10 Best BBQ Restaurants in the Augusta Area

Barbecue is one of the most popular foods in the Augusta Area. Honestly, in the South. Who grow up in the Southern states and don’t like BBQ?

But when someone talks about this Southern delicacy, they might not be talking about the same thing. Ask ten people in Augusta where to get the best barbecue and you’ll get eleven answers, at least two of which will start with “well, it depends.”

Augusta sits on one of the most interesting food borders in the entire South. This is where the sauce turns from yellow to red. Tart to sweet. A restaurant could be the best or the worst depending who you are asking.

Word About What Barbecue Means Here¶

Drive around the Georgia side and the sauce in front of you will likely be red — a sweet, thin, tomato-and-vinegar sauce that food historians file under the Georgia tradition. Cross the Savannah River into Aiken County and the bottle turns bright yellow. That’s mustard sauce, “Carolina Gold,” the signature of the South Carolina midlands.

Most towns get one or the other. We get both, sometimes on the same table. At BBQ Barn in North Augusta, the two house sauces are labeled exactly what they are: Georgia Red and Carolina Gold.

One parking lot, two states’ worth of tradition.

Then there’s hash. If you’re new here, hash is a thick, gravy-like stew of pork served over white rice, and it shows up beside your barbecue like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

It is around here. It’s also, quite possibly, from here.

Barbecue historian Robert F. Moss traces hash to the counties on either side of the Savannah River, citing Estella Jones — born enslaved on Powers Pond Place near Augusta — who recalled men cooking “hash and rice” and serving barbecue before the Civil War. Moss goes further and argues that Georgia’s beloved Brunswick stew likely evolved out of that hash tradition, meaning our signature stew may have come up the river rather than down from Virginia.

So when someone here says barbecue, they might mean pulled pork, ribs, brisket, hash over rice, a bowl of Brunswick stew, or all of it on one tray.

We are talking about local restaurants, not chains or franchise. Don’t get me wrong places like Willy Jewell and Shane’s Rib Shack provide good food. But they didn’t make the cut because they are technically not local.

Here are the 10 best BBQ restaurants in the Augusta area.

1. Sconyers Bar-B-Que — Augusta¶

You start here. You have to.

Tucked away on the back of a gravel parking lot, the rustic log cabin house is surrounded by beautiful landscape and a pound stocked with fat koi. Sconyers BBQ is the most iconic restaurant in the CSRA.

Claude and Adeline Sconyers opened a roadside stand in 1956 after farming stopped paying the bills, and seventy years later the family is still cooking meat for 24 hours over live oak and hickory coals — no gas, no electricity.

Visiting the restaurant is an experience in itself. All of the servers wear uniform that resembles something out of history books.

People magazine named it one of the ten best barbecue restaurants in the country back in 1989. They’ve catered for Jimmy Carter at the White House and served Bill Clinton on Air Force One.

Get the Plantation Platter if you’re hungry and indecisive: quarter chicken, ribs, chopped brisket, and chipped pork. Hash and rice comes with the plates, as it should. The trademarked T-Loin pork loin has its own following.

📍 2250 Sconyers Way, Augusta · (706) 790-5411

2. Smokeshow Southern BBQ — Appling, Evans & Augusta (food truck)¶

Here’s the plot twist: the most decorated barbecue in the area doesn’t have a dining room.

Smokeshow swept Best Barbecue and Best Food Truck in Columbia County Magazine’s 2026 “100 Best,” after taking Best Ribs in Augusta Magazine’s 2025 Best of Augusta. Founded around 2016 by Jermel Bennett, Jake Wood, and Will Dunaway, they now run three trucks and are marking ten years in 2026.

You’ll regularly find them at Pollards Corner, on Washington Road in Evans, and at the old BP at Walton Way Extension. They post the week’s schedule every Monday on Facebook and Instagram — check before you drive, and go early, because selling out is a normal Tuesday.

📍 Rotating locations · (706) 445-0049 · @smokeshowga

3. Fifth & Fire — Downtown Augusta¶

Downtown went from zero barbecue restaurants to a genuine scene in about a year, and Fifth & Fire kicked it off in early 2025. Owner Jay Klugo is a Texas native, and it shows: brisket smoked 24 to 36 hours, house-made Texas sausage, everything down to the pickled onions done in-house.

It’s also the most date-night barbecue in town — exposed brick, leather chairs, a big covered patio with fans and heaters, craft cocktails, and yes, a mechanical bull. Don’t skip the cornbread with hot honey.

📍 551 Broad Street, Augusta · (706) 305-1740

4. BBQ Barn — North Augusta, SC¶

This is the one I send out-of-towners to when I want them to understand the region. The Glovers opened it in 2006 and deliberately built the menu around the state line, serving South Carolina’s regional sauces alongside a Georgia red.

Everything’s hickory-smoked on two big pits. The hash is made from pure Boston butt, the hushpuppies are excellent, and the banana pudding and homemade cakes are worth budgeting stomach space for.

It’s counter-order, plates brought to your table, with a drive-thru if you’re in a hurry. The South Carolina Barbeque Association has it on their “Worth the Trip” Top 100.

Open Wednesday 11–6, Thursday through Saturday 11–8:30. Closed Sunday through Tuesday.

📍 10298 Atomic Road, North Augusta, SC · (803) 278-7202

5. Smoke & Barrels — Evans¶

The new kid on the block, opened in spring 2025 by three friends — Mike Schmieden, Russell Fiveash, and Eric Yu — out of the old Limelite Café.

The move here is the sauce flight: seven house sauces, including a savory mustard nod to South Carolina, a thin vinegar, Alabama white, and their sweet-savory signature.

Order The Natty (pulled pork and pimento cheese) or The Melt (tri-tip, smoked provolone, whiskey-grilled onions). There’s a full bar with barrel-picked bourbon, plus rotating specials — smoked prime rib on Fridays, baby backs Saturdays, wings Sundays.

📍 3118 William Few Pkwy, Suite 9, Evans · (706) 922-6700

6. Goolsby’s — Evans & Augusta¶

Southern cafeteria line with a serious barbecue section, and comfortably the best value on this list. Ribs run about $13.99, the dry-rubbed-and-sauced sliced pork loin about $10.99, and every side is $2.49 — collards, butter beans, sweet potato soufflé, mac and cheese. The Evans location sends you off with a hoecake.

Open Monday through Saturday 11–8, and Sunday 11–2 for the after-church crowd.

📍 4460 Washington Rd, Evans · 3122 Wrightsboro Rd, Augusta

7. Mot’s Pit Cooked Barbeque — Martinez¶

Been quietly doing it right since 1996, and took third for Best Barbecue in Columbia County’s 2026 “100 Best.” Pit-cooked, scratch sides, drive-thru, and a catering operation that’ll feed anywhere from 50 to 1,000 people. No frills, no gimmicks — just a neighborhood barbecue joint that has outlasted a lot of flashier places.

Open Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday.

📍 3963 Columbia Road, Martinez · (706) 650-3005

8. Southbound Smokehouse — North Augusta & Aiken, SC¶

Back in the day, there used to be a location here in Augusta in Central Avenue. But after some run ins with the Sherif, they closed their doors.

Still, the food is delicious. The North Augusta location sits at SRP Park, and they’ll tell you straight up it’s the only waterfront dining around — rooftop bar overlooking the GreenJackets ballpark, live music, full bar, everything smoked in house.

Ribs, pulled pork, and smoked wings anchor the menu, with plenty of non-barbecue if your table can’t agree. Generally Wednesday–Thursday from 4:20 p.m., Friday–Saturday from 11:30 a.m., Sunday from 11:30 a.m. They also open Tuesdays in North Augusta when the GreenJackets have a home game, which is a very Augusta detail.

Note: the old Central Avenue location in Augusta closed years ago — it’s North Augusta and Aiken now.

📍 1009 Center Street, North Augusta, SC

9. Freeman’s Bar-B-Que — Beech Island, SC¶

If you want to taste the old way — the truly old way — this is your trip, and it’s barely 15 minutes across the river. Freeman’s has been cooking whole hogs over wood for more than half a century, the kind of low-and-slow, all-night tradition that’s vanishing fast everywhere else.

It’s humble and unassuming, mostly a take-out counter, and the barbecue does all the talking: smoky, tender chopped pork with hash and rice on the side, the way this stretch of the Savannah River has done it for generations. No frills, all substance.

Open Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed the rest of the week.

📍 1060 Sand Bar Ferry Road, Beech Island, SC · (803) 827-1623

10. Carolina Bar-B-Que — New Ellenton, SC (the road trip)¶

Worth the drive past Aiken, and the strongest awards record of anyone on this list: Southern Living’s “The South’s Top 50 Barbecue Joints,” the SC Barbeque Association’s highest “100-Mile” designation, and a nod from the Washington Post as South Carolina’s best.

It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet the Dukes family has run since the 1960s. Pit-cooked pork shoulders only — no ribs, and the meat comes to you unsauced so you can dress it yourself. The sauce isn’t straight mustard, either; it’s the family’s mustard-and-ketchup “rust gravy.” Get the hash and rice, the fried chicken skins, and the banana pudding.

Watch the hours: Wednesday is 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. only. Thursday through Saturday, 11–8. Closed Sunday through Tuesday.

📍 109 Main Street, New Ellenton, SC · (803) 652-2919

Before You Go¶

Barbecue places keep barbecue hours, which is to say idiosyncratic ones. Half the spots on this list are closed at least two days a week, and the best of them sell out. A quick phone call or a peek at Facebook will save you a sad drive home.

And if you’re only making one trip? Go to Sconyers on a Thursday, order the hash and rice with your pork, and eat a little piece of Augusta history.

Save room for the banana pudding.