Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company - Alexandria

Rocklands BBQ really hits. My only complaint is that I wish there were more tables inside so we could all chow down at the same time. Service was quick, friendly and helpful. The beer selection is plentiful and interesting.As it should be, the food is the main attraction. It flies out fast so brace yourself. The chopped pork sandwich is piled high with tasty, fatty shoulder. Throw on some of their chopped slaw, warm house BBQ sauce and a few pickled onions and I can hardly imagine a better single bite of food than that sandwich. The corn pudding is suave and just the right amount of sweet. The baby backs are tender and falling off the bone. There's a sauce available for every regional preference, so don't worry if you love your meat sweet, vinegary, or mustardy, they have you covered. Come hungry, leave stuffed.

I've been going to Rocklands since the 90's or whenever it used to be in Carpool. Anyway, I don't know what was going on today, but it seemed like the young guy working the counter at the Alexandria location today seemed to have no idea what was going on.The table behind me had an issue with their order where they got corn pudding instead of cornbread that they asked for. The table next to me only got half of their order. Then we didn't get what we ordered either.We ordered the Texas brisket...and mind you, there is only ONE item on the menu with "Texas" and "Brisket" in the name. I ended up with the plain brisket sandwich. When I went and asked about it, the other guy was trying to tell me "yeah, that's Texas brisket". And I asked "where on the menu is this item was?"...he said the one that says brisket. I was "does it say TEXAS?!?!". I have no idea which one we paid for because they also had taken our receipt and also gave us our items to go when we asked to eat in. I don't know, but it was a really annoying experience. Considering everyone else around us also had issues with their order, maybe I wasn't overreacting and confused about what we ordered versus what we received. It was just a bad experience overall, which is disappointing. The food was okay, but it wasn't the @$@&ing Texas brisket that's on the menu. ‍

This restaurant is definitely a hidden gem, tucked away in an alley just off Duke Street. The vibrant decor perfectly complements the BBQ and Southern theme, creating a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere. The menu is extensive, offering a variety of meats, sides, and fried dishes, catering to all BBQ lovers.I opted for the Three Meat Platter, which included Beef Brisket, Chopped Pork, and Pulled Chicken, along with a hamburger bun and two sides. For my sides, I chose the Macaroni and Cheese and the Mexican Street Corn Salad. I also added an order of Baby Back Ribs. While the portions could have been more generous, the meat was tender, though it arrived only mildly warm. The Mac 'n Cheese was a bit underwhelming, but the Mexican Street Corn Salad was flavorful and enjoyable.The restaurant offers both indoor and outdoor picnic-style seating. Conveniently, there is a self-serve handwashing station inside near the kitchen, which is handy after your meal. Service was quick, and our food arrived within 10 minutes.

Wow, what a great event catered by Rocklands BBQ. The staff was superb. Terry, the BBQ Maestro, was fantastic. The smoked whole pig was a novelty and the BBQ was mouth watering. The chicken kabobs with peanut sauce where great as well. Loved the accompanying grilled vegetables. Even the Mac n Cheese was so, so good.If you need them to cater an event, great choice. I definitely need to visit one of the three restaurant locations. Give them a try!!!

I feel that barbecue is subjective and kind of depends on your personal preference if you like it or not. My idea of good BBQ may not be yours. That being said...I LOVED this place. My brothers and I were in the area and one has been craving BBQ something fierce. Walking in, the place smells like heaven. We probably ordered way more than we should have because if we weren't hungry before, we definitely were when we smelled how good it smells here.We all ordered the pulled chicken sandwich, soda, cornbread and we each ordered different sides: baked beans and corn pudding, yucca fries and fried okra, and onion rings and macaroni and cheese. We also had a side of coleslaw to share since BBQ sandwich + coleslaw = perfection.You order at the counter, stop to gawk at the biggest selection of hot sauces I have ever seen for sale, grab your plastic ware and fountain soda, debate if you want pickled jalapeños, pickled onions, hot pickles, (hot pickles were AWESOME!!!!!) and then have a seat.They brought us the food pretty quickly and we dug in. We found their original BBQ sauce, found on the counter in a giant cauldron thing, a little too sweet and tomato-y for our likings (although I did enjoy digging the sweet marinated onions out of my cup of sauce, because those were great with the pickled onions and hot pickles), but they had a smoky and sweet one on the tables that we really liked.The onion rings were so crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and tasted amazing. I dipped one in his macaroni cheese and that tasted pretty darn good too.The fried okra is a huge portion and is also perfectly fried. The yucca fries were also wonderfully crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and not at all greasy.The baked beans are a little savory and a lot sweet. The corn pudding is very soft and fluffy and tastes like a hush puppy without the hard exterior. The coleslaw is delicious. They add super crisp peas and carrots to the normal cabbage. More places should get on this because it adds sweetness and texture and it is fantastic!!!!!The cornbread is amazing! I have no idea how they make it so fluffy and moist but WOW. I may carry honey in my handbag in case there is ever cornbread and I have never been so happy about my weird tendencies because YES!!!!!!! The pulled chicken was juicy and tender and smoky and so good. The buns they use are perfect for standing up to the saucy goodness.We really wanted to try some of their pies and banana pudding, but we couldn't eat another bite by the time we left. The portions were very generous, you couldn't even close the bun around all of the chicken without it jumping ship. You definitely need a fork to scoop up all your fallen chicken, which is also how I like my BBQ...I really wish we lived closer to this place because it was delicious and I would probably feign being too tired to cook dinner at least once a week so we could come here.

I take it back. I take back my original review. Maybe it's because I live in Alexandria now and I have come to LOVE Rocklands. I'm sorry for what I said when I didn't know any better. I'm going to blame it on it being a catered event and maybe it was sitting out too long (it was 14 years ago since that review so I don't really remember but that's what I'm going to blame it on) Since then I've tried many of their specials and often order their bbq pork by the pound for sandwiches at home. Thank you Rocklands!

Amazing BBQ for an amazing price. The amount of meat that came with the pull chicken sandwich is incredible, packed with flavors and juicy. I also got the sliced pork sandwich which was amazing as well the pork was cooked just right and had little parts of fat that makes it taste so good! Restaurant is very clean and comes with many free sides like pickle radish and tons of condiments on the table. Service was really quick and kind food came within 5 minutes!Only bad things were the sides, Mac & Cheese was cold and tasted cheap and the coleslaw was really watery. For a extra $5.50-6 for two sides I was a little disappointed.

Open since 2004, this restaurant serves barbeque using their own sauce. Their original sauce was INEDIBLE. More on that later. They have 3 locations around the DC area. The first location opened in 1990 on Wisconsin Ave in Washington DC. It's still open. With 33 years of experience, they should be making exemplary barbeque. I have been trying to find a place that sells properly cooked barbeque meats with great flavors. This wasn't the place. My wife and I got 2 platters and a drink.1) Three Meat Platter It had pulled chicken, chopped pork, beef brisket, 2 sides, a potato roll, and a small cup of their original sauce. A description of the AWFUL sauce is down below. The potato roll was soft and moist with a light sweetness and potato flavor. It was as good as any. They offer 25 sides. We chose sweet potato fries and brussel sprouts. A. Sweet potato fries It had brown sugar with a touch of salt. The brown sugar and sweet potato flavors went well together, but it was a little too sweet. It was slightly crispy and luke warm. If you like sugary fries, get these. B. Brussel sprouts They were cut into quarters and boiled with a few tiny pieces of bacon. It was oily even though it wasn't pan-fried. Go figure. The bacon was soft and mushy with no flavor. At least the brussel sprouts were cooked properly. Skip this side dish unless you want salted boiled brussel sprouts. C. Pulled chicken It was dry white meat with little flavor. So, my wife mixed it with their sweet and smoky sauce. We ate it the next day. It was better in taste and moisture. The sauce was sweet, smoky, tangy, and a little peppery. D. Chopped pork It was moist and very soft, almost mushy. It had good flavors of pork and seasoning, but they were light and easily overpowered by sauce. Needs fixing! E. Brisket It was moist, tender, and savory. It was sliced thin and easily chewed. The amount of fat was just right, and it was distributed well. One the best examples of brisket that I've had in a long time! F. Original sauce It had a strong vinegar and black pepper flavor with light flavors of ketchup, molasses, and spice. The sourness was overwhelming. The smell of vinegar was strong. The sauce at the self-serve counter was the same. This was the absolute worst barbeque sauce that I have ever tasted other than some North Carolina sauces. I hope this flavor isn't the norm. If it is, then call it North Carolina style sauce so people know. It's the considerate thing to do.2) Chicken and Rib Platter It had a quarter chicken, 2 pork ribs, and 2 sides. We chose chili and beets. There was a choice of dark meat or white meat chicken. We chose dark meat. A. Chicken leg quarter It was moist and tender with some savoriness and a nice roasted flavor. This and the brisket were the best meats all around. B. Pork ribs They were moist, a little chewy, and slightly burnt. The pork flavor was weak due to their overpowering sour sauce. The texture was average, and the flavor needed vast improvement. C. Chili It had ground meat, green peppers, onions, kidney beans, and celery in a tomato sauce. It had well-balanced flavors of sweet, sour, peppery, and savory. The meat was in little chunks instead of a fine ground. Overall, this was tasty and satisfying. D. Beets They were marinated beets and diced onions that were sweet with a hint sourness. The beets were soft and cube shaped. It was a simple tasting dish with no depth in flavor. The service was polite, helpful, and quick. It took only 12 minutes for the food to be ready. The dining area and restroom were clean. The restroom was old and worn looking. They have a large variety of hot sauces and other sauces for sale along with their t-shirts. The drinks were self-serve. They don't have hot drinks. There's free parking in a small lot. Only 3 dishes were enjoyable out of the 9 dishes. This is what they serve after 33 years of experience!! Experience is only useful when it's used. Re-evaluation of the food preparation or ingredients is needed. We won't be back until improvements are made. For now, I don't recommend a visit.

Today I had a taste for a salmon salad & decided to go to Rocklands for lunch and give the salad a try for the first time. Usually, when I go I'm with a male co-worker or two and we get stuff that's self explainitory however, today I decided to visit the location alone. As I stood looking at the menu to see the ingredients that was in the salad, I politely let a person or two in front of me. Not seeing the entree salad option on the menu, with a detailed description I walked to the register and expressed that I would like a salad. The guy behind the register was very nasty and attitude was very displeasing. His response was "What do you mean a salad? You mean the entree with chicken or Salmon?. I responded kindly, "Yes, a salmon salad. I was trying to see what was in it but it's not on the menu." He responds, "It's a house salad with regular stuff like corn, lettuce and tomotoes, the picture is down there, on the right." I immediatly thought to myself, not all salads come with corn & it could have been a ceasar salad, so how would I know. I decided to move pass his negative attitude, tone and energy & just said, "Ok, that's fine, is the salmon bbq". This where it took the cake with sarcasm; he says, "everything in here is bbq." That's obvious because its a bbq establishment but my question was more or so, is it plain grilled or have bbq sauce. I said you know what, nevermind, because I don't like how your speaking to me. He responds, "Ok, bye; you can try again another day." As my co-workers and are "were" repeat customers, I felt very disrespected by his attitude towards me. As I was walking to my vehicle, I realized that I was the only woman besides the lady who cooks in the back & I was the only black person out of about 20 people in the establishment at the time. I decided I would like to speak with the manager. So I went back in and ask for the manager. To my surprise, the rude staff member named Alan Quiteno was/is the assistant general manager and he disregardingly passed me his business card. I said thats fine, and made him aware of how I felt mistreated & discriminated against by him in that environment amongst so many white people at that time. He just stared at me, with no remorse, no accountability; No, "I apologize if I made you feel that way, it wasn't my intentions," no nothing. I said, I'll be writing a review and his response was, "Ok". However, No it's not ok, it is never ok to unprovokingly treat anybody like that, not alone a customer and your the general manager. Than ontop of that I was 1 out of 2 women and the only black person in an establishment full of white men at that time. In the height of the DEI debate, it appears that he intentionally went out his way to try and belittle me in front that crowd Six of us pulled up in a van but I was the only one who went in, when I returned to the van the six of us collectively agreed we will not be returning and I returned back to work and told my manager & co-workers and collectively as a department we will not be returning again. Next, I'll be sending out messages to my transit company union page about my mistreatment.

Wow! I've had Rockland's barbecue at events but today was the first time I stopped into the restaurant, and so glad I did. My Texas brisket sandwich was just incredible. My teeth floated thru both the bun and the meat itself - they were pillow soft. The sweet and smokey sauce completemented to perfection for this Texas girl's palate. The restaurant is small - order at the counter - and food was brought promptly to the table. The wide variety of beverage options includes daily beer and bourbon specials and, my favorite, an unsweetened ice tea with mint.