White Swan Bar-B-Q & Fried Chicken

Best. Fried. Chicken. I’ve ever had.
BBQ was really amazing too. Perfectly moist and flavorful with their eastern sauce.
Friendly service was super fast and attentive.
Well worth the detour off of I-​40. Can’t wait to return, especially since I’m ruined for any other fried chicken.

Food is great. This place has been around forever!!! Love it and i hope they never change

My siblings and I stopped here on a road trip. All five of has agreed to the 5-​star rating. The hush puppies are fresh and light (not too greasy and with a good crispy outside). We loved the complimentary batch and ordered two more. I had a pulled pork sandwich with slaw. The pork in finely minced with a nice balance of vinegar (you can add more chili vinegar to your liking). To top off my meal, the homemade sweet tea was perfect. Our servers were friendly and attentive and very down to earth. This place is definitely a gem in the south!

This is the best fried chicken I have ever eaten and the staff is so friendly. Had some of the puller pork as well and it was great eastern Carolina que. This isn’t near home but is worth the trip just to eat.

Unforgettable!!! Oh that vinegar sauce…
This place is the REAL thing. Much more authentic than the smithfield chain. Nicest staff in the world, incredible carolina bbq, and great prices. Their ribs and sauce are the best! A must stop while driving along 95.

Nice authentic NC BBQ and it’s not a buffet, which makes me happy. Tasty vinegar based pulled pork, perfect hush puppies, and the wife’s shrimp was a knock out. The portions were more than generous and the service very polite.

Wow! Amazing BBQ & chicken… We had the fried chicken. We barely got seated and the waitress brought us a basket of delicious hush puppies. They were busy and managed to bring our order in under three minutes. Brunswick stew must be tried. Best I’ve had!

Small town nc BBQ joint. Been to several during our time in NC but this is top of the list! Nothing fancy, pick up and go or eat in the small dining area, but the BBQ is great!
Had the large plate with side of string beans and boiled potatoes. All tasted fresh from the garden homemade quality. Hush puppies were very tasty as well. Worth going a bit out of your way to eat at the white swan!

My favorite part of my roadtrip to Charleston was pit-​stopping at this great little place, conveniently located right off the highway. The ribs were fall-​off-​the-​bone delicious, as was the Carolina BBQ sauce, and the black eyed peas and mac ‘n cheese were fantastic. The BBQ smeared across my face was a true testament to how good this food was. As for the iced (sweet) tea I ordered, this New Englander had her socks knocked of a bit — it was great, but I may have instantaneously developed diabetes. It seems like a friendly local place, atmosphere-​wise, where everyone knows each other — but there are enough people who stop in off the highway that you felt perfectly comfortable.

My son and I stopped here in February 2015 while doing the college visit thing. We didn’t want to go far off of 95 and this is about 3 minutes off the highway. Although the place isn’t much to look at, just basic and clean (formica tables and the like), BOY was our food great. First, they brought (without us asking) some piping hot hush puppies. They were the best I had ever had, tasty and greaseless. I only wish i had had some honey butter to dip them in, but maybe that is not a NC thing. My son had the fried chicken and I had the fried chicken/​barbeque combo platter. We both thought the fried chicken was excellent, and I loved my barbeque. And MAN, was it inexpensive. Go, you won’t be sorry.

While spending a few days in Smithfield, I was told I had to try this place. It’s definitely low key and not impressive from the outside. The food is perfect. The fried chicken is crispy and not over breaded. The hush puppies are the best I’ve had.
This Texas approves!

Tasty, friendly and fast! Stopped for lunch while heading north on 95, greeted with steaming hot yummy hush puppies and sweet tea within a minute of sitting down. Had the BBQ sandwich and a rib platter, both were tasty with just enough vinegar tang to start; and more on the table to add as needed. Service was very fast and the girls even offered to refill our sweet tea so we had full glasses to go. Great quick and convenient stop on 95.

Excellent pork barbecue an slaw. Very friendly staff who waited on us hand and foot. The owner was very friendly and made sure had everything we needed. Would deff go again

While on I-​95 heading south BBQ sounded like a great option for food as always. We saw the billboards for White Swan, and though we’d give it a try. On our trip we had various different things such as Fried Chicken, Pulled Pork, Brunswick Stew, and a number of sides. The food was pretty decent nothing to really jump up, and down about but as Unilocal put’s it A-​OK. The chicken had a decent flavor, and was delightfully crispy. The Brunswick stew was pretty tasty as well. Overall a decent stop for BBQ in North Carolina.

I four stars just for the bbq sandwich the Brunswick stew one star and the fried chicken two stars

Absolutely the best hush puppies on the planet. I usually prefer a sweet red sauce to the Eastern NC vinegar style, but their BBQ sandwich might make a believer out of me. I think it’s the cole slaw, minced and sweetened to perfection that made it work. The only reason I didn’t give it five stars was because the green beans were woefully bland.

Tasty BBQ for cheap! A dozen hushpuppies for $ 1.09 :)

Having visited a number of the big boys in NC Barbecue (including Lexington #1, Parker’s, etc.), I must say that the meat at White Swan is some of the best, if not the best we’ve tried. The pork is juicy and smoky, and the sauce adds just the right amount of spice. Overall it has more flavor than others I’ve tried. The fried chicken is also phenomenal, although my experience with others is more limited. The sides, unfortunately, were universally terrible. The hush puppies were old and chewy — just about inedible. Slaw was bland. Potato Salad was overwhelmed with mayo. Fries were some of the worst I’ve ever had — limp and tasteless. Brunswick Stew was the best side, but more like a soup than a stew. But, in all honesty, most NC BBQ joints have terrible sides, and that’s not what we came for. They came with the plates so I ordered them, but we didn’t really eat them.

An oasis in a desert of fast food wasteland.
As a native of the NC mountains, I crave all BBQ with special yearning for eastern-​style preparation. For those with a similar yearning the White Swan won’t disappoint. Tasty pork sandwiches. Sides of potato salad and green beans reminiscent of grandmothers’ suppers in the summertime. Generous portions. Prices also reminiscent of an earlier time.
Had I not prepared my tastebuds for pork BBQ, I would have chosen the special of bbq chicken (wing & breast or leg& thigh) and two sides for $ 4. Can’t beat it. Oh and a basket of hushpuppies on the table within moments after sitting.
If there’s a cooler in the car, consider taking a couple pints of Q to go. Who knows when you might pass this way again’

I can only guess that the person who wrote the review below is probably not into Eastern NC BBQ and probably is not from this area. This outstanding little BBQ joint has been around well over 60 years, and has actually grown to 3 or 4 locations, after a change of ownership around 1990. This is the original location, and remains the best, in my opinion.
They don’t cook the whole pig here, just shoulders, so the mildly chopped pork has a leaner texture and taste than some Eastern NC BBQ. It does contains some tasty brown bits of outside meat. There is not a lot of heat in their sauce, so this is mild Q. The slaw is white, and good; the hush puppies are very, very good. The Brunswick Stew is also good, and it is stew not soupy.
The fried chicken here is among the best I’ve tasted at NC BBQ joints, and there are a number of them that serve very good chicken. Alas, they do not serve hot dogs here, but there are enough good choices available here to satisfy most folks, as long as their looking for very good NC BBQ and/​or country cooking.