Review Of King's BBQ
Kinston, NC
by
H. Kent Craig ©2000 {Revised & Affirmed, 2004}

Well, good folks and dear readers, I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news.

The good news is that this review of King's BBQ in Kinston, N.C., gives the food a well-deserved "three pig" rating on my scale on one-to-four pigs, four pigs being the absolute best. This means I heartily and without reservation recommend King's barbecue and and their side dishes. So, it's worth messing with their airfreight ordering service (they'll ship anywhere, orders being packed in dry ice and arriving within 24 hours) if you're an ex-pat Tarheel living outside the confines of our Great State Of North Carolina who is simply starved for a taste of home. You won't be disappointed with the barbecue or sides, promise. If you do order from them on this recommendation, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know your experience doing so, the good, and the bad if any of it. Please   email me your comments so they can be shared here with others, THANKS, I appreciate it!

Now, the bad news. My fourth trip there in about four or five years, the most recent of which before this stop being six months ago or so, pretty much consistently confirmed that my experiences with their service and presentation the other times weren't flukes. Having other business to take care of "down east" on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, we (my wife, and I) decided, mainly as a service to the many of our readers who had inquired about what was a good barbecue restaurant with good Eastern-NC-BBQ who would ship out-of-state, to do a confirming review visit to King's in Kinston.

First, the good news. Their barbecue is excellent! I couldn't find a single tiny piece of pork skin anywhere in the meat, and the tiniest little bits of fat that were present were just enough for flavor. The color of the meat was a perfectly consistent tan color throughout, the result of a perfect slow-cook without over-cooking. There wasn't even a hint of pink, under-cooked meat, which would have grossed me out and knocked them down to a two pig or lower rating. The texture of the chop of the meat was as good as it gets, a nice mixture of pieces from 1"-2" in length and 1/2"-1/4" in diameter to a more finely chopped but not mushy texture, blended well.

Their Brunswick Stew was excellent too, almost on par with Bullock's and Melton's. Not as sweet as Melton's, not as thick as Bullock's, it had more actual meat, bits of barbecue and chicken, than either; the meat content was probably close to a full third to a half of the total ingredients, the rest of which were corn, lima beans, garden peas, a tiny bit of potato, some tiny bits of string beans, but no celery or parsley, which I'm allergic to. Their french fries were standard NC-BBQ restaurant fries, nothing to brag about, but acceptable. Their hushpuppies were excellent, a perfect compliment to the texture of their barbecue, 99% as good as Bullock's or White Swan's, who have the best.

While I got the combination plate of barbecue and Brunswick Stew, my wife order the barbecue (pork) and barbecued chicken plate, with collard greens and chicken livers on the side. She said the barbecued chicken was excellent, better than most places, but just fell in love with the collard greens, saying they tasted just like her grandmother used make, cooked with a bit of streak o' lean fatmeat. The chicken livers were fried, not stewed, thankfully for me because I didn't want to smell them, and she indicated that they were better than what she could make at home.

Now, the bad news. I honestly don't mean these as nitpicks, I'm simply reporting what happened this trip, and in fact were pretty consistent the three trips before. If you're going to order from King's to have their fare shipped out-of-state, take heart in the fact that none of these typical gaffes will affect the excellent quality of the food you'll be receiving.

The barbecue on my plate was cold, damned near ice-cold. It was pretty obvious it had been scopped out of a tray on a counter somewhere, and they hadn't bothered to even zap for a minute in a microwave or flashwarm it in a pan on a stovetop. It was still great-tasting barbecue, but great tasting barbecue should never be disgraced by serving it cold. The portion of barbecue on my BBQ & Brunswick Stew was small, smaller than it should have been. To me, a "regular"-sized barbecue plate should have at least half a pound of the Perfect Porkflesh on it, never less than that. The portion on my plate (and the times before, too) was less than one-third of a pound. This might seem like a nitpick to the non-connoisseur, but it's a maxim among the Holy Grub faithful that the barbecue on one's plate should finish out at about the same time as all the other sidedishes, and the portion on my plate ran out way before then. BTW, a large barbecue plate should have between three-quarters and one full pound of 'cue piled atop it.

The barbecue on my wife's plate was also cold, and her piece of barbecued chicken was barely warm. She said it had the warmth of maybe being under a heatlamp before they served it, at least. The service was pretty bad. They wouldn't let us sit in a booth in the one-room open dining area, despite the fact that all the other customers there were sitting at booths. We had to sit out in the middle of the room, despite plenty of open booths just ten feet away. They never refilled our tea glasses at all, despite several attempts to flag a waitress down to do so. At the end of our meal, after our check was delivered but the hostess ignored our request for more tea, I finally got up and found a waitress who brought us some. At least the tea was on par with the rest of the quality of the food, nice and thick and rich and syrupy, just like Eastern-NC-BBQ restaurant tea should be. And, while this is a bordeline call, you as a potential sit-down patron should know this: they don't have a non-smoking section. The entire dining room is like a typical bistro in France, i.e. smoking or more smoking. They don't even bother setting aside a table or two near or under the main airsupply register, so that at least the smoke(rs) will be downwind from you.

All that said, King's is still worth an honest three pigs, based solely on the quality of their food alone. If you'd like to eat in their dining room instead of having their dinner menu flown to you, they're very easy to find. From Raleigh, take U.S. Highway 70 East through Kinston; they're approximately two miles on the right once you cross Hgwy 70's and NC Highway 11's intersection; look for them next to a Piggly-Wiggly grocery store in a small strip shopping center. Their actual street addres is: 409A E. New Bern Ave., Kinston, NC, 28505.

Their poached porcine pulchritude is definitely worth ordering via the magic of telephones and receiving via the alchemy of airplanes, if you're living elsewhere and are homesick for home-cooked Eastern-NC cooking. Below is most of the text of a brochure they distribute for ordering from them, along with their nationwide toll-free number, and their hotlinked webpage URL.

King's BBQ, Kinston, N.C. The Oink Express Menu 1-800-332-OINK (6465) Specialities Hand-chopped Pork BBQ...$6.50 per pound BBQ Pork Ribs...$15.95 per 2 lb. rack Brunswick Stew...$4.95 per pint Cole Slaw...$3.95 per pint Potato Salad...$3.95 per pint Pre-cooked Hushpuppies...$1.20 dozen Vegetables Collard Greens...$3.95 per pint Black-eyed Peas...$3.95 per pint Squash...$3.95 per pint Sauces & Mixes King's Delight Eastern-NC-Style Pork Barbecue Sauce 5 oz...$1.50 per bottle 16 oz...$3.95 per bottle 1 gallon...$8.00 per jug Rib Sauce (16 oz.)...$4.95 per bottle BBQ'd Chicken Sauce (16 oz.)...$4.95 per bottle Seafood Cocktail Sauce (16 oz.)...$4.95 per bottle King's Delight Hushpuppy Mix (2 lb. bag)...$2.95 per bag King's Delight Seafood Breader Mix (2 lb. bag)...$2.95 per bag King's Delight Grits (2 lb. bag)...$2.95 per bag King's Delight Biscuit Mix (2 lb. bag)...$2.95 per bag Desserts ($8.95@) Pecan Pie Chocolate Cream Pie Apple Pie Cherry Pie Peach Pie Sweet Potato Pie Notes Please allow $9.50 to your order for packaging, in addition to actual airfreight shipping charges. All food is shipped next-day-air in a sealed container with frozen ice gel to assure freshness. Shipping costs will be based on weight and destination of package. We will provide you with a total of such costs when order is placed. www.kingsbbq.com, King's BBQ Website

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