Payne's Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in Memphis

The aroma is quite amazing. The chopped shoulder is very good due to the slaw and sauce. The sauce is reminiscent of sweet and sour sauce but pairs well with the meats. The slaw is a good pickle and mustard base. The beans are quite good, very delicious as they include chopped pork.

The flavor of the ribs matches the atmosphere in the restaurant. It has not adjusted to the changing taste of the times and seems to be quite bland.

The aesthetics and atmosphere of this restaurant show the labor of love that this place represented. Sadly that was in its prime decades ago.

This restaurant is stuck in its heyday, for better or worse. The wait to order was extremely long lasting over 15 mins to place. After placing the order there is another line to pay where the customer must repeat their order and actually pay.

A saving grace is that my food arrived quite quickly, a slab of ribs and 2 chopped pork sandwiches. Other items on the menu such as the hot dog or sausages may take a bit longer as they are not already cooked.

Overall the restaurant is okay, but not a place I will return to. If more effort is placed into the reinvestment and improvement of the restaurant this could truly be one of the best and mosy visited barbecue restaurants...

Most Germans would not go to a BBQ restaurant that looks like this from the outside, and if they do it anyway, they would go right back out at the sight inside. And then they miss the world's best ribs. I know that, because I am german and I went there and stayed. And since that day I know, My favorite diner here in Mannheim, Germany, makes the third best ribs, my husband makes the second best, but the best ribs I've ever eaten are made at Paynes B-B-Q in Memphis. The taste was so indescribable, that you are annoyed with yourself because you are full and can't eat more, even though you want to.

Und für alle Deutschen Memphis Touristen: Lasst Euch nicht vom äußeren Anblick abschrecken, die inneren Werte zählen und das es sich lohnt, merkt Ihr spätestens, wenn Ihr den Geschmack auf Eurer Zunge habt. (And for all German Memphis tourists: Don't be put off by the outer appearance, the inner values count and that it's worth it, you'll notice at the latest when you have the taste on your tongue.)

Thank you @Paynes for one of the best...

Ok I have heard about how good Payne's is so I finally got around to trying it. I walk in and greeted very nicely and they took my 3 orders and I must say it is hard to find a place that you can get lunch for less than $10 buck s now. I only had to wait for couple of minutes to get the food and couldn't wait to get back to the office to try it. Let's start with my first bite of the jumbo pork sandwich it had really good flavor and the slaw on it was the bomb. Now the next bite had burnt meat in it and was not very pleasing. Almost every bite afterwards had the burnt meat in it so it made the sandwich not very pleasant to eat. This is the reason I give only 3 stars. The 2 others both had burnt meat in theirs aswell. It wouldn't have been that hard for the preparer to have taken the burnt meat out before making the sandwiches. The beans were pretty good but could have used some of their BBQ sauce in them to make them even better. I'm not sure if I will try them again or not and I hate this after all the other reviews...