Jim Neely’s Interstate BBQ

This is one of the best BBQ Restaurants in the Memphis area. The portions are large and perfectly prepared. Get the sampler platter and go ahead a get a to go box you’ll need it. This is great award winning BBQ.

Hailey waited on us and she was very pleasant. Introduced us to the owner. Keith Neely. I shared with him my disappointment that his kinfolk’s show ended.
Mark said he and his wife had tried this spot before and the BBQ spaghetti is really good.
Today we sampled the ribs and baked beans.
Ribs were on point with some heat on the back end of the sauce. Flavor profile was definitely on point. Ribs were perfectly cooked and very tender. Great spare ribs! Best ribs thus far on our tour of the BBQ Mecca. You gotta try this spot!

Nice place. Dinerish tables. Drive thru. Parking lot ok. Kinda fooled me. It’s similar to the Memphis layout outside. Anyway, smells great (BBQ, meat, smoke, etc). Sounds great, people talking, laughing, with chopping noises coming from the kitchen area.
THE FOOD:
Yeah, baby… this is it. Had combo with pork spare ribs, ½ chicken, 2 sides. I had beans and potato salad and a small fry (extra).
The fries, hot. but those limp fries I don’t like.
Potato salad is very good. A mustardy, creamy potato salad, very well done.
Baked beans… WOW! Awesome. Beans cooked well, sauce smoky, and sweet and tasty with chunks of bacon, and I THINK some pork pieces in it. Fantastic.
Chicken was kissed with some smoke, a very light coating of bbq sauce. Cooked well, not dry.
Ribs, well… yeah. Done the way they should be. Nice bark on it, smoke flavor. Tender with a touch of chew. Hung on the bone just enough. Bbq sauce brushed on, and sitting in a little sauce. Not a glow of sauce… just enough.
And of course, White bread.
My server was a beautiful young lady who had a great smile and was super polite.
THIS is BBQ.
Yeah.

TERRIBLE SERVICE! I was traveling through Memphis and was referred by a friend who used to live there to stop and try this bbq. My boyfriend and I walked in after driving 6 hours and were starving. We were one of 3 tables in the whole restaurant. Our server walked up and greeted us, no smile, threw menus down on the table and said she would be with us in just a minute. She then proceeded to stand feet away from our table and WATCH THE TV, which was the main focus of the restaurant playing a local news station, until there was a pause in the story line. By this time we had already decided everything that we wanted and gave our order to her. Food came up relatively fast, which was awesome for us. The only reason I’m giving this place any stars is for the food alone. Ribs were juicy and falling off the bone and my boyfriends pork sandwich was delicious. Portions were great and everything was a good price. Server only dropped our food off and never came back once. Still no smile. We found out ourselves that you pay up front. Being a server myself I was very disappointed in the service. Great food though.

When you fly into Memphis and feel the need to go into Mississippi for the first time, might as well make it a BBQ experience. Right down the street is Jim Neely’s and for our first BBQ meal in the South, I have to say I was very pleased.
The décor is nothing to write home about, but the food, portions, and pricing was great! We got some huge cups of water that was nearly the size of our heads. The Southern hospitality rang true with our servers, as they were nothing short of charming and attentive.
Between me and my friend, we got the Sampler and a side of seasoned fries. WOW. The portions were huge!
Brisket was on point, sausage was great, ribs were smoky and wet, albeit dry at some points. But everything was still good! The sides of baked beans (with pulled pork), baked spaghetti, and slaw, all added another variety of flavors. It was everything we wanted and more. Between the two of us, we didn’t even finish all the meat (and we were starving before coming in).
Don’t let the offbeat area fool ya. This one is pretty good in my books. Sure there is better, but for the price, you can’t beat this spot.

Kind of a bare bones place, pretty clean. Two dining areas. Got brisket sandwich without slaw on top. It was okay, some moist and some kind of tough. I like that it was chopped and not shredded. The sauce was okay. The potato salad, I would like more texture to it, maybe some celery or onion chunks. The taste was good and I liked the big chunks of potatoes. I liked the beans, very barbecue tasting. Large portion on small sandwich, huge portion on the large. Large portion on sides. All the food looked good and all the customers looked happy. Nice people working there.

Absolutely love this place. The food was outstanding and service was great. We happened to be there during the Liberty Bowl, we were just in town visiting. The place was packed. But service was great. Food was fantastic. Family loved it. Great prices. We will be back again soon.

If you are looking for good baked beans, then go to Jim Neely’s. The baked beans were some of the best I’ve ever had. Pulled pork was mixed in with a thick concoction made from the BBQ sauce. However, if you are looking for good BBQ, you won’t find it at Jim Neely’s. My sweet tea tasted like it was from a jug made by a dairy or the Insta-​tea crap. Definitely not freshly brewed sweet tea which is usually a bad omen and automatic deduction of a star. If I’m going to pay $ 2 or more for a glass of tea, then how about making it fresh since it costs so little for tea bags. My ribs and pork tasted like it was freshly reheated from the microwave. Ribs were too chewy and pork too dry. I really didn’t care for the BBQ sauce. It contained WAY too much chili powder. Potato salad was ok. All of this for $ 16! Interstate robbery at its finest! So many other BBQ places will give you 2 meats for cheaper. Because the beans were spectacular, it saves it from a one star.

I know certain food institutions are staples in certain parts of the country. I get that, so please don’t shoot the foodie. But sometimes just because a place has been around for 25 plus years does it make it good? Our meat was cold. The meat was dry. The plates were dirty. The bar b que spaghetti tasted like dry canned spaghetti O’s. The customer service was nice.