Name: Carolina Ribs on the Run
Date: 7/12/14
Address: 858 N Carolina 1100, Mooresville, NC 28117
Order: Pulled pork sandwich with hush puppies and sweet tea (link to menu)
Price: $7.17

Usually, I am pretty good at researching and finding worthwhile joints to try when I’m in an unfamiliar area. I thought I did the due diligence for Mooresville (in which I happened to find myself after dropping off Mrs. Monk for her cousin’s baby shower), but as I pulled up to an empty restaurant at 11:30 on a Saturday I immediately knew I had made a huge mistake. I even double checked to see if it opened at 12 on Saturdays but nope, it opened at 11. I contemplated going back in the car and going somewhere else, but I figured I was already there so I’d give it a shot.

And yea…I should have just turned back around. Everything about the meal was below average. I bit into the pulled pork sandwich and…nothing. Blandness. The pork was moist but had no smoke, as if it was cooked in a crock pot (I wouldn’t be surprised if this was actually the case). The slaw on top of the sandwich tasted like a commercial mayo coleslaw. The hush puppies also tasted commercially bought and originally frozen. And to top it off, they asked what sauce I wanted for my sandwich so I ordered the “hickory BBQ” sauce on the side. Thankfully I did because you guessed it, it was a commercially made sauce. Perhaps I should have gone with the ribs, being that they are in the name and all, but I can’t see how they would have been too much better based on the pork. Plus, they use the same sauces.

As you will see in another review later this week, I ended up going to another place immediately after because I was so disappointed with Carolina Ribs on the Run. I hate to be too negative but based on this meal I feel as if they aren’t really trying. Avoid. (Update: As of August 2, enough people had avoided that they apparently have closed.)

–Monk

Ratings:
Atmosphere/Ambiance – 1.5 hogs
Pork – 1.5 hogs
Sides – 1.5 hogs
Overall – 1.5 hogs