Lum's BBQ — Restaurant in Junction

We stopped here a couple years ago when we were camping in the area and had a fantastic meal. Then we went to Cooper's a year later on another camping trip and it was ok. So when we found ourselves driving through Junction and I was craving BBQ, I said let's stop at Lum's again.

We split a 3 meat meal. First off: you get a giant portion of each meat. Good value. Meat 1: brisket. I like my brisket "wet and barked" meaning a bit fatty and moist with a good flavored skin/bark. This one was way too fatty, both in fat chunks and the amount of grease oozIng from it. But it was moist. And they sliced it the wrong direction (with the grain instead of across it). Still it had good flavor and was tender (sometimes when sliced wrong like this they are hard to chew, but not in this case). Over all it was a good, but not great or even bordering on greatness. Last time I remember it being great. Meat 2: pork loin. OMG, this was the winner. Moist without being fatty. Great smoke flavor and ring. Tasty skin. Definitely will get again. Meat 3: pork ribs. Very dry. Like a turkey 3 days after Thanksgiving reheated in an oven. Flavor was again good, not great. Side 1: creamed corn. Very tasty. Good choice. I wish the cream was thickened a bit more, but overall I was happy with it. Side 2: cucumber salad. This is a favorite dish of mine, I get it lots of places when available. This one was OK, again not great. Lots of cucs, which is nice, but not a lot of flavoring or vinegar tang. Dessert: banana pudding. Tasty, but tasted like it was vanilla pudding with a few banana slices added.

Atmosphere: very clean place, nice feel. Staff was very friendly and I watched them bend over to accommodate a couple of people with physical issues. And again, clean.

Rest rooms: sparkling clean. The small stall is SMALL. Almost have to straddle the toilet to use it.

Overall worth...

I was looking for some authentic Texas barbecue and this place was so highly rated that I had to stop. It was pretty perfect too. It was a great selection of pulled pork and brisket and ribs and other staples of any barbecue establishment. It tasted great and had good smoky flavor. You could taste the mesquite wood that they use.

For the side dishes the beans and potato salad were really good. They had some strange spicy spaghetti that I was not a fan of at all. I enjoyed the sweet tea so much I went back three times.

We had the pleasure of eating outside on an open patio because we brought our dog since we were traveling through our family trip and she was with us. So it's nice that they had an open patio area where she was welcome. Because it's Texas and late spring nobody else was out there since the humidity must have been over 50%. So they keep us a nice free rein area for the dog while we enjoyed some delicious barbecue and had a good scene.

The line to order your food went all the way to the door and took about 20 plus minutes to put in your order. But it was worth it. The inner seating lobby was full.

Pandemic facts: there aren't too many people wearing masks in there and it didn't seem like any of the staff had on masks. This review is after the CDC release their guidance that fully vaccinated people don't need to wear masks indoors or outdoors though. On the interior it was pretty hard to social distance. But overall people didn't really seem to care and it seem like a good...

Driving through on a long road trip and I managed to get hungry right about the time civilization started to disappear. When we finally came up on this little town, I can't say I was expecting much in terms of food. We decided to go for something local and it payed off. The smoker is right out front so you're immediately welcomed by a delicious, smoky aroma. The inside is simple with several drink coolers, a chalkboard menu, and a glass display case to showcase the food. The staff was friendly and helpful. I've been too many places where you walk in and you're completely ignored for an unreasonable amount of time. This was not the case here. We stood in front of the menu for all of about two seconds before being asked if we'd been there before and then being given the rundown. The menu is basic: sandwich or plate and choice of sides. It gave me the impression of truly being focused on the quality and flavor of the meat. We went with the three meat plate so we could get a decent sampling. Got the brisket with sauce (can't remember what the guy called it), the ribs, and sausage and we got creamed corn and pinto beans as our sides. The brisket and the ribs were both flavorful and tender and the sausage was quite juicy with a little spicy kick. Definitely the best BBQ place I've ever been. Unfortunately, we're not from anywhere near the area so I doubt we'll be back, but if we were, I'd definitely...