EXACTLY what I expected and wanted from a TX BBQ joint!!! I am from the West Coast and have had BBQ is cities known for BBQ!!! I heard GREAT things about Country Tavern and when we drove up, I knew it was going to be great!!! Just a country bar/restaurant w no frills! Just a friendly local place w a bar and GREAT BBQ! Friendly staff seated us and we knew they had no menus. DONT ask for a menu. Check the menu online if you need. We ordered 3 meat plate with sides. The ribs were fall off the bone moist and tender. The brisket was pull apart tender and juicy w a simple rub!!! The jalepeno cheese sausage was filled w cheese and delicious. Not spicy at all. Hands down the best beans I had in TX!!!! Not sweet with a nice smoke flavor. A hint of pork flavor and brisket chunks!!! We were so full but ordered their newest dessert. Brown Butter Cake! OMG it was great!!!!! The cake was so moist and dense topped w a large scoop of ice-cream along with caramel drizzle! I would come back just to have the cake it was so good!!! Highly recommend the drive to Country Tavern! The drive is nice and easy from Tyler TX and scenery is beautiful!! The most memorable BBQ I have had in recent years traveling!!! read more

Country Tavern - 3 meat plate w beans - Barbeque Near Me - Kilgore, Texas

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The best ribs in Texas. As a 6th generation Texan that is a big compliment because I have eaten a lot of barbecue in 73 years.

The ribs and barb-q are amazing. Ribs are fall off the bone tender. I love their beans and potato salad. Sometimes it can be very loud and hard to visit. They do serve large parties quite often. The service is good for the size of the place. Highly recommend! read more

Pretty good barbecue BBQ in east Texas and some of the best ribs around. I also found the smoked turkey to be excellent as well and it's a great place to dine at. Nice friendly staff and a clean and comfortable restaurant area and bar. read more

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Good to know excellence is still in place at the Country Tavern. Four of us had dinner tonight and the ribs were perfect as always. Not overdone but tender and tasty. You need to save a little room for the blackberry cobbler and banana pudding. Well worth an out of the way trip for ribs at the Country Tavern. read more

Found this restaurant on Yelp! It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon while on a work trip. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by staff and were able to pick our own table. There are about 10 menu options and the waitress was able to recall it by memory. Not sure if they have an actual menu or not. Doesn't really matter because I ordered ribs, baked potato casserole, and baked beans. The food took almost no time to come out and was paired with warm bbq sauce. The baked beans had an unexpected sweet chili bean flavor that was amazing. The baked potato casserole was good but was missing a touch of salt. The ribs were tender and had good flavor. Still needed to dip them in the bbq sauce for the full effect but everything was overall good. Will definitely return next time I'm around Kilgore. read more

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We absolutely loved this place, great food no fat on the brisket and the customer service was fantastic read more

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Service was good, I got the chopped barbecue with smoked turkey. I'm from the Carolinas so barbecue is picky for us, I rate here a 6, turkey 9. Slaw 6 beans 5 they bragged on their banana pudding but no vanilla wafers some other type meh...lacked bananas and to creamy for my liking. Cost extreme $$$ for one walked out with over $40 spent, would I go back..nah. read more

Country Tavern - Barbecue, smoked turkey, slaw and beans. - Barbeque Near Me - Kilgore, Texas

Great food great service super busy. No menus. The ribs are the best around. Anything you try on the menu is good. And the desert is to die for. Hot towels after the meal puts the topping on the cake. read more

Food is AMAZING! Staff is very friendly and helpful! Cool, chill place with good vibes!

Best ribs in the US and I love the old honky tonk atmosphere. Really impressive food and southern hospitality

This place is INSANE. In my 32 years of living in Texas and eating BBQ often this is by far, hands down, the best BBQ I've ever had. EVER. I consider myself a bit of a ribs/brisket snob, typically grading harder than most. However, even with the strict tastebud standards I was blown away by how good everything was. Brisket is unimaginably tender and tasteful. The glaze on the ribs paired with its fall off the bone texture almost made me faint. I'm telling you, Gordon Ramsey wouldn't be able to find anything wrong with this place. 10/10, would drive 3 hours one way just to eat here again. read more

The best keep secret in East Texas. Great bbq the ribs, sausage and turkey are my favorite sides are all great and fantastic. Sweet tea as it should be and lots of sweet friendly people. Definitely a must when you are in the area. read more

Country Tavern - You must get the turkey! - Barbeque Near Me - Kilgore, Texas

I do not leave reviews. Ever. This has always been one of our favorite places to eat ribs for over 20 years. The food was fine. The service, not so much. We would ask the server for something and she would go away so quickly, we could not finish asking for what we needed. She acted put out by everything. They were not busy, we got there early before they got busy so no excuse for this behavior. The beans have changed here and now taste exactly like ranch style beans in the can with some added sugar. The rest of the food was close to what it has been before. We asked for the warm towels (ribs are messy, and this is something they have always done). We were told the owner does not want them bringing out the towels until they have taken away all the plates because it looks "messy". Well, I'll tell you there is nothing messier than packing to-go boxes with messy fingers. We had to beg for the towels three times before she brought them. And then she was very annoyed. Even more annoyed than she was by every single other thing we asked for. We drove over 30 mins to get there and the meal was $100. Won't be back. Sad story because someone has ruined this place. Sounds like possibly due to a new owner. Shame on you. read more

This was totally by chance but amazing. The service and food was amazing. You will not be disappointed.

Food is very good , no menu to look at , the waitress tells you what there is .. be prepared for a wait .... They don't get in a hurry there . read more

Service was great and the food was indescribably good. Would give the ribs and the potato salad 10 stars if that were possible! Considering the quality of the food and the size of the servings, it was very reasonably priced. Will definitely return sooner rather than later! read more

Brought some business associates for lunch. We all had the ribs & they were pretty darn good.

The food is always phenomenal & the service is so great!! We usually get it to go, but the inside is very nice .

Hidden gem! They don't advertise but stay pretty busy. The service was excellent, the dining area was nicely decorated, and the food was incredible! Ribs are a must! read more

Nice,Food is great,kinda light on the Plate Portions & very expensive !! But very good !! read more

This East Texas legend has been serving juicy ribs, brisket and sausage for nearly 100 years! I ordered lean brisket with a side of Texas toast, spicy macaroni and pinto beans. Quickly proceeded to pour their homemade barbecue sauce all over the top. Can't recommend this place enough. read more

Country Tavern - Brisket - Barbeque Near Me - Kilgore, Texas

FALSE ADVERTISING!! They do NOT have outdoor seating and they are NOT pet friendly!!! Terrible experience after driving 17 miles out of our way to get here because of there deceptive ad!! read more

I had the best barbecue ribs and the side dishes were delicious. The ambiance was very country.

Simply the best in the world of the living...RIBS!!! I've traveled the south and I've ranked bar b que locales and Country Tavern beats out Memphis, Kansas City, Austin, and the Carolinas. Yeah, it's loud, busy, and understaffed. If you want quiet and romantic... go to an Italian bistro. Those who complain about that do not get it. read more

Make the food better, like when the parents owned the place. Train the waitress to clean the dirty table that people have to sit at. Maybe train them to smile and understand without us, the customer, they have no job. read more

All I can say is there is a reason LBJ used to drive from Austin to eat at the Country Tavern!!! By far the best ribs I have ever had!!! Excellent with or without sauce. The cheese and sausage platter is a must. Sides? On the same scale as their ribs. The Country Tavern is a must stop when you are in the Piney Woods region of Texas. read more

Great food and cold beer Great banana pudding as well service was very good atmosphere was very cool read more

Went with a large family group (14 people) on a Saturday night in October. The place was packed, mainly it seemed with similarly large groups, and the deafening interior noise from their conversation was the loudest I've encountered in a restaurant since doing Oktoberfest at the Hofbrauhaus in Cleveland in 2019. The clientele is Texas Bubba Central: lots of fat, bearded guys in denim bib overalls, trucker caps and the occasional cowboy hat, and their wives, daughters and girlfriends. I suspect they're not Beto voters. Service was agonizingly slow; the kitchen must have been slammed and it took a good hour for the grub to arrive (not the waitresses' fault, but maybe hire more staff). Do get the ribs, they're expertly smoked and the house sauce is good (more necessary for the brisket, which is adequate but dry). I was a fan of the 'spicy' mac & cheese, which was only pleasantly spicy. The reports of 'no menus available' are accurate (you have to look it up online), and the food is no bargain -- if you're drinking more than water, figure on $40 to $50 per person. The place is as authentic as it gets, down to the autographed photos of Larry Hagman, Robert Duvall and various Miss Texas winners on the wall near the bar. All in all, if you're looking for a real Lone Star dining experience, rehearse your yee-has and make the trip to East Texas. read more

We have been driving past this BBQ joint for a while and decided to check it out. Unbelievably fantastic. We had ribs and brisket. Both were delicious. Ribs were tender but had just the right pull from the bone texture. Brisket was smoky and tender. The Mac n cheese was a great side choice. White cheese with a hint of spice and pepper. We had a nice cold draft too. Good selection of draft beer to pick from. Great Service.Don't pass this up if you are in the area. read more

Country Tavern - Barbeque Near Me - Kilgore, Texas

This restaurant is appropriately named. It's set up like a restaurant with plenty of booths and tables. It feels like you're in a bar because of how dark it is and all the neon beer signs. They don't have menus so if you want to know how much the entrees are you'll have to ask. The small rib plate was $17. The medium brisket plate was $26 except she didn't ask what size we wanted so again ask. You get two sides. We ordered the Mac and cheese which has a lil kick to it , coleslaw, cheese potato casserole,beans and potato salad. All the sides were delicious. My wife said it was the brisket melted in her mouth. The ribs were good but I think Boxcar in Longview is better. Also it took a good 25 minutes to get our food which seemed too long. The wait and the price was the reason I had to only give it 4 stars. Waitress was nice though. read more

Everything tasted great, great service. This was only my fifteenth or fortieth or maybe hundredth time to eat there over the last 50 years.

Sad to say my wife, myself and my best friend were all disappointed. My friend had the ribs and they were nothing to write home about. My wife had the brisket and it was dry and pretty flavorless... I had the sausage and I must say the sausage was good. The sides were adequate but not outstanding. We also had water to drink and it tasted horrible and was undrinkable so we reorder soft drinks wick the brixing (the ratio of carbonated water to syrup was off) I rarely rate a restaurant "meh" but this experience was... possibly it was an off day... read more

They make the best ribs in East Texas melt in your mouth, with flavor and their beans are excellent too

New item! Texas Twinkies - cream cheese/ brisket stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon. Delicious!!!!! read more

Country Tavern - Texas Twinkies and warm barbecue sauce. Yum!!! - Barbeque Near Me - Kilgore, Texas

Maybe I had unrealistic expectations coming in, but the ribs just weren't as heavenly as I'd hoped for. They were good, but in a typical rib BBQ joint kinda way. Same for the banana pudding, blackberry cobbler and beans. The baked potato casserole was the star of the show hands down. We were there on a night when the balloon races were happening in Longview, so it was crazy busy. The waitstaff was running at breakneck speed and did a great job with a smile (bartender too). Hats off to those ladies! read more

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No photos, but I made my 1st trip to Country Tavern tonight with 2 family members & had a great time! My ribs had an incredible smoke on them & were super tasty, as was the spicy mac n cheese. Probably the most negative thing was that there were several large parties seated when we arrived, so service was a bit slow & it was LOUD in the restaurant. All in all, I feel like Country Tavern is an East Texas hidden gem. Well done, Country Tavern! read more

Love Love this place great food great service by far the BEST BBQ in East Texas will definitely be back read more

Country Tavern - Brisket and sausage plate with coleslaw and potato salad and pickles - Barbeque Near Me - Kilgore, Texas

Very good food. I personally thought their BBQ sauce was a little vinegary, at least for my tastes. However, the sticky hot links, regular sausage and spicy Mach and cheese were excellent, as was the cole slaw my wife had. Hardly anyone in the restaurant when we arrived, so I was a little worried. I need not have been. Shortly after we sat down the place filled up No menus, not even posted on the wall. We asked and the waitress told us what they had. Since we were close to the (overly loud) juke box and I was at the far end of the table, I didn't hear most of what she said. That lead to a lot of unnecessary back and forth. I would definitely go back. read more

Country Tavern may be the Best Ribs on the planet. I am from KY but am in TX alot for work. If I am within 2 hours of Kilgore, I am getting ribs at Country Tavern!!! If you like ribs, this is The Place!! read more