Swadley's BBQ in Ardmore

Is this place supposed to be good? Maybe I caught them on an off night. I got the Oklahoma Sampler and it's all kind of bland. Very little smoke taste at all. The pulled pork is mushy, brisket is dry and the smoked sausage I'm pretty sure is Bar S brand.. ribs are ok. Potato salad is horrible. The spicy beans and turkey are decent.

ate there once, key word being once.

local chain that has always sucked. earls is pretty good if you can find one.

swadleys is the bill miller of Okieland. just sayin.

Yep..Lesson learned. Surprised at the crowd though. It was busy.

Never ate there, but just like Dickies BBQ that nobody likes There is a lot of people eating BBQ in places That nobody claims to like. Guess we don't all like the same thing.JMO

Heck, I like Dickie’s BBQ. Not the best, but still pretty good. Beats the heck out of that overpriced joint in Taylor that everybody raves about.

Ok bbq can be very iffy. If your looking for Texas bbq you will be disappointed.

if it's the same place it wasn't bad back in the early 90's

I believe Rib Crib is the best BBQ in OK.

You are either high or drunk, or both. Low grade dog food.

You shoulda went to Punkin’s in Paul’s Valley.

This is true

It’s in Oklahoma everything sucks

See, what one guy likes another doesn't.

Many many years ago there was one good BBQ place in Oklahoma. Bobs BBQ in Ada, Oklahoma. Line was out the door, across the parking lot and along side the highway. It closed many years ago.

I would say overall Oklahoma is not known for good BBQ.

lol it’s not good at all.

Best Ribs I can remember eating was in Ft. Smith Arkansas, I don't know if I was just super hungry or the Pitmaster was from Austin Tx.

Swadleys is not good at all and overpriced
Smoking joes is better, but can get a bad night every so often

Swadleys should be out-of-business, and everyone involved in the scam should be in jail.

https://www.readfrontier.org/storie...in-swadleys-foggy-bottom-kitchen-scheme/

It’s not that cut and dry. When the state contracted Swadley’s to go in there they knew it was going to be a losing deal for the state, you just don’t get enough business thru those parks year round to run a full service restaurant. The food was pretty good at those foggy bottoms, slightly different concept than Swadley’s bbq

Swadleys is not impressive at all. Neither is Earls. Haven't found bbq in Oklahoma that's anything to write home about. Little hole in the wall joint in north Edmond called Texlahoma that's decent but even they have off cooks on occasion.

Nothing in Oklahoma is good.

have you tried clark crew?

I had a come to Jesus talk with Swadley a few years back, he was taking all my employees and paying them 50 % more than what we were able to pay, the reason he was able to do that is because the state was paying his labor for the first year, pretty sure there were lots of shenanigans going on with Foggy Bottom and the state.

I agree that the food and menu was very good. I absolutely disagree with the cut and dry part, unless all the reporting, record keeping and witnesses of the illegal things they did was inaccurate.

I did like Foggy Bottom and sad to see them gone, he had a good thing going and got greedy.

That you Alley?

Oklahoma has lots of salt of the earth Good people. Downtown OKC river walk is a nice evening. TenKiller is a beautiful Lake with good fishing. Good Hunting in Oklahoma in the northern area around the crops.

Saying there is nothing in OK good is like saying West TEXAS is for everyone and pretty. The only reason anyone lives in the god forsaken place is the money. The oilfields in OK are same thing.

I ate at Earl's in OKC the night we were there in the summer the food wasn't bad. The plate I got was actually pretty good but hard to mess up pulled pork and Brisket unless you are really bad at cooking. I didn't remember it being over the top great just a good experience and nice evening.

ate at the one on west reno/meridian area and the edmond location, edmond pretty regular and both were good for chain type bbq.

mostly ate the sliced brisket sandwich or one of the plate meals.

Rudy's has some pretty good Q. One in OKC and one in Norman.

This, don’t come, nothing worth seeing.

Copaneazie's Pizza in downtown Tulsa is pretty legit. Wood fired. Damn good.

No it isn't! And very shady business practices too. They had the contract for all the Oklahoma state park restaurants. The state parted ways with them about 1-2 years ago over their business practices. Not making payments, unfair treatment of their employees, among other things.

I can't believe they're still in business.

his original in leon springs was da schnizzle for good Q around s.a. now it is just decent chain bbq. who cooks it is key to good Q, if they don't care too much it will be meh. jmo

rudy did most of the smoking back then, fun times. ate there at least 3 times a week when working on the alamodome.