Jim’s Smokin’ Cafe

Great Food! Very Nice Owner! Good Prices! Only Barbecue Place in Niles that has Beer Wine & Etc!

Closes at 3:00 on Sunday, which we discovered by driving here at 5:00 pm and calling after seeing no café activity… Jim was friendly on the phone, maybe we will give it a try another day…

EVEN MORE EXCELLENT! Great food, now you can have a beer with it. You can also take the food into the movie theater if you care to (we don’t. We love enjoying the true smoky taste of the tender meat, the great salads, those creative dishes that he tempts us with! i so often want to take a BIT quart container home of the soup he’s created that day. OR that wonderful chicken salad… Go here for real smoked meat !

Had the buffet. People rave about the brisket and the (smoked) baked beans. Choices were brisket, pulled pork with spicy and/​or sweet sauces, BBQ chicken, baked beans, macaroni & cheese, pasta salad, and slaw.
Really good value for $ 12. They do the buffet slightly cheaper during the week for less, but I think it doesn’t have the brisket. It’s inside the Wondetland Theatre, which has discounted movies– and ALCOHOL! (12 taps and hard alcohol at the theatre, but not til after noon?)
Offers: Lunch and dinner
Has: Restaurant and café seating — You can get to go and eat in the park too
Is: good for family, big portions as buffet
Great: Beans, chicken
Takes: not sure about reservations

Stopped in here while waiting for a train, didn’t expect much. This food is the real deal. Amazing, tender, freshly roasted barbecue. Highly recommended. Don’t let its location inside a movie theater fool you. And the guy who runs it is quite nice to boot. Oh yeah, and great prices. You can even eat it while watching a movie if you want. Do I need to say more?

Jim smokes it right out front! Awesome food! Especially love his pulled pork tacos and homemade sauces!

Fantastic barbecue and reasonable… A little different setup for the dining room, but don’t let that bother you, it’s good damn barbecue, not high dollar fancy dining!
Walk right past the smoker near the entrance, always gets ya.
Friendly service and a unique setting — I will be going back a lot!

OMG, can JIm COOK! Everything, and I mean everything is amazing… from pulled pork, to brisket, to ribs,…and his sides are to die for!!! I guarantee, the food won’t disappoint ;)

Great BBQ! Jim (the owner) takes a good amount of pride in his cooking. The smoker out front is all the advertising you’ll see. Chili and brisket are both delicious (not overly smoked with the cherry wood he uses). Enjoy

My wife found this place by accident in Niles one afternoon by following the great smell!
Located just inside the lobby of the Wonderland Cinema, Jim’s appears to be a one man start-​up venture, making good use of one of the cinema’s snackbar counters and indoor seating.
Menu items are simple – most are freshly smoked beef, chicken and pork sandwiches on bakery style buns, with one or two sides, depending on the size of the sandwich. Sides are bagged chips, homemade coleslaw, pasta salad, and bourbon baked beans. The latter three all being great.
He also lists some pork and chicken salads which consist of ample servings of fresh greens and other salad veggies, and topped with a generous portion of hot, smoked meat. Several dressings are available but the best by far is his standard BBQ sauce, which is a mild balsamic vinegar based creation that works well with both the meat and salad greens.
On Fri and Sat evenings he periodically makes smoked babyback ribs, which are off the chain in smokiness and flavor, as well as a variety of soups, chili, and a verde chicken chili. As for the ribs, we’ve witnessed people literally appear out of thin air for those as he’s bringing them in from the smoker, so they’re well worth a try!
And let me stress, the smoker he uses is a real-​deal charcoal fired wood smoker, located right outside the dining area.
On all of our visits the place has been immaculately clean, and the restaurant’s menu is available online at his website and downloadable via Facebook.
You may have to wait at the counter for a few minutes, depending on what the owner or his helper are doing, which usually involves tending to the smoker, so be patient.
Beverages are Coke products and iced tea, which are available via the dispensers in the lobby of the Cinema after you purchase the cup, in similar fashion to most fast food places.
Enjoy this place while you can! Five stars!

Jim’s is awesome! His prices are just right with great portions! He really cares about the food he puts out and the comminuty he serves! Definitely worth checking out!

Based on Unilocal reviews, we tried to eat here after a long day hiking in the area. There were only two tables occupied when we arrived, and we didn’t know whether it was table service or counter-​order. There is not really a counter, just a check-​out register down the passage toward the movie theater. No menu posted on the wall, no menus on the tables, no «order here» sign, no information of any kind. Also no information from the cook who walked past us twice carrying a small piece of meat from the smoker and only glanced at us.
While we tried to figure it out, another couple came in, so we watched what they did. They walked up to the register, were handed a printed menu by an older woman (who had seen us looking lost earlier and said nothing) — and proceeded to study the menu for over 5 minutes. Not too long to look at a menu, but that seemed to be the ONLY menu in the place so I don’t know how the staff can take customers’ orders in a timely way if each customer has to wait their turn for the menu. I tried to read over their shoulder, could not see much of it. There seemed to be no drinks listed, and I am allergic to a lot of pop, so that’s a consideration for me.
By that time, several other parties had joined the line behind us. The first people were still asking about items and making changes to their order. My companion decided to find somewhere else so we could eat supper the same day, before the long drive home. Sorry folks, when we are hungry we don’t want to play guessing games about how you operate.
I looked at their online menu, and indeed, there are no details and no drinks. What the heck is «island coleslaw»? If I’m ever in Niles again, I might give it another try and hope to get some food.

Best place to eat beat pulled I have ever tasted the owner is the nicest ever the cleanest place on earth

We were driving through Niles and found Jim’s by the reviews. Took a little bit of a hunt because of the location tucked in with Wonderland Cinema, but we were so glad we did. OMG, food was *delicious*! I had the pulled pork and my friend had the gumbo, and she said it was the best gumbo she’d had in *years* and my pork was delicious. I also loved the sauce and I normally stay away from the sauces — turns out the answer to everything is that the owner is a devoted cook and does all of it himself in the smoker outside, including hand-​made sauces. He’s a genius in his foods and the pride he takes in them. His wife is also incredibly nice and really patient and helpful. We’re so glad we found Jim’s and told all our friends about it! Will definitely go back when in the area again.

I am very picky with BBQ, and this place has the best i have ever had, at a restaurant. The service was very personable and friendly. If your in Niles, you have to stop here you will be very glad that you did.

I’ve been trying to have a meal here for awhile but I kept missing the opportunity because they’ve been closed. I finally made it and it was worth the wait. We like to go to the movie theater here because it’s so much cheaper than in Chicago, and this place is in a perfect spot. It’s located in the rear of the movie theater. Now we can buy our tickets early, have lunch or dinner, and get in line early to get prime seating! I ordered the kids the pulled pork sliders with chips for $ 5 and had the pulled pork sandwich with a side for us adults. The kids enjoyed their meal, as could be told by how eagerly they ate. When the waitress came with our sandwiches, she mentioned the cut of pork was at the end of the piece so it may be dry. If that was the case, she would gladly give us a raincheck to come back. The cut was not at all dry and in fact was delicious! Since I had purchased the popcorn/​pop combo with our movie tickets, I filled our fountain drinks to have with our meal. Afterwards, we only had to pay 50 cents for refills. I love Wonderland and now I love this place!

Not a bad place. they seem to really be trying.
Pulled meat was soggy and shredded.
Owner is nice and will do whatever it takes to please you.
Wanted to try ribs but they were a little pricey in my opinion.
May go back some day.

Drove 20 miles just to have my BBQ salad. It is that good! Jim u need to open a location closer to my home, please!

While visiting our niece in Niles, we stopped at Jim’s Smoking Café yesterday for a late lunch. We had Jim’s smoked pork rib tips and Bourbon Baked Beans. Jim, the owner and chef, treated us like family and served us generous portions for a very reasonable price. He explained that he only uses the best cuts of meats for his menu items, which was very obvious when we tasted our food. The rib tips were moist and very flavorful. His homemade sauce was excellent as well. We liked it so much that we bought a plate of smoked beef with a side of baked beans to take home with us. We plan to stop there again the next time we visit our niece in Niles!
Jim has only been in business since the end of May, but I anticipate he will have lines of people lining up at his door once word spreads about his tremendous food!

Came here with my family while driving through Niles on our way to Chicago. Went out on a limb by heading to dinner at the movie theatre — but the Mini Cooper with a smoker trailer sitting in front was intriguing enough to piqué our interest.
The place was empty and the owner looked excited to serve five hungry customers. We ordered from the menu, which was small but packed with great choices, and the food was out in 10 minutes. We tried the pulled pork sandwiches, a meatloaf burger, the island pork tacos, and one of the salads with smoked meat on too. Everybody agreed, the food was fantastic. The two sauces he gave us (a hotter one and a sweeter one) were both great additions to every meal. My parents really enjoyed the Carolina mustard, too! As a side note, the service was great, the owner even made a mistake and have us an extra pulled pork sandwich and was totally gracious about acknowledging his mistake and telling us to take it home and enjoy it later!
Altogether a very good Midwestern BBQ joint. Would recommend this to anyone seeking delicious smoked meat for lunch or dinner. Good food, good service, and, despite the odd movie theatre arrangement, a great place to go for a casual family dinner.