Wink’s King Barbeque & Seafood

My trip to Charlotte in 2015 ended with an NC State Wolfpack loss in the Belk Bowl and way to much rain, but that doesn’t mean that it was all bad, especially when I got the chance to stop at my 10^th NC BBQ Society BBQ Trail restaurant on the way home! Now you either have to have really good BBQ or a really big ego to call yourself the «King of Barbecue» and for Wink’s BBQ in Salisbury, NC, it is the former. The pork butts are smoked and chopped to perfection and served with a tangy sauce and BBQ slaw that will bring a smile to your face no matter how badly your college football team just lost. The sauce is a Lexington style sauce but is thinner and less tomatoey than the ones found a few minutes up I-​85. Side wise, the have a great Lexington style BBQ slaw and crispy fries and hushpuppies that compliment the smokey, juicy tenderness of the ‘cue. Also the sweet tea is good smile emoticon Definitely worth of its self proclaimed title of BBQ King and its spot on the historic trail.

This place is Old School Casual Small Town Southernish and the food is great. simple authentic southern style. NO FRILLS but friendlyish. I’ve been 4 times and each time I have to get the same thing the Blackened Mahi Mahi, my sistger said the chicken was excellent.
YOU HAVE TO get the cobbler (!) and the coconut layer cake … I’d go here just for dessert n coffee when it’s not a busy time in a minute. authentic Southern desserts and ½ the price as any of the other area restaurants…
to me this place is a Hidden Gem!

Wink’s is a down home diner. We are there today and had the small barbecue tray. Ample portions. Great food. Hush puppies got high marks. Busy but friendly staff. Too full to try the homemade cream filled oatmeal cookies. Next time.

I go for the Flounder and Salt & Pepper Shrimp. But they keep going up on the price for some reason. The plate is over $ 16 now which I think its really ridiculous. It used to be the best fish in town though so I sucked it up. But now I have another option so I don’t go as much. The banana pudding is good and my grandmother loves the ribs. The service is OK. It almost seems as if you are bothering them sometimes when you go in for a takeout order or call. But overall the place is OK. No major complaints.

We wanted something different. I remember my dad talking about how much he loved going here years ago.
We both ordered BBQ plates. Delicious!
Will have to go back again, soon!

Food and service was really good. Lots of great choices. Must do if you are in the area. Good atmosphere

Let’s see… day 2 of a food tour of NC. This was our first stop of the day, so everything on their expansive menu looked appetizing. Chose a selection of sides: sausage links, sausage patties, corned beef hash, grilled pimento cheese on croissant, bbq sandwich with slaw, fried apples with raisins. The sausage, hash and bbq were very good. The chopped bbq was slightly sweet and tangy with a nice balance of vinegar, although the sauced sandwich was slightly soggy and began to fall apart after my attempt to cut it in order to share it. Staff was very friendly and did their best, but unfortunately some of our group had to take their orders to go as we had to board the bus for our next destination.

Ok — the real reason to go here is for the BBQ — this place is amazing at some stuff and just ok with others — therefore I can go as high as four stars!
The place was ok in cleanliness — decent with selection and you get a ton of food! The parking was good and the price was super — but they seem to lack communication skills between the staff — no bigger, but I don’t like being told one thing by one person and another thing by another person and that was just to get a seat!
However, I still suggest making this place a regular stop for great food!

Soggy! The chopped barbeque was so soggy and mushy that it looked like slop. The fish was dark and dry. The slaw tasted like it started fermenting a few days before it was served.

We’re on a business road trip and it is my job to find the restaurants. North Carolina BBQ seemed like a good idea and Wink’s was the choice. The issues brought up by old reviews seem to have been handled.
We both ordered the BBQ pork plate, mine chopped and his sliced, with red slaw and a side. I was already familiar with the vinegary NC BBQ but red slaw was new to me. I am now a fan. It is crunchy, sweet, and spicy and no mayonnaise! The pork was tender, lean, and delicious. My side was probably the best fried okra I have ever had.
The waitress was friendly and helpful. Ours brought me a sample of the local soft drink Cheerwine (how could I not try it with that name). It turns out to be a sweet cherry soda that would please the palate of any youngster.
Overall a very pleasant break and definitely in the running for a stop the next time through.

Winks pretty much stinks. Atmosphere, service, and good were all sub par. The BBQ was edible but not much different than school cafeteria food quality. Not a real BBQ joint and not worth the time or effort. That said, I’ve had worse and most other good options in this area are fast food or chain garbage. 1.5 stars.

I’ve had Wink’s on my «must check out» list for quite some time now, but for some reason or another I’ve never made it there until recently. One weekend I finally bit the bullet and made the drive (approximately 45 minutes from my house) up for lunch. Was it worth it?
In doing research, I found out that Wink’s is listed on the NC BBQ Society’s Historic BBQ Trail. Criteria for being selected to be on the trail includes being an ideal representative of the distinct techniques and methods that constitute North Carolina BBQ as well as still cooking using old fashioned pit methods. So upon pulling in to the parking lot, what do I see? A big ol’ pile of wood. This is definitely promising!
The building is a non-​descript building — nothing too flashy or fancy. Just as I would expect. And you could say the same about the inside — definitely down home and country, complete with a whiteboard with all of the desserts for the day!
Now Wink’s serves much more than BBQ — seafood, burgers, chicken sandwiches, and more are all on the menu. They also open bright and early at 5:30am for breakfast (which is served all day). But I’m here for one thing: pork. So I order a large chopped BBQ tray which came with bread, hush puppies, and slaw (they also offer sliced BBQ).
In one word: delicious! The BBQ was perfectly moist — not too dry and not overly sauced coming out of the kitchen. It had a fine-​to-​medium chop and possessed a nice nutty flavor courtesy of the wood used in the smoking process. It did not need any additional sauce; however additional sauces are available on the table if so desired. The slaw (a vinegar-​based slaw, very much a Carolinas specialty) had just the right amount of tang and crunch. Again, great balance here. The bread and hush puppies were okay as well — nothing earth-​shattering there as far as that goes.
The service — the epitome of Southern hospitality. I was very well taken care of, never wanting for a refill on sweet tea or anything else. Excellent on all fronts!
Will I be returning? Oh yeah, absolutely!
This review is available with pictures at
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Meh. I assume you can do better

The front of the menu of this venerable Salisbury barbecue joint proudly proclaims it is «A Family Restaurant» and «King of Barbecue» — and 1 out of 2 ain’t all bad. It is indeed a family restaurant, serving all 3 meals, with meat & 2 choices, daily specials, full breakfast menu, sandwiches, and of course, Lexington/​Salisbury style chopped barbecue.
The barbecue is moderately chopped and oversauced out of the kitchen. Even for Lexington style this barbecue is sweet with no hint of smoke, and absolutely no zip in the taste. The bun was toasted to the point of being hard and leathery. Slaw on the sandwich neither helped not hindered. This is no king of barbecue, not even minor royalty, ordinary, common even.
The foot long hot dog looked good, but the chili was on the sweet side with an after taste I didn’t care for. Again the bun was overtoasted, hard. The hamburger meat was tasty, but the bun was also over done, and the burger is fairly small. Fries were ok, but had not been salted out of the fryer, meaning no salt would stay on when served.
The family restaurant seems right, offering a variety of dishes — at 11am, as many folks were ordering breakfast as lunch. The passing plates of breakfast items seem to contain nice portions, would imagine the lunch meat & 2’s are the same. Might try one of the luch specials if back this way again, but I’ll pass on the BBQ, and other sandwiches. There is much better nearby.

We stopped at Wink’s — because it was the first barbecue place we found when we were in the mood (and in the area). We would have been better at just about anywhere else. Probably could have thrown something out the window and made a better choice.
The barbecue itself was like a wet paper bag. Just no flavor. Even adding the sauce to the meat didn’t help, just made it taste like a wet paper bag with sauce on it.
While the rest of the family didn’t get barbecue, they didn’t really fare any better. The burger wasn’t much to speak of, and the club was a club — certainly nothing to write home about.
Service is non-​existent. You order at a counter and that’s about it. We did get our glasses refilled once, but only after asking. And we also ordered some desserts, but that was because the main meal was so bad. I’m not sure it was a good choice.
If you’re looking for barbecue, look elsewhere. Anywhere else. It would have to be better.

Maybe I shouldn’t give 4 stars to a bbq place that I have never eaten the bbq at, however I love Winks!
My husband and I have gone here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I don’t think have ever eaten anything that isn’t good. We have brought friends and family from out of town here and they have all loved it.
They have large portions, and many sides. I usually have fish or their 10 piece grilled shrimp special, have always been happy with my dinners. No matter what the menu says they never give you a hard time if you don’t want the sides your dinner comes with and you would rather have other sides.
My husband loves their ribs… a HUGE portion. Cucumber onion salad is also great! We have eaten fish (which has a delicious breading) shrimp, burgers, ribs, chicken and many of the sandwiches, all good! There may be better bbq in town but none of the people I know complain.
All the desserts we have ever had have also been delicious. Homemade oatmeal sandwich cookies for $ 1.89(or so) is a steal!
The interior isn’t anything special, they are always busy so the waitress that takes your order and brings you drinks may not be the same one that checks on you or refills your drinks, but each waitress is willing to get anything you need. There have been times when your waitress gets very busy but on of the others will no hesitate to check on you as she walks by.