luella's bar-b-que

nursewu. my husband and i ate at luella's the other day. we were not impressed. the chopped barbeque sandwich was too smokey. i got exactly 8 limp unsalted fries and 3 hushpuppies as sides. they had 2 bottles of sauce on the table. one of them looked maybe vinegar based but it needed to be shakened up and it had no lid on it and i didn't want to put my finger over the hole to keep it from flying everywhere. i thought people wouldn't appreciate my fingers being on the top of the sauce they were about to eat so i didn't get to try that sauce. we will not be back. you need to lay off the smoke.

great bbq! we love ordering takeout when feeling lazy and luella's never disappoints! really good wings and several sauces to choose from. good smoked chicken, pork and ribs. awesome side dishes- greens, mac n cheese, hush puppy fingers,baked sweet potato, and green beans are all superb southern cookin at it's finest. you can't go wrong here! good beer selection and live music are a plus

i am not really a bar-b-q lover. so i tried the pulled chicken.
you have two options: a sandwich for $6.00 with one side and hushpuppies or a plate for $10.00 with 2 sides and hushpuppies. i ordered the plate so i could have some for lunch the next day. we went during dining out for life so it was packed. service was not bad but it was definitely mediocre. i had really been wanting to try luella's i am glad i finally did.

second time we've ordered in 3 years, reminded me why i didn't order again.

portions are fine. they didn't include sauce: looks at fellow southerners incredulously. no sauce included, even though i took the added step of reminding them in order notes, lest they be from up north. incredulous meme face.

all joking aside, that's really the vibe you get from this food: it isn't bad per se, it's just very generic food made by people from up north who thought it'd be "fun" to have a bbq restaurant. i mean, it's fine. it's just, a restaurant with ok, kinda bland, but ok food.

don't go out of your way to visit, but it's not wendy's if you're trying to decide the least worst option.

and i just have to come back and add: the condescension of making potato salad, with not new or wax potatoes, but regular old baking potatoes...leaving the skins in the potato salad. implying that as southerners, we're either too poor, too indifferent, or too unrefined to peel our potatoes. no self respecting person mixes the skins of baking potatoes into potato salad, because it's like sheets of fine grain sandpaper. but i forgot, we're poor and don't know any better.

if you want a northern twist on southern potato salad that thinks they're being "authentic southern" by not peeling potatoes, you deserve your meal here.

excellent! the devil eggs tasted amazing! i ordered the smoked wings, and that plate came with 2 sides so i ordered mac & cheese, and the collard greens. the wings were absolutely amazing lightly fried with enough sauce but not drenched. the mac &cheese was creamy and tasty. the collard greens were fresh and well seasoned. the plate also came with hush puppies. big tasty plate you better go in hungry!! i strongly recommend this plate !

luella's is what convinced me that smoked meat is by far the best way to go. there are plenty of scams in asheville and in my opinion this is the best place to eat. loads of smoked meats, southern vegetables sides, including vinegar based red slaw, fried okra, mac and cheese etc. love their smoked wings. great local, southern, local beers, with an asheville mountain twist. one of my top three places to go.

i’ve lived in texas for 30 years now and they are proud of their bbq.  so, for the sake of “research”, i had to try north carolina bbq while in asheville!  texas bbq is typically geared to beef with sweet sauces and carolina bbq is typically geared to pork and their bbq sauce often contains vinegar.  after visiting luella’s bbq, i have to admit…(drumroll please)…both bbqs are delicious!  the carolina ribs were served dry with two bbq sauces on the table from which to choose and the pulled pork was melt in your mouth tender.  collard greens are a staple in both north and south carolina and they made a great pairing with macaroni and cheese.

bbq was good. brisket, turkey, and pork were all wonderful. food came fast and service was friendly. as a first timer there with people behind us, there was pressure to order fast at the bar and i wished i had more time to look over the menu and pick something i would have liked better. but overall a nice place to eat!

the pork was, simply, divine. it had great smoke flavor, lots of bark, and was cooked and chopped perfectly. i think it could have used a little more tang, but i’m definitely splitting hairs.

no complaints. just average bbq. smoked sausage was really good. i would suggest expanding to one or two more bbq sauces. the restraint is very well maintained and clean. very friendly staff

this place has an interesting look from the road but very cool on the inside. i had the pulled pork with green beans and collard greens. it was pretty good. i wanted the smoked wings but they are fiend after being smoked and was trying to eat somewhat healthy. however they claimed to be award winning. the bbq sauce was good too. they had beer on tap, duh it's asheville and they had a decent looking desert menu.

this was one of the best meals ever!! incredible! the ribs had lots of juicy flavor by themselves, which luella's special bbq sauce only enhanced; the sides of squash casserole and green chili grits were out-of-this-world!
i truly don't understand how this place can have anything less than perfect ratings... we came about 3 p.m. on a sunday afternoon; it was pretty busy for am odd time of day. great service, meals brought fairly quickly, nice selection of craft beers.
edited:
we've now been here at least 5 times, sometimes driving 1 1/2 hours just to come eat their incredible ribs! always impeccable service and the food is mouth watering every time!

stopped in again this week (7/16/17) and it was just as good as two years ago.

we found it after discovering that another asheville bbq place was closed on sunday's. luella's was open and awesome! great bbq, great sides, great service, great atmosphere. anyone visiting asheville who loves bbq must pay them a visit. oh and one more thing. the calico baked beans are the bomb.

wow the best we had. my husband and i were there march 26 2015, the hotel we stayed at refered luella to us. wow we are from wi and i wish we could get good ribs and briskets. next time we re done there we will be back. . service was excellant and the food was the best. thank you

not to my taste.. unless you are a lover of vinegar i would not go to lulu's. to me it was the worse bbq i've ever eaten. even the coleslaw was nothing but vinegar. my husband had the pulled chicken & the presentation of the food on the plate made us want to not eat it. it was literally floating in vinegar.. the service was good, the atmosphere was good. food not good to me. will not go back. i much prefer to add my own sauce to my food. at lulu's you do not have a choice. it's they're way only. the fries were good.