Food Stop 3: Country Tavern Bar-B-Que, Kilgore Texas

When Jung tells me that he's taking me to go eat Barbeque, inside my brain was a little voice trying to break out and say "BBQ???!! I'm from Texas HELLOOO!!!??" But then I realized that if there is anywhere to go for good BBQ, it's gonna be here in Texas.  But yeah... We leave the bike parked outside a local Starbucks, I hop into Jung's car and off we were to what he assures me is the best darn BBQ on the face of God's great earth. So off we were to the boonies... which is ironic because coming from Houston, the city of Longview IS the boonies.


30 min later, we pull into the parking lot of a red corrugated single story steel building. You know you are in texas when every vehicle in the parking lot is either a Chevy or Ford pickup! Here's a pic of the frontage of the building.

I swear we must the only Asians which anyone has seen outside Rush Hour 3 because the moment we step food into the place, I felt every head turn and eye in the room caress my body to see if maybe i was hiding a pair of nunchucks anywhere in my pants or something. But my fears proved unfounded as we were ushered to a nice quite booth in the corner.


The decor was pretty nice. Simple & rustic country style. A pretty good sized bar adorned one end of the building while the ever-playing jukebox cranked up Shania Twain & Taylor Swift at the other end of the building. The main floor consisted of neatly arranged dining tables and a nice pool table in front of the bar.

The menu was simple enough.... BBQ!!! Protein choices were Ribs, Brisket, Turkey & Sausage or a combination of the above.  To compliment the protein (but mainly to steal prime tummy real estate from the yummy meat), are your choice of two sides, Coleslaw, Beans, Potato Salad & Chips. All served with a mandatory side of sliced white bread and sliced fresh onions just in case you need a convenient excuse for shedding a tear over eating some of the best ribs of earth.


Since the Ribs were highly recommended, I ordered a Rib platter with Coleslaw & Potato Salad while my host decided with the Rib & Brisket Platter. 10 min later, the food shows up!

The first thing I notice is that it is not exactly like South Texas BBQ. It wasn't nice sloppy oooowy gooowy goodness that i was used to. In fact, there wasn't any sauce on it at all. But if you so choose to adulterate your protein with BBQ Sauce, they bring out the customary bottle of sauce just in case.

The as mentioned earlier, these were definitely not sloppy ribs. They had a beautiful smokey flavor and were quite sweet with a nice layer of caramelized brown sugar that sent my tastebuds into overdrive. The "fall off the bone" tenderness made it easy to strip every rib to the bone (so to speak). They didn't last long.... within a couple of minutes, this was all that was left....

 
Well, needless to say, we really enjoyed our dinner. If I were to rate this against any of my other BBQ experiences, this one has to definitely rank top 3! It is quite unfortunate that they don't have any other branches elsewhere, and definitely unfortunate that Kilgore, Tx is located far from most of us. But if you ever find yourself in North East Texas, you definitely HAVE to stop by here and git yourself some ribs. Your taste buds will thank you!


And thank you Jung for being such a great host!

I liked, 
- The Awesome Meat!!
- Nice Ambiance & Nice background music that's not too loud.


I Didn't Quite Like, 
- That it is a little far away from the beaten path. Little inconvenient for most people to get to.




Country Tavern Bar-B-Que, Kilgore, Texas
One of the best Dry Rub BBQ i have ever tasted!
Address: Farm-to-Market  Road (FM) 2767 and Hwy 31 (Close to FM 3053, West of Kilgore)
Phone: (903) 984-9954
Website: None >:( 
Map:

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