Buck Nekkid BBQ
Located: 3825 N. Shiloh Drive
Fayetteville, AR
(479) 966-4337
Need directions? CLICK HERE
Type of dining experience: Casual / BBQ
This is our original review of their establishment. To see our most recent review go HERE.
A sad day for a foodie!
I really do hate giving bad reviews, but it comes with the territory. And an unvarnished honest opinion is something that my viewers expect and appreciate when I give it to them. To me though I look at a bad review in the light that it may either help a consumer from wasting their money when it could be better spent elsewhere, or even as a learning tool for those establishments that hold an open mind to criticism. Which will allow them to continue to better themselves, and in the end run give their customers a better experience down the road.
I would like to say that the staff seemed very friendly and accommodating, and there was one staff member there near the front door that took time to explain how things worked there to people that had never been there before. So from what I could see, their customer service scores high!
Facility
I did not take any shots of the interior of the facility, but it is really nice and clean. They did a great job on the build out, it has lots of room to move about. Which is great for families and also they could accommodate large groups.
There is a full service bar located within the facility, so if you are in the mood for a draft beer or a mixed drink, it looks like they have you covered.
The rest rooms were very clean during my visit.
Now, on to the food portion of the review.
And this is where we start heading to the dark side of a foodie experience, and to be honest this may very well prompt me to never go back there myself. Those of you who follow my reviews know that I do my best to paint you an unvarnished and concise picture of my visit to an establishment, which allows you the viewer to "be there yourself". So here goes.
Beef Ribs
The beef ribs here are sold by the pound, and run $13.50 per pound.
I ended up ordering two ribs. The one rib the meat was falling off the bone, it was very tender and tasted great, wonderful flavor.
The other rib though was over cooked, it is the one on the right in the picture. The meat was chewy and tough. Definitely not what you would expect for a beef rib, and from somewhere that you would think knows better than to serve something that is obviously over done.
Strike one.
Beef Ribs Continued
That one rib I was talking about, that the meat feel off the bone, well it also had a TON of fat. Now if I am getting charged $13.50 per pound for a rib, I do NOT expect a huge portion of that to be fat. The circled area of the photo is the fat that came off that one rib.
The arrow is pointing to the brisket I got, which is about 1/3rd of a pound of meat.
When I took the left over's home and weighed the piece of fat, it was right around 3 ounces. That piece of fat represents $2.50 of my meal approximately.
Strike two.
Brisket
I also tried the brisket, which runs $11.99 per pound.
This was the worst part of the meal by far. The brisket itself lacked a good defined seasoning and flavor, and the worst part of the whole thing was how dry it turned out.
There was a couple sitting next to me, and I asked them what they thought about the food, I had not stated my opinion yet to them.
And they mentioned even how dry the brisket was.
Strike three.
Chicken Leg Quarter
The photo of this chicken leg quarter really does not give it justice, in relation to how small this portion size was.
I have gotten bags of chicken leg quarters, the cheap 10lb bags that run a little over $5.95 for the whole bag, and I got probably 10 leg quarters that are twice the size of this one out of that one bag.
They charge $3.95 for this, and the value just is not there. The thigh was nice and juicy, tasted good, but the leg portion had been overdone a tad. And as I said, overall the size was very small.
Strike four.
Pasta Salad
This particular side I had a lot of hope for, it is a pasta salad with fresh onion, cucumber and tomato.
While it looked very vibrant the taste left some to be desired, which is sad because this side had a lot of potential. It was just generally under seasoned.
Seasoning is a tough thing to do in a restaurant, everyone has different palates. But this bordered on being almost bland.
Strike five.
Cole Slaw
This was the overall star of the night, having a good taste consistency. The slaw was very creamy, and seasoned well.
In foodie terms, a fat man is usually a happy man. And my physique is such in relation to my desire to eat, that I consider myself a fat man. But this fat man was not happy today, which really is sad. They have such a beautiful facility and a wonderful opportunity to provide us area foodies something to talk about, and look forward to.
But they just did not hit the mark, in fact, I would have to say they were so far off the mark that in baseball terms, it was a big ole swing and a miss. The big wiff.
The value is not there for the dollars spent, the pricing is far too high in relation to portion size. And the quality standards are not there. If you are going to charge a premium amount for a product, how in the world can you send out one rib that is burnt and another that has a HUGE portion of it that is just fat.
I am afraid that what is going to happen is that the quality standards will remain low and the "newness" of their establishment is going to wear off. And once that newness has worn off, people just will not continue to come back because the quality consistency and value just are not going to be there.
I hope that I am wrong, the last thing I want to see is a business go out of business. It affects more than just the owners, it affects the staff and their families as well. So I honestly hope that they get their quality standards under control, bring up the level of their food in relation to what they are wanting to charge, and succeed.
There are very few times that I throw away left over's, it goes back to that afore mentioned fat man foodie thing. But on this go around, the majority of my $30 meal went into the trash. And I doubt that I will be going back to try them again anytime soon.
Review by Frank Elder
