Bullock’s Bar-B-Q

So I had their barbeque, hushpuppies, slaw, and fried chicken. It was good. The fried chicken was seasoned so well. It was my favorite. The barbeque was good for vinegar based barbeque so it’s worth a try. Everything was good and I do recommend this place to others.

Haven’t been in awhile but always enjoyed it. great variety, fair prices and just plain good.

They had only been open for ½ hr. and were already busy. The lady greeted us at the door and was very nice, like a grandma. Very welcoming! We ordered to go and the guy who took our order with very nice and quick. He kept us updated on our order. Didn’t wait long. They don’t take credit cards so bring cash. I ordered the fried chicken dinner; the chicken perfectly cooked. The yams tasted like my yams so I was surprisingly pleased. That meal was delicious. My husband ordered the ½ lb burger; he said it was cooked perfect. He enjoyed his meal. We got this food to eat on the road while we drove home and it did not disappoint. It was a wonderful close to our trip. I’m glad I discovered this place in a Durham tourist guide the night before we were leaving. Thought the food looked good in the picture and decided that’s where we’d get our final meal of the trip. Also it was about 3 – 4 mins from hotel right behind Sheetz. I wish I knew that at beginning of trip but I do now and we’ll definitely be back. It was great!!! A must try!

Great place to bring a group with family style service as an option. We’ve been coming here since I was born. Makes it easy for people to get great food fast and plenty of it! You can certainly choose from a large selection on the menu if you want, but I love the mix of fried chicken, chopped pork bbq, Brunswick stew, fries, hush puppies, cole slaw, and green beans. Ribs are optional. Even better when they keep bringing you more, and more, and more. A popular spot for groups and college students as a result. Fantastic catering service too! CASH ONLY — there is an ATM on site if needed.

I’ll admit it took a long time for me to come around to the concept of Carolina’s vinegar based BBQ. Actually, it took trying Bullocks chopped BBQ, which to me tastes not like a BBQ sauced pork, but rather just like really moist, flavorful, a little tangy chopped pork. It is THE place to go for Carolina BBQ (not to mention the oldest restaurant in Durham!). Delicious!
They have a HUGE and varied menu, so if BBQ pork isn’t your thing, I can just about guarantee there’s something on their menu you’ll enjoy — and it’s the best place we’ve found in NC for one of our favorite seafood treats — fried clams. Go figure.
A few things to keep in mind — they are closed Sundays AND Mondays, they close at 8pm, and they don’t take credit cards (but they have an ATM machine in the lobby). So… go early, bring some cash and prepare to CHOW DOWN.

Friendly people not so good food. Cold ribs that seemed reheated, canned vegetables, brisket was ok, tiny bland chicken, hush puppies were good. Very old décor and setting which usually means really good food but unfortunately not In this case.
Maybe they had an off day as many people recommended this place.

I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid and it is still one of my family’s favorite BBQ spot. The lines are long during dinner hour so we usually go right when it opens. They give you these hush puppies before dinner but be careful not to get too full on these before your meal!
The brunswick stew is really good. The fried chicken is really good here as well. It’s also cool to see all these pictures of presidents and celebrities that have eaten here in the past while you wait for your table.

If you’ve ever eaten those lil’ smokies sausages drowning in BBQ sauce, you’ve experienced the BBQ at Bullock’s. We tried a bit of everything: brisket (tough and chewy and drowning in nasty sauce), pork ribs (again, drowning in sauce-​you can get better ribs at Chili’s), fried chicken (the best part of the meal but it had a funky odor), mac and cheese (eh), green beans (funky taste), and coconut pie (we received a broken piece of rubbery custard that was just gross). In addition to the food being of poor quality, we didn’t feel welcome here by the staff or employees, I guess we didn’t fit the demographic.

First, I want to point out that the staff here is exceptionally nice. They really made me feel at home, and the server and cashier greeted and treated me so well. I was not impressed with the food though. I had the beef brisket and got turnip greens and fried okra sides. The beef had too much BBQ sauce, and wasn’t particularly flavorful. The okra was over fried. Reflecting well the restaurant is that it was packed with people who seemed like loyal regulars. And the walls are filled with celebrities who come through here on a regular basis. It clearly has a devoted following.

This was billed as one of the best bbq restaurants in the state. I have to disagree. The ribs were fatty and lacked ANY bbq or smoke flavor. Ribs tasted like they had been steamed prior to cooking briefly on a grill. The bones were also dark which usually means they were steamed or precook end in an oven. This is laughable for a place that calls itself a barbecue establishment. The chopped pork was bland and mushy.
Nice that they bring hush puppies prior to the meal being brought out… to bad they tasted like they had been hours before.
Would not repeat. If this is what Carolina BBQ should taste like then sorry to say but it is worthless next to Georgia or Texas cue.
The fried chicken looked better. In fact most orders that came by me were fried chicken… which tells you how good the bbq is.

Went to Bullocks Wednesday 9/23/15@7:00pm. Fairly busy. Hostess sat us us at wet/​greasy table. I ordered the 9.00 shrimp cocktail. it came warm & tasteless. I ordered BBQ Beef Ribs
not good, had small bone spurs from when cut in half/​I couldn’t eat after chewing on 3 pieces of bone spurs. I had tasteless green beans, warm potato salad, pork-​n-​beans, called Baked Beans. Hushpuppies were good. thats it. I will not be back.

Very impressed with this place! VERY impressed. Thank you for your service and amazing products!

We ate family style for my Dad’s retirement lunch. The food (BBQ, fried chicken, slaw, Brunswick Stew, green beans, banana pudding, chocolate cake…) was all good. The service was friendly and atttentive.

First of all, I’ve only eaten at Bullock’s one time. It was 2000, I was in high school and visiting a friend who went to school up there, and he took me there.
That said, I’m now a teacher and athletic director at a high school in the Triangle, and for the past two years I’ve used Bullock’s to cater my school’s end-​of-​year athletic banquet. Tommy is fantastic to work with in setting things up; he makes sure we have everything we need, and allows us to change the number of people and the menu up until pretty much the day of the event if we need to. They show up on time, set everything up without disrupting anything else going on, and everyone raves about the food. The pulled pork is great, but the fried chicken is excellent. I’ve never had a side item I didn’t love (the okra and the mac&cheese are my favorites), and the banana pudding is to die for.
I’ve resolved to start paying their restaurant a visit on a regular basis since it’s some of the best barbecue I’ve had in this area, and they’re just fantastic people.

I love Bullock’s hush puppies and fried chicken. They are really tasty, and not greasy at all.

I’ve lived in Durham all my life and have only been to Bullocks a couple of times (20 years ago) … so when I got a craving today for some good old-​fashioned Southern food, my husband and I paid a visit.
Well, it’s not much to look at from the outside. The parking is kind of odd (vehicles were blocking a couple of entrances), and I question the decision to put an enormous nasty dumpster right there in front of the building. You have to walk past it to get to the entrance; it’s not the best way to welcome your guests! The interior isn’t much better. It’s comfortable and clean but it has not been updated since 1978 or so. The walls at the entrance are covered with autographed photos of country music stars and athletes from their glory days (70’s and 80’s) and a lot of the patrons have probably been regulars since that time. You’ll see plenty of walkers and canes, plus-​sized individuals, Bubbas wearing baseball caps at the table, and some big blue /​white hair all jacked out to Heaven. Now, I’m not passing judgement, I’m just accurately describing what I saw. You should know what you’re getting into!
The service was fine. Our waitress was All Business. No greeting, no welcoming smile, no warmth, no personality … but she did her job.
Now, most importantly: The Food. We both ordered the pulled pork BBQ with mustard greens, fried okra, potato salad, and sweet tea. We enjoyed the complimentary hush puppies and our food got to us shortly.
It was delicious! The BBQ was moist and flavorful, the potato salad was like my momma used to make, the fried okra was fine but lacked «something» I can’t quite put my finger on, and the greens were very good in spite of not being drained completely (there was a little puddle of water in the bowl when I finished).
Although it didn’t affect the taste of the food, you should know the meal was served on cheap melamine plates and bowls, and the utensils were just one step above the type that are stamped out of a sheet of metal (this is a pet peeve of mine).
Still, it was a great lunch. It’s not fine dining. It’s not the place to take a date. This is where you go when you crave a taste of the South and just want to refuel and go … kind of like a gas station.

While the thigh was deliciously greasy and hot and juicy all the way through… the breast did a very good job copying his darker meat friend.
I think the fried chicken must get a butter rubdown prior to flouring and frying, and it shows.
Crispy skin, juicy meat.
The best fried chicken you’ll ever eat.
You need to try some of this fried chicken.

Visited for dinner. We weren’t really a young group, but we might have dropped the average age in the room by a few years just with our table. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing. You just need to know that your going to get old-​fashioned, no-​frills kind of food.
We shared hush puppies for an appetizer. They were good, but maybe not as over-​the-​top good as other folks seem to think. I was much more impressed the sides that came with my BBQ platter. The coleslaw and baked beans were definitely above-​average. The beans were especially notable with just the right amount of molasses & stick-​to-​your-​ribs texture that I like. The BBQ itself, eastern-​NC style chopped pork, was moist, but generally flavorless. I suspect it had been held or returned to temp using a water bath something that sadly happens all too frequently at this type of establishment.
For desert, I got a snicker’s bar pie and it was the highlight of my meal. Served warm, it was ooey-​gooey and delicious. Others tried the blackberry and peach cobbler and were less impressed. Both were served cold and without ice cream which is really the opposite of how it should go.
When the bill came, we all tried to pay with credit card and got a reprimand from our waitress. Be prepared-​they only take cash.

I remember when this restaurant was good. Then I came to my senses. A true Durham landmark revered and beloved by the simple minded that live in this city. Horribly dry bbq. Terrible under seasoned chicken and Brunswick stew that gives you the feeling that you are eating straight from the trough. Avoid this place like the plague.

Food is good. Service is good.
I was told that Bullock’s used to be a very popular establishment until a few years ago when they had a salmonella outbreak, and the business has not been the same. So I went to check it out.
At first glance, its very obvious why Bullock’s is just not popular anymore. Going through the doors feels like your walking into a time machine set for 1982. The place needs some serious renovation. And so the clientele is also very old. Looking around while seated at your table, you’ll think that you are at a senior care facility; and the staff members match the décor. If you are under the age of 50, see how many of the celebrity pictures you can identify, if you can identify more than a handful, you better have your living will up-​to-​date.
Once you get past the décor, the old folks, and the teeth-​grinding inconvenience of not accepting debit/​credit cards, you get to the menu that has way too many items on it. Don’t stray from the fried chicken and BBQ, other items on the menu are not at the same level. And don’t forget to give the «vegetables menu» a chuckle.

I’ve been coming here for a few years and I’ve always received good service and a decent hot meal here. Though this building is a living time capsule from the early 1980s, some things don’t need to change.
The servers are patient with kids and good with groups. If not for anything else, this is a major factor in me coming with my extended family here.
The barbeque is just the right amount of moist, though you may find it needing additional sauce. The cole slaw is finely chopped and really on the sweet side. This isn’t bad, but you should just be ready for it. It’s probably one of my more favorite cole slaws. Don’t forget to try the hushpuppies either.

Nothin fancy here in the décor, but the food is excellent. The family style will offer a good selection of chicken, NC style bbq, Brunswick stew, fries, Southern style green beans, hush puppies and slaw for a fair price or you can order off their huge menu. So much to choose from, definitely something for everyone!
The wait staff are middle aged, experienced, and no-​nonsense. They’ll get your food to you just as quick as you can order it. It can get very crowded here, with a line out the door, so during peak hours bring a cracker if you have to wait and you’re starving!
It’s cash only, but they might have an ATM machine in the lobby, just FYI.