Big Hole BBQ Jackson — Restaurant in Jackson

Service was terrible. This business literally does not know what a gratuity or tip is. Groups of 6 or more get an automatic 20% gratuity added to the bill.... Why? So the waitress can not come back to the table but even once after taking the order and having someone else bring the food to the table? You automatically charge someone a gratuity... gratuity, derrived from gracious, is a expression projected from someone... not something you just force upon someone. This place is literally forcing their customers to pay money as an expression of gratitude, whether it is warranted or not. Which absolutely defeats the purpose.

You know what you get when you force customers to pay a gratuity fee? Poor service from your waitresses and waiters. Why? Because they dont have to worry about providing a service worthy of a tip... because the "policy" guarantees it.

And that is exactly what we got... poor service. The waitress, who painstakingly (sarcasm) earned an $80 tip from us, took the order, brought the drinks, and then did not return to the table once until bringing the check. Thats a service worthy of an $80 tip? Really?

To add, the food was not very good. The $25 burnt ends were literally just fat trimmings that should have otherwise been discarded. Ive never seen an uncharred fat trimming called a burnt end in my entire life. The iced tea was almost as clear as water, and tasted like it. When it was mentioned that the tea seemed off and asked if we could get something a little less watered down the waitress replied with "you can just order something else then". And then disappeared for the rest of the meal. Mind you this was not a busy time of day, with about 20 people in total at the restaurant.

The waitress never once came back to offer more drinks or refills, didn't even bring out our food, and we had to ask someone else walkong by for a to go a box. The waitress only returned to the table to drop off the check.

Basically ZERO service provided... and they made $80 for doing nothing more in the hour we were there than writing down our order and handing the ticket off to the kitchen.

Again, Big Hole BBQ, Tips and Gratuity are provided by the customer if they feel so inclined to do so based on the service provided by their waitress or waiter! Forcing customers to pay a gratuity fee completely defeats the purpose. You are degrading the quality of your own service staff by them cashing out on a gratuity fee knowing they'll get paid no matter how attentive or not their service is to those customers.

I will never go back there again. I wouldnt recommend it to anyone. If the automatic gratuity charge already wasnt enough of a deterrent, the very poor service and lackluster, overpriced food certainly...

I wish I could put two different ratings above because my visit was really a story of two staffs: The front staff which interacts with the customers and the back staff which runs the kitchen.

The kitchen team did an excellent job and deserves five stars! The BBQ was excellent and everyone in my party really enjoyed it. The brisket burnt ends was a table favorite. I got the Big Hole Burger which is topped off with chopped brisket. This hamburger was outstanding! It was cooked exactly the way I requested and the chopped brisket was exceptional.

Now for the experience with the front staff. Frankly, I'd say they earned two stars at most.

It started with putting our name in for a table. There was a number of parties waiting for a table. However, when I tried to put my name in I was informed about how long the wait should be but they weren't taking names. I was told that "they were trying to just keep things simple tonight". I tried to explain to him that when you have a line going out your door and no seating for those waiting for a table, the only people they were keeping things simple for with this scheme was themselves. It most definitely wasn't simple for their customers. It fell on deaf ears, of course. A couple of the waiting parties ended up leaving in frustration. What made it even more annoying was seeing about five tables that remained empty for about five to ten minutes before they started seating anyone.

Regarding the rest of the front staff, they did have one really good waiter. Sadly, it wasn't ours. Our waiter never brought the ordered drinks. The adjacent area's waiter brought out our appetizers, went and got the drinks when notified that our waiter hasn't brought them yet, and he also brought out our dinners when they were ready. Our waiter never checked on our drinks nor provided any refills. We really didn't see him again until it was time to ask if it was going to all be on one check.

So if our experience is typical, the food is outstanding and worth the visit. However, management really needs to improve the rest of the...

Where to start...location was great from our hotel, withing walking distance. Thata the one star I gave. Being from St Louis with some of the best BBQ places, we were excited to try a place while on vacation. And knowing the area, assumed we'd have a great experience. FAIL! When we (4 people) walked in, staff saw us but never greeted or spoke to us. When we asked if we should seat ourselves, then they acknowledged us. We were the only ones waiting for a table and a table of guests was leaving so the staff cleaned that table and sat us. Waters were brought immediately and we looked over our menus. After placing our order it took OVER AN HOUR to get our food!! Food was delivered by a different staff member (not our waitress). Everything looked great, except I had the wrong salad. When I asked about my, now Ceasar Salad, I was told they ran out of house salad stuff. Then the gentleman walked away. Wanting to ask my actual waitress, I set it aside and started eating my food. The pork was colder than room temperature, the chicken was slightly warmer than that. They only have one bottle of flavored sauce to choose from and it was sub par. After getting through half of my meat and not seeing the waitress; and at this point my son was needing something; I got up to find her. Told her we were needing her at our table. She did come by immediately after dropping off the beer in hand elsewhere. I asked about my salad and got the same answer, they ran out of house salad stuff; was never asked if I'd like a different side. They just subbed me a Ceasar Salad without asking. I didn't fuss about it, as I like Ceasar too; but it would have been a courteous thing to ask the customer what they'd like. After bringing my son a side of mustard, wrong mustard by the way, he just made do and we finished eating. The waitress never came back to fill drinks or check on us. We then had to flag her down for our check. An $80 meal + tip (for what really !?!?), I was not satisfied. Don't care to come back if they're here the next...