Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in College Station

(SOME CONTEXT FOR THIS REVIEW: This is the lowest rating I have ever given to a restaurant. I have had over 3.5 million views of my reviews and photos on Google Maps.)

I was meeting two friends that had moved from Houston to Bryan and they suggested that we meet at Cooper's. We had eaten there once before, and the food was okay, but not great and so I was agreeable to giving it another try.

It was one of my friends birthday, so I brought along 6 cupcakes for us to pick our favorite to eat and celebrate after lunch. Little did I know that this would turn out to be embarrassing fiasco!!!!

I left the box of cupcakes at the table with my friend's wife, while the birthday boy and I went to go through the buffet line. I noticed that a young man was at our table talking with my friend's wife. Little did I know at the time, that he was informing her that we would have to pay $25 to consume the cupcakes in the restaurant! She must have pointed us out in the line and the young man came over to inform us about the charge. I was surprised and somewhat taken aback. I have eaten at hundreds of restaurants over the years and have never been so embarrassed that he had confronted my friend's wife but also was surprised that such a charge would exist in a somewhat lower end establishment. I am used to most restaurants even asking if they can supply plates and forks, or better yet bringing a surprise complimentary dessert to the table.

I assured the young man that we would not be consuming the cupcakes in the establishment. I thought that this would be then end of the matter., but when we got to the cashier to pay for the $60+ meals of a baked potato, chopped sandwich and a brisket plate, the cashier charged me an additional $25 for the cake consumption even though I had advised the young man earlier that we would not be eating the cupcakes! At this point I was insulted and steaming. I insisted that the $25 charge be removed.

Not only is the food average at best, the "brisket plate with sides", listed on the menu was definitely less than promised...the sides were the pickle and relish bar available to everyone eating in the restaurant...meaning the plate was definitely overpriced.

The brisket (2/3 lean-cut and 1/3 marbled) of my order of was not as advertised either. See fat that I trimmed off in the attached photo. I would estimate 1/4 of the weight for which I was charged, was inedible fat!! The baked potato was small...definitely not the Demeris Bar-B-Q or Pappas Bar-B-Q sized used to getting in Houston! ...more like what you might get at Wendy"s!

Having grown up in the restaurant business, I honored the establishment's request not to eat the cupcakes and advised them of that when we first spoke. But as I later mentioned to the cashier, I was offended that they would attempt to charge me $25 even after I advised that we were not going to eat the cupcakes; I was aghast that such a lower-end cafe would have such a charge and was once again disappointed in the quality and serving sizes of food. Unfortunately, the experience was worse the second time. But this will definitely be the last...

If you really like overpriced barbecue this is the place. I understand how commodities work, I understand what market price is. I brought my pound of “lean” brisket home, weighed it, used 3 different scales, It weighed .92pounds, .27 was fat. I would have to assume by that ratio that if you bought regular brisket at a pound you’re going to get .92 to an actual pound of brisket and over half of it is going to be fat if this is their lean. I’m not sure why anyone would pay $23.50 for half meat and half fat but to each their own. ( I should mention I own a couple of personal scales and one commercial scale, all of which read the same thing to the decimal point.) if the weight discrepancy is because I ordered lean brisket as my grandkids are not going to eat the fat and they weighed it with all the fat on it first, priced it ,and then cut it off , that’s fine. I guess that’s why other places have a higher price for lean brisket, because when you order a pound you want to bring home an actual pound of meat, not what’s left over after they chopped off some fat from a pound . Also the potato, with brisket, cost over $16 today which is unreasonable in my opinion.I totally understand that .34 of a pound of fat with some brisket attached to it costs almost nine bucks and you have to turn a profit, but add a little bit of cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, butter and a baked potato for 7.95 more is kinda pricey in my opinion. That potato with labor can’t cost more than two bucks and that’s a stretch. Baking a potato isn’t really that labor-intensive, nor is putting 2 ounces of cheese and 2 ounces of bacon bits in a container with some tiny packs of butter. The meat is charged separately and that’s perfectly fine by me, but there’s no way that’s an 8 dollar potato, and everybody in Ireland would be insulted if this made its way across the pond. I guess that’s why they don’t sell these there. I am genuinely happy to pay for something that’s actually worth it. This is not. Even if I don’t necessarily like how something tastes, I still understand value, and by value I don’t mean cheap. For market priced barbecue in what might very well be the barbecue capital of the world (Texas not College Station mind you) Coopers tastes slightly above average and weighs below, which I guess is cool if you are fat like me and need to drop a few pounds. Taste is subjective and some people are gonna think this place is great. They are wrong, but good for them I’m glad they’re happy. Your paying market price for decent meat dipped in a unique sauce (which is good) ,but what you get on the pallet and the plate in my opinion isn’t worth market price. Truth is, there are places within 10 to 60 minutes of this place that are worth the money or worth the drive or both and I’d go seek them out instead of returning here. I wish them the best , but In my humble and overweight opinion that’s the...

The facility is pretty awesome, great place to enjoy hanging out and sharing a meal. TVs are scattered around the dining area, and while we were there it was college softball and baseball on all of them, LOVED IT. We arrived mid afternoon around 3pm so there were plenty of seats, and when we walked in there was no wait to order. We walked up a woman came out and shared with us the process and how to place our order, she was extremely friendly, and a great start. When we ordered i was a bit surprised by a few things that I had never experienced at other BBQ restaurants. We got our cuts of meat, they were handed to us, then the next person took them from us to weigh (to a station out of our sight), but then after they weighed them they packaged/wrapped all of the meat together (Strange that the meats were mixed). My daughter who had ordered turkey, was bothered that her order was packaged with the beef order. I mentioned to the lady working the counter that we were dining in, and there was no need to package the meat, and she looked at me like I was crazy, and gave me a bit of an attitude. She then asked what sides we wanted, and I will admit we took a few seconds (less than half a minute) to decide what we wanted and the sizes, out of the first section, Mac & Cheese (Our preference would be that it was thicker in consistency), then moved down, and without looking up, I asked about what desserts there were, and the lady who was helping us was GONE, so we waited for her to return and added Apple Cobbler (WOW, LOVED IT), I should have ordered a bucket full) to our order. Checking out was easy, and the cashier was friendly. My daughter picked out 2 sauces for us to try, one sweet and the other was original. My first bite of brisket was good, but not great, there was a flavor I wasn't used to with other briskets I have had, I tried a second bite and it was the same. The third bite I added the sweet sauce, and it was okay, pretty good flavor, I was not ready for it to be watery (like a marinade, it had been a long time since I had this type). My 4th bite i added their original sauce, this was my favorite "thin" sauce I have ever tried, very good flavor, and went perfectly with the brisket. This was different for me, as usually I gravitate to the sweeter sauces. My daughter really liked the turkey, she tried both of the sauces and preferred the turkey without sauce. I tried a bite of turkey and it was good, but I had brisket to get back to. Overall the food was good, the service in most of the areas was great, and the atmosphere was incredible, I can imagine this place being packed to watch the Aggies, on a Saturday afternoon, I bet that is an...