Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in Fort Worth

We visited the Fort Worth location on March 26, 2025 at 5pm. There were very few customers, so they were not busy. The restaurant was clean and spacious. The staff were very friendly and eager to help with anything.

The parking lot is huge. It seems to be shared with Billy Bob's, which could be a problem if there is a big event. When we visited, there were two tour busses for Billy Bob's taking up a few parking spaces, but they did not impact customers for Cooper's BBQ.

One thing of particular note for a BBQ restaurant was the total absence of smoke.

When we got in the front door, we were met with a friend young man who is responsible for getting your order for sliced brisket, sausage, half chickens, etc.

Note The meat area was pretty sparse, considering it was pretty much dinner time.

The meat guy put our meat order on the tray and directed us to the next room. Our next stop was to get the meat weighed and sliced. There was also a cold and hot cases where you could get cold and side in addition to shredded brisket, pulled pork and desserts. We then proceeded to the checkout for a jaw dropping bill of $139.00. Our 3 person meal consisted of a small bowl of shredded brisket, a baked potato, four 4" beef ribs, a 1" slice of brisket, ½lb jalapeno cheese sausage, ½ chicken, 2 cole slaws, one mac & cheese, 2 Dr. Peppers and a water.

From there, we went to our table, took everything off the tray, picked up the following complimentary items; a small bowl of beans, bbq sauce, and two slices of bread.

The Good The jalapeno cheese sausage was good. It had a nice bite, a subtle jalapeno hit and great flavor.

The jalapeno mac & cheese was good. There wasn't a lot of spicy heat, but it had good flavor.

The bread was fresh, store bought loaf bread.

As I said before, the staff were great. They were all smiling and eager to help. The facility was clean and spacious.

The Okay The ½ chicken was pretty small, well seasoned, but no smoke flavor. It was neither tough nor tender. The complimentary beans were flavorful, and a bit mushy, but okay. The shredded brisket was lacking smoked flavor and the baked potato was uncharacteristically salty.

The Bad The sliced brisket was dry and lacked flavor. There was a pink ring, but literally no smoked flavor. The beef ribs were salty. This was a sentiment shared by a few others we talked to. Again, no smoke flavor. The BBQ sauce was hot, not spicy, extremely thin and salty.

I understand that eating out has gotten very expensive. Considering this, restaurants should do everything in their power to encourage customers to come back. We didn't get that feeling last night. Maybe it was the day, or the time we chose to visit, but I can't recommend this...

Everyone complaining about the price has to realize where they are, you are in a very tourist heavy party of DFW, eating BBQ. It's going to be more expensive for that reason alone. That being said, I've had better BBQ for less. The brisket as mentioned previously is very fatty (I do love fatty brisket but when I say it was fatty I mean it was pretty much ALL fat). The ribs were dry, and we didn't realize we needed to ask to have it dipped in the sauce nor were we offered to have it dipped. The meat by itself was VERY salty, which I think if it was dipped in the sauce it would've evened it out a bit more. Overall, I think the experience would've been 100x better had the customer service been up to par. We were not greeted upon walking in, which is fine but we were also not explained how "the pit" worked. I've been to a pit style BBQ before so I had an idea, but the ladies ahead of us had no clue and many of the gentlemen seemed beside themselves that they needed to explain anything. Once again bringing up the point that we were not aware we had to ask for the sauce, expecting it to be out on the tables for self serve, rather than a one time only thing. The only up-to par customer service we received was the young gentleman who sliced up our meat for us - I didn't get his name but he was the only one who willingly offered to explain the fixings for us as well as the dessert options and he didn't act like it was a bother to him in any way. Even going so far as to come down to the register at the end to ring us out when I don't think that was necessarily his position. Essentially, we spent $65 on dinner for 2 people. Got about 1lb of brisket and 1/2 ribs (ended up being just 1 rib), an ear of corn, some potato salad (I recommend this, it was good), and some peach cobbler. I don't think we will be back, solely due to the customer...

Walked in and customer service was kool. The cashiers were nice and joking with us. I ordered 2 beef ribs and half chicken. I haven't had BBQ beef rib in a while so I was thankful they had it, that was a plus. Sides were mac and cheese and apple cobbler. I love apple cobbler! Super excited to eat here as I've been recommended by many of people. Needless to say, disappointed 😞. Half chicken was dry. I watched them pull it off the pit so this one was over cooked for sure. You can't fool me when it comes to chicken... No moisture coming out of this chicken whatsoever so I've known its been sitting there for a while. So I put BBQ sauce on it. Didn't want to tbh because the sauce was liquid and had no thickness to it at all. BBQ sauce does not have to be extremely thick but it also should not look like dark red water.. Beef ribs had a lil more moisture to it but also that vinegar, lemon pepper taste. Now, I appreciate lemon pepper as the next man would but this dry rub was cleary too much on this guy. Almost as if it was drenched in it 🤔. That vinegar, lemon pepper wouldn't have been my first choice (if this was lemon pepper) as the rub but I know why it's popular. You guys just put waaay too much on it and then just to back door and use the same thing for the chicken. I won't even touch to review the mac and cheese, I've had better. Now the apple cobbler, good gosh!!!!! That was super delicious 😋. I'm talking sweet, crispy crust and the perfect cobbler texture. I got the large size and I'm glad I did. I regret that I didn't take any to go 😕. Guys, this place was just a fair ok. Maybe a second visit I can feel a little better about it if at least I'm not served dry chicken. That God tier apple cobbler and customer service sustained this review. 3 stars. Oh and I think the prices are really at a good price. Good...