Big R’s Bar-B-Q

Great food and MASSIVE portions! The meats there were very good, nice smoke through out one what all I tried. The side of fries could have been a meal in itself.
If you go for a first time I would recommend trying the brisket or pulled pork. They were both great!
I unfortunately did not try their pies… yet!
The staff was great. The ones i dealt with were all polite, fun and friendly. Alyssa (did I spell it right?) treated us good and had a constant honest smile. That’s something to don’t see often from people that deal with the public!
We will be swinging by here again!

Pretty good quality and flavor! We had the lunch special, which is an entrée, drink and dessert. Pretty good for the money since their regular meals are about the same price and don’t include dessert or drinks.

Everything is good but
The real reason to go here is definitely the PIE! And it’s a huge serving for the price compared to what most restaurants serve!

The food and service were excellent! This place is also know for its pies so don’t forget to grab a slice. The only negative I would have to say is the brisket. It was really lacking any flavor and required a lot of sauce to be flavorful. I would recommend they improve the flavor of the brisket by itself without having to smother it in sauce to make it taste good. The pulled pork is excellent!

Hey come for the BBQ, and stay for the pies! Their signs say it all: «We’ve got the meat you can’t beat!» and «The pie you can’t deny!» WoW that is right by us! My husband and I enjoyed Perfect Baby Back Ribs, tangy and balanced house made BBQ sauce, awesome melt in your mouth Brisket, Sweet Potato w/​crunchy brown sugar, butter, and pecan topping, fresh hot fluffy biscuits, crisp green salad, Mmmmm! Sausage rounded the sampler platter and each meat was delectable and memorable! Then the PIE!
Banana Cream, silky creamy fluffy goodness
laden with sweet banana slices, wrapped in clouds if fresh whipped cream? OMG!
The best! Our server Isis was XLNT, a beautiful girl with a way of feeling like instant friends! Big R’s is down home food, fun, and friends, bless our incredible luck, we found it by chance… it’s very welcoming and we will be back! DO NOT LEAVE WITHOUT PIE!
Dee Dee & Mike Klus
San Jose, CA

Great BBQ place! Worth a stop in but please save room for the dozen homemade cream pies they will offer for dessert. We had the lunch special which gave us a drink, two large pulled pork sliders with a HUGE half order of their delicious swirl cut fries. Only 7.99 and enough to share. We finished with a piece of Coconut Cream Pie… Unbelievable good. No mushy crusts but crunchy and delicious.

One of the better, if not best, places to get barbecue in Joplin. I’m not much for ribs or things of the such but everything else on their menu that I’ve tried has been great. I love the atmosphere, the wait staff is always quick, accurate, and polite. I like the big mason jars they serve their drinks in. I’m not a fan of the basket of fries though. Every time I’ve gotten it it’s literally a fry basket shaped pile of curly fries – but I’m picky like that. Otherwise, an outstanding BBQ joint.

Solid 3.5 star. We were passing through Joplin (I-​49) at lunchtime. I saw all the many corporate chain restaurants at the exit. When traveling I try to avoid any place I can access at home. I hopped on Unilocal to find a sweet local spot. Hubby loves BBQ so we drove 4.7 miles out of the way to try Big R’s. WORTH IT! Many reviews said to save room for pie. I tried but they brought me a piece of peanut butter pound cake with cream cheese frosting with my beef brisket sandwich. My hubby got the combo plate and ate the whole thing. Their pies looked amazing. We will have to trip through again for a pie mission. The tea is fresh brewed and plentiful as well as their «we’ve got the meats you just can’t beat.»

We stopped by while passing through Joplin. Thank you Unilocal users for the recommendations. We loved it… SAVE ROOM FOR PIE!

Fantastic service and delicious home cookin’. A must for anyone who loves good food. The chicken fried steak is gigantic and scrumptious. I couldn’t even finish it! Also if you get dessert, try the coconut cream pie. Homemade goodness on a plate right there. You will leave absolutely satisfied and probably with leftovers.

Service was great. Trey did an awesome job. The applesauce was amazing and the sampler platter was great.
The Sticky Ribs left a bit to be desired. They seemed like they were cooked in a crockpot with lots of barbecue sauce which is fine for Sunday lunch at home but not at a barbecue restaurant.
It was also warm in the restaurant which didn’t help things. We got our pies to go and they look wonderful.

Barbeque is one of my favorite food choices and this was very good… especially liked the the ribs with the great smoke flavor. As good as the food was, the service was even better. My server, Fina, provided probably the best «service with a smile» I have seen. The service made the experience!

Wow… a 4-​stars average for this joint, huh? It’s not the worst I’ve had, but it’s down there.
This is a «BBQ» restaurant that seems to be known for it’s fried food and desserts. Not good. I have a rule: If a BBQ joint has a fryer, chances are really good you’ll be disappointed. There are exceptions to this rule, though not very many (they can easily be counted on one hand).
We went here with pretty high hopes. It seems Big R is from Arkansas and some of the best Q in the country can be found there, believe it or not.
It was disappointing to be kind.
The brisket was dry. Lay it over on itself and it breaks. The more I ate, the thirstier I got.
The pork might or might not have been cooked in a crock pot. If they use a rub, you can’t tell. It was just overcooked pork and I can find that anywhere.
The ribs were awful. They didn’t seem to be rubbed. They definitely weren’t glazed or sauced. If you eat with your eyes first, I would have been bulimic. They were dry, flavorless bits of carcass. It looked like a cross between a rawhide and the skin of a newly discovered caveman, frozen in ice.
The baked beans were more onion with some commodity beans thrown in as a technicality.
The applesauce was decent. Clearly it is made elsewhere.
I’m giving 2 stars because the service was pretty friendly.

I’ve been here a couple times now, and it’s always busy. The wait has never been very long for seating, and the wait staff are quick and friendly, Always with a smile.
I have had the ribs, and I would get them again. Fall off the bone, full of flavor. And the steak salad is a definite must try meal, it’s a meal on its own, fresh cooked steak to your liking, walnuts, strawberries and blue cheese. It’s becoming my go to lunch when in town. It may not be the classiest place in town, but they have great meat, and better service than any other BBQ joint in the area. They make their own pies, and have a great variety to try.

The perfect place for when you want a plate of fries the size of a toddler then eat pie so good you question your memories of your granny’s baking talents. No complaints on the ribs either.

This is still one of the best BBQ places I have been to across the country… ribs were awesome, brisket was no pretender… awesome smoke flavor

My original review stands: If I lived in Joplin I would eat here at least once a week. It’s got so many delicious comfort food choices I would never run out of options!
And then there is the pie. Seriously, if you get here and have to wait (and you likely will in the evenings) you will watch the pie ice box at the front slowly grow more empty and more empty. But, yippee! You can go in and buy a whole pie and save it back for your dessert there and then take home the rest! But whatever you do, save room for pie. Good luck with that… but at least try. The pies are made by the owner every morning and once they are gone they are gone. And they are good… very good!
The wife had a lovely steak and said it was cooked perfectly. She didn’t ask for any sauce so that was a sign to me that the flavor was spot on! I opted to the BBQ this time.
Ribs = 9. Fall off the bone perfect. A good size too for baby backs. I was almost sorry I didn’t just get a full rack of ribs. Nice crust and pink meat. These were as good as any ribs I have had in Texas or KC.
Brisket = 7. A little overcooked for my taste. There wasn’t that lovely pink band around the edge. But it wasn’t tough and I could cut it with my fork.
Pulled pork = 9. This was my favorite of their BBQ selection until I tried the ribs. Either the plate or the Sammy. Get it — be happy.
The sauce is the thick, smokey, tomatoey kind. Not the thin vinegar kind. So be aware you are getting KC style sauce and not the Texas kind.
Wife’s 8oz rib eye = 9. Beautiful thick cut, grilled just as she asked. Juicy and tender. And at $ 15 a super deal!
They’ve got chicken and burgers and fish. But get a nice steak or some Q.
And please get the applesauce. If you like applesauce this stuff will knock your hat off. Try the apple butter than comes with the biscuit basket too. Yum and more yum.
Beers and house wine. It can get a little loud when it’s packed.
This is a very good Mom and Pop place that if you are anywhere near Joplin you should definitely try. Be ready to wait, be ready to joust for a place to park out front. Be ready to be so full you’ll feel a bit guilty… but you’ll still have pie!

This was a barbecue restaurant I was dying to try during my trek through Missouri. I was wanting to see why Missouri was famous for their barbecue and what people think about it. I was shocked that this restaurant had a number of selections to choose from on the menu, and the various number of meals you could have.
For the first part, there was a 45 minute wait, but that’s not going to be included here. I’ll get to the food right away. I had a medium well steak (8 oz) with a side of apple sauce and Susie Q’s. I was thrilled with how the apple sauce tasted, because it was made with real apples and tasted like none other that I’ve had in my life. I enjoyed that a lot.
The steak had a nice, tender flavor to it. They also gave me steak sauce to add on to it. I must say I could’ve gone for a larger size, but I was A OK with this steak and its taste. Plus the Susie Q’s were awesome, just like the ones mentioned in my White Grill review. I seem to have tasted those every day I was up there in Missouri.
They also give you these jar like cups to drink with. The waitresses also give you refills frequently, I find that nice. So overall, the restaurant gets 5 stars for its amazing food, great service, and decent table seating inside. Parking can be a pain, but there’s always room in the back and some parallel parking available.

The ribs were fall of the bone tender and tasty, unfortunately I ordered the chick fried steak… it was gross.
The appetizer sampler was a good variety of fried good stuff

The PIE!!! The BBQ!!! The Loaf of fries! My daughter and my mother and I found this place offer Unilocal reviews. We had an amazing dinner and the staff was wonderful. My daughter who is 14 wanted to try three different kinds of meat, so the waitress offered to have the cook make her own special sandwich. So she had a pulled pork with ham topped with bacon sandwich. Oh my gosh it was huge! I would recommend this restaurant.