The Pit
I always feel strange when I go somewhere that people rave about and find it lacking. Makes me wonder what I’m missing. People rave about The Pit. It was recently named one of the Top 50 Best New Restaurants by Travel and Leisure Magazine. I really wanted to like it. But I was disappointed with my meal there. Nothing was bad, exactly, but nothing was great, either. And that was a letdown because I really love BBQ.
Before I went, I took a look at the menu online and a few things caused an eyebrow raise. Girly drinks? Tofu? Salads? What the what? I guess I’m just a purist. But I calmed myself down. For one, I like girly drinks. And for another, although I wouldn’t ever order salads or tofu there, it’s not such a bad thing for a BBQ place to ensure that if you drag a vegetarian friend along for the ride, they won’t go hungry.
The Pit certainly has ambience to spare. It’s housed in a really nice space, which is a first for me when it comes to eating BBQ. I’m used to my BBQ being served in little shacks, but hey, maybe this would be a nice change of pace.
I ordered the Scupperdine Sangria (with local wine, fruit, and club soda) and while it was tasty for the first few sips, it got watery fast. I guess that’s what I get for having a girly drink with BBQ!
We started with the fried green tomatoes, which came simply dressed with a pepper relish. They had a decent flavor, with a nice tang from the buttermilk they’d been soaked in, but these were some crunchy tomatoes. I wasn’t a big fan.
We were brought a basket of biscuits and hush puppies. My husband liked the biscuits, I found them boring, but I’ve mentioned my indifference to biscuits. Hush puppies were fine but not memorable.
I ordered the chopped pork platter, with sweet potato fries and collard greens. My husband got the pulled pork platter with creamed corn and black-eyed peas. The meats were really disappointing. The chopped pork was tender but a little dry and very bland. It tasted better when doctored with plenty of sauce, but that shouldn’t have been necessary. The pulled pork was even drier. The fries were good, but I’ve never met a sweet potato fry I didn’t like. Collard greens and creamed corn were good, the black-eyed peas nothing special.
What it comes down to is that the BBQ was a letdown. It may have just been an off night, but I was still really disappointed. I know where I’ve had the best BBQ in the Triangle so far (review in the future) and it sets the bar pretty high. But then I asked myself, if I needed to go someplace closer, would The Pit be the next best thing? And sadly, the answer is no. This will sound terrible, but the BBQ sandwich at the Cookout around the corner from me has more flavorful pork than what I had at The Pit. And it’s super cheap!
I will definitely revisit the Pit sometime and see if my experience was a fluke, but it may be a while. So many other places to go!
The Pit
328 W. Davie St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 890-4500
Mary! I must talk to you. I just moved to Raleigh 6 months ago and found you thru a post you recently left on Serious Eats which I read like the bible. Ok, so…I found your site and saw that you found the Banh Mi here in Raleigh on Capitol. I found it too…well, I’ve been to that market and recognize the place from your pics, found something online recently about where to find them in the Triangle and I was pretty sure that was the place but you just confirmed it for me! That’s awesome! I would love to talk to you sometime, email, whatever. I’m also on Facebook under
Aimee Michard Self
armichard@yahoo.com
Please contact me…so we can talk food or whatever. Maybe we can get together for a Banh Mi (my first!)
Hope to hear from you soon.