Jim’s Famous BBQ

Good bye Jim’s. I suspect that Ellen C. and I ate on or around the same day. While I had been here before, the service was never as bad as it was a few weeks back. The food was okay but the service was just so incredibly slow and now I know why. Jim’s is closed. They lost their lease and had no where else to go. This came as a surprise when I walked into the restaurant and it was dark and the place was gutted. Surprising that the door wasn’t locked.
That said, the food was alright. Not the best BBQ I’ve had and not the worst. The potato salad was pretty good and the smoked turkey was awesome. Other than that, it had definitely seen better days.
I guess it is time to find a new Chapel Hill BBQ.

This place leaves a lot to be desired in terms of food, service, and atmosphere. Inside, it’s dimly lit and feels really worn-​down like it’s seen better days; tables felt really sticky too.
Although I didn’t order barbecue here, the pulled chicken sandwich was as dry a bone. I heard similar comments on the food from the other members in my party. While the service was friendly enough, it was exceedingly slow since there was only one guy working a dozen tables, and we waited a long time both to get our food and get our bill (in between, the waiter was nowhere to be found).
My family and I stopped by spontaneously just because of the convenient location, but after our poor dining experience, I doubt I’ll be back.

The holidays are good for several things…
1. cleaning up my growing list of Unilocal draft reviews, and
2. eating out/​visiting with family and friends.
JFBBQ falls under both of these categories.
Let me preface this review by saying that I’m no NC BBQ aficionado, and that I’m originally from Texas (take it as good or bad depending on your perspective). What this means is that I’m used to slowly smoked brisket and sweet tangy sauce on our BBQ. I love a good mesquite smoked brisket — the kind that has that black crusted outside and juicy reddish interior…*salivating, now*…
Anyhoo…The food at JFBBQ is def. A-​OK. This isn’t something that I’d crave for but something that hits the spot when I’m in the mood for something smoked. However the service we (and others[1]) received on Thanksgiving weekend with my family in tow was a bit dissatisfying. Here are the gory details…
FOOD: Decent in-​house smoked meats tending a bit to the dry side and therefore needing lots of the vinegar based BBQ sauce on the table tops. «Hot» wasn’t particularly «hot» and (again) I’m not a huge fan of the watery vinegar stuff. My bro ordered a full on 2 meat plate with smoke sausage and pulled pork. The dad had their BBQ burger, mom had the chicken tender app and we had the pulled chicken and fried catfish sandwich. The biggest disappointment was the catfish sandwich which was a pitifully small fried «square» [2] patty dwarfed between 2 oversized steroid taking toasts[3]. If I were that piece of catfish, I would seriously be seeking some psychiatric counseling for feelings of inadequacies right now… which goes to one of my pet peeves in a sandwich: why the hell does a sandwich need a whole loaf of bread to obscure the actual protein??? Probably b/​c the protein itself was basically a hockey puck. I digress… and yes, I realize this is a BBQ joint, not a fish joint. That being said, the rest of the smoked meats are «alright»…just on the dry side needing lots of sauce. Sides that come with the plates and sandwiches are average… just the usual fare you’d expect to get at any BBQ place. Nothing to shout home about.
SERVICE: The real reason I’m docking this down from the A-​OK status is the service and the overwhelmed staff… i.e., the SINGLE guy in the whole place doing everything. I actually felt sorry for the guy and wasn’t sure what management was thinking with scheduling only one person working the whole floor that day. Seriously, it got crowded fast and we weren’t the only table waiting to get food, drinks, and even our bill. We walked in when the place maybe had 3 other tables. By the time we left, it may have doubled in number before we left with fairly steady traffic of newcomers. What should have easily been an hour or less meal took twice as long… we waited at least 45 minutes for the food and tracking down the poor guy (obviously overworked and stretched waaaaaay too thin covering all the tables there) was a chore in itself.
OVERALL: OK food tending to the dry side, but a horribly slow wait for everything to come out. 2 stars for now…
[1] I had a chance to talk to other patrons at the resto while waiting for various requests from the disheveled waitstaff.
[2] More of an «homage» to Mickey D’s fish fillet sandwich…
[3] Seriously, this wasn’t TEXAS sized toast. It was more like the damn southwestern US sized toast and Mexico thrown in for good measure.

I was tricked by a Northerner that thought this was good BBQ. Really it’s my fault because I’m from Memphis, and I know better than to believe BBQ is good outside the city. What the hell was I thinking???
Nonetheless, I wanted to give this place a try, and to sample the NC style BBQ that is vinegar based. I was not a fan, and neither were the 3 other people at my table. They were from Atlanta, so it wasn’t just my extreme bias. Even the sides were lackluster. Just blah…
This place does get a plus for having photos of BB King on the wall. I also learned that when it comes to food, don’t believe a New Yorker that is inexperienced in the ways of the south.

I had the brisket. It was exceptional! I particularly enjoyed the BBQ sauce. I also enjoyed the mac and cheese and hush puppies. The fact that it was close to the Hampton was an added bonus ;-). I totally wish there was more barbeque in California.

Jim’s Famous BBQ is such a gem.
Medardo (the owner) is one of the sweetest people ever and genuinely cares about his customers.
Their potato salad is probably the best potato salad I’ve ever had — I love getting extra so I can take some home for lunch the next day. Their pulled chicken is always juicy and flavorful.
Oh, and they CATER. We love them so much we are having them cater our wedding! Can’t wait!

What a great place for BBQ. The pulled pork is to die for and I really like the rich tomato sauce. I love their onion rings — -lightly breaded and nice a crispy.
The new lunch buffett is the deal for lunch. Pulled pork. ribs, potato salad, baked beans, slaw and hushpuppies for $ 6.99. What a deal. The potato salad is excellent and the beans very tasty. Would prefer a less sweet hushpuppy But these are OK.
My favorite place for BBQ.

Great chopped pork (vinegar-​based) sandwich! Cole slaw with just the right tanginess, and fresh crispy fries. Combined with 99 cent PBR on tap and I got my first NC BBQ fix of this trip! Just exactly what I wanted.
The Hot sauce is excellent; the Original is not bad for sweet sauce — not as goopy as others. But the Hot is the way to go!

Poor service and worse food. I went here for lunch on a slow Saturday (they maybe had three tables sat) and couldn’t get the attention of our server for at least 10min. After taking our drink orders it was at least another 15min before he returned to take our order. This isn’t the type of thing that I would normally be overly concerned about, but what followed is what sent me over the edge.
For lunch, I ordered the BBQ Burger. Which by my interpretation (and the description on the menu) is your standard beef patty topped with pulled pork. I’m a big fan of both burgers and BBQ sandwiches, and was very excited about a combination of the two. However, when our server finally came and delivered our meal, I had a plain burger with essentially nothing on it (lettuce, tom, onion on the side). When I pointed out the lack of BBQ to my server, he literally said «Oh, well ‘BBQ Burger’ is just the name of the burger, that’s just what we call it, it doesn’t come with BBQ.» I asked him if he was sure and he confidently replied that he was, so I let it go for the moment and just ate my burger. The burger itself had all the flavor of a cardboard coaster. It was dry, unseasoned, and generally lackluster. I drank plenty of fluids to wash it down, but once my glass was empty it remained that way until I had to get up and go find someone to refill it.
While I was up I decided to grab a menu because the no BBQ on the «BBQ Burger» was gnawing at me. I opened the menu and there it was, just as I had imagined it. Pulled pork on top of a beef patty. The next time my server showed up I pointed this out to him. His response… he shrugged and said «Huh, guess I was wrong,» dropped off the check and walked away.

Been eating here off and on since it was a Red, Hot & Blue location, back in the very early ‘90s, and not much has changed. They offer a lot of barbecue items here: Pulled Pork, St Louis Ribs, Western Beef Ribs, Chicken, Sausages, and Beef Brisket, along with the usual sides.
The Pulled Pork is tender, moist, and with some smokiness — and I like it with the more traditional Eastern style sauce, vinegar & pepper based. Jim’s sauce is sweet and tomato based, and I don’t care for that style of pork. I have found the pork to be consistently good, but not necessarily great.
The St Louis Ribs are nice, tender, the sauce thick and sweet. The Western Beef Ribs are not one of my favorites. The Beef Brisket, tender, but not cooked to death. The Sausages and The Chicken are nice, but the chicken is not as consistently good as the other meats.
The sides are all over the place. The Mac & Cheese is simply not a good dish, and the collards are hit and miss. Potato salad is not bad, and the BBQ Beans are nice, has some spice. The Hush Puppies are nice, as well.
Most folks can find some form of barbecued meat that they like here — most are good to very good, none ar blow your socks off great. The service is almost always very good. Nice place to try once and a while.

Mediocre in every way, from the dry brisket to the bland pulled pork to the décor that hasn’t changed since it was Red Hot and Blue. The place had seven tables at lunch and the service was still slow. The hush puppies were pretty good, though.

Made my first visit to Jim’s Famous yesterday while shopping in the nearby center. I had driven past for several years; but never stopped because it seemed not to be crowded. This was a really pleasant surprise. We both had the pulled pork sandwich; mine with potato salad and my wife’s with fried okra, and both with iced tea. The pork was delicious… much better than most places in the area. The sauce is sweet; but, not heavy. You can get NC vinegar-​style; but my wife liked this sauce better than any she’s had in the area. Potato salad and fried okra were both great. This is definitely a place to return to… have to try the ribs and chicken yet! Nice selection of beers… the daily special was Fat Tire on draft.

Super cheap PBR? Husband is happy. Yummy brisket? I’m happy. I also really liked their hot bbq sauce, I slathered everything up with that. Everything else was ok. The mac’n’cheese was a little disappointing, it was a small step above Kraft, and the collard greens were just sort of sad.

Good, solid barbecue.
My husband and I went and he had the brisket platter, and I had the pulled pork platter. The brisket was beefy, smokey, and dense — excellent. Maybe I would have preferred a little more char on the outside, but I can live. The pork was great — tender and smokey, not too fatty, but still nice and juicey. I’m not the biggest fan of the sauce that came on them though — Kansas City style (sweet and thick). Probably appropriate for the Brisket, but maybe not the best of the pork. However, there were bottles of your more typical eastern NC hot and vinegary sauce on the table.
The sides were good — my husband LOVED the beans. Clearly made from scratch. Not really a baked bean, more of a bbq bean. Oniony and smokey with more vinegar than sugar. The cole slaw was alright — I prefer mine a little more vinegary, but it was a huge step up from your typical bits-​of-​cabbage-​floating-​in-​mayo that you get at most fast food places.
Service was great, but it was really quiet (and we went on a Saturday night!). I was really sad to see a nice local business so deserted! Either way, it deserves a shot. Probably the best q you can get in chapel hill carrboro without dealing with Allen and Sons. Better than the Q Shack and Smith’s for sure.

I love BBQ, and I love really good BBQ, that is why I don’t go to Jim’s. The food that I got at Jim’s was just plain gross. My brisket was full of fat chunks and it hardly had any bbq flavor. Even putting extra vinegar on it did not help. I suppose I could give Jim’s a second chance, but why would I when there are more reliably delicious bbq joints in the area.

Like Carolyn, I wish I could give Jim’s 3.5 stars.
I’m a North Carolina girl and take barbecue seriously.
*Side note: barbecue is a pig, slow cooked and served with sweet, tomato-​based sauce (western NC style) or tart vinegar sauce (eastern NC style). It is NOT a social event where people grill burgers and dogs and drink beer. That is a cookout.*
OK– Back to business. I ordered takeout with a friend and got the pulled pork platter with mac n cheese and baked beans, with blackberry cobbler for dessert. He got the chopped pork platter with fries. (slaw and baked beans come standard but you can sub out any other side) They accidentally gave me collards and when I ran back in to switch them out the staff was very friendly and quick.
Our pork was VERY good. The pulled was tender and smoky and the sweet sauce was perfect. My friend’s chopped was spicy and had a great flavor — I’d order that next time. The reason for the 3-​star review were my sides– woman can’t live by barbecue alone! The mac was pretty blah. It wasn’t cheesy enough and lacked flavor. The baked beans were in in a thin broth with onions and didn’t have the sweet flavor I was looking for. I was disappointed. The cobbler tasted great but was essentially one big chunk of crust covered in blackberry goodness — just not the usual cobbler-​y texture I love.
I was surprised at the full bar. There are several beers on tap, ranging from PBR to Blue Moon, and the liquor selection wasn’t bad.
The barbecue itself is good enough to get me to go back, but I hope they get their mac and cheese act together!

I’m a yank. So is your mom. So, this bbq was kickass. Especially the beef ribs that I had for breakfast.
And the waiter was the biggest dude I’ve EVER seen. Could eat two of me.

We always enjoy Jim’s. i prefered the pulled pork to chopped barbq in general. The facility is nice, you have your choice of sauce, sweet, hot, or traditional vinegar. The building is comfortable, clean and convenient. The service is generally very good. Jim is usually there to take care of any of your needs himself. An all around good place.

3.5 stars. In my quest for the best BBQ in the RT, Jim’s did not rise to my expectations.
I came to this place because I was explicitly looking for a BBQ joint that would offer tomato based sauces. The place was surprisingly dead for a Saturday evening, especially since there was a football game earlier in the day. The waitress was friendly and nice — service was good.
I ordered the spice-​rubbed baby back ribs, which were moist and tender overall, though dry in certain parts. My bf ordered the pulled pork platter, which was appallingly dry. It was like throwing pork-​flavored paper into your mouth. The only cure was a sauce which helped to give it some sort of «juice», but you could still tell the spirit of BBQ was dead and never coming back. I got the collard greens as a side and the mac n’ cheese. The m&c is alright — can’t really complain, though not remarkable. The collard greens were curiously spicy, but lacking flavor. The corn pudding was good, tasted like Thanksgiving stuffing.
I wanted to like this place, especially with the few reviews written here, but it honestly was not as good as my experiences with Raleigh’s The Pit or CH’s Allen & Sons.

Jim’s catches a lot of flak among people I know for not being «traditional» enough, which I don’t understand. This is pretty traditional, as far as I can see, and I mean that in a good way.
Ninety percent of the menu is variations of slow roasted pork… The only difference is the way that it’s actually ripped off of the pig carcass and presented to you. You’re not going to find any surprises on the menu; baked beans and pulled pork sandwiches are the staples here, and the clientele likes it that way.
The quality of the food is pretty damn good, especially for the price that you’re paying. You don’t have to worry about getting your sauce choice right (a harrowing decision at any BBQ joint), since their wide array of sauces are bottled on the table for you to apply in the manner you see fit.
The décor deserves mention, and I give it a perfect score. Check out their impressive collection of posters and advertisements for performances by old blues musicians. It’s great.