Jim Neely’s Interstate Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in Memphis

I've been here many times. I drive from New Orleans to Chicago and visa versa a few times a year, and I try to work my schedule around getting here at lunch or dinner. The last couple of times have been less than optimal. The people here are fantastic. Family or friends maybe of the Neelys possibly???. Just seems they've all worked here for a long time. They have their routine down. So.. I came in this time (July 2019) had to use the toilet first, as I walked thru the door someone yelled "take a menu and sit where you want"... I pointed and said "going to the toilet", she said "take a menu with you" .. (I didn't). Since I'm on the toilet part, I saw a guy with mop and broom coming out of the toilet area, and there was a "wet floor" caution in front of the door. Yeah! A clean washroom! Excellent! Doesn't always happen when traveling. I opened the door and.... yuk. Looks like another floor might have been mopped then. I stepped to the urinal, and it looks like dried old urine (multiple layers) all over the urinal. I carefully did my business and went to a dirty sink. You know how there's a sink, and soap, but the sink and faucet is so unclean that you think the soap might not be strong enough to make you clean if you touch it??? A dilema, I know. I had to wash my hands. No paper towels. You know the manager and/or owner have to be seeing this on the daily, butt....apparently not important. But enough toilet review. I came back to grab a menu (cringing to think others may have taken one into that unsanitary washroom). I kind of knew what I wanted, so I looked (didn't touch) the menus splayed on the table and a server came up, leaned over and asked what I wanted. I ordered a 2 meat combo with baked beans and potato salad. THE FOOD: The baked beans are the best I've had hands down. Anywhere. The bean taste, sweet with molasses, spiked with pieces of pork, bbq flavor. Wow. I could eat a quart myself! Potato Salad is very good. Creamy and chunky with potato. Tasty. The meats.... I got ribs and chicken and both have the same good and bad things about them. The good.... awesome Smokey flavor and an amazing bbq sauce! The meats are tasty and flavorful. Fall off the bone. The bad.... The ribs fell off the bone, but were just a tad dry. The bone ends crumbled from overcook. Could have used more sauce. The chicken.. when I split the breast looked moist and delicious inside but when I started eating, had a dry, get caught in your throat quality. Could have used more sauce. (At some point my server came by while I was eating and dropped off the bill on the table). Why didn't ask for more sauce? I never saw the server again after she put the bill on my table. And I didn't want to walk around to the cashier while the food was getting cold and drying out! Anyway, I ate it. And the great white bread it comes with. Why does white bread taste so good here?? I was reading a paper, so I left my credit card on the table waiting for the server to pick it up, but that never happened. 15 minutes later, I walked up to the take out cashier area and paid it. Moral of the story?? This was 5 star years ago. It's kind of run down now, not so clean, not so customer focused. Not too much attention on keeping the meat moist. Still great sauces and sides, but only GOOD meat quality. Very poor upkeep on tables/chairs, and horrendous conditions in the men's room. C'mon...

If I could give negative stars, I would. There are so many terrible things about our experience here, but I'll start with the worst one. THEY SOLD US ROTTEN MEAT. You read that right. We paid $35 for a slab of beef ribs that smelled of ROT at the first bite. I mean, it's like they pulled them out of the dumpster to put in our box. After that, we were too scared to eat the potato salad or coleslaw because if you sell rotten meat, there is no way you keep cold things at the appropriate temp.

To start, we arrived at this wretched place after google suggested it for Memphis bbq while we spent 1.5 hours in traffic because Memphis decided to close a major interstate for construction on a major travel day (eclipse).

Upon our arrival at 8:57pm, we found the dining room closed. Upon inquiry, the man at the counter told us they were closing in 2 minutes. When I advised that Google (and their own door) indicated a later closing time, he said he didn't care what Google said. That should have been our first clue to find somewhere else to eat, but we didn't want to delay our travel any further as we had been on the road for 24+ hours already. My family ordered a slab of pork ribs, a slab of beef ribs, and a pound of brisket. EVERY SINGLE MEAT WAS BOILED. There was no indication of smoking anywhere, neither in color nor flavor. The man indicated they did not sell the point end of the brisket, and that should have been our second red flag to leave. The brisket was thin sliced and bland.

They only have 2 sauces, and both were bland. The fries had no seasoning, not even salt. My ten yo didn't even want them. The coleslaw was yellow. We wouldn't even try it after tasting the spoiled ribs.

My family spent $95 on food that we could not even eat. If you will sell spoiled, rotten meat, you cannot be trusted. We left the entire meal there on their table like the trash it was. Truly disgusting. We couldn't even complain because the employees left right after handing us our food.

The service was terrible. The food was terrible. Honestly, the entire city was terrible. So, I doubt I'll ever come back; but, if I do, I definitely would not come here.

I had better food at a roadside diner in...

It looks like a lot of people are confusing this location with the Neely's from the Food Network, it is not, that is at (5700 Mt. Moriah Memphis , Tennessee 38115). But judging from some of the reviews I saw for that place they may be better off here. That said, maybe I just got lucky but I had an excellent meal at this location. I see from some of the other reviews that they had a bad experience.

This location does appear to be in a questionable part of town, but I was a tourist so what do I know. I know I was hungry, that's what I know and I happen to go to the right place. I ordered the pork ribs - large order ($9.95) not sure why people think this is expensive since down the road at Rendezvous a small order (and smaller portion) of ribs will cost you $14.25. Seems like a deal to me. My fiance ordered the Pork "Chopped Shoulder" Sandwich ($5.25) again, pretty reasonable versus ($7.50) at the Rendezvous. We also got an order a side of the BBQ spaghetti, I know it sounded kind of gross to me too. When the food arrived, the portions were very reasonable. The ribs were good, they are wet ribs, maybe a little too wet for me, they were tender though and big, especially for pork ribs. We shared the BBQ spaghetti, and although I thought it was a little sweet, (it is covered in bbq sauce) I thought the pulled pork mixed in rocked it. I then had a case of order envy for probably the first time ever. My fiance's Pork Shoulder Sandwich, I had a taste and it was probably the best pork sandwich I've ever had from a BBQ restaurant, maybe not ever, but from a restaurant. The pork was piled high on a soft but standard sandwich bun, there was not any sauce on the meat but the sandwich sit in a small pool of sauce that covered the bottom of the plate, not sure how to eat this making a total mess. The meat was very tender with little bits of crispy pork throughout and it just tasted like pork.

The service wasn't anything special but not bad, I think you have to keep in mind where you are. It looks like some people have had some bad experiences here and that's too bad, I'm just glad I...