Gardners Barbecue New Bern

Despite reading several negative reviews, my coworker and I decided to give Gardners a try for lunch today. Here’s a rundown of the foods we tried:Turkey BBQ—something about this tastes wrong. I couldn’t eat a 2nd bite.Pork BBQ—decent flavor but way too many hard pieces of red pepper that felt like I was biting rocks.Collards—barely chopped and bitter.Pastry—tastes like frozen pastry strips in a ton of salty chicken bouillon.Brunswick Stew—decent, but not great.Corn sticks—overcooked and dry.Hushpuppies—decent.Sweet tea—the best part of my meal.We gave it a try, but I don’t foresee another visit anytime in the near future, unless it’s for tea.

I used to eat at Gardners barbecue all the time when I lived in Wilson. I know they must’ve been making barbecue for at least 30 years now. Glad to see them in New Bern. It’s true eastern North Carolina barbecue with all the traditional sides. They have the best collards in town. I really like their fried chicken covered with their homemade barbecue sauce. The manager said they are going to start serving breakfast soon I can’t wait!

We ordered BBQ, Mac and Cheese, collards, fried chicken, banana pudding. So the BBQ had a very oily taste, The mac & cheese was straight up garbage (so nasty), collards were dry yes I said it dry! How do you make collard dry! Fried chicken was very weird with the batter had a weird taste, A banana pudding had two Wafers and not in the bananas were not ripe how do you make a banana hard!! Never again!

Had Gardner’s BBQ in New Bern cater our company lunch today to celebrate the birthdays for several of our team members. The food arrived hot and was excellent. Great people and made catering our function easy. We will definitely be using Gardner’s again for our events. All our team thoroughly enjoyed the meal.Thank you Gardner’s!

I’ve been many times since they opened. The food is great and the service is always top notch. The most polite staff. I’ve almost had everything on the menu at this point and everything has been fantastic. Make sure to also get a Potato Jack or Banana Pudding for dessert. It’s nice having a real BBQ place back in New Bern.

Stoped on our way home from a very long road trip to grab some dinner. Paid $44 dollars for food we didn’t even eat because it was nasty. Chicken was hard as a rock mac and cheese bowls was dry. You could tell the Mac and cheese had been sitting all day long. It was a very big disappointment after having a really good experience the first time we tried it. I don’t think we will be returning anytime soon.

I’m sorry but there is no way these rock solid boom boom chicken tender sandwiches and a kids tender meal is worth 20 bucks. The tenders are hard and old. The kids tender meal comes with literally 1 tender. I get it. If the food is actually good I can see a place getting away with it. But this is the kind of experience that even if you gave me free stuff to come back and try it again. I would not. I do not recommend this place. The only reason I gave it 2 stars was because the lady who took my money said have a nice day. Legitimately ya’ll I’m 32 years old. And I have never had chicken as rock solid and dry as this. Not to mention the bread broke in 3 pieces from how stale it was just from unwrapping the sandwich. Hopefully I just caught ya’ll on a horrible day. But this has got to be a joke. If you look at my reviews guys I’m honest and will always try and give the benefit of the doubt. My kid could not even bite through the tender and it’s not even the breading that was hard it’s the whole tender

I never knew this restaurant existed until it came to New Bern. I have to say we were very impressed. The staff was great, very nice and attentive. Made sure our tea was refilled, and asked if we needed anything else. Made small talk with a smile. Very refreshing for a fast food restaurant. The food was delicious! Especially impressed with the fried chicken and collards. Someone else reviewed them perfectly. We will definitely be back. Whether passing through, or you live in New Bern, make sure you stop and try them out. You will not be disappointed!

I had the chicken Cobb salad, it was very good! I sampled other options from my husband's choices. The pork BBQ, the shredded turkey BBQ, the Butterbeans, collards and hush puppies were all delicious! But our favorite was the fried chicken!! The staff was very friendly and the restaurant (including the ladies restroom) was very clean!! I'm sure we'll be back!!

Well in my professional opinion, the chicken was the best that I have eaten in a long time. Home made taste and tender to the bone.The french fries where crispy & mac and cheese goooood.That is what I ate and it was great ! One last thing ; with sometimes a long line must mean something good awaits.

A new barbeque restaurant is something worth checking out, so we had to go! We ordered the single chicken breast tray with corn nuggets and the small barbecue tray with slaw. The chicken was lightly breaded, fried golden brown and cooked as perfectly juicy and tender as is possible. The chicken had a wonderful crisp crunch and tasted homemade. The corn nuggets were a bit heavier on the breading, I assume to keep the corn inside, but still crunchy on the outside and sweet and tender on the inside. The barbeque was tender, shredded, well cooked and lightly seasoned. Definitely an eastern NC vinegar based style with a slight hint of sweetness. The slaw was good with a bit of sweetness that still let the cabbage flavor through. Pricing is more affordable than other barbeque restaurants in the area. It is definitely a place we'll try again in order to sample the other sides and certainly the chicken and pastry.

Have yet to get in the door. Drove up one night last week to the drive thru and some artificial voice told me they were not serving the drive thru. Ok. Can understand that just getting started. This past Saturday night drove up and attempted to enter the dining room to get a takeout and was told by someone in a parked car that they were closed. The stated hours were 10:30 until 8:00 pm. This was right after 7:00 pm. Not into playing games when I'm hungry. Will not attempt to patronize the place again, especially when I read in another review that they use gas to cook with. They evidently don't cook BBQ. They merely have pigmeat. Sorry Charlie. Got better things to do.

Macaroni and what???This can't be cheese. Please don't waste your time. Pictures don't lie. Learn how to cook before selling food.

I went there twice last week. First visit:. Pastry was good, hush puppies were good, tea good and bread pudding very good. Sadly macaroni very watery cheese sauce, I could do better at home with Kraft or Cracker Barrel kits. I went back the next day, the order was wrong. Corn sticks instead of hush puppies and pickle fries instead of french fries. I called the order in, she wrote it down correctly and legibly. She even put it in my order bag. The pastry side was good and the tea. Chicken livers were delicious. It takes 15-20 minutes to cook. No online order available yet. No drive through available. It was curbside pickup day 1. Day 2 they requested I go inside to pick it up. I nice staff lady waiting on customers, 2 people cooking. The bread pudding went to 5 stars the day before to one star, greasy and inedible. Not round and crispy. It looked like they had slapped them down with a spatula and cut them out with it too. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt, alot of doubt. The manager responded to a negative review by someone else by recommending to return in a month. So I will try again later. They need more staff and consistent standards for cooking their food. Mr or Ms manager try eating the food on your menu. The recent review with the pic of the macoroni and cheese is accurate. If food can not live up to high standards take it off the menu! Moore's Barbeque is a short drive down the road so you need to get your act together soon. How often will we try out your new restaurant before we just shrug our shoulders and go to Moore's Barbeque? Yes, you just opened but your sister stores in Rocky Mount have been around quite a while. Maybe you need more support from them.

My Boyfriend and I first time going, just heard about this restaurant. The food was very good.. had a combo of fried chicken and turkey barbeque with double collards (yes they were good also)(we both had same order) and a drink. The customer service was good as well, very attentive, and we had take out.I will definitely go again and try the seafood