Review of James' Fish House, Sanford, NC {NC-Style BBQ}, by H. Kent Craig

{Out of business for good as of May, 2005}

Review of James' Fish House {NC-Style BBQ}
1724 Westover Dr.
Sanford, N.C. 27330
919-776-5615

by
H. Kent Craig Š2000

(Thanks to G. & J.B. for doing the initial scouting trips)

This review is as short and sweet as the barbecue served at James' Fish House in Sanford, North Carolina.

First, the positives. It's a well-cooked, consistently medium-chopped textture that is held together by that curious sauce mixture I'm finding more and more these days, neither true Lexington-style/Western-NC-style that's ketchup-based, nor true South Carolina-mustard-style sauce, neither is it an enhanced bare vinegar sauce like Eastern-NC-style. Rather, it's a combination by addition and subtraction of all three of the above plus other ingredients, and is very mildly seasoned, not a hint of hotness or visible red pepper anywhere to be found. There wasn't any bone, gristle, or fat globules in the meat, and the meat was cooked from very tasty pork shoulders. The "adult plate is a full three-quarters to nearly a full pound of perfectly pulled and chopped meat. The hushpuppies were light and airy, and the tea was strong and thick. The service was excellent bar none, as good as it gets at any barbecue place/fish house or similar place. The restaurant itself was large, new, open, spotlessly clean, but traditional in layout and design for an NC-BBQ restaurant, functional but not fancy. So many positives, yet, I'm giving it just a two-pig rating on a scale of one-to-four. Why?

The negatives. While I reiterate that there's nothing wrong with the polyglot of local barbecue cultures sauce that their 'cue is bound together by, indeed Brookwood Farms' barbecue which uses a similar sauce is so delicious that I eat it a couple of times a week, James' Fish House barbecue sauce (which comes pre-added to the meat, and you can't ask for or be served more, as is traditional at Lexington-style places) while good, well...has no ummphhhhh to it, no signature taste which marks it as being unique to James'.

While I didn't and wouldn't ask, the taste while quite pleasant while eating is so un-remarkable that I wouldn't doubt it if someone told me that they bought it from another so-so barbecue restaurant, rather than fixing it themselves. All barbecue should be able to handle at least moderate table modifications by the additions of Texas Pete or other hot sauces, yet, when I added 3-4 drops to one large spoonful of meat, the resulting taste was so godawful that I couldn't finish chewing or swallowing it. That also tells me that cooked pigflesh had probably been sitting chilled in their refrigerator for days until I ordered it, the sauce totally soaking its way through every open pore of the swinemuscle. Which would also explain why the barbecue was served a few degrees below room temperature.

The hushpuppies, which they skimped on pretty badly, initially serving the two of us just four of (yes, count 'em, four, not the usual dozen+ served as an appetizer by most BBQ restaurants), and when we asked for another "basket" of them, got another four of them, Sigh, were very light and flavorful and delicious. My complaint? Somehow, they had made them soggy, too. Yes, soggy. I don't know how you can take what would have been a hushpuppy equal to anyone's anywhere's and make it so soggy and lifeless that it was basically ruined, unless you let it cook way too long in a fryer with grease way too cold. But whatever they did to them, they did to them. At least they did taste like they cooked them in clean grease, not in the same vats that their minions of assorted seafood delicacys are hotgrease-scalded in.

Let us bring the review back to a center focus. The barbecue itself is undistinguished, but is still perfectly acceptable if you're hungry and are driving down US 1 through Sanford. They're located off of Westover Dr., which is the service road to the right just before the Food Lion and the Tramway City Limits as you're heading south on '1. You won't be necessarily disappointed with James' Fish House, but you won't be impressed with it enough to recommend to any of your friends, either. The physical plant itself is new, bright, cheery, a very nice facility. While I hate to have to use this as an "excuse" or apology for them, since other places such as Knightdale Seafood & Barbecue manage to serve much wider menus but still also serve cut-above barbeque, James' Fish House is primarily a seafood joint, and they offer barbecue (and one chicken entree) for those who are members of a larger party and who might happen to be allergic to seafood, me thinks. For the money, you'll go away with a full stomach and no unpleasant aftertastes and basically a good impression of basically decent, but not world-class or even All-State-class, deadporkflesh fare.

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