Neely's Bar-B-Q

10/25/08

Cole Slaw was the winner here, not the BBQ

by Scotar at Citysearch

Like a previous poster I am an avid BBQ'er. I ordered the 2 meat combo with pulled pork and brisket. The meat was dry and just didn't have much smoke flavor. I was highly dissappointed in the meat. Our group ordered around 6pm on a Tuesday night. I sampled my friends spare ribs and they were tasty but extremely overcooked. The dry rub was good on the ribs but they were too overdone to really enjoy or recommend them. I also tried the turkey which was middle of the road. The cole slaw is top notch and is the only thing I finished off my plate. I just can't recommend this place for BBQ meat, it was dry, smokeless, chewy, and just not worth ordering.

This place has potential but not worth visiting in my opinion until they get their food quality under control.

• Pros: Coleslaw
• Cons: Everything else

06/20/08

Not worth the drive

by taxh8tr at Citysearch

I visited Neely's while in town for a convention. I am an avid bbq'r and a partner in a grill and smoker company, so I'm fairly confident of my judging capabilities. I didn't see a smokehouse on the premises, so I'm assuming that the meat is smoked elsewhere and trucked in. It certainly tastes like it. The ribs were way, way, way overcooked. I like a little bark, but these were hard nearly the whole way though and was the chewiest pork meat I've ever had. The pulled pork was dry, and again, way overcooked.

Note that I went there a 3 in the afternoon, so it could also be that I got lunch leftovers. Still, I've had pulled pork leftovers that were a week old that tasted a heck of a lot better. Perhaps the original locations are better, if the smoke on premises. It kills me to give a bad review, but bbq lovers should look elsewhere.

• Pros: ample parking
• Cons: overcooked food - what other con could there be

06/12/08

Top notch...WELL worth the short trip from town.

by london2k at Citysearch

I can't for the life of me see how anyone could give this place a bad review, unless they are perhaps a competitor trying to trash the place. We are MAJOR fans of BBQ and have eaten it in every city we visit. We've made special trips to KC to visit Arthur Bryant's (still the best sauce on planet earth by a mile), as well as Everett & Jones in Berkeley (great), Dinasaur in Rochester, Angelo's in Fort Worth, and the list goes on.

Now.........Neely's. Overall I'd say it's VERY good. The ribs are fantastic, cooked exactly right. They fall off the bone and have the little chewy crust on them that separates average ribs from great ribs. The sauce is pretty good.....maybe not the best you'll have, but plenty good, and better than average.

The real star was the *sliced* brisket (not the chopped). This was the best brisket I've ever had. Simply awesome.

The beans are as good as I've had. Potato salad is very good, as was the coleslaw. Fries were...well, fries.

The GLARING weakness was the so-called "beef sausage" which was horrible, tasting like a canned Vienna Sausage more than anything else. A very sweet peach cobbler was pretty darn good.

Overall, we were VERY happy with Neely's and if you skip the sausage, you'll have a great meal. Without a DOUBT better than Jack's, where we've had undercooked ribs, insipid side dishes and the worlds worst cornbread. Apart from being in a handy location, Jacks isn't a pimple on Neely's arm, so to speak:-)

• Pros: The best we've had in Nashville by a long way
• Cons: Slightly haphazard service (minor complaint). A little out of the way.