C J’s In Tiger Country

I was in downtown Columbia today and we went to CJ’s. I was impressed with the wings, the service and the fries. I have never had wings anywhere better than CJs. We even got to take home two souvenir mugs, that was cool. Now, you guys are going to think I’m petty here but I want to speak the truth. With such a fine place and good food at a fair price, I am amazed that ownership has decided to go with low quality, bitter tasting, generic Catsup! If the owner is too cheap to spring for good, name brand Catsup, a customer wonders where else they have taken shortcuts in their establishment’s quality. If I owned CJ’s and was serving the quality meals I have on the menu, I would be embarrassed to offer, cheap, bad tasting generic catsup! I feel less valued as a customer when I know the owner doesn’t think I’m important enough to get real, good tasting, name brand catsup. I’m just sayin…

This place has the worst service on the planet. The staff is rude and the owners are worse. I’d rather eat from a dumpster than at CJ’S.

I’d say lousy service, if we’d been served at all. It smelled amazing, but the three wait staff at the bar apparently were on a long time break during the Friday lunch hour. We’d gone to the bar to «check in» but were patently ignored from then until we walked out. So we went to Buffalo Wild Wings where the service and food are consistently terrific. So much for shopping locally.

I love this place. Every time I come here I get a pound of B.Y.F.O. wings and an order of curly fries with some of their sweet heat BBQ sauce to dip them in. Usually I am there on Saturday and that is currently at the time of this review that they have 32 ounce drafts for $ 5.00. A wonderful place to hang out in downtown Columbia.

Best Wings in Columbia, huge and delicious. Never been disappointed.

I have been dying to try CJ’s for a while and it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that I found my way into «Tiger Country.»
CJ’s is known for their chicken wings so the choice was obvious. The menu has some variety but my guess is that many stick to the wings.
I split a wing order of 5 lbs with two buddies and ordered a side of cheese fries. The wings were tossed in their medium/​mild sauce, but were far from anything spicy. The size of the wings were what really made them worth while. Plump and juicy. By far the tastiest wings I’ve had. Crispy skin and succulent meat, tied together with the buttery sauce makes your mouth water. The cheese fries were nothing more than the type you would find at your neighborhood bowling ally. Certainly frozen fries with a nacho cheese topping. Luckily, I love all cheese fries so I wasn’t upset with what I ordered. If I were to say anything negative about the food, it would be the price of celery and carrots. $ 1.99 seems a little hefty for veggies from your garden.
As for service, it was slow at least in terms of refilling drinks. Other than that, not too bad.
The atmosphere was a little disappointing. It was game day and the crowd was pretty stark. In terms of décor, it could certainly be renovated. Seems like it was kind of thrown together. Bar resembles that of your friends cool dad’s basement bar with a shelf of five boozes. There’s obviously a bunch of Mizzou stuff on the walls, but nothing that stands out. There’s a big projector in another part of the restaurant but only about two TVs near the bar.
Great food makes it worth while. Check it out!

My family was in Columbia for Mizzou’ s family weekend and my brother told us about CJ’s. Even though he never ate there before he wanted to try it out. I loved the service and the décor really looked like a college hangout spot. Our server was really nice and sweet. We ordered the wings and the house chips. When I say that the food was gone less than 10mins, it was gone. The food was absolutely amazing, so amazing that we order another round of wings and house chips. I highly recommend people to check this place out.

Wow! I love chicken wings and these were contenders to being my favorite! Love the laid back environment from the staff and the walk-​ins. First off a good ranch for me makes or breaks a restaurant, and their ranch was homemade and delightful! Next the wings were Crispy and over sauced (just the way I like them). Then comes the sauces! The sweet bbq and medium were the choices for today, and neither disappointed! The sweet bbq is a mix of buffalo sauce, butter, and bbq– the perfect combo of salty, sweet, spicy. I would recommend this place for any one in the mood for wings!

I try not to eat at chain restaurants when I travel for business. I saw CJ’s on Unilocal so I thought I’d give it a try. Glad I did. It’s not much inside but the food and service were amazing.
Totally awesome wings! I got a 1 ½ pound order with medium sauce. They were perfectly cooked and sauced and very meaty. Fries were good as well and the server was very attentive.
Should I return to Columbia again, I will definitely stop at CJ’s!

You are here for the wings, to have a good time, drink the draft beer preferably if its a saturday, get tipsy, watch some sports on the TV, have a good time and reach home safely. A spare cloth might be needed if you have other plans, as the exhaust is not efficient. However cant say that for the menu and the price. Burn your face off has the right amount of spice and tasted great especially with the juicy wings with abundant sauce. Jalapeños bits add to the taste and crunch. The wings are very good when eaten hot but the taste is retained even towards the end. A must visit if you are the wings fanatic.

No frills, just good food for good price, and we like it that way. Excellent wings, my husband and I love to go there. Its a great alternative to the «chain restaurant» wings and sports. The beer selection could be better, but it fits their simplistic vibe. The main complaint I have about this place is the hours. I can’t count how many times we have thought to go there for wings and to watch a game, just to realize they close at 7 pm – ON A SATURDAY. I feel they are missing out on a lot of business, especially with location downtown, in college central. Again, on at least a handful of occasions, we would have gone without question if they had been open, so due to this our visits are much less frequent then they probably would be.

Today was my son’s 8^th grade graduation and he wanted to celebrate at Cj’s unfortunately for him they decided to close nearly 30 mins early. Their sign is clearly marked open until 9 pm but when we drove up and attempted to walk through the door they were closed at 8:35 pm. The men drinking at the bar as well as the bartender didn’t even bother looking towards the door when my son kept pulling it. I know everyone would like to be home on time after a long day at work but as a restaurant that was ridiculous and very unprofessional.

I’m going to be honest, CJ’s absolute first impression was not the best. Trying to find a parking spot around the front was genuinely painful, and the décor leaves something to be desired… you could imagine this place existing in its present form since about the turn of the 20^th century. However, the staff was certainly friendly enough, and I certainly wasn’t about to give up on the promise of great chicken wings.
Well, the visit was worth the minor inconveniences upon arrival for one simple reason: that chicken. I got a handful of boneless wings in original buffalo, and these things had the complete package. The sauce was flavorful with the perfect amount of heat, and the breading added to the flavor without making the wings overly greasy. And, perhaps most importantly, CJ’s seems to be using pretty high-​quality chicken… certainly more than I was expecting at the price point.
Maybe not a destination for a date night, but certainly worth a stop for the wing connoisseur.

Amazing wings. Hd projector. Staple of Columbia. Great local hangout. Service can be slow but where else do you really need to be. 5 dollar big beers on Saturday.

BAD EXPERIENCE! First Timer. 5 min early … Beer man says «Come on in». Crazy lady from the bar screams «We’re closed». Hmmm. We left. They say the wings are great. Service sucks. Especially hate the comment of «I just don’t like people in here when I’m getting ready». Guess we fixed that!

The best wings in Columbia! Order 1 ½ lbs worth with original and BBQ sauce flavor. The most succulent and crispy wings ever! Most wings in town seem baked which destroys the flavor of the chicken and you can definitely tell that CJ’s wings aren’t frozen! Their chili fries are yummy well! Make sure you get curly. Way better than regular fries. Saturday’s they have 32 oz worth of certain beers for $ 5. Pretty good deal! Definitely will be back! Make sure you check into the bar area with how many people are in your group. We were a bit confused at first on that.

I am a Mizzou Alum and chicken wing eating freak and this place is the best wings I’ve ever had. Every time back in town we make a trip to CJ’s. Have tried wings at probably 25 restaurants in the country and CJ’s is #1. I believe their key is the chicken they use — good sized wings/​drummies and fresh. Yes sometimes the service is a little slow, and sometimes they’re not open, and the décor hasn’t changed much from 1987. Who cares! Wings are awesome and beer is cold and cheap!

Went for lunch, was amazed. Looking forward to go back for dinner. Great selection and flavor.

OMG! I love CJ’s when it comes to wings in Columbia! Everytime the BF and I go to Columbia, I have to stop in this divey type of place for wings, salad and beer. Its a popular spot, so there will be a lot of students, Mizzou alums, and families here. It can get really lot depending on what time of day you go. I have been both at night and during lunch and there is a difference. I got the hot wings with ranch and they were good! Of course I will always visit this place in in town!

Great wings! They are bigger than chain restaurant wings, and they have great sauce. They seem to follow the standard sauce recipe, but that’s fine with me. *****
The one negative is that the service can be hit or miss when they get busy. That seems to be the case at a lot of places in COMO, and I think it has more to do with hiring students… So I’m not going to ding them a point for it since this seems to be uncontrollable in this town!