The Meating Place BBQ Magnolia — Restaurant in Magnolia

The food here is amazing! Everything I have eaten is wonderful, and the portions are generous. It's my favorite BBQ place. While it's not cheap, the quality of the food makes it worth it. However, the service is not up to par. How does a place that serves such incredible food get the service so wrong? You might think I'm just complaining, but I rarely leave negative reviews because I understand that a business can have an off day or that one employee might not be doing their job well. Unfortunately, this is my third time encountering a problem with my order.

I don't live in Magnolia; I’m about 15 minutes away, so going there isn’t just around the corner for me. They are not fast, which is fine, so I usually order in advance to ensure my food is ready when I arrive. Imagine my frustration when I place an order in advance only to wait 30 minutes for my food—this happened the first time. They were busy, and while I wasn’t happy, but the food made up for it.

The second time, I picked up my order, brought it home, and discovered that my daughter’s potato was missing. That meant another 15 minutes there and 15 minutes back just for a potato because they got the order wrong. Again, the food was amazing.

Just today, I ordered online and happily went on my way, only to be told that my order hadn’t been picked up and that my card wasn’t charged. Ironically, the employee knew exactly what I had ordered. I had to pay again, which was a hassle since I had used my husband’s card at home and didn’t have it with me. I had to use another account to pay, and then I was told to wait up front while they made the order and brought it to me. I waited about 10 minutes for my food, which is a typical wait time that I had hoped to avoid by ordering online.

I should have checked my food when it was handed to me. Thankfully, everything was there; had it not been, this review would be entirely different. When I got home, I saw an explanation on my computer stating that my order hadn’t gone through. It noted that this unlikely situation can occur if our staff are too busy to handle orders quickly, if there are connectivity issues, or if other technical problems arise. I then checked my husband’s debit card, and the charge was pending. Did I pay for it twice? Will the amount be refunded?

Come on, The Meating Place—you can do better! Maybe you should have the person who makes the amazing food also handle the orders and serve customers. You are wildly popular, and everyone I know loves your food. I see you have another location, so it’s not that you’re lacking. Perhaps you’re getting complacent, relying on your fantastic food to overshadow your service issues. Third strike, you're out.

Update: I wanted to amend my review because it's uncommon for me to write a bad review on a family owned business, they need our business. The owner reached out to me in response. It was a thoughtful response but the initial issue was not addressed. I have three separate problems with my to go orders. Here is my advice, go there have the amazing food, just don't make it to go. Sit down enjoy the place, meet your neighbors, just don't...

Brisket - Lean = plenty juicy not dried at all, with an excellent thick dark crust. No sauce should be used on this BBQ. This is right in the discussion with Corkscrew’s brisket in Old Town Spring as among the very best our area has to offer. Corkscrew is time tested consistency over time, and hopefully I will be able to say the same for this Brisket over time too...we’ll see. Consistency and high quality over time is what sets great BBQ apart from all the rest. Things looking (tasting pretty good so far)

Brisket: Contrary to popular opinion I don’t believe that you need to have fat and blubber all in your meat to have good brisket. This meal today was proof of that. 5-stars.

Ribs: I came in specifically to try their Beef Dino Ribs but that didn’t happen for some reason. So, I went ahead and grabbed a few Pork Ribs. They were really good. For me, really reall good. 4 out of 5.

Pulled Pork: Here’s where I’m kinda stingy with my stars not because it’s not good, but because it’s just good. Perhaps a little on the dry side. It’s the only thing I did actually squirt some sauce on. I’m sure a pulled pork sandwich would be really good, but I just got the meat this time. For me, it was aight. I think it’s pretty hard to screw up pulled pork so the expectation of good is always there. To me this was a 3.5 The thing is, I come to BBQ places for the smoked meats not the stuff I can do just as well in the crock pot at home. The pulled pork is satisfying, but if you’re in doubt get the brisket and maybe a couple ribs if you’re hungry.

Pecan Pie: I don’t usually partake, but the lady said it was the best pecan pie she ever had so... My take is I’d agree if there was a little less crust. The filling was a 5 out of 5 and the crust is a 3 so I’ll split the difference and give the pecan pie a 4.

The owner said they wanted my “honest assessment” from a guy who’s judged competition BBQ and that’s just what this is. Nicely done place, great personality. Parking could be a PIA depending on when you come. Definitely on the “will...

I wanted to take the time to say just how much I appreciate the integrity and dedication to customer service from the staff at The Meating Place. I placed a large takeout order to take to a family Easter gathering. Upon arrival at the gathering, I realized I was missing the potato salad and one pound of brisket from my order. I called the Meating Place and talked to Shelby, the manager. She was genuinely apologetic, told me this was “unacceptable,” and not only refunded me for the missing items within 10 minutes but told me if I was driving back by the restaurant later that day, she would give us the brisket, potato salad, and all the fixings as a complimentary gift to make up for the inconvenience, or offered me a future credit for another day. She asked if I would give her about 30 minutes heads up to make sure it was fresh and warm when we picked it up. Wow! We also own a small business, and I've often said we are all human and make mistakes, but how we remedy those mistakes sets us apart. The Meating Place went above and beyond in making sure they remedied the mistake, and that is huge in my book. We LOVE their food - the ribs and green beans are our favorites! Everything we’ve ordered has always been fantastic, but making sure it was known they cared about our experience and were genuinely apologetic for the order error made me want to tell our community about their integrity and dedication to 100% customer satisfaction. It's hard to find these days, so when you do - shout it from the rooftops! Thank you, Shelby and the staff at The Meating Place, for the phenomenal food and...