Poke In Da Eye World Championship BBQ & Catering & Fried Chicken

Quite possibly the worst experience in a restaurant I have ever been to. I have worked 25 plus years in the restaurant industry, both Front of House and Back of house manager and helped open restaurant's all over Texas but this one takes the cake as the worst in the business. I am born and raised from Tyler but had to relocate due to my job and also because of Covid but moved back to Tyler to be closer to family and such so we asked around and heard about Poke in Da Eye from friends. Upon entering the restaurant we were met with a loud argument from inside the kitchen between who knows who but it was extremely loud and uncomfortable. It was me, my wife, and our two kids, so this initially gave us a very unwelcoming feeling. We were never greeted nor did anyone said hello or tried to help us when we came in. Being in the restaurant business this is a huge red flag to any new or frequent customers. We waited roughly 15-20 minutes and decided we should go somewhere else since they were unaware of us in the front area. Just as we were about to leave an employee asked if we had been helped yet. She was an older lady that seemed disheveled and looked as if she was crying. We responded to her very nicely and told the lady we had not been helped yet and that we had been waiting for about 10-15 minutes. The lady laughed at us and said that we had not been waiting that long and pointed us to the front of the ordering window. As a new customer to this place I felt very unwelcomed and made me feel like I was the one to make the mistake even though we had been waiting for service. After further inspecting the ordering counter I was extremely confused as to where to order from because there was no sign explaining where to order. I asked the same lady where I need to order and without saying anything she pointed and a closed sign? The layout of a restaurant is very crucial to both the customer and employees and should not leave any room for confusion on the customers end. I feel as if this place was hastily thrown together with no thought or inkling as how a restaurant should be put together. As we made our way to the counter to order we were then greeted by an older gentleman coughing loudly into his hands and proceeded to take our order. (He did not stop to wash his hands which is a health code violation) When taking the order he seemed a bit annoyed when asking about the menu since we never dined in before and we felt rushed even though they only had two other tables in the building and no one was behind us waiting. i ordered the "award winning" ribs with sides and both the kids and my wife split the three meat plate. There can be no possible way that these ribs I ordered won any awards. They were slathered with their signature sauce which just tasted like ketchup and brown sugar and the ribs themselves had no taste or flavor. I have been to BBQ championships in Dallas and San Antonio and this is by no means "award winning" they probably got a participation trophy for being there. Now let me go over the sides. Being a southern born corn fed guy I think the sides should just be just as good if not better than the meats themselves. The Mac n cheese was mostly liquid and did not seem quite well made, little flavor, and just was not cheesy. The "Amazing" poke in da eye pinto beans were far away from being amazing. As a chef and Restaurant owner if you are going to name something "award winning" or "amazing" they should be advertised as such. Overall the pricing was not too bad considering how awful the experience was and the food was utter disgusting. Later that day I did some further investigation and I found out that the lady and gentleman we had talked to were the owners of this establishment. The next day of eating there both my family and I became sick and went to the doctor. Both my Wife and I have food poisoning and this is the first time in all my years of being in the restaurant business have had food poisoning. Mr. Joseph Koricanek if you are reading this I will be contacting the Health Department

Delicious BBQ and sides. Good service. Good atmosphere. The sign on the side of hwy 64 is a little hard to see. Use your maps! Check it out!

Great people. There are a ton of trophies from places he's won bbq contests. His wife said there's another 500 at home! They do catering too! Check it out. It's out of the way some but with goin to

Brisket and sausage were ok, but the Mac and cheese was a runny mess and tasted terrible. The potato salad was a 3 out of 10. Their bbq sauce is not very good either. Overall, the food is not worth the price. Paid $10.50 for 2 ribs. They were pretty bland. There are plenty of other options for BBQ.

Not sure where the world champion bbq came from but they got it wrong. You should never have to put sauce on brisket. It should be delicious just plain. This that I ate was soooo dry and had zero flavor. The younger guy at the window was rude as heck. Tried them at Tyler Bergfeld Park but never again

Had the hot link plate . Sides of house tater salad , mac and cheese and baked beans . Just right spicy ! Neat tables and benches . Great place to go .

We enjoyed the cool Texas bbq atmosphere of this place! Wonderful and friendly customer service and the food was very good; we just couldn’t try the dessert because they didn’t have any left that day we went but normally they do. Sounds like a good reason to come back !

Absolutely not don’t waste your time