Big Billy's Burger Joint: Big Disappointment

From the owners of the Noisy Oyster comes their newest concept, Big Billy's Burger Joint in N. Charleston near the Tanger Outlets. Unfortunately, I found it disappointing. It's not like we didn't give it a try, this is our 3rd time here. I just didn't write about the other two thinking they were new and had to work the kinks out. Now, not so new, many kinks remain.

When you enter the restaurant the first thing you see is an incredibly large tiki hut that graces the entire center of the building. The theme here is 'margaritaville' and Jimmy Buffet's music is the mainstay. But hey, can you ever hear too much of 'Wasted Away in Margaritaville?' The answer is yes.

There were very few patrons either at the table or bar area and our service was swift. We decided to start with the Baked Jalapeno Pimento Cheese Dip as we looked through the menu.

Billy's is not a fancy place and the menu is simple. Sandwiches, Salads, Wraps, all of the usual suspects dot the pages. There is a "build your own" burger, chicken sandwich and salad section that caught our eye and we quickly placed our order for a chicken sandwich and a burger.

Our dip took quite some time to arrive and when it did it was burnt. From the picture you can see that I'm not exaggerating. So here's what I don't understand. The line cook takes it out of the broiler, sees that it's burnt and sets it in the window. The manager, who is also expediting, sees that it's burnt and hands it off to our server, who also sees that it's burnt and brings it to our table. Really? We sent it back for a second try. The second one was better and pretty tasty. But returning it made our lunch a disaster.

We sat and watched our lunch dying in the window as our appetizer was served. Again the manager pulled our lunch items, cold as they were, handed them to a server and they were sent out to our table just a couple minutes after our appetizer (round 2) was served. Since they were DOA when they hit the table, we sent these back as well.

In a restaurant that seems like it has such a simple formula – burgers, fries, salads, etc., how does is go so wrong so quickly? Apathy perhaps... it's really hard to say.

When our lunch (round 2) finally did arrive (we probably had been at the restaurant for close to an hour by now), it was actually okay. Not great by any stretch, but okay. My husband's burger was close to mooing, it was so rare and it had been ordered medium. My chicken sandwich was AOK and the tater tots that accompanied it were perfect.

Billy's serves their side items, fries, tots, etc., in mini fry baskets which is really a cute touch. But if you're a place that's supposed to be all about burgers for goodness sake, at least get those right. This is one place that I'll be skipping in the future.

We gave Big Billy's 2 out of a possible 5 plates.