jethro's bbq

i'm not a huge fan of bbq, butjethro'sfood was excellent. the atomosphere was fun, but finding a place to park can be difficult. i wish this restaurant would have been here when i was attending drake.

if you aren't impressed with the food at least there is a lot of fun things to read and look at in the restaurant.; including reading about how "jethro" from the beverly hillbillies sued trying to get the name changed.  jethro's bbq has been on man versus food and there is a wall of failure and a much smaller wall of winners.  

on to the food.  i had the 4 bone rib bbq appetizer for lunch.  it was really fast coming out.  ribs where ok meat wise and had a nice bark.  smoke ring looked decent to maybe a little heavy.  overall taste was ok, still kind of bland for my desire but to feed the masses i am getting used to that.  

there are multiple bbq styles on the table.  i've never been a fan of a white alabama sauce nor do you see it often but they have one on the table for you if your inclined.  their house bbqs have a nice taste to them but have a little bit too much vinegar for my taste. 

overall this is one of the better bbqs i have had in iowa (besides my own of course!)

average. i've been tojethro'sdrake location three or four times now. it smells amazing outside, i walk past it almost every day to go to class, but their food really falls flat. their bbq sauce is not good, it's very runny which is okay until you try to eat it on a sandwich and it goes everywhere. the flavor isn't the best, there is a couple of sauces and i've tried them all but none of them are like yes i love this or even like it.

sides are pretty standard nothing special about them. i usually get the mashed potatoes which i enjoy more than the main pulled meat sandwich. you get a ton of food though, so if you're really hungry you'll get full though.

breakfast atjethro'sis 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 chili cheese covered 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'susually 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, cheese and 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!

disapointed. i was excited to go and try the newjethro'sin waukee, but left disapointed. the brisket was cold and we didn't get our sausage that we ordered for our 2 meat/rib combo. over priced beer. the only things that were good were the wings, bbq sauce, and waffle fries. the jalapeno corn tasted awful! it tastes like it was sitting in a fire for one week. the beans looked liked they were sitting outside for another week. one other good thing is that the waitresses were good looking. overall i would not ever go back.

overall, the barbecue atjethro'swas good, above average good. the meats were tasty and moist, but the sides were a little less than desirable. the combination of the two sweet and hot sauces was a great compliment to the meat giving it a nice "zippy" taste quality. while i wouldn't put it on par with some great barbecue joints i've eaten at in st. louis or kansas city, it's still very good.

great stop. i was driving through des moines and saw thatjethro'swasn't too far off i-235. although i wasn't thrilled about the smoked sausage, the tenderness of the brisket made up for it as well as the mound of sweet potato fries. the restaurant itself is somewhat cramped but retains a friendly atmosphere.

bring back the old jethro's. my husband and i have been regulars ofjethro'ssince the place opened and we used to come in 2-3 times a week for lunch and dinner. we love the food, love the beer, and love the servers. however, in the last 4-5 months our visits have been pretty rough.

we've definitely noticed a new batch of people working here and we are not fans. the whole reason we go tojethro'saside from the food and the beer is because the host knew us, the servers knew us, and the manager always made an effort to come over and talk to us. it made us feel like valued customers, so we returned. lately the food quality has been pretty poor and service is lacking. for a while now the hostesses have been high school kids, with no personality and don't talk to us at the door and when we get to the table it's the same with the girl serving us. we enjoyed the old servers who had fun with what they were doing and joked with us, not these new girls who lack any sense of a personality. although when we do get the old servers lately, they're definitely not as happy as they used to be, and the reason is obvious.

last week when my husband and i came in and sat at the bar we were sitting close to the server station and we were not happy with what we overheard. throughout the night, the bald guy, who we've assumed is the new manager (he's never once introduced himself to us) who was handing out food berated his staff, made fun of them when they walked away, and was generally rude to everyone in his path. we were thankful when it was his turn to go home. i could not believe the way he treated his staff and it shocks me that the owner would let this happen to a place that used to be so fun and free. we've definitely cut back our visits tojethro'sand i can imagine other people have as well.

i am writing this review to commend two people on staff at thejethro'sbbq, at 3100 forest ave, in des moines, ia. i was issued a riteinrain pen during my tour in iraq, and this pen holds tons of sentimental value to me. i now work for the department of homeland security. in between details today (june 14th, 2011), we decided to stop atjethro'sbbq for lunch/dinner. the food was outstanding and the service was exceptional. but more than that, i left my pen there on accident. i called approximately 6 hours later, and spoke with chad burton. he remembered our group and our server ann bobo. she still had my pen! she noticed it was different from the other pens in her apron and had separated it from them! chad told me he would mail it to me in omaha. i cannot begin to express how thoughtful, empathetic, and helpful these two individuals are. and now on to the food! i ate the catfish w/ fries, and a 10 piece wings with their signature "bbq rub". they are seriously out of this world! i brought home half the order for my wife to see if i can sway her loyalty from another wing specialty restaurant! again, my most heartfelt thank you goes to two of your staff, chad burton and ann bobo.

great bbq at a reasonable price!. heard about this place before i moved to dm and i have had it on my places to visit for a while. boy was i missing out!!

i ordered the full rack of rib with waffle fries (see photo) and i was completely blown away. these were the best ribs i have ever tasted. they had a dry-rub on them and were smoked. they were also served without sauce on them but the table had 6 different sauces bottles on them to choose from. i like the hot bbq but the orginaljethro'sbbq was great as well. the ribs were so tender there was no need to use a knife to cut the bones apart (just the way ribs should be!) the waffle fries were well seasoned and piled high. so much food i had to take some home.

the price was pretty standard i thought and it was definitely worth it! i will be visiting this place quite often.

worth a stop. this is more of a dining experience than a place to get great bbq. the meats aren't bad, but just aren't anything spectacular. the man vs. food hype alone makes this place worth checking out - like most joints like this, i recommend a sampler to get a real taste for whatjethro'sbbq has to offer.

vickie. i am so excited thatjethro'sis goimg to altoona because i really enjoy that restaurant! it's almost as good as hickory park in ames!

mostly not that good..jethro'sbbq, 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 and cheese (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