Ace's BBQ Edinburg — Restaurant in Edinburg

Like every barbecue place in the Rio Grande Valley they try to create an image of a barbecue joint that been established for years. Ace is another one of those strip mall like barbecue joints. It does not mean it is a bad barbecue place it only means it not as well recognized but so far it one of the better barbecue "joints" in the Rio Grande Valley. Barbecue joints like Smitty's or Kreuz in Lockhart, City Market in Luling and Coopers in Mason have been established for years and are considered the bench mark of what Texas barbecue is all about. I've tried these barbecue place and compared to them Ace barbecue is pretty good. I heard about Aces from a coworker who said she was not very impressed by the barbecue. I thought I would give it a try. After a long day of yard work, I worked up an appetite and headed out to see what Aces was all about. I arrived at the Edinburg location after missing it the first time. I noticed the strip mall feel but "I thought let me give it try". I went in and was greeted by a nice waitress who asked me if was dinning in or carrying out. I said "carry out". I order a sliced brisket sandwich and a 4 pork rib plate with a side of coleslaw and potato salad. I took it home for dinner but received a call from my brother asking me if I would like to hang out at his house and eat some carne asada (South Texas Style Barbecue) I said sure and I took the food to his house for an honest critic. So here goes, I shared the food with my brother and his daughters and this what they said. Rib are soft nice rosemary taste, I agreed. The potato salad looks homemade and very good, we all agreed, the Cole slaw was not as good. Didn't look home made but was adequate. The brisket sandwich we sliced into four pieces and we tried it. My nieces said it was also good but they added barbecue sauce. I said it was soft but needed more smoke flavor. My brother agreed. We did not add barbecue sauce to our slice of the brisket sandwich, which I feel barbecue sauce doesn't benefit a good smoked brisket, and it would only mask the lack of smoke flavor of the brisket sandwich. The brisket was tasty, soft and moist but needed more of a smoke flavor. The ribs also needed more smoke and barbecue sauce tasted commercial. The last item is the price for everything I got. Mind you I ordered a brisket sandwich no sides, a rib plate with two sides included, and no drinks which was a total of $23.53. I little expensive for a few items. Overall my experience was pretty pleasant and it was good food. Only con is the lack of smoke...

Like to say last month my husband, my sister, my brother-in- law, my aunt, and myself included went to Ace's BBQ in Edinburg. We had never ever been there before except my aunt. She picked that restaurant for our monthly luncheon which we have once a month at 1:30pm. When we went to place our orders the waitress informed us that what each one of us wanted they did not have. In other words no chicken, no baked potatoes, no corn, no brisket, etc. We were forced to order stuff we did not want to eat. It is lunch time how can you be out of everything? Very disappointing. My sister and my aunt were not served for two hours. My brother-in-law's catfish was raw. Had to send back. My husband and I settled for burgers. Burgers at a BBQ place! I could have gone to Whatabuger! One of the female employees was rude to my husband. He went to ask for a refill at the counter and she told him, "you have to ask your waitress, I am not your waitress. We left very dissatisfied, my sister and aunt were very angry because it took them hours to be served. My husband called to complain to the owner, Mr Joe Aguilar, who said they had been very busy, made all these excuses as to why service was bad that day. Asked to give him a second chance so he could make things right. Stated he would not charge us and he would take real good care of us. My husband call Mr. Aguilar Yesterday to let him know we would be coming today. The same persons who had, had a horrific experience at Ace's last month. He told my husband he would let his manager know we were coming in today. When we got there today she had no idea who we were. We asked for him, he came over to our table, and was very quick to inform us that they were out of half chickens and that he only had two chicken leg quarters. The chicken was cold, potatoes salad was lousey. The waitress/manager charged each one of us for our meals. We all looked at each other, and my sister made the comment "so much for our free meal!" Waitress goes, what did you have an agreement with Mr. Aguilar? We said, "yes". She went to talk to him came back and told us it was only gonna be 20% discount. No way did he make up for our disappointment. I will tell you, we will not ever give him our business again. RUDY'S and BAR-B-CUTIES will continue to get our business. There are real problems with managing your restaurant and having enough food for your customers. Maybe you need to go back to "How To Run A...

Went to Aces for lunch today, specifically to get their fish taco plate. Waitress took our order and then 10-15 minutes later stopped by to say that the plate would be incomplete due to a missing item and if we wanted to have a free side. Took them up on their offer only to be given an extremely poor excuse for a fish taco plate which consisted of 3 semi-warm corn tortillas with 2 small fish stick resembling pieces per taco. The sauce, instead of being drizzled on the tacos was instead placed on the side in a cup. We did let the waitress know that these were not the same tacos we'd had previously on numerous occasions. The waitress said she'd speak to the cooks and promptly came back to say that was the normal portion size and how they always look. Very disappointing. Did not ask for a discount, but would have been nice to have been offered an apology at least after we voiced our concern. $13.99/plate for a single side and kid-sized fish tacos was not what we had in mind for lunch. Will not return. We even asked for their usual chips & salsa, but they were out and failed to let us know until after we asked. In hindsight, their offer for a free side came right before they brought us the plate, meaning they should have known before even preparing the meal, that they were missing an ingredient. They should have just let us know they couldn't make that particular meal and offered apologies. I would have just ordered something...