“You can smell the smoke around the clock,” City Barbeque says of its approach to barbecue.
At its Woodruff Road restaurant, City Barbeque gives Greenville a counter-service option built around hickory-smoked meats, broad menu choices, family-size orders, and the convenience of drive-thru, carry-out, delivery, and catering.
This is not a restaurant tied to one narrow barbecue tradition. Instead, City Barbeque works across several familiar American barbecue lanes, bringing brisket, pork, ribs, turkey, sausage, chicken, regional sauces, and plenty of sides under one roof.
City Barbeque says each of its restaurants operates three on-site smokers fueled by local hickory wood.
That smokehouse approach shows up most clearly in the core meats. The pulled pork is hand-rubbed, smoked over hickory, and pulled to order, while the brisket is smoked for up to 18 hours before being carved.
The menu also includes St. Louis-cut ribs, bone-in chicken, pulled chicken, smoked turkey breast, Texas-style sausage, and pork belly burnt ends. It is a wide-ranging lineup built for diners who do not all want the same thing from a barbecue meal.
Plates and samplers make it easy to mix and match. The City Sampler combines brisket, pulled pork, Texas-style sausage, smoked turkey, two sides, and Texas toast, while the Judge’s Sampler adds ribs and chicken to the mix.
Meat is also available by the half-pound or pound, with pulled pork, brisket, turkey, pulled chicken, sausage, and Triple Que on the list. Triple Que brings together pork, brisket, and rib meat in a spicy-sweet sauce.
Sandwiches move beyond a plain barbecue bun. The More Cowbell stacks brisket with provolone, peppers, onions, fried onions, and horseradish sauce on Texas toast. LoLo’s Pulled Pork pairs pork marinated in the restaurant’s vinegary Swine Wine sauce with creamy slaw.
There are also brisket sandwiches, smoked turkey, pulled chicken, sausage, wings, fried chicken tenders, and smoked chicken. That breadth makes City Barbeque a workable stop for a mixed group, especially when some diners want barbecue while others want a chicken sandwich, wings, or a more substantial sandwich.
The sides go well beyond an afterthought. Corn pudding, creamy slaw, baked beans with brisket, mac and cheese, potato salad, collard greens with pork, green beans with bacon, fresh-cut fries, hush puppies, and cornbread all help round out the meal.
The corn pudding is made with sweet corn, butter, sour cream, and cornmeal. The baked beans include brisket and the restaurant’s Original sauce, while the collards are cooked with pulled pork, vinegar, and a little hot sauce.
For dessert, banana pudding is the clear barbecue-house choice. City Barbeque serves it with fresh bananas, vanilla wafers, creamy pudding, whipped cream, caramel sauce, and a toasted wafer crumble.
City Barbeque keeps its sauces separate from the meat, letting diners decide how much and what style they want on the table.
For South Carolina barbecue fans, LowCo is the relevant choice: a mustard-based barbecue sauce. Swine Wine takes the other familiar route, a peppery vinegar sauce made especially for pulled pork.
Those two options give the Greenville menu a connection to the state’s barbecue traditions, even as the restaurant’s overall menu ranges much more widely than a classic South Carolina smokehouse.
City Barbeque offers simple meat-and-side plates for an ordinary lunch or dinner, but the menu also accommodates a crowd. Family packs, larger party packs, sandwich packs, and pans of sides make it an easy option for office lunches, ballgames, family gatherings, and casual events.
On busy Woodruff Road, City Barbeque is best understood as a broad, convenient barbecue stop. It is not trying to be an old-school South Carolina institution, but it does bring real on-site smoking, hickory-cooked meats, mustard and vinegar sauce options, and a menu large enough to keep a whole table happy.
Among the many Google Reviews, Local Guide Luther Thomason shared his first experience at City Barbeque:
First time eating City BBQ. We liked the clean and sleek look of the place, open kitchen and open concept of the restaurant. The employee taking our order was gracious and helpful since it was our first time.
I got the 3 meat/2 sides and my wife got the “not manwich sandwich”. Both were delish. The sides were wonderful. We had the mac n cheese, turnip greens, corn stuff, and potato salad. Left stuffed. Go check it out. We will be back soon.
Over on Yelp, Greenville resident Jay B has become a regular at City Barbeque:
I have had City BBQ 4-5 times since they arrived. It always is very tasty and I think price/value is outstanding. Standouts for me RIBS, Cole Slaw, Collards, but everything else is more than fine, including a great selection of sauces!
They have an outstanding Store Manager. We had a carryout order that went slightly awry and he more than made up for the error. That went a long way with me. One tiny criticism, the traffic flow directions around the building are a little confusing, but hardly a problem considering the quality of the food.
Note: Menu prices and options are subject to change over time. Contact the restaurant for the most up-to-date information.
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