JC's Bar-B-Q Place — Restaurant in Van Buren

So would really like to give it 3.5 stars but dont really have that option. Visited a few weeks back during dinner. First time here and tried a lot of different things, including the ribs, chicken, pulled pork and brisket, beans, fries, potato salad and coleslaw. Chicken was the best thing we had, followed by the beans. Those were good and had a spicy kick to them. Also, the ribs were super tender and nice flavor. Pulled pork was decent, but needed kick of something, feeling like it needed a more NC style vinegar red pepper flake kind of sauce than the traditional red style. Would have offset the sweetness a bit. The rolls were good, and the kiddo ate 2 of them with his sausage.

Now, for the drawback. The brisket. While way better than about 5 other places been to in the area, still misses the mark. Why can no one including JC's, not use some darn rub? Salt and pepper at least bring out the flavor? Clearly not smoking brisket separately on mesquite like it should be but on the traditional mellower woods like hickory. If there was bark, it was missing on my plate, but the smoke ring, while small was there. This is why will give 3.5 stars. Have had brisket literally in about 12 different states, and lived in brisket heaven called Texas...so trust me, I know my brisket. Hope someone here listens and thinks about making a change that could drive this...

This is the best BBQ i have in a very long time. The Brisket actually had the correct texture & moisture . Upon visual inspection you could tell it was cooked & prepared correctly and it met my expectations.Pork Butt is easy most everyone can serve a decent pulled pork however ribs are the tricky thing and JC'S are tender & moist and just good. Their sausage was very good too. For me this is very important JC's serves a medium width hand cut French fry. I had the baked beans. I had the 3 meat combo and it came with 3 sides.(brisket, pulled pork, sausage, double fries & bbeans. Wife ordered the ribs. Definitely worth a return trip. The staff are beyond Southern Nice. Return trip 8/14/21... It is so hard to pass on JC's b-que but when i read about their HAMBURGER made out of brisket trimmings it was just something i had to try. I was not disappointed one bit. It was absolutely the best burger i have had in a long time. I still will continue to get their brisket most of the time but when i am hungry for a burger JC's is where you will find me...Wife could not change her ways and once again got the pulled pork... Tucker the Service Dog had a burger patty with no complaints...2 thumbs up guys & 2...

The servers were inattentive and the food was dry. My husband got to the restaurant before me so he could order our dinner and we would have a few minutes to enjoy having a meal together. (we work opposite shifts, 70hrs a week each so this is a rare opportunity) He ordered our drinks without an issue, then when she asked if he was waiting for me or ordering, he said he was ready to order. I was on the phone with him and heard the conversation. She said she needed to grab a pen and paper and would be right back. It was a good 15 minutes before she came back and asked if the were "finally ready to order", by this time I was almost there. He ordered our food, knowing that now he was going to have to get his to go. Sure enough, it took a long time to get our food and he was late for work. It was $100 for 5 people. I probably shouldn't have left a tip, but I've also been a waitress and understand everyone has bad days. As comfortable as they were giving bad service, though, I imagine it wasn't a one off occurrence. Won't be...