I was excited to see the new barbecue restaurant opening near my home- Jim ‘N Nick’s. It seems like the built it in no time once they broke ground. I visited it for the first time last week, with mixed reviews.

The atmosphere was extremely nice and it seemed much nicer from a design perspective than most barbecue restaurants. After looking the menu over, I noticed that they are actually a chain. Most of their 23 locations are in the Southeast - this is their first in North Carolina. It is located near the corner of South Tryon and Highway 160 - on an outparcel next to Harris Teeter.

The waitress did a very good job. Our drinks did not get empty and she seemed to be around when we needed her. It appeared they had ample waitstaff. Hopefully, this is not just due to the fact that they are new.

First, let me mention their tea. It was very light in color and very weak. Their menu made a big deal of the fact that it was their “Signature Slow Brewed Tea.” I sure hope this was a bad batch because it could be improved upon. It was drinkable though - unlike some places.

They bring you a basket of what the waitress called “Cheddar Biscuits.” These did not resemble anything I have ever known to be a biscuit. They were more like corn muffins with cheese. Regardless of what they called them, they were hot and fantastic. I could have eaten an entire meal just on the “Cheddar Biscuits.”

I was a bit disappointed when I saw the Barbecue being delivered to tables smothered in sauce. The thing that comes to mind is what are they hiding with the sauce. Good barbecue does not require sauce - altough it is sometimes a nice compliment. To use a quote I hear a lot on the Food Channel - “Sauce hides things.” I immediately told the waitress that I wanted my sauce on the side so that I could truly judge the quality of the barbecue.

The barbecue was good but still not the great barbecue that I have grown to enjoy over the years. I tried the sauce. The regular sauce was nothing to write home about. They had a Habenero Hot and Spicy Sauce on the table which was great. I may have to get me some of this to use at home. It was hot - and it was Spicy - although not as hot as habenero usually is. This was a good thing since they have the sauce sitting on the tables.

The baked beans were good, but kind of different than what I expected. They had some sort of pepper in them that made them spicier than normal.

The slaw was pathetic. It was basically cabbage salad. It was not grated at all. There were large chunks of cabbage sitting in a pool of white liquid in the bowl. I suggest they spend 30 second longer on each batch of slaw to grate it and blend it well.

On another note, there was no border between smoking and non-smoking. Given the numerous studies related to higher revenues in non-smoking restaurants, I am not sure why a new restaurant would even have a smoking section. When selecting your table, be sure to request to sit far away from smoking if you do not wish to be bothered by the stinch.

They have lots of items besides BBQ pork - including an assortment of sandwiches, burgers, salads, brisket, chicken, turkey, pork hot links, ribs, steaks and much more. The one thing I did notice on most all items is that their prices were about $2 to $5 higher on each item than your typical barbecue restaurant. For instance, a pulled pork Bar-B-Q plate was $13.50, and hand pulled pork Bar-B-Q sandwich was $8.50…..and so on.

As far as what I had, I rate them as follows (scake if 1-10):
(1) BBQ 6 of 10 (better than average - not great)
(2) “Cheddar Biscuits” - 9
(3) Baked Beans - 7
(4) Slaw - 0 (they didn’t even hit the scale on this one)
(5) Onion Rings 8 - my wife had these, they were exceptional
(6) Tea - 4
(7) Atmosphere - 8
(8) Service - 8

I visited the new Lake Wylie Junction Grill & Pub on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 with my family. This was our first visit to the restaurant since it reopened under its new name/ownership. The restaurant is located at the former location of The Grid Iron (13105 S. Tryon Street in the Steele Creek area) which operated at that location for several years.

We had been wanting to try the restaurant since it opened several weeks back, but had not had the opportunity. We choose to go on Tuesday because they had a 35 cent wing special and I was once again in the mood for wings (I get in that mood a lot.)

Inside, the Junction looked pretty much the same as The Grid Iron did - although I did not go into the bar area, so that may have been different. It offers a bit of upscale ambiance but still maintains the feel of a nice sports bar. They have a number of televisions throughout and a wall in the main dining area that is all televisions. The Grid Iron had these televisions too, but for whatever reason never seemed to become known as THE place to go watch the game. I think the seating and sound arrangement makes it difficult for a group to go watch a game and enjoy it together. Then again, that may not be what they are shooting for - which brings up the question as to why all the TV’s in the first place.

Anyway, back to the food. The Junction is another one of these restaurants that breads their chicken wings. Most restaurants do not do this. I feel it takes a lot away from the wing and lowers the overall quality of the food. Their normal process is to fry the wings, bread them, and then fry them again. Upon my request, they were able to make the wings “naked” which is the customary way to get wings without the breading when restaurants insist on making them this way. I ordered 10 hot wings and 5 wings with barbeque sauce. Much to my delight the wings that came out were very large. If you are a wing conisseur, you know that the size can vary greatly from restaurant to restaruant. The hot sauce was hardly hot at all. In fact, I am surprised that anyone would consider it hot - or even mild for that matter. I almost seems to cool my mouth off instead of heat it up. Perhaps it was a bad batch or something, I guess I will see next time. The barbeque sauce was good.

My wife ordered the Homestyle Chicken & Dumplings. It was odd because the menu stated that they were Southern Style, but when the dish came out - it was orangish in color. I have been eating chicken & dumplings my whole life and have had them at dozens of restaurants and I have never seen them this color. They contained a good bit of vegetables - which wasn’t a plus for my wife who was looking for traditional southern style chicken & dumplings. This was more of a chicken soup or stew. Overall, she felt the taste to be acceptable - just not what one would expect upon ordering Chicken & Dumplings.

The service was about average for this type of restaurant. The waiter had just started there and was average. There were not any major issues like an inability to get refills in a timely manner or messed up orders. He bought the bill promptly and everything went smoothly.

As far as prices go, many of the dishes were average priced for this type of restuarant. Sandwiches were between $6 to $8 with fries. Most of the main courses were between $13 and $15. The chicken & dumplings seems a bit overpriced at $12.95, but I guess this should have been the first clue that they were not traditional.

I will definately go back to Lake Wylie Junction in the future. I have heard a lot of good things about other items on the menu and would like to try more of the entrees. Feel free to leave me comments with your experiences at Lake Wylie Junction. I look forward to hearing them.

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