J-Bar-M Barbecue — Restaurant in Houston

We heard that J-Bar-M Barbecue was highly reviewed for a number of specialties and decided to give them a visit for a celebratory dinner. We'd heard rave reviews about the gumbo, pulled pork, and ribs. Unfortunately, we would not have the opportunity to enjoy most of that. We arrived at around 7pm on a Saturday evening. I was informed the gumbo was only offered through the week, but it was of little concern given I was after barbecue. When I arrived at the counter they were out of pork ribs and had one serving of brisket left. Not really a gig so much as I take that to mean that the restaurant is popular and they ran out due to high demand; it still sucked for us though. I ordered the two meat plate with brisket and the remaining serving of pulled pork. The sides all looked fairly good, but I settled on macaroni n cheese and green beans. I chose the Mac n cheese as my top pick and went with green beans because I didn't feel like getting loaded down with some of the other options. The creamed corn and other options looked tasty, but again, whoa! Way heavy and I needed to not be in a food coma on the drive home. It was a warm evening but we elected to eat indoors. We were in a decent sized group of eight so we opted for one of the longer tables. The table was next to the window and it was very chilly. It almost felt like a draft from outside, but, again, it was a warm night. We determined it must have been the air conditioning blowing cool air on us. Aside from being cold, it made our food cold before we could enjoy it. I mean, seriously, we are talking a bite or two of the brisket and a bit of Mac n cheese before the pulled pork and rest of the plate chilled. My son had French fries that cooled off really quick, and I know you know cold fries are not preferred. We didn't make a stink, but it did take away from the experience on top of the restaurant not having half their menu available. I would give this restaurant another shot to see about trying some of the more acclaimed items, but my timeline here is somewhat short and I may just end up missing out. I'd still say give it a try, but try and get in early so you don't miss out...

Really wanted to give this place another shot. I’ve eaten there before, had lack luster service and extremely dry food but I liked the atmosphere and thy have my favorite beer on tap.

Tonight, I placed a Togo order, waited at the bar and ordered a beverage while I waited. The bar staff was nice.

I paid for my to go order and finished my drink, got home and realized that my order was wrong. I ordered a 2 meat plate, as can be seen in the receipt photo. I came home with sliced brisket only, but I ordered chopped beef. I returned to the restaurant, because thankfully I don’t live far.

I have the manager the entire order, and asked if I could please get what I ordered. The manager returned with my “new order”and told me that the sides were fine but was wondering if I’d like a replacement? It is unspoken rule in food service to replace the ENTIRE order, it shouldn’t be an option given, it should be standard operating procedure. I opted not to have my sides replaced because at this point I was going to have to drive back home and microwave them anyways. Sadly, I get home only to find that I still did not receive the chopped beef I ordered, but two giant slices of brisket. (Photo #2)

It was my mistake for not checking the ordered before leaving, but I was trusting in good faith that after the first mistake that the order would have come out correctly.

I worked in food service for many years and it should be common place to check to go orders before handing them off.

Extremely frustrated to drop almost $30 on a meal, to not receive what I ordered.

All I can say is do better. Teach your kitchen staff to read a ticket throughly, teach your to go staff to...

This place was fun. Parking was easy. They have a lot of spaces. When you walk in, stay to the left to line up for BBQ. They had paper menus close to the entrance. When you get to the front, it's counter service. The staff were very friendly. First person takes your meat order. Second person gets your sides. Third person checks you out. Non-alcoholic drinks are opposite the ordering counter. Would have been better if they had left more space between the counters to allow people to move a bit more freely. On the other side of the drink counter are your utensils, napkins, BBQ sauce, etc. There's a good sized indoor seating space, an indoor bar seating space, an outdoor bar space, outdoor covered patio space and outdoor open air space. Tons of options for everyone. There's a stage outside and when I was there on a Sunday afternoon, they had live music. The music was country sounding although the content of their last song was not kid friendly. Kind of a weird musical choice. The sound levels outside were a bit loud, both when the band was playing and when they swapped back over to regular music. I thought the food was good. I had the chopped beef sandwich and shared three sides with my wife: Mac n Cheese, Potato Salad, and Cole Slaw. The mac n cheese was good, although the portion felt small. I liked the cole slaw. There was something in it that gave it a nice kick. The potato salad was chunky in a good way. The BBQ sauces were a must for the meat. One was a peppery honey mustard. The regular BBQ sauce was also very peppery. If you like black pepper, you're probably going to...