BBQ Restaurant Review – Wink’s Barbecue Salisbury, North Carolina – King of Barbeque

Until now all of my previous restaurant review have been BBQ that is located North of the border in Canada where I live.

I am presently on vacation and on my way to Florida to visit my parents and along the way I am making stops and for the first time tasting BBQ American Style.

The first leg of my trip had me stopping in Salisbury, North Carolina where I was presented with the Masterbuilt Electric Smokehouse that I won from the contest on the Barbecue Master.

Cyndi Allison along with her son Eli and his father Jimmy were nice enough to bring me out to enjoy a BBQ dinner at a local restaurant that they like called Wink’s located at 509 Faith Road in Salisbury North Carolina.

Wink’s has a very open atmosphere that was inviting and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

Cyndi suggested that we go to Wink’s because it is was one of the few remaining “Stick Burning” restaurants in the area, and there will never be any more since new bylaws are grandfathered in not allowing new businesses to have Fire Smokers using wood pits any longer.

Cyndi is pictured standing in front of Wink’s Wood pile out back.

We all ordered Chopped Pork which is different from what I am used to in Canada, where the BBQ Joints I have been too do a pulled pork which generally is cooked longer than the Carolina style and too a higher temperature, or at least that is the way it was explained to me.

Front of the Menu, and yes that is a lion on the front, different than having a Pig or a Chicken

Inside of Wink's Menu, click on the image to enlarge

The pork comes by itself and if you want to put it on a bun you order those separate and put it together the way you like it with or with out slaw, Cyndi and her gang are not slaw fans and the server I guess figured that I did not want slaw either, I would of liked to try it but it was Ok that I did not have it.

The sauce that they had on the table is vinegar based which depending on which part of the state or country you are in the sauces can differ a lot in style. This sauce had a good flavour that I enjoyed and in the style it is made is of good quality, but if I have to be honest which I really try to do with my reviews I kind of prefer the pulled pork like they have at Rubbs BBQ Bistro back home in Canada and using ironically enough the Carolina Sour sauce that Rubbs has you can my reviews of Rubbs here and a second visit here

What I found is that Rubbs and other Pulled pork I had last summer at various RibFests in Ontario was that they use more sauce than here in NC and since the sauce here is vinegar based it is a lot thinner too which is fine, some people would like to taste more of the meat rather than the sauce.

I had enough meat on my tray to make at least 3 buns overflowing with pork, I was able to eat 2.

I was impressed with the size of the portions and the cost was quite reasonable too.

On the Left is Cyndi and her Son Eli, on the right is Eli's dad Jimmy with myself against the wall

Lets have a look at the sides, I had 2 sides including Fried Okra which is something I had not heard of before but under Cyndi’s recommendation I wanted to try it, again a large portion and I really enjoyed the taste and the texture of the Fried Okra, that was a winner for me. I also decided to try the Hush Puppies though I was a bit hesitant to do so after trying Hush Puppies only once before from Buster Rhinos store in North Oshawa back home, Buster’s Hush-puppies mostly found their way to the green bin under the sink as they were tough and I could not even get them down. from what I understand Buster’s had reheated the sides from frozen which did not work well. or they were just over cooked.

Wink’s Hush Puppies on the other hand were wonderful they tasted fresh and had texture that my mouth took a shining to. I could even see that the colour was more pleasing than the ones I had from Buster Rhinos.

With the portions so large none of us was able to think about eating a dessert but Wink’s does have an excellent assortment of goodies, Jimmy orders a dessert to go to enjoy the next day at home.