Big Guy's BBQ Roadhouse — Restaurant in Town of Saint Joseph

If you like week old dried out leftovers, tough, fatty food.... and a roadside smart mouth Karen to serve it to you, go to Guys Roadside BBQ. We ordered a half rack of St. Louis style ribs with a baked potato and salad, to share. The potatoe was old, jaundice and tired of the reheat I suppose. The ribs were dry and tough, I picked em up by an end and attempted to use a serrated knife to show her my disappointment. Her eyes rolled. I sent them back and ordered a different meal because 'Karen', our bartender acted with authority and told me thats the way St. Louis style ribs are. Karen lost me for life by telling me I was wrong and the ribs were perfectly normal, for there at Guys BBQ.. If that's her opinion, it solidified my opinion, that Karen hasn't been around long enough to know. I doubt she would know the difference between any cut of ribs, and never been to St. Louis or eaten ribs there! Still hungry I ordered the brisket. Brisket came on a small side dish plate all alone, the four, 4" x 1/4" thin sliced pieces of tough grey tired brisket. Half brisket (she called it) wouldn't have fed one healthy person dinner. And would be a poor appetizer for 2 adults. I'd never order that again there either. First bite tough, so i scoffed and passed it up and went to the second piece, which was 99% fat. I hungrily squinted, showed her thr fat piece, complained and told her to take it away. I was hungry and as she rolled her eyes and gave her regulars looks of inconvenience, I yelled for a BLT. Immediately, my friend told me not to...he explained the brisket was a "revenge serving” from the kitchen for sending back the ribs, and that the BLT...and BLT would probably be bad too. Because of Karen's attitude I believed him, thought so too, and cancelled BLT before she made it to the kitchen or computer. I asked for the check. Karen slipped me the bill with no apologies, $31.xx for the ribs I wouldn't waste a calorie on, and our 2 beers. Karen said she only charged me half price of the food. I told her I had 1 bite of each unacceptable serving and wasn't paying for the ribs or brisket, but I'd pay for the potato and salad if she needed. Got the new bill for $30.xx for the nothing special house salad served in a soup bowl, jaundice tired potatoe, and 2 beers. I pulled out my AMEX and my friend said, "put your card away and let’s pay cash, so they don't know your info or try some revenge charging on that card". Served food I'd only save for a dog, attitude Karen, and a dead parking lot, I'd say their having problems with finding decent service. I've been eating ribs for 55+ years and on top of that, my husband ran a BBQ for 13 years, where we did all...

So I don't enjoy writing this, but this was one of those dining experiences where I felt like I just flushed $100 down the toilet. The food wasn't great (or even good), but that isn't why I'm writing this. I'm writing this because they ripped us off...but here's the backstory... My wife and I seek out BBQ places all over, and drove over from Minneapolis. Here was my first tipoff this wasn't going to go well.....I have NEVER eaten at a BBQ joint that didn't smell like BBQ and had it turn out well. This was no exception. When you walk in, there isn't the faintest trace of smoked meat smell. Also, it was a weekend, near dinner time, and it was very quiet. Very few tables occupied. Another bad sign.

Our plan was to order the ribeye to dine in, and bring brisket home. When the waitress dropped it off, I though it was a joke. There is NO way that steak was 16 ounces. Thin, small, no bone, the blue cheese "crust" was a few crumbles of blue cheese straight out of the package. Not melted, no butter, nothing. Just a few crumbles on top. The steak was possibly of Denny's or Perkins quality, but at a premium price. Every steak (no matter the cut) we've grilled at home is far superior to this, and I've never had such a poor quality ribeye steak ever. Didn't even finish it.

The mac and cheese - I did try this based on reviews and was completely underwhelmed. Had to really stir it up just to get the noodles coated, but it was no better than any other mac and cheese I've had. No smoky flavor, not very cheesy. Not bad, but not good and nothing unique or interesting about it.

Again, when we left the restaurant, I didn't plan on writing this review. We just chalked it up as one of those "never again" meals. It's when we got home that I felt compelled to write this.

When you buy meat by the pound, there's an expectation that you will receive what you paid for. In this case, we paid for 16 ounces of brisket, and immediately when we got home, opened the to-go container and could tell that we were shorted. My wife took our her very accurate food scale and weighed the brisket. We ended up receiving 12.6 ounces. Not 16. That may not sound like much, but it's close to being shorted 1/4 pound. Unacceptable. Icing on the cake for an abysmal experience.

My advice, if you go to Big Guys BBQ to eat, bring a scale in with you to make sure you're getting what...

We had heard about Big Guy's BBQ from a food segment we saw on TV and decided to make the trip to Hudson. We were there around 1 pm. on a weekday, and being quite busy was a good sign. I felt extremely bad for our server as she was the only one working with all the customers. She was friendly and welcoming, but you can only do what you can when you have so many people to take care of. We ordered 2 brisket sandwiches and 2 cornbread. The wait was quite long to get our food, which was understandable since there was probably only one cook working. To our surprise, when we received our food, she brought only one brisket meal. We asked about the other brisket sandwich, and she thought we ordered one. We said no, we ordered 2. She said it would be a while to get another one. So we just declined as it had already been a while to receive the first one. I have to say that the brisket and corn bread were the best I have ever eaten, so we were really disappointed to share the fantastic brisket. I am not blaming the server as I know how hard it is to work in the service industry, especially when you are working alone. I do, however, put the blame back on the establishment for making the server be completely alone working the whole restaurant, in addition to working the bar. I felt so sorry for her. She could barely keep up, and mistakes happen when you are that stressed. Kiddos to the cook for the delicious brisket and corn bread, and the server who worked super hard. Big Guys BBQ, do better for your staff.

Update: We returned to give Big Guys BBQ to give it another try. We decided to go on Sunday at around 1:30. This experience was totally different from our first time. The service was excellent, and the food continued to be outstanding. This place is dynamite. I am so glad we decided to give it another chance. Whether or not it was a one-time "bad experience" on our first visit, I am glad we...