Meats BBQ Market

This place was inexpensive and Delicious, we will be back … As a matter of fact we got a pound of smoked salmon to take home with us …

Lunch (for the first time) at Meats. I chose the «new» chopped pork sandwich. I prefer brisket to pulled pork, so this fit the bill — good sized tender pieces of pork. I liked the inclusion of thinly sliced onions and pickles. The bourbon BBQ sauce lacked a bourbon flavor and could have had more heat. The «Sunny» bun (whatever that is) fell short as it didn’t hold up to the sandwich, and I had to eat it with a knife and fork. I do wish that BBQ restaurants would be more creative with their buns, a la Lyle’s. One would think that Meats, being part of BHG, would go beyond the usual soft «wonder bread» rolls. With my sandwich, I had the corn pudding. It was overly sweet, and needed less sugar and less density, as it was more like cornbread than corn pudding. I stopped on the way out to give my critique to the staff. Interestingly, there was another customer behind me giving his review which happened to agree with mine on the corn pudding.
The restaurant interior was nice enough and bright, owing to the large windows. The music was way too loud, and I had to question whether it was at all necessary. So much for Meats!

$ 27 for a rack of ribs. BBQ is quite average… some items below average (brisket, chopped pork, sides). So when you combine outrageous pricing with average-​at-​best food you get a place that I will not revisit. I usually like BHG restaurants but this one won’t stick, and the others are slipping. Time for an internal quality review.

I’ve tried this place two times and each time was fantastic. I’ve tried the smoked salmon & the chopped pork. The dill sauce with the salmon is delicious. The sides I’ve tried are mac n cheese (I’d rate this as just «ok»), the sweet potato casserole (amazing!!), baked beans (very good!), banana pudding (best I’ve had!), corn pudding (awesome!) & potato salad (didn’t think it was as good as it looked). I LOVE the free pickles and the Bama sauce is to die for. The atmosphere is very chill & relaxed. I would go here probably once a week if I was rich. :)

I’d heard good things about Meats and decided to take the wife and in-​laws here today. This is probably the best decision I’ve made in a long while.
I ordered the turkey platter with a side of Mac and Cheese and a side of marinated cucumber and tomato. The turkey with juicy, tender, and flavorful. Making turkey this good without drying it out is tough, but BHG definitely hit the nail on the head here. The White Bama sauce that comes with it compliments it perfectly… Lots of kick from the horseradish and cayenne, but not too spicy. The Mac was cheesy and warm, definitely a good attempt. The marinated cucumbers and tomatoes was okay, but either needed to be cut more finely or marinated longer.
My wife and her father both ordered the brisket (and loved the option to get it either lean or marbled!) and raved about it. Her dad had ordered the sandwich and didn’t even touch the bun it came on. The sweet potato casserole was excellent as well… Very reminiscent of pumpkin pie.
I’ll be back. And they’ll be back for sure!

I experienced Meats for the first time today, I loved it! I chose the meat platter that comes with two sides. I had smokey turkey breast with mac n cheese and cucumber tomato salad. The service was speedy and we were able to bring home leftovers!

We had a $ 25 coupon, so we decided to try Meats. I absolutely loved their smoked turkey! It was moist and flavorful! I also loved the portion sizes for the meals… we were able to take home enough of them to finish later, making almost two meals out of each dinner. The green beans however, were a huge disappointment! They were so peppery that they burned our throats on the way down, and required tons of water to ease the discomfort. We like a green vegetable with our meals, not just meat and starch, and hubby doesn’t do coleslaw. Besides, we loved the potato salad, and didn’t want another salad accompaniment. We will try them again, but will ask to sample the green beans before purchasing them again. I hope they do a better job with them in the future, and consider adding some seasonal vegetables to the menu for some variety. A green salad wouldn’t be a bad addition either.

I really enjoyed my dinner at meats. It was a nice alternative to the usually expensive BGH places, but still very tasty. Their brisket sandwich was great and I love their BBQ sauces. I especially like how big the regular sides are. You can get several sides to share for a great price and still have some left over to take home. The staff was very friendly and helpful as well. It is a causal dinning place I would go back and visit again overall a great experience.

Went in on Saturday afternoon for carry out for UK v TAMU food. Atmosphere was cool. We were Immediately greeted and received recommendation for the brisket. Staff was friendly. I was in/​out in 10 minutes. Food was PHENOMENAL! I’m no BBQ expert but the brisket was incredible. Baked beans, corn pudding and muffins were great. Skipped the buns and would probably not get sweet sauce for the brisket but it didn’t need it anyhow. Can’t believe more people aren’t raving about Meats!

I tried Meats BBQ Market for the first time and was pleased with my experience. The staff were some of the most friendly I had ever encountered at any restaurant. Prices are very reasonable and portions are very generous. The food was good too… I tried the meat platter with brisket and sides of mac n cheese and corn pudding, and a corn muffin. I thought the corn pudding was a little bland for my taste, but everything else I would order again on another visit. Plus there are plenty of sides to choose from and I’d like to try some of the other ones.

I enjoyed my first experience here! The brisket was fabulous, and it was nice to have a selection of sauces. The ordering process went very smoothly and the food came out pretty quickly. I was happy with the service for this style of restaurant — you order at the counter and they bring the food to your table. I didn’t really think the side dishes were anything special but certainly sufficient.

I tried Meats due to the $ 25 gift card I got in the mail and it was great ! Malones is my favorite restaurant so I was very glad that BHG sent me the gift card or I probably would have never tried this place.
We got the turkey family pack for carry out plus an extra half order of chicken thighs. We originally wanted chicken but they apologetically explained to us that they had ran out of white meat. No big deal for us since the meal was free anyways.
The turkey was very flavorful and moist. The girl at the counter recommended the Bama sauce which paired well with the turkey. We also got baked beans and green beans as our sides. The green beans has chunks of bacon and onion with them which was absolutely delicious. The baked beans also had bacon in them and weren’t too sweet like most tend to be. The corn muffins were amazing and not dry at all. Those went very well with the baked beans.
Overall my family and I enjoyed this place and are happy with a new discovery. Good job BHG. You’ve done it again.

A coworker told me about Meats a couple of months ago and we finally got to try it this weekend.
We ordered a family platter which includes 1 meat (1 lb.), 2 family size sides, 4 buns, and 4 corn muffins. The family size side portions comfortably serve 4, but you need 1−½ to 2 lbs. of meat to serve 4 adults in my opinion. Our choices were brisket, potato salad, and corn pudding. You can order the brisket marbled or lean and we chose marbled because you get more bark (as well as more fat).
The meat was tender, flavorful, and delicious and paired especially well with their Sweet BBQ sauce. Other sauce standouts included the White Bama and Bourbon BBQ. The only sauces we didn’t like were the Carolina Vinegar (don’t like that style) and the Yellow Jacket Mustard (way too mustardy and no sweet element). As for the sides we found the potato salad too dry and bland (needs more dressing & seasoning and could use an addition of egg and or pickle relish) and the corn pudding not sweet enough (although the fluffy light texture was quite nice).
Based on the quality of the meat and sauces I recommend you give Meats a try as soon as possible! Next time we visit we will try some other menu choices and share our thoughts on those!

This place was super busy on a Friday evening. The brisket was excellent and so were the sauces (8 to choose from). You can order the brisket lean or marbled. We ordered marbled for extra bark and hickory flavor! We tried all the sauces except for the bar-​b-​jus. Our favorites were the sweet, bourbon, and Alabama white. Yellow Jacket Mustard sauce was too mustardy (might as well have had straight mustard). My husband and I thought the potato salad and corn pudding were just ok, and much prefer City BBQ’s versions. The potato salad was dry (we doctored it up with Miracle Whip and mustard at home) and the corn pudding was not near sweet enough for our taste. They do have several sides to choose from so we’ll try different ones next time. I’m giving The Meats a 4 star rating because the brisket was so delectable, numerous and flavorful sauces, and a variety of side selections.

The folks at BGH typically deliver with their concepts. Flagship Malones, Sals, Harrys, Drakes, OBC (just amazing new addition) and Aqua.
But Meats BBQ Market is horrible. I’ve dined there six times and that’ll be the last. After trying all their offerings, the only item worth coming back for is the salmon. Other than that, the brisket, pork, chicken, all the sides are just blah. Their bbq sauces are odd with off flavors.
BBQ is honestly a style of cooking that can be tweaked but not reinvented as Meats has tried to do.
Its not recommending to anyone asking for BBQ cravings in Lexington

We went here on New Years Day because we received a $ 25 gift card from BHG in the mail to try it out. I had the hand pulled pork which was OK and my husband had the brisket which was not very good and tasted like a roast.
I like original bbq sauce and so I tried the bourbon, sweet, and Carolina and didn’t think any of them tasted very good. My husband tried the hot bbq sauce and he didn’t care much for it, but said it wasn’t terrible.
We had the cucumber and tomato salad, and mac and cheese sides. The salad was good and the mac and cheese was just that mac and cheese. I enjoyed the corn bread muffin as it was sweet, but my husband doesn’t like sweet corn bread. We both wish the bread hadn’t been quite so done.
We dined in to eat and sat next to the kitchen or work space as this is cafeteria style walk through. It was a comfortable seating area, but they have this Meats sign where the M and S flash off and on that was very annoying to me.
Overall it’s just ok. City BBQ which is a franchise has better bbq than Meats for the same price. Plus in Lexington there are excellent local bbq places like the Blue Door. I would recommend way before Meats.

Very unique, cafeteria-​style, a la carte BBQ restaurant in the former location of the Tate’s Creek Harry’s. Many different meats to choose from, hence the name, with nearly as many sides. I went for lunch and chose the lean brisket sandwich, green beans, and jalapeño corn muffin; my companion had the moist brisket sandwich and mac-​and-​cheese. My brisket was as promised, with no fat in sight, and I topped it with the sweet BBQ sauce, one of six to choose from. Beware of the green beans — loaded with red pepper flakes, they will set your mouth on fire! The corn muffin was a nice compliment and full of flavor. I sampled the mac-​and-​cheese and found it underwhelming, with less taste than the boxed variety. Plenty of drink options with a Coca-​Cola Freestyle machine, but the slightly sour homemade lemonade hit the spot. Not the best BBQ in town with so much competition, but if you’re in the area and have a hankering, it will satisfy.
**UPDATE**
Before the holidays BHG sent out $ 25 gift certificates to members, so I returned after the New Year, and was very underwhelmed! I got the «scraps» (hardened parts around the edges) of both my sides, and as expected, they were dry and tasteless. Yuck! I would have waited a few minutes for fresh, hot sides. My companion, in fact, did wait for the mac-​n-​cheese, only to not have it delivered as promised when we were nearing the end of the meal. After confronting a gentleman who looked managerial in dress, apparently they ‘thought’ they delivered it. On the up side, I tried the dark meat chicken this time, and the helping was so big I had to take half home. So 3 stars remain. We have another gift certificate to spend, so if the third time’s not the charm, we’ll take our real money elsewhere henceforth.

We got take out from here with friends and while it was ok, I was a little underwhelmed. We tried the brisket and the chopped pork with beans, macaroni and cheese and the muffins. While the meat had good flavor, the pork was so chopped up it was almost minced — very odd. The sauces — we tried the sweet, the bourbon and the hot — were okay but not as good as other places. The beans were good but the macaroni was very plain. The portions were very generous and the takeout was packaged nicely so putting away leftovers was easy.

My boyfriend and I got a pound of chopped pork, potato salad, baked beans, and corn muffins to go one Friday night. I am so disappointed. I can only say one good thing– the jalapeño corn muffins are tasty. Good spice and moist.
Now the bad–
1) The chopped pork is sad. It’s chopped all to hell. Bug dust. And oddly sopping wet. It’s like they dumped drippings all over it. Only there is no way they had that much juice left over from the smoking process. There were a couple of lumps of chewy fat. Clearly the meat was not cooked long enough for the fat to breakdown during the smoking process (the whole point!). The bark was pitiful. Thin, not at all burned the way you would expect. And it got lost in the «chopped all to hell».
2) The potato salad was below average. I would have been ok with it but I found a decently large strip of RAW potato in a bite. I was done after that.
3) The beans were just average. Had a couple of bits of bacon and onion in it. That was nice to see. The sauce was tomato based and still had that undercooked tomato twang, very little else in the way of flavor. Meh.
4) The sauce is a TRAVESTY! We got the Yellow Jacket, Carolina Vinegar, and Bourbon sauces. Dear god they are stunningly terrible. The Yellow Jacket had two flavors– mustard and, oddly, celery seed. Wtf?! I could find no redeeming qualities in it. The Bourbon sauce is tomato based, very little bourbon flavor to be found and again has the underdeveloped, undercooked twangy tomato tasty. Maybe they can go next door for some of that bourbon they claim to have used. The Carolina Vinegar is horrid– nothing but vinegar. I disliked all three of them so much that I went to the fridge and got another sauce I already had.
Overall, I can’t find anything to make me want to come back. It’s not opening week so it can’t be jitters. Plus how do jitters make you fail this bad?!
They need a new pit master. They need an entire new recipe book. Otherwise, they will be gone in 3 months. Unless the BHG group keeps this afloat.

I typically like what BHG is able to do sometimes but this isn’t one of them. I have the luxury of eating BBQ all over the country because I travel for work and I have had amazing BBQ from all four corners of the US. This I can say with great authority is the worst BBQ I’ve had in Lexington for some time.
What did I have? Moist brisket. Their idea of moist brisket and what I’d consider moist brisket differ greatly. The brisket was dehydrated and the most unflavorful hunk of meat I’ve had for some time. It’s honestly the worst non-​chain BBQ I have ever had. It’s awful and expensive.
The price point is crazy considering how awful the meats are. They really should stick to their wheelhouse of steaks and chicken because Lexington has some amazing BBQ places that have set the bar high.
All in, avoid this place like the plague. The sides are the only thing with any flavor.