big lou's burgers & bbq

i wouldn’t recommend this place to anybody.  the freshness and the motivation to produce quality food have gone down drastically.   too much laziness on that kitchen, precutting vegetables on previous days and overcooking food is just insulting, specially the price being charged.  i ordered a simple burger with some fried pickles and found that the tomatoes were mushy at least 2-3 days old and lettuce all saggy with huge amounts of water probably from cutting it way ahead oftimeand not drying it properly.  nobody wants to eat a burger with water dripping down from the lettuce and tomato.  adding disgusting topping into a burger ruins the whole burger.  the cooks need to stop being lazy and cut the tomatoes and lettuce on the spot.  i’m paying to see some fresh ingredients inside that burger; you may fool the other people who can’t tell the difference between fresh and old.  also, overcooking the fried pickles and not removing the oil? really? there were no pickles inside due to overcooking the crap out of it and brought the pickles resting on top of a pool of oil to my table, shame on you!  there was atimewhen this place was good, but not anymore.  think about the quality of food, people will come back crawling for more, but the restaurant has sacrificed the quality of the food.  let me know when you change the motivation of the kitchen and able to produce a decent burger, i’ll be happy to give the restaurant one more try.

please note: i am not a onetimereviewer. the service was fast and efficient and the environment was pleasant enough. i ordered a large burger and fries. i received a wonderfully cooked piece of meat with all of the fixings. the bun was a bit soggy on the bottom but all was forgiven given the complex taste of the meat. the fries were good as well. all in all a good meal. the staff was fast, friendly and efficient. the other people in my party ordered various items on the menu and all seemed quite happy and satisfied with their choices.

i observed a couple of large groups were having a difficulty getting seated in a timely fashion. i would advise choosing atimeto visit on less hectic days. it is a matter of available space in a busy restaurant and not inattention.

oh, and by the way, for a "review" site (and others that are similar) that holds very little clout" it was not necessary for the owner to respond with eight paragraphs. the reality is that people who read these sites of "little clout" know that "one review wonders" usually have an agenda. competing restaurants have "shills" that write one bad review after another. people see through this trash. not to worry. knowing readers of these "one review wonders" don't pay much mind to them.

usually readers they tend to pay attention to people who write many reviews and who have a reputation for being even handed and decent about the places that are being reviewed. in my case, i have many years of kitchen experience and work in restaurants in new york and san antonio. i understand that there are people who are working for their livelihoods. in the case of this particular restaurant, the effort shows.

i will be returning with several foodies, like myself, soon, for some bbq.

by the way, i review for this site because i know that this site has an impact. i wouldn't bother if it didn't.

owners response to negative "reviews". please allow me to apologize for this comment in advance as i do not believe in writing reviews for yourself. this is intended solely as an effort to point out a few observations that some of the "reviews" that we have received are an obvious effort to sabbotage our business from a nearby competitor. i am identifying these obvious observations due to the fact that urban spoon does not appear to have any sort of means for filtering, monitoring or removing obvious erroneous, false or malicious "reviews." i attempted to contact them via email to address these concerns and have yet to hear a reply in nearly two weeks, so i felt it was finally necessary to respond to some of these attacks.

please note that 6 of the 9 negative "reviews" that we have received have been by one-time reviewers. all with a very similar theme and all usually within a few minutes of each other. what are the odds that such a high percentage of negative "reviews" were done by people on their very first experience with urban spoon at our particular restaraunt? could it be that the same person is creating a new computer identity to attempt to undermine a nearby business?

the reason i say this is that "reviews" posted by people like "rob" (who has 7 "reviews" under his belt........all of local bbq places within 5 miles of us and all of his reviews were done on two different days and every bbq restaraunt in the area was horrible except for one that was "the best bbq in the city." what are the odds that this "person" visited 3 or 4 different bbq places in the same day and that 6 out of 7 local eateries were "horrible" or "sucked" but was able to find the best bbq in the city at the same time? is it possible that the one good place is his own? he even took thetimeto write a second negative review a month after his first one wondering "why the long lines" were here. most people would tend to leave their onetime"review" and not go back if they indeed had a bad experience somewhere. they probably wouldnt keep stalking the place and wondering what was wrong with the rest of the world. that is.... unless....this is an obvious effort to undermine someone elses hard work and that they are apparently jealous for some reason. please move on "rob." i would encourage you to spend yourtimeworking on your own business rather than wastingtimetrying to figure out why someone else is doing well.

second observation.....if you will notice, there is a drastic difference of opinion on the quality of the food and the service that is provided. it seems that the burgers and particularly the bbq are either "excellent" or "the worst ever" and that the service is "excellent" or "that management doesnt care."

it is hard to imagine that a 100% angus pattie served on a fresh butter toasted bun with fresh produce that is delivered on a daily basis could be the "worst burger/fries ever". especially when we have received nominations from the express news for "top ten wings in the city" and high scores from professional food critics in full page write ups. cleto and his crew loved the food as did the s.a. living staff. i understand and accept the fact that it is possible that someone might think the food was just average or "ok" or that they might not particularly have cared for it..... but i am quite certain it could not be the worst you've ever had with the high quality of product that we use here.

again....i apologize for the length of this comment and for its existence in general. i wish that people could just write real reviews and leave sites like this to be used as a reliable refferal resource, but unfortunately... it is very easy to create "friends" and write "reviews" without ever having met someone or visited their establishment.

finally.....the comments about the staff and the management not caring.....folks....this is our livelyhood. please come in for yourselves and see that we absolutely do care. we make every effort to visit every table and to ask how our customers experience was so that we can gain insight into what might make their experience here the best it can possibly be. we do this in a personal (face to face) fashion in an effort to get to know our customers the old fashioned way and to give them an opportunity to express their actual "reviews" while they are physically here. we place very little merit in the "reviews" that are blasted from an anonymous "reviewer" from their lazy boy that either didnt have the courage to express their dissappointment while they were here to give us an opportunity to correct their concerns.... or to offer a resolution..... or that they didnt visit our establishment at all.

this "review" site (and others that are similar) hold very little clout and are too easily manipulated by individuals that have nothing better to do with some of theirtimethan to attempt to undermine someone elses livelyhood. we will continue to place a higher value on those who actually visit our establishment and make personal reviews (good, bad or indifferent). we would like to encourage you to be your own judge and to give us a chance based on the recommendations of the professional critics and the other 80% of the reviews that were highly positive. thank you for yourtimeand understanding and we hope to see you soon.

disaster. omg this place is a disaster and so fricken backwards when you show up with a large party...went tonight with an army of 17...ok i understand we were 17, but we couldn't order and pay our own tickets at the register. they tell us they have to put everyone on the same ticket so all our food can come out at the same time, or they will not know what food goes where as we get phone orders, to go orders, and the other register is also taking orders...it will get all confusing...ok so how do i pay for my meal? well you can pay how ever you want, ok. here is my cash for my order, oh we can't tell you exactly what your bill is cause it has to be added with your whole party...wth, come again...everyone must be on one ticket. so, is every single person in this place on one ticket? no. ok what is my ticket...sir the reason is again, so all your party's food can come out together...ok what ever tell me what i owe when thetimecomes...first person to order was last to be served. no ones food came out "together" as they described. first person got their food and ate. second person got their food and first person was done and ready to go. third person got their food first person and second person done...get where this is going....an entire hour went by and the first person to order hadn't received their food...here is $40 tell me if that covers what i ordered, sir is this $40 for part of the whole ticket? no that $40 is for what ever i ordered, please tell me what my bill is...i don't know..ok what ever take the $40 and let me know if i'm covered or not...by the way, they charged us gratuity...i don't know why? we went up to the register to order...it gets better...not the service, my feedback, but i will stop here and make 1 recommendation for big lou...go to chris madrids and watch how they serve 100 people in line within 30 minutes and everyone pays for their order at the register, they get a buzzer, when order is ready they go get it at the counter....every big burger place works this way....i think you need to figure out if you're a counter order place or a full service restaurant with wait staff??? oh yea, i almost forgot my brisket sandwich was good....by the way, the last 2 families in our party were allowed to pay for their own meals right after they placed their order and received their receipts...talk about still being confused. i don't know if i paid too much or you short changed yourself. i didn't get a receipt to review.....all i know you run a cluster of an operation....think continuous improvement, you may think you're efficient, but your not effective...efficiency and effective go hand in hand...all thetimeyou tried to save forcing us all on one ticket was lost when it took 2 of your employees to do the math at our table retaking our order and doing math....remember we didn't have a receipt to do our own math. our experience was a crispy taco short of a mexican plate!!!

far the worst bbq in texas. firsttimeand last, not even our dog would eat it. my husband and i had the chopped bbq sandwich and it was the worst bbq we have ever had, it was burn't and had no flavor, the buns were soggy. all i to say, is i don't know how they are going to stay in business with food that bad.

thank you big lou's burgers and bbq!!. had such a greattimewith family and friends! we tried a couple spots closer to our side of town before we landed here. no one could really seat us, we had to many people. which is ok.. because there where 25 of us and it was a last min thing. i will definitely be driving to this side of town more often! food was amazing!!! also love all the work they put into the restaurant, looks great guys, keep up the good work! thanks big lou's burgers for not turning us away!!

great place!. my husband took me here for the firsttimeabout a month ago and it has become a favorite for us! the burgers are just wonderful and the chili cheese fries are really good!!
love the atmostphere and their prices are great for anyone's budget.
they have a giant burger, just like the giant pizza at the other place (big lou's pizza) for groups. we saw this burger on one of our visits and looked just as wonderful as their regular size burger. the group was very pleased with the taste and presentation of this huge burger.
be sure to try this place, you will not regret it!

our new spot!. what a greattimewe had. the atmosphere was very nice and really, the whole experience was awesome. from the food right down to the friendly staff. loved the fact that the manager came by and made us all feel right at home. not sure what the other's were thinking when they put this place down. go in and check it out for yourself. that's what we did and i am so glad we did! i will be telling all my friends and family about this place!

worst waste of money!. my husband and i went for lunch...took forever to get food, "waitress" never came back .to check on us, not like we needed a waitress anyways, we order and pick up the food ourselves..just looking for more ways to get your money. bacon cheeseburger was 9 bucks, just the burger, 3 bucks for about 10 fries, 6 dollars for my plain hamburger and another 3 for the 10 fries..one drink for us to share... burgers were literally the size of one of the 99cent dble chzburger from mcdonald's both bun and the patty ..management could have cared less... bad food bad service and ridunkalous prices..don't waste yourtimeor money! btw uploaded a pic of the burger..see for youselves !

this was my firsttimehere. i was very dissatisfied, burgers had no. flavor. buns were soggy and also no flavor. thats what my husband had. they should butter them. the mushrooms and onions i requested were like from a can and put right on burger. the fries were ok. the chicken sandwich was not any better no flavor and the bread was soggy. i think meals were overpriced. the tea tasted different like it was old. i asked for sweetened tea not sweet at all. kind of tasted old. my son had a chicken tender meal didn't event like it either. too crunchy , had too much bread ing. i payed 30 dollars for three meals and we didn't even like it. i don't think we will go here again. overpriced food that is not even good.

it was awesome!!!!!. we live just down the street so we had to try it for ourselves since we will eventually be asked by family and friends. i was a lil hesitant that the burger would be any good considering it's size. they sure proved me wrong. it was freakn' delicious! cooked perfectly and juicy. even the tater tots, fries, and onion rings were good. service was excellent. they made us feel like family. will go back to try the barbecue and wings and thistimemake it for happy hour as well.

previous reviews are bull s$&@!!! the service can not be any worse. from thetimei walked in the door 1hour later and three complaints my entire table had only received 1 cold burger. can't say what the food taste like, but the beer is over priced and flat. complaints are not even acknowledged.

finally open. big lou's burgers and bbq has finally opened. i had a chance to have lunch there on day three. the parking lot was packed. i stopped outside to check out the menu on the wall by the front entrance. the burgers come in two sizes only, 1/4 lb and 1/2 lb. that kind of put me off since i'm a more 1/3 lb burger guy. the place is done up really nice inside with a rustic feel. they have a full bar including around 15-20 beers on tap. you can eat at the bar or sit at a table in the front dining room or in the back dining room. i sat at the bar and opted for the 1/4 burger combo with cheese. the 1/4 lb burgers are served on buns that are only about 4 inches round. it looked like a kiddie burger for $8.50 for the combo. they say the 1/2 lb burgers are served on larger buns. they are $1 more. that would put a lunchtimeburger meal at around $10. the burgers tasted pretty good but 1/4 is too small and 1/2 would likley be too much for me unless i'm really, really hungry. the fries were very good. the downside is they bring you the ketchup in a little plastic container rather that having the ketchup and other condiments at the table. they have bar bq also but i never saw anyone ordering it. all i saw coming out of the kitchen were the little burgers. i didn't see any smoke or smell any evidence of bbqing going on. it was only day three, perhaps the pit was not yet operational. i should have asked about that but i forgot. otherwise things were running very smoothly for being day three but i'm not suprized. this is not big lou's first rodeo. i fully intend to go back at a future date and try the bbq and maybe the 1/2 lb burger. hopefully he gets the burger thing going better. i wish them all the best. we need a good burger joint in the neighborhood. my locally alltimefavorite burger is all the way across town. i was hoping big lou's would take their place. i'm still hoping