!

My husband and I stopped in here for lunch on our way back to Kentucky from Georgia, and I am so glad we did! We each got Captain Almond’s BBQ Sundae – one with coleslaw and one with potato salad. I’m not usually big on potato salad, but it was honestly the best I’ve ever had. My husband said the coleslaw was crisp and delicious.
I’d probably stop in again if I was driving through Knoxville!

After seeing so many good reviews on Unilocal I had to go for dinner. I really wanted to love this place, but walked away only satisfied. Don’t get me wrong… the BBQ ribs are very good. But everything else from the guys working behind the counter, the quality of the sides, and the location were all below average.
The guys working behind the counter were young and average in their energy. Not amazing, only average.
The sides were a real disappointment. The collard greens were not chopped up enough for my liking, and the BBQ beans had something in them that peaked my interest in trying to figure out what it was, but I still did not like it. I swear it tasted like there was peach schnapps in the beans!
The location was in an old strip mall/​office building. For really good food I don’t care, but not for average.
I do recommend the place, but take the ribs out and go to a place that has good sides to go with them.
I forgot to mention that the «Holy Crap Hot Sauce» was tasty, but not spicy. Bummer

This was my first stop out of four BBQ choices in the Knoxville area (thanks to you, the Unilocalers). I stayed because:
* They threw in free ribs because they had just one short rack left on the night and wanted to get rid of it.
* They were super friendly and welcomed me profusely when I told them I’m from NJ.
* The desserts are homemade. That is so hard to find.
So here is the food rundown:
* Chicken plate: Good toast, not toasted enough. The pulled chicken was reasonable, not the best I’ve had. Probably about 3.5 stars there. The meat just lacked that smoky flavor. (I would have had the pulled pork, but I have had a lot already on this trip.)
* Collard greens: Pretty good. Not quite salty/​meaty enough (they should be fairly hammy IMO), but a little of the Holy Crap Hot Sauce made it all better. 4 stars.
By the way, look for said hot sauce over by the tea machine. If you’re a spice fiend like me, it makes their BBQ sauce selection actually have a kick to it. (If you’re a normal person, the regular sauces probably have enough kick. I can’t tell.)
* BBQ beans: Probably the weakest part of the meal. The piece of fatback in the middle of the cup helped. 3 stars.
* Ribs: The. Best. Ribs. Ever. So smoky, so tender, fall-​off-​the-​bone delicious. The Memphis dry rub stars when it’s paired with ribs, and they do it to perfection. If I come back to Knoxville, I will just order a full rack of Archers ribs and go to town. 8 stars.
* Pecan pie: They have crushed pecans instead of whole ones. I prefer whole, but it’s not fair to hold that against them. The pie filling oozes honey. 4.999 stars.
* Brookie: It’s a brownie with cookie baked into it. I haven’t even eaten it yet, but it already gets 6 stars. I will take the risk of having to edit this review if it’s anything less than 120% perfect.
Just the ribs and the friendly service alone mandate 5 stars. I also got to sign my name on the wall (look by the fire extinguisher for a crudely drawn highway interchange). I promised them I’d recommend them to anyone staying in the area, so here’s my first recommendation to all of y’all considering some Southern BBQ. Tell them the New Jerseyan says hi.