Harlem BBQ Company

We went at about 2pm on a Sunday.
The place was dead and we were seated right away. Ordered the frozen Long Island Ice Teas which were ENORMOUS and strong. Had the mac & cheese and boneless chicken wings to share. It was plenty for 4 people. We ordered two platters (meats upon meat upon meat) with collared greens and corn fritters. Everything was fantastic — I took half a platter home all the way to Queens on the M train and 6 hours later we reheated it in the toaster oven. Everything was still as good as it was initially.
The place gets busy on Friday and Saturday nights. Of course it’s going to be slow. And, if you’re rating this place because of it’s bad delivery/​take out, use your brain. It’s a BBQ joint, not a take-​out Chinese spot. They don’t specialize in fast food, but slow cooked goodness. Duh.

The number listed is incorrect. You call to place an order and you’re either on hold for roo long, or the music and crowd is so loud you can hardly hear. The staff taking orders should not have to yell over by the music to speak with customers. Going inside to pick up the orders is a nightmare. Half naked waitress at times, loud music, drunk patrons, an overall unwelcoming environment unless you are looking for the cheap bar experience. Not at all a place for children. The only reason they received 2 stars is because the food is decent. Atmosphere is a negative. Highly recommend going somewhere else.

The food here is amazingggggggggggg. The catfish bites were cooked to perfection and the accompanying sauce was very flavorful. I had the baby back ribs with the mac and coleslaw. The mac was cheesy, moist and served in a cute dish that kept it warm throughout my meal. Cornbread was warm and moist.
I was seated right away on a Saturday night, the service certainly wasn’t impressive but it was satisfactory. All my food and drinks came quickly with no mistakes. Drinks were far tastier than those i’ve had at dallas BBQ and certainly stronger. I have frequented dinosaur bbq and Harley’s smoke shack and this place definitely competes.
This place deserves your business, it might require a little patience but the food will be satisfying. it is a bit loud but the music selection was great and everyone was friendly.

I give them 3 starts simply because the food is delicious. The service is horrible. When you walk in the atmosphere is not warm at all. It feels more like a bar that sells food than a restaurant with a bar. I only do take out because the music is so loud you can’t have an intimate conversation even if you wanted to. This place is absolutely not kid friendly and in my opinion they are missing out on an entire clientele with the low standards.

Similar to the more well-​known Dallas BBQ, the Harlem BBQ is yummy too and also has big drinks. I like that it is in Harlem so it was closer to me when I lived there, and I am obsessed with the Hennessey Colada, it’s really good. I know the food isn’t amazing but big portion sizes with good prices and big drinks, is a small price to pay then. I would at least recommend this place for some yummy drinks.

Readers beware. I think many of the negative reviews here were written about someplace else (maybe a restaurant with a similar name on Frederick Douglas Blvd?)… or perhaps a competitor is sabotaging. There is nothing slow about the service here. There are no «waiters» so the waiter couldn’t have been slow (as one review complained). This is mostly a takeout place with a few tables that appear pleasant to eat at since the décor and music is really nice. (The woman working behind the counter would bring the customers their food.) Drinks were bad? One review posted a photo of a frothy alcoholic beverage and complained about it. But this place doesn’t even serve alcohol. So, now, getting to my review of the real Harlem BBQ Company, I frequently drop by and pick up a meal for my entire family: BBQ ribs for my husband, a whole BBQ chicken that comes with four sides for me and the kids. The BBQ sauce is delicious. My husband loves the ribs and, believe me, he’s picky. It they weren’t good, we wouldn’t be back. (The sauce is far, far better than Dinosaur’s BTW) The rotisserie chicken is always juicy and well-​seasoned, and its seasoning blends perfectly with the delicious BBQ sauce. We love the macaroni and cheese (and, yes, they do charge extra for it because it’s the REAL DEAL — if you want Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, you can make it cheaply for yourself at home; but if you’ve ever made this traditional five-​cheese dish at home, you know it’s expensive even to make it yourself). And, BTW, I have NEVER had to wait for my food. Not only are they prompt, but if I call five minutes ahead and tell them I’m going to be double-​parked outside, they bring my food to the car window. They will even take my credit card from the car because they know the police will ticket for even a brief double park. The owner is about as welcoming and kind a hostess as you’d ever want, and her staff is equally pleasant. Now, as to the construction workers not eating there (per one review), come on! Interesting that the reviewer went and interviewed construction workers. (It really makes me wonder why she had such an agenda.) Yes, it could be that it is more expensive to eat here for lunch than a hero sandwich at the local bodega. And, no, there’s not enough seating for 20 guys. But I’ve found the food reasonably priced for dinner, especially considering the quality.

Would not go here again. Service was horrible… long wait. inattentive waiter/ress.no organization what so ever. The food was ok but nothing to rave about. Only until me and my guest started to complain and say something is when they started to do they’re jobs.

Service was BAD!!! It look about 20 mins for us to have a waiter come to our table. We had to call a waiter over.seriously. The drinks took 10 mins to arrive. The food took another 20 mins to arrive. My food was cold, they I had to remind our waiter to bring my plate.
The food was good & so were the drinks! That is what the one star is for.
Other guests were leaving without paying, some just left after they received their drinks.
Disappointing service, do not go here if you are hungry!!!

Maybe they stepped their game up since the first reviews were written, but the food we had was good. My expired groupon was accepted without a struggle. Everything was fine by me.

The ribs were so dry I gave mine to my boyfriend. And the mac and cheese, well, one bite and this bland monstrosity went in the garbage. Went to bed hungry.

Walked over to try this place as it opened recently down the street from me. I ordered the ribs. They were tough, overcooked, and rather bland. The lady behind the counter was not friendly at all. Actually she was mean. Wont be back.

We just moved into the neighborhood and notice the store front of Harlem BBQ. Decided to give it a try. It’s very clean, friendly staff and owner. The menu is limited, which is nice. We had the ribs with two sides. The price and the taste were well worth another visit. The crème de la crème was the dessert. The coconut pinapple cake and the sweet potato pie both were delicious. I am glad that we live two avenues away or I would be there every day indulging!

i just ordered the $ 8 quarter chicken. They put a lot of the spicy bbq sauce on top of the chicken. Delicious!
I had the collard greens and the sweet potatoes. Both delicious!
The staff was friendly.
I’ll go back.

It’s a rainy Sunday in May I went here because I didn’t feel like cooking. First off the place is clean and the people are friendly but the food is bad. My brother and I had the BBQ Chicken which was pink inside and the BBQ Sauce came from out of a bottle. The BBQ Beef Brisket was dry and tasted like it was days old. The Mac & Cheese noodles was hard and dry (really how can you mess up mac & cheese), the potato salad was out of a jar. I’m sure of it. It was cold, bland and flavorless. The sweet potatoes was from a can, not strings or lumps. And lastly the corn bread, with cranberry butter was a joke. It was a cold cup-​cake with regular whipped butter with, I guess cranberries in it (I didn’t taste anything).
I’m really disappointed because the place looks so inviting and we need another good soul food place around us, we have Jacobs (W 143^rd St) & Charles (W 151 St).
Hopefully, they will get it together with the food.

The cook here should have his soul food /​African american cook card revoked.
First offense was not taking debit/​credit cards. «We’re gonna have that set up in the future, it might be a ATM machine…» is what the lady behind the counter told me and my best friend.
Really? We should have to pay a ATM fee on top of the overpriced wanna be soul food to get the money to pay for their pretend soul food?
The dried up beef jerky looking beef brisket swimming in muddy gravy (?) was too pitiful looking to order and when she removed the covers to the chicken and the ribs they looked as if they might be good. (Foolish me) They don’t offer a rib n’ chicken combo which is a standard in any decent barbeque place. That should have been my second clue.
The third giveaway to the huge dissapoint awaiting me was the mini muffin sized corn bread that comes with the meal. My friend asked how much a extra piece of cornbread would be and she was told $ 2.00.
Wha?
A box of Jiffy cornbread (which would taste better then this piece of dried up hockey puck) goes for 3 for 99c in the supermarket and would have been preferable to what they give you.
I gave mine to my dog.
A ice cream scoop of decent greens and overly sweetened sweet potatoe? purée (that would be a prelude to sweet potatoe pie it was that sweet with a hint of cinnamon) was put in the little preformed corners of the styroform container that your food comes in with whatever meat you ordered .
The rib meat itself was tender and could easily be pulled off the bone but quality of the meat was canceled out by the out of the bottle BBQ sauce that they use instead of homemade sauce.
Yup I said it and I’d stake my taste buds on the fact that the sauce that they choose to disrespectfully (to the meat and even more to the customer) dribble on their meat is bottled and ultimately disguises/​obliterates the taste of the meat itself.
You know the little 1−2oz plastic cups that you might get your condiments in at other resturants? Well that’s what they put their generic looking Cole slaw in.
For $ 4.
We asked for the menu touted «cranberry butter» and we were told that they were out.
At 2:30 in the afternoon.
I was surprised.
Then she said that they ran out of the stuff last night.
I was now stupefied.
This was a item that was highlighted on the menu as something special. How friggin hard can it be to bring some butter to room temperature and stir some cranberries in it? I asked how this can be and the counter girl looked at me as if I has blasphemed the Pope. She said «well you gotta wait for the butter to get soft before you can put the cranberries in».
Oh, I see and I guess that requires a PhD. And a lot of time to do.
Don’t waste your time or money folks. Two brothers came in while we were looking at the menu and after asking a question or two they walked out. I wish me and my friend had done the same. Bring back the sometimes good, sometimes bad Sherman’s BBQ that stood in this new stores spot for decades. At least you’d have a pretty good chance that the food you ordered would be good and you would have enough to generously share with your besty.
They will never close and go away and let another decent rib place come in if people keep buying their horrible food.

Disappointed…
Friends suggested this place for a while and when I finally went to try it out since I was in the area, I was so disappointed. The food was bad to me, the drinks were dull and the place was so bland. In any of my reviews it is noticeable I try to give all places a chance and do not let minor things bother me much but this place was just not for me at all!
The waitress was very pleasant and did check on us often. I gave her a nice tip because she did try to make everything better. But she could not control what the chef cooked and whoever did the drinks must of put 3 drops of vodka and 2 cups of liquid sugar. SmH.
I won’t be returning unless they update and upgrade.

I order some $ 200 worth of food. They couldn’t handle such a large order. It took about 45min too be ready. Ribs were tasty but expensive. Strictly a take out place no seats.
The largest Bus Depot in NY is in the middle of being built not 20 feet from here and none of the construction guys bother going here. Sad. Quotes from the guys «No specials, No taken care of loyal customers, expensive and no place to sit».

Tried their pulled pork and collard greens. It also came with a little piece of corn bread and tiny container of cole slaw which i didn’t try. About the pulled pork was not good. The sauce that was put on the pork was just wrong! ugh was not good at all. The collard greens ugggh they sucked and had a weird after taste. I should not have to douse my food with hot sauce for me to have to continue to eat it. For $ 11 i will spend my money else where.

So, the food is kept on steam table and you have a limited selection of items to choose from. Basically the menu is not extensive and that’s fine if each and every item on that limited menu is hitting it home. I tried the garlic rotisserie chicken. For about $ 8 I got a quarter portion with two sides. I selected greens and sweet potatoes. The portions were not generous. The chicken was bland. No garlic flavor at all. As a matter of fact there was no flavor at all. The sweet potatoes were mashed which I wasn’t expecting. I prefer mine to be whole and candied or baked. The greens were OK. The sides were decent, but the chicken was not well seasoned at all. Came with a mini loaf of cornbread which was also decent. I would consider trying the ribs and brisket which are around $ 14. The food was definitely edible which is step up from the predecessors. Take out service only. No tables or counters.