Cousin’s Bar-B-Q

If you want mediocre barbecue or don’t have time to go somewhere good this place is decent. Better off going to rail head.

The bbq did not disappoint; the fixins bar was fresh and the sauce was delish. The Texas toast wasn’t all that, but the marble (fatty) and lean brisket and bbq chicken were moist and tasty. The sides (potato salad, cole slaw, beans, okra and Mac and cheese) had a fresh homemade taste.

Consistency is the word I would use to describe this place. Sometimes when you go to Cousins the food is awesome and you can’t wait to go back and try it again. When you do go back you are very disappointed that the quality and consistency was not the same as the time before. This chain was named a top 50 barbecue joint in Texas. I will try again when I return.

Very good BBQ. The place has several meats to choose from, I opted for the two meat selection and couldn’t finish. I had the brisket and sausage, both were very good. A lot of sides to choose from, I had the mac and cheese and the broccoli salad, both were solid choices and the Texas toast was excellent!

Meat was very tender and moist. Broccoli and rice was bland. I usually don’t use salt, but I had to with that side. Lunch specials were a good deal. Great ambience in restaurant, very clean.

First time here, can really taste the smoke in the bar b q which was perfect, not overpowering at all. Brisket and ribs were great. Save room for the peach cobbler, I won’t lie I ate that first! Would recommend it for sure.

We were in Dallas and wanted some authentic, hole-​in-​the-​wall BBQ, but we couldn’t find any near the area we were in. Cousins BBQ was the best we got. The service was friendly, but the food wasn’t anything special. We got a platter (a lot of food) and a lunch sandwich special. The meat and sauces were decent, and the sides were ok. We thought it was a bit pricey for BBQ, but then again, we were really looking for a hole-​in-​the-​wall place, not a chain. Maybe next time.

Good place but Bbq can order by the pound or plates. Not to thrilled but their sides but their meats are good and close to home.

This the original and our favorite Cousin’s location. I have never been dissatisfied with food or service. They really know their BBQ here! I usually get the sausage or turkey. My hubby loves the fatty brisket. My goodness, there are so many yummy sides to choose from! I like to mix it up. Some of my favorite sides are: sweet ranch beans, mac n cheese, black eyed peas & broccoli slaw. My husband loves the fries and always shares some with me because the servings are generous. They also have a great condiment bar for pickles, peppers and other veggies.

Hands down the best BBQ this side of town. It’s in a little shopping center, but don’t let that fool you. In Any Given Day They Are Super Crowded For Lunch But The Line Moves quickly. You can also order online and pick up. I gave yet to have a bad meal here and I’ve been here a lot.

Only reason this get 2 instead of 1 star is because of some weird pepper sauce that was delicious and helped hide the flavor of the brisket.
First, I’m a BBQ snob. I’ve been to at least 20 of the TM 50, and this was my worst experience of them all. I get the same three things when I go to a TM top 50 joint: ribs, brisket, sausage.
Ribs:. They were so overcooked there was hardly any meat left on the bone, and they were served cold. They were really chewy and hard to pull off the bone. Worst ribs I’ve honestly ever had at any restaurant. If I were the manager, I would find out who the idiot that cut them was, and fire him for serving them. The worst BBQ places don’t serve trash like that.
Brisket: Decently cooked, but flavor was a little hint of smoke only, no rub flavor. Not only does it not compare to the Franklin’s, Snows, etc., it doesn’t compare to Rudy’s and I don’t even like Rudy’s. Don’t think I’ve ever said that a brisket was decently cooked, yet tasted like crap. Only thing I can think is the wood sucked and the rub was non-​existant/​terrible.
Jalapeño Cheese sausage link: was similar to Ekrich with a ton of cheese and tiny amount of jalapeño in it.
Very upset because I’ve been in FW area for a year now and passed several times on other locations so that I could go to the original. I read in one of the other reviews before I went today that it had gone downhill since the «patriarch» passed. I sure wish I had been able to try it back then, because this makes me question how the heck they made it into TM top 50. You can microwave ribs better than what I had.

Husband and I decided to try Cousin’s on McCart last night for the first time and HOLY TEXAS BBQ, we were impressed! To preface this review, hubs and I prefer our BBQ smoky. Briskets must have a black crust, red smoke ring and smoke must be prevalent throughout the meat. We like our sauce thin and vinegar-​y as a counterpoint to the meat. Aside from a few sides we weren’t crazy about, this place gets the meat right in our opinion! Anyone can just grill meat and throw sauce on it. It takes skill to know how to use a smoker. Anyway, I digress. We ordered chopped brisket, pulled pork, a whole chicken and pork ribs. For sides, we ordered green beans, sweet ranch beans, cole slaw and potato salad. The brisket and pulled pork were both moist and wonderfully smoky. The ribs were good as well but did not have as much smoke on them as we’d like. The chicken was incredible! Their dry rub, which was on all the meat we ordered, is really good and worked well with the smoke. All of it worked well together, giving the meat an incredible flavor.
As for the sides, the cole slaw was very good. Your classic cole slaw, buffalo chopped instead of shredded, with creamy dressing that wasn’t overpowering. The sweet ranch beans were like BBQ baked beans (not a bad thing) and not too sweet. Green beans are the wide Italian flat beans instead of the usual skinny, round green beans we’re used to but were also good, braised with onion and bacon. We weren’t impressed with the potato salad. It was mustard based, which we like, but was a little too «blended» for our tastes.
Most especially, we were very happy with the service. They offer online ordering, which I usually avoid but their website is pretty well laid out and it wasn’t difficult to put my order together. Much like online shopping, you select the items you want, add them to your «cart», select a pick up time and then check out. I received an order confirmation email as a receipt. We arrived at exactly the time we selected and they were just finishing packing up our order. All I had to do was sign a receipt and we were out the door. A nice young gentleman carried the bag out for us.
What an experience! We didn’t have to call to verify our order, online ordering was easy, accurate and convenient, the location smelled of smoke inside and out, the meat was smoky, the sides fresh and everyone so polite. What more could we ask for??? Cousin’s on McCart, you’ve gained 2 new regulars. Looking forward to trying out the rest of the menu. Thank you!!!

Only bbq in town I will eat. The baked potato loaded with chopped beef is big enough to make two meals out of it. I have never had a better Frito pie either.

Awful brisket. Dry, overly salty and super disappointing.
The side items were okay. I liked the coleslaw and mac-​n-​cheese but I came here for BBQ. Cousin’s BBQ tastes terrible.

The best brisket in Fort Worth, possibly in the entire western half of the Metroplex. Just great stuff at the McCart location.

I visited Cousin’s for the first time as part of a group that was touring the DFW joints featured on Texas Monthly’s Top 50 BBQ restaurants for 2013. It’s located in a fairly non-​descript strip mall with plentiful parking. Moving inside, there was definitely a smoky odor in the air, so hopes were high. Since we had a large group, we had a couple of people order some big plates of meat (no sandwiches or potatoes here, we’re about the meat) and we tore into it at a big table. Our selections included sliced brisket, sausage, ribs and turkey. Here’s the report:
Brisket: Dry, needed sauce. It was a little too tough as well, needing a bit too much chewing. The smoky flavor, while present, seemed almost artificial, or perhaps it had too much mesquite smoke (which can impart this taste).
Ribs: Texture was much closer to optimum here, although they, too, were a little dry. The smoke flavor situation was the same as the brisket
Turkey: Light on the smoke and flavor in general, but not as dry as the other meats.
Sausage: Worst meat of the day; clearly a foodservice grade product (i.e. not custom ground or locally sourced) that hadn’t had much done to it besides heating.
Since this was our last of three restaurants that we were trying at lunchtime, I decided to finish with some of their banana pudding. Big mistake. It was made from — well — banana pudding. I know, that sounds dumb, but every recipe I’ve made or seen uses vanilla pudding and relies on the bananas themselves for the flavoring. This combo just didn’t do it, with the artificial banana flavoring overpowering everything.
Honestly, I don’t know if we just caught them on a bad day, but overall, my hopes of a good BBQ meal were not met on this visit.

The OG Cousins has been on my radar since 2008, when it first hit the Texas Monthly BBQ list. Being honored yet again this year forced my hand to finally make it out for a visit. The reason for my apprehension up to this point was the fact that the Bryant Irvin location is closer to my house and I have had it several times and thought it nothing special.
But I finally carved out some time to make it to the original Cousin’s location. Walking in around 2pm on a Friday, the place still had a decent crowd. When I looked at the menu, as per my usual tactic when trying a new BBQ restaurant, I go for whatever deal offers me the most amount of smoked meats. Since I do not go to BBQ restaurants for sides, I went with the ordering by-​the-​pound option (which is to go only): a half pound of brisket, a half pound of pork ribs, a quarter pound of sausage, and one of their nice bottled cane sodas. I was quite impressed with the results, to be honest. Yet again I am guilty of blaspheming in the presence of the food deities. The meats:
The Brisket: whenever possible, I try to order both sides of the brisket, the lean and fat, in order to get a better feel of how good a place’s brisket really is. If you really are into BBQ, you are doing yourself a disservice by only ordering one or the other, until at least you have tried both. The brisket itself had a moderate to heavy smoky flavor, with a slightly sweet rub on it. The lean side was tender and moist. The fatty side, was impressive. Accompanied with a nice, dark bark and that sweet rub, it had just a thin layer of fat, followed by a nice smoke ring and the same great texture and moistness as the lean side. This was simply a beautiful piece of meat (see my picture of the brisket slice, «This is how you brisket»). While the lean side brisket was solid, the fatty side brisket was awesome and the best brisket I have had in Fort Worth. Easily trumps that of Railhead (which I do think is Railhead’s weakness, honestly). So, if you haven’t yet, try a hefty portion of the fatty side of the brisket at Cousin’s, it is the thing they do best.
The Ribs: I could swear the seasoning on the ribs was slightly different than that of the brisket, still slightly sweet, but also had a slight tanginess to them as well. A great flavor to the ribs and the meat separated from the bone easily. Solid stuff for sure and cannot go wrong here either.
The Sausage: when I was gazing upon the menu, my eyes widened when I saw «German sausage» on the menu. I just love it when BBQ restaurants actually go out of their way to serve good sausage. Not enough emphasis is put on it, as a good sausage link is often hard to find at many BBQ places. Probably my second favorite item, tied with the ribs. Reminded me a bit of Railhead’s to be honest, both in color and flavor, which isn’t a bad thing. Again, cannot go wrong here.
The Sauce: the sauce itself, was runny, vinegar-​based, dark brown in color, and very tangy. I prefer runny sauces to think ones as a runny sauce won’t hide the flavor of the meat, just add a bit of a kick to it. I found it to my liking and I was definitely glad I got a large portion of it in my to-​go bag.
The Sides: there were none. I feel like sides at a BBQ restaurant can only add to the experience, not take away from it. Why? Because you give them your business for the delectable smoked meats, not vegetables and if you really wanted creamed corn or green beans, it can be easily made within minutes at your own convenience. You know, like plopping some out of a can and putting it on the stove. Not BBQ. Let’s not forget that.
So I was greatly humbled by my visit to Cousin’s. Never would have thought, just not very far away, would lie the finest brisket in Funkytown (remember my emphasis on the fatty side). Needless to say I definitely think Cousin’s on McCart is worthy of the laurels they have received twice now by Texas Monthly. Repent in the presence of the BBQ deities in the form of trying some of Cousin’s great brisket.

Traveled from Dallas to eat at the OG Cousins. This place smelled amazing upon walking in. Thick bbq flavors hang in the air. You order cafeteria style… tell the chef what cuts of meat you want, then off to get the sides.
The bbq pork ribs won the Red River BBQ Rib Cookout of 2012, against like 12 other teams from TX and OK. I enjoyed the rib at the cookout, but I didn’t like them very much at the restaurant. The rub on the ribs was VERY tangy… it was like eating a lime rubbed piece of meat, and my cheeks puckered with every bite. ¾ of our group did not enjoy this tang, while ¼ thought it was fantastic… the meat was moderately fall-​off-​the-​bone, and the barbeque sauce was just alright as well. It was kind of runny and on the tangy side as well Tangy upon tangy was the overwhelming taste.
The brisket, before it was shaved, is a beautiful hunk of meat, marbled with lots of glistening fat, sitting on the butcher block. But the brisket is then sliced ultra thin, and served up to the customer. While it was better than the ribs, I enjoy a nice thick slab of fat brisket over a thin, lean cut. Regardless, it was still quite tender and moist. The sides were disappointing. I wasn’t happy with the apparently tantalizing broccoli cheesy rice. While it looked delicious, it tasted like a boxed rice mix. Same goes for mac/cheese…Kraft mix probably. Green beans were fine… vegetarian style.
If you’re in Ft Worth and have to pick one BBQ dining destination, go to Coopers at the stockyards instead.

Another great BBQ place. I am here with my husband along for the ride, he’s determined to try as many BBQ joints as possible. So he orders by the pound and a couple of sides, and we sit down to some very tender brisket, sausage and ribs.
The brisket has a nice smoke ring and is very tender, the ribs fall off the bone, the sausage is not dry and has a good spice flavor. The sauce is not too sweet and has a smokey flavor. The BBQ beans were really good. The center isle has your pickles, onions, jalapenos and sweet peppers. You help yourself. Really good BBQ.

My favorite BBQ place to eat at. I always order the brisket sandwhich on wheat bun, green beans and casserole broccoli rice. Their sweet tea is really good and everything is well seasoned. The sides are placed in the middle of the restaurant so it’s so easy to pick your own sides. This is the only BBQ please I’ve been to that carries wheat bun which means a lot to me.