Picnic

I absolutely love barbecue & always make a point to try any and every barbecue restaurant I come across. Picnic was a welcomed addition to the north Durham area and this place used to be my absolute favorite barbecue restaurant (in the entire country!!) pre-Covid. The barbecue is always very flavorful with minimal gristle & their proprietary Carolina style bbq sauce is some of the best I’ve ever tasted! To finish off the meal, they have some of the absolute best banana pudding I’ve ever had!

So you must be wondering with all the praise, why dock Picnic a star? Sometime around Covid, they started to tinker with the menu a little too much and lots of the amazing sides they offered changed. They completely got rid of fries for the longest time only to finally bring them back as a totally different hard waffle fry. The original style fries had much better flavor & texture. They also changed the original Mac n cheese recipe to a more basic, bland style. Finally, they upped their prices (understandable bc of Covid issues) but their portion sizes also dropped tremendously.

I get they’re doing what they can to stay afloat during these tough economic times but at the same time, you can’t abandon what brought you success imo. I still claim Picnic’s barbecue as some of the best in the country but I can no longer claim them as the overall best barbecue restaurant anymore due to all the changes that have occurred since originally opening. Here’s to hoping they get back to doing what made them so special!

4.5 stars
I'm honestly not sure what's up with all the negative reviews. People around here don't know good food. Terrible restaurants around here somehow have higher reviews than this awesome spot
This place was nothing short of excellent. Nicely fried chicken sandwich, and great pulled pork and brisket. Awesome BBQ sauce. Collard Greens had amazing flavor and the Mac and cheese was done right, and not gooey. The cukes were nicely pickled. Hush puppies were great
Good stuff. Fast service

Pretty good fried chicken sandwich. Came with a side, hushpuppies and slaw. Sandwich itself was nice, as well as the mac and cheese (my side), but for the price the portions were on the smaller side. Service was very fast as well.