When you go to Hudson's Smokehouse in Lexington, go hungry.
Not only is the barbecue some of the best in South Carolina, but the buffet of sides and desserts is a feast on its own.
It's one of the restaurants on the S.C. Barbecue Association's list of barbecue worth driving 100 miles to eat.
Here are some of the delicious choices on the menu on the Saturday evening I visited recently: hash and rice, green beans, cole slaw, vinegar slaw, collards, mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, and squash. Chicken livers, cooked with onions, also were on the buffet. While chicken livers are one of the few foods I don't love, my husband does love them and said these were very tasty.
Even with all these choices, I couldn't resist ordering a couple of appetizers from the menu: the pork skins ($3.99) and ribs ($3). The pork skins were perfectly crisp and salty. The ribs were tender and had a sweetness that I also tasted in the hash.
The barbecue is excellent. Even though Hudson's is in South Carolina's Midlands where mustard sauce rules, the Hudson family cooks the vinegar and pepper style more common in the Pee Dee area. You also have the choice of three types of sauces: a mustard-based, a tomato-based, and a vinegar and pepper.
The buffet also includes nightly specials: grilled pork chops on Tuesday, country-fried chicken on Wednesday, ribs on Thursday, shrimp and grits and catfish on Friday, and barbecue chicken on Saturday. On Sunday, almost everything is there: ribs, shrimp and grits, catfish, fried chicken and barbecue chicken.
You're probably drooling by now, so here's some good news: The dinner buffet is a very reasonable $9.95. That's also the Saturday and Sunday buffet price, but the weekday lunch buffet is $8.49.
There's a great family atmosphere at Hudson's, which started at the U.S. 378 site in 2004 with a few picnic tables outside of the catering kitchen. Now that restaurant seats 200, with an additional patio seating area. It's obvious people love it.
A second restaurant has been opened on old Two Notch Road, also in Lexington. Hudson's also has a full-service bar, which is unusual for a barbecue eatery.
