Delivery does more damage to a Full Moon Bar-B-Que order than to any other barbecue chain, and the reason is arithmetic rather than opinion. When a pork sandwich costs $6.99, a four-dollar delivery fee is more than half the price of the food. The whole appeal of this chain is that it is cheap; delivery is the fastest way to throw that away.
Which apps carry it
Full Moon runs about thirty restaurants, most of them in Alabama, and delivery coverage is arranged store by store rather than through one national contract. DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub all list Full Moon locations, but which of the three serves your address depends entirely on which restaurant is nearest. Birmingham and its suburbs have the best coverage by a wide margin; the further out you are, the more likely it is that only one app carries the store, or none does.
Some locations also run their own delivery through the restaurant or through the ordering system on fullmoonbbq.com. That is worth a phone call before you default to an app, because in-house delivery is usually priced off the menu rather than off a marked-up copy of it.
What the markup actually does
Third-party apps typically list restaurant items 15 to 25 percent above the in-store price, then add a delivery fee, a service fee and tax on top. Applied to Full Moon's real prices, that looks like this:
| Item | In store | Typical app price |
|---|---|---|
| BBQ Pork Sandwich (regular) | $6.99 | $8.20–$8.75 |
| Trimmings (one side) | $3.99 | $4.70–$5.00 |
| Bar-B-Que Pork plate | $14.99 | $17.50–$18.75 |
| Classic Rib Plate | $16.99 | $19.85–$21.25 |
| Moon Dog | $2.99 | $3.50–$3.75 |
The sandwich-and-side lunch that costs $10.98 at the counter lands somewhere near $13.50 on the app before fees, and once a $3.99 delivery fee, a service fee and tip go on, you are paying north of $20 for a meal that is famously an eleven-dollar meal. That is a 90 percent premium. At a chain where a plate costs $25 to begin with, the same fees represent a much smaller share.
The practical rule: if you are ordering for one or two people, drive. If you are ordering for five or more, the fixed fees spread out and delivery starts to make sense — and at that size you should be looking at the Full Moon catering math instead, where eight people eat for under $88.
What survives the drive
Barbecue travels unevenly, and Full Moon's menu splits cleanly into things that arrive intact and things that do not.
- Chopped pork. The best traveler on the menu. It is already chopped, it holds heat in a covered container, and it does not dry out the way sliced beef does.
- Ribs. Fine. Both rib plates are $16.99 and both arrive warm and acceptable, though the bark softens under a lid.
- Brunswick Stew ($3.89 a cup) and Homemade Chili. Soups are built for this. They arrive exactly as they left.
- Fried Green Tomatoes ($5.69 small). Do not order these for delivery. The crust is gone within twenty minutes and no container prevents it.
- Southern Fried Catfish. Same problem, worse, because the fish steams itself soft in transit.
- Loaded Baked Potato ($6.99). Survives, but the sour cream and cheese melt into one thing on the way.
Two things to check on every delivery order
Chow chow. The pickled cabbage-and-pepper relish is the point of the pork sandwich, not a garnish, and it is the single item most often left off a packed order. Ask for it on the side in a container — it travels indefinitely and you can put it on yourself.
The Half Moon Cookie. The free chocolate chip cookie that comes with every meal is not a line item, which means it is easy for a delivery order to leave without it. It is not a guarantee on third-party orders. If it matters to you, and it should, that is one more argument for collecting the food yourself.
Everything priced above comes from the Full Moon Bar-B-Que menu, and if you would rather order ahead and collect, the online ordering guide covers the timing.