jethro's bbq

jethro’s has gotten a lot of attention because it has incredible food and catering, but it has also been featured in the media for their adam emmenecker challenge. in this challenge, one has 15 minutes to eat a sandwich composed of a spicy pickle, tenderloin, buffalo chicken tenders, friedcheesecubes, texas brisket, bacon,cheeseburger, and a bun. and a pound of waffle fries.

we started with wings. our sauces were traditional buffalo sauce and hot bbq. hot bbq was the winner there. we then split home and gardens patty melt which was very plain. the turkey surprisingly had good flavor. we were going to get sweet potato fries for a side, we could see the ones they were using in the line window. they sat in the window for over 15 minutes along with the waffle fries. so we picked mac andcheesewhich is awful. tasted like poweredcheesemixed with water. overall, i'd recommend another bbq place. they don't have burnt ends which is disappointing. smokey d's is way better and not as pricey.

stopped on the way thru town for a bite. i had breakfast "nachos" - waffle fries, white cheddar sauce, eggs, shredded cheddar, & my choice of meat (brisket). it came w/excellent sides of pico, guacamole, & sour cream. hubby had bbq dinner - one meat of choice (brisket) 2 sides (beans/potato salad) & cornbread. kids had mac &cheese& applesauce, both homemade. that plus 4 drinks was $40 + tip. i was pretty excited by my dish - every component was good & worked well together. hubby wasn't as enthusiastic, felt bbq & sides were just ok. kids liked their meal. service was great & super speedy.

breakfast at jethro's is good!. open for breakfast starting at 9:30am on saturday and sunday you can find something to fill your hunger. the breakfast plates here are large and for the most part have a bbq twist. i chose the game day breakfast which included sausage gravy and biscuits, 3 made to order eggs, and hash browns covered in chili and cheese. the combination of chilicheesecovered hash browns and sausage gravy really did not work for me. the tastes on their own were great though. overall the food here is always empty plate good, the service has been great, and value is right on. i would strongly recommend that you check this any one of the 3 locations for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. it's good.

jethro's usually delivers. jethro's usually delivers a pretty good value and decent atmosphere. portions are outrageously large.

i'm very partial to the bulldog burger - a tasty 1/2-pound burger topped with fried peppers,cheeseand healthy amount of beef brisket. chicken wings are usually good (best at the forest avenue location). most of their appetizers are more than meal sized too and often will suffice as an entree. the o-rings are big and very heavy on the corn flour, which i don't recommend.

side-wise, their waffle fries are always good. other sides also deliver, like the apples or sweet potato fries.

don't order a salad. it's ice berg all the way baby!

it's loaded with a bunch of stuff likecheesesticks, bacon, hamburger patty, beef brisket, pork tenderloin, buffalo chicken strips, covered bycheesesauce on a toasted bun. our choice of side was a waffle fries. three of had a tough time finishing it in 15 minutes. pretty tasty.

mmmmm mac & cheese!. i always need to try the ribs, and these are tender and full of beef flavor! tasted his brisket, and yet as a not-fan of brisket, i would order jetho's beefy brisket ... if the ribs were sold out.
five of the six sauces are tasty - their white sauce is more bland than the color white - don't waste your time.
i've enjoyed all the side dishes. if i could only have one source for mac &cheese- it would be jethro's!!!

this is a sports bar. so if you don't like crowds and noise, please don't come during major-local sporting events like drake relays, university of iowa games, etc.

looking for fun - head to jethros. i really enjoyed date night with my husband, too bad the cyclones lost big because we had to watch it surrounded by a dozen big screen hd tv's! anyway, we ordered ghost wings, because who doesn't like a little burn? ok, a lot of burn! the friedcheesewas the food highlight - they use white cheddar instead of mozzerela and i swear it was great (assuming my taste buds hadn't been totally fried out of my head from the ghost wings! - there is that fun again!!!) the pork sandwhich was lack luster, but the atmosphere was great. head to jethors if you are looking for a fun evening, if you are looking for amazing bbq- head elsewhere.

good bbq. i like jethros, the portions are large and fairly priced for what you get. i had the sliders..small brisket, chicken and pork sandwiches...all of which were really good. my first visit i sub the sweet onion rings for waffle fries and the 2nd visit they wouldn't let me which i thought was poor service, really no profit loss in switching out onion rings for fries..hmmm. out 3rd visit, i went with the brisket melt, hold the swisscheeseand it was served in a large portion on texas toast, it was perfect. the kids ordered a chicken strip basket which the chicken strips were hugh and right for splitting. they also love their mac n cheese. my wife had the brisket and the chicken sandwich twice...3 positive experiences, actually saying she loved the brisket. she loved the waffle fries…i thought they were ok. good environment for a family of 5.
we took the family to woodys and ordered similar meals. we were completely amazed in the staff's poor service; non family friendly tall wobbly tables/bar chairs and worst yet their "award winning" second-rate food.

mostly not that good.. jethro's bbq, which is actually fairly close to where we live. we went there on thursday. the sides, we had jalapeno cream corn (not really cream corn, corn w/ milk and peppers in it), mach andcheese(meh), potato salad (meh, mustardy, needed to cut the green onions smaller) and corn bread muffins (which are not as good as famous dave's, which are in turn not as good as uncle wendell's). shannon had garlic mashed potatoes...which...well didn't taste like garlic. they tasted like thyme. so...if they called them mashed potatoes with thyme, i would've thought hey, these aren't bad...but no.

shannon had chicken fried steak ($12.95). she said this morning that she's had better at applebee's...or even in a microwave dinner. the meat was dry, the crust was just awful.

i had a 2 meat bbq dinner ($9.95). i had the brisket and pulled pork. both were not that smokey and just too wet. one might want to say juicy, but the meat has obviously been soaked in a steam bath...and well...i just don't like that. it made it taste rather bland and washed out.

the only saving grace was the hot sauce, which was actually pretty good. though being in a honey bear bottle it was hard to get out.

so...i wouldn't recommend going. i don't think we'll ever go back, even if it is just over a mile from where we live.

visted: may 10, 2008