Ellis County BBQ

Friendly staff, good prices and food. My husband and I enjoy this place frequently and have never had any problems. It’s a hometown place and is not 5 star cuisine. If you want 5 star cuisine and candle ambience, don’t go to a BBQ joint. If you want reasonably priced good BBQ and cold beer, this is the place!

Went for dinner on a Wednesday. Service was slow to non-​existent, food was pretty bad. Don’t waste your time with this one. It is not a «true BBQ» place IMO. I had a sliced beef plate and it was 3 skinny pieces of cold brisket, with warm potato salad. My oldest had the BBQ Bacon burger and it was awful… youngest had ribs which were flavorless. Nobody seems to be in charge.

We went on a busy Friday evening. It was very loud, mostly permeating from the bar area and the dining area was filled with chatter. We wired about 15 minutes to be rate. Not bad. It took a while to get our order taken given the crowd but I was ok. My 2 meat combo (hotlinks and brisket) with Mac n cheese and tater salad was just ok. Brisket was a little dry an hot links were very hot n spicy. My husband said his pinto beans were too salty and his brisket was dry, all but 1 bite. Smoked turkey was good he said. This is his second trip and my first. Wait staff was, well, busy! Had to flag a waitress to bring a to go container. Our teas was refilled once. When we left the hostess stayed talking with a person. I was expecting her to say something like thank you or have a good evening. Meh! Will i return… that remains to be seen.

Wonderful BBQ place, great atmosphere and service, good prices. We had their sliced and chopped brisket, both tender and quite good and their sausage was fantastic. Baked potato was on point (so good with brisket) and the sides are delicious.
Especially the macceroni and potato salad. You guys… they are sooo good. Coleslaw was a little bland and dry.
Definitely one of the best places to eat around here.

I was so glad when this new outpost opened! I pass it each day going to and from work, and it’s so great to be able to dash in and grab a pound of chopped brisket or pulled pork to take home when I’m not in the mood to cook. The meat is cooked to perfection. The dining room is always spotlessly clean and the waitstaff is super friendly. We need to find a way to let more folks know where to find this little gem!

I absolutely LOVE the jalapeño cheddar sausage! The service is great, and the beer is cold! The brisket quesadillas are also amazing! Stop in for a casual dining experience, or somewhere to just hang out in the evenings.

Loved the customer service.
Sausage and pinto beans were pretty good. Brisket was extremely dry with not much flavor. Typically not a fan of bbq sauce, but theirs was pretty good… more sweet than spicy.
Definitely not the best bbq I’ve ever had, but I’d go back… just won’t ever get the brisket again.

It’s such a let down when you drive past a place for years, and you finally try it out, and IT SUCKS!
Over priced flavorless brisket tacos were the highlight of the experience. Front of house 101 — don’t ask «how everything is» when you just dropped the plate and have seen that I didn’t take a single bite! Also, do watch me take a big bite and then ask «how’re we doing boss!?»! The flies… if I’m choosing to sit outside then the flies are on me. Sitting inside a dining room — no excuse call a service provider and get rid of the flies!
If you’re looking for BBQ in Waxahachie /​Midlothian keep looking.

Pretty good typical Texan food. Service was good, we visited on a Sunday afternoon.

Good Brisket Tacos and Banana Pudding is awesome. Also, you can bring your own blondes. :p

I had Daniel’s Plate with:
Ribs (very tender but not overly flavorful)
Brisket (very rough but tasty)
Macaroni & Cheese (very yummy)
Potato Salad (wonderfully inconsistent)
I would definitely come back to Ellis County BBQ and try something else. It was quite good for a small town place, but not nearly the best BBQ I’ve ever had. That medal still belongs outside of Texas in Tennessee and California.

This is the best BBQ joint in Midlothian, hands down. They serve a pretty basic menu, but I’ve never had a bad dish here. Very consistent, overall. The service can be hit or miss. Sometimes it is really good, sometimes it is really bad. I’ve learned to deal with it. I’ve never had a rude waitress, just sometimes forgetful or slow staff.
Let me review:
— Brisket: The brisket is pretty good. It isn’t the best I’ve ever had but it is consistent, which I like. They also know how to make a sliced brisket sandwich, lean, and without fat, which is very important to my wife (because if she doesn’t like it, we don’t eat it).
— Ribs: I’m a huge fan. They are fall of the bone. They come without sauce but I pour their spicy BBQ sauce on them and go to town. Definitely the best meat they have on the menu, IMO.
— Pulled Pork: I’ve had this on numerous occasions. It is good. Kind of like the brisket, its not the best you will ever have but it is good.
— Smoked chicken: Same thing here… The chicken is good. Not great, but consistently good.
— Menu items: My favorite is the Brisket quesadillas. This appetizer (I get it for my dinner most of the time) is brisket, cheese, and pico de gallo sandwiched between two large buttered and pan fried tortillas. It is served with sour cream, fresh salsa and BBQ sauce. The pulled pork loaded baked potato is also one of my favorites.
Sides: The beans are pretty good but not great. The mac and cheese, a BBQ restaurant staple for me, is also pretty good. The potato salad isn’t my favorite. Its definitely not a side I waste my time with.
Alcohol: The bar is usually tended pretty well. Sometimes the service can be slow but the beer is ice cold, the TVs are a plenty and the mixed drinks are usually made well.

I’ve been several. tes now and have. never been disappointed. The service is excellent, the food is always spot on and it’s the coldest beer around.

I will usually try and go to a place at least 2 or 3 times before I give it a 2 star or lower review. I have given this place 5 goes, and it seems to get worse each time.
Really, really substandard BBQ. Not as good as Dickey’s even (and that’s a pretty low bar). Brisket is dry and lacking in flavor. Some of the worst sausage I’ve had. Chicken was waaay dried out. Pork ribs had little flavor and were tough. All the sides are pedestrian.
Add on to this the fact that the service is pretty spotty, and it adds up to a less-​than-​optimal BBQ experience.

WORST BBQ IN ELLIS COUNTY
This joint looks busy from the outside, but when you go in everyone is at the bar drinking. And this might be the worst barbecue in Ellis County. We’ve punished ourselves three times now by coming to this place. We’re officially done!
The brisket is dry and tasteless, the sausage is store-​bought and the sides are definitely bought at Costco. On top of having horrible food, the service is even worse. All three times we’ve either had a lazy teenager or a waitress who was slow and has an «I don’t care attitude».

Must of went on a bad day a few weeks back. I brought a coworker with me because he had never had smoked ribs before. I haven’t had ribs since I worked at a BBQ joint awhile back so I was craving them. I ordered a 2 meat plate ribs and I asked what kind of sausage they used. Waitress said I don’t know, so I just got 2 meat rib plate. My coworker got the 1 meat with ribs.
Our meal came out a few minutes later. I wanted to cry. The ribs were dry as could be. The only thing enjoyable were the sides. I did dose the dry meat with BBQ sauce to try and salvage, I’m not even gunna lie, to no previl.
May come back for a cold beer, or maybe a burger. But definitely not the ribs

Eaten here many times since they opened. It’s pretty good BBQ.
I moved here having grown up on Memphis style BBQ and it’s honestly one of the first places in the area I was able to stand. Solid pulled pork sandwiches with a good sauce. Had the ribs as well and they were enjoyable.
Sometimes the pork is a little dry, but normally I don’t have any complaints. Also I wasn’t the biggest fan of their hot links, but that’s just personal preference.
Atmosphere is pretty classic for a small town BBQ joint. Overall I felt right at home here.

Came here twice. Tried the chicken fried steak the first time and the brisket burger the 2^nd time. Do not get the chicken fried steak. It was extremely dry and tough. The brisket burger is decent. Never had one before so I can’t compare it to other brisket burgers but it wasn’t as good as it sounded like even though I love brisket. Service was fast and the waiters were friendly. I would come back if I was really craving bbq

Although it’s certainly not the norm for barbecue, Ellis County BBQ is set up as a table service restaurant. The dining room is decorated in a more upscale western motif, which was surprisingly swanky for a place like Midlothian.
I ordered up their Dennis Plate, which comes with three meats, two sides, and Texas toast. After much deliberation, I settled on pork ribs, beef brisket, and sliced sausage with potato salad and macaroni and cheese on the side. I made sure to ask for sauce on the side.
As always, I started my meal by sampling the side dishes. The potato salad had a good crunch from the pickles and pimentos. It also had a nice natural flavor to it without being bland. The mac and cheese, however, was not quite so pleasant. What I received was basically plain elbow macaroni with a little cheese, and it tasted only slightly better than Easy Mac.
From the outset, the brisket looked a little dry and far too lean. It had a decent black crust on it, but no actual bark. I certainly couldn’t taste any smoke. Actually, all I could taste was dry meat and salt. I added some of their house barbecue sauce out of pure necessity.
The pre-​sliced sausage had no visible black pepper or other spices, which made it look suspiciously like Hormel or Eckrich. It tasted exactly like it looked: grocery store sausage. There definitely wasn’t any smoke to it either.
After my first two meat selections, I wasn’t feeling very optimistic about the ribs. They looked like they had a good crust, but were lacking much of a red smokey hue. I found some smoke in the crust, but it tasted more like artificial liquid smoke rather than the natural kind. This gave the ribs a really weird taste.
I took the remainder of my food in a to-​go box just to be polite, but I had intention of eating any more of it. Ellis County BBQ definitely has some work to do on their seasonings and their smoking process, and getting rid of the liquid smoke should be step one.
UPDATE (December 5, 2013): Once again, I found a restaurant owner posting comments to my blog post under the guise of an average customer. This time the comments came courtesy of Dennis DeWeerd, who is in fact the owner of Ellis County BBQ. Apparently Mr. DeWeerd was not aware that his name would show up next to the comments, which speaks to both his carelessness and his technological ignorance.
«Where is your restaurant??? Ellis County Bbq has won numerous awards for their Bbq. We eat there 3 – 4 times a week the food is awesome. Anyone with a keyboard thinks they are a valid critic. Suit up and start your own restaurant and then I’ll listen to you. Your a Joke»
The sloppiness with which he writes truly exemplifies the quality of the food at Ellis County BBQ. I can certainly understand the frustration that any restaurant owner must feel upon reading negative criticism of his or her establishment. However, if this is the way that Mr. DeWeerd chooses to address customer complaints (particularly in a public forum), his business may not be long for this world.
UPDATE (December 19, 2013): Today I received more delightful comments from Dennis DeWeerd, owner of Ellis County BBQ. These comments were rather lengthy, so here are a few excerpts:
«Once again you don’t know the facts. Just another idiot with a keypad.»
«I can take criticism, but not from a person who doesn’t even verify facts before writing an ignorant response.»
«Any customer that would like to show here try our bbq and comment to me or my wife about it is welcomed. Not a coward who runs home and misleads people with a keypad and a $ 20 web site.»
Apparently the way that Mr. DeWeerd «take[s] criticism» is by hurling insults at a dissatisfied customer. I really considered editing my review down to 1-​star after all of this. Eat at Ellis County BBQ at your own risk…
UPDATE (December 20, 2013): Here are some more snippets from Mr. DeWeerd’s most recent comments to me:
«FACT: I am not Hostile, every Village has an idiot and I thank you for being ours.»
«FACT: instead of confronting a Restaurant Owner You lie about you choose to call Kirby and cry to him.»
«FACT: You choose to hide behind your Little Key Board»
«FACT: I really don’t care about a persons opinion that is to afraid to complain to an owner of a Restaurant Face To Face.»
«I’ll take my credentials over yours any day of the week.»
Wow, this guy clearly doesn’t get it. Also, who in the hell is Kirby???

Brisket tacos, omg good! They are so filling and you can get them alacarte. I had two and was stuffed. Flavor of the meat and sauce was excellent. Crunchy veggie topics were really fresh and tasty.
My friend had the pulled pork sandwich and loved it.