The food here is terrific. I recommend the grilled chicken salad bc it's my favorite. It's a good environment and it is kid friendly. The only problem I had with it is my husband and I got stuck with a lousy waitress. However there are waitresses there that are great at they do. My husband and I go here every time we travel between Tennessee and Arkansas since we love it here so much.
Review Source:We stopped in here in the middle of our long drive. Â The staff was friendly and the restaurant packed. Â We both ordered bbq sandwiches (me chicken and hubby the pork). Â Everything was delicious from the sandwiches to the sides! The service was friendly and prompt and it was the perfect pit stop on a very long day of driving.
Review Source:This Place is worth the Trip!!!
True Southern Hospitality from the Minute you walk through the door. Â Service was EXCEPTIONAL!! Â I am truly glad I stopped here. Â I got the Combo Platter : The BEST ONION RINGS I've ever had, Â Fall of the Bone Smoked Ribs, Hush Puppies, and, Crispy, Crunchy Fresh Fried Catfish! Â Home Made Desserts. Â Treat yourself to some Sweet Tea also! Â From the minute you walk through the door, Â you'll be treated like family! Â If you're on the road, Â make sure you don't miss Nick's.
Enjoy, Chef Gary Curry!
Nick's BBQ & Catfish was a real good choice for us. The BBQ ribs were ok (no smoked flavor, but very tender), the fried catfish & hush puppies were very good. But the very best were the onion rings!! Out of this world good! We decided we should've just ordered the rings-they were that good. And I've never been one to care for them since most places offer some pre-breaded minced onion things that are soggy and greasy. We finished off our meal with fried pies that came out freshly made and still hot. Delish!!!
Review Source:i had a great time at Nick's...i was traveling on the highway and i saw those big billboards and decided to give it a try! Best thing i did all day! the service was great and the food was really good...but the one thing that impressed me the most was their pies!! i had the coconut pie and it was amazing! i will defiantly visit this place again next time i am around this way.
Review Source:Stop here on my road trip to Nashville Tennessee my server it was Courtney it all went downhill from there I ordered the barbecue pork salad it looks so disgusting when I got it because the pork look like bacon and lettuce was cheap iceberg lettuce that was a little bit soggy I don't know maybe freezer burn. also I had a moldy tomato and my salad and every other tomatoes with brown spots on them. the salad here was really gross and I definitely won't come back and would reccomed any other place but here or mabey eat here but dont get the salads
Review Source:Excellent all-around! Â We are from Little Rock and travel to Memphis frequently, and the food never disappoints. Â We enjoy the ribs and catfish combo platter, fried green tomatoes, as well as the fried pies (coconut is the best). Â The servers are young, but they are energetic and friendly. Â The decor is a bit lacking, but we were told by one of the owners that a remodel and add-on is in the works for 2013. Overall- It's a worthy stop if you are on I-40. Hopefully everything will excite.
Review Source:Road trip
We stopped by on our drive back to DC. We were attracted by this gigantic billboard.
Environment: Was super busy; incredibly friendly service! Decor was exactly as expected. I was hoping it to be a bit more divey.
Food: I am usually made fun of b/c of my inappropriate ordering at places like this ie: too healthy. So, I decided to get cat fish, okra and onion rings .My friend got the pork dinner, "worse pork bbq I have ever had". Catfish was chewy. Disappointed.
Nothing spectacular but the people were very nice. I would have rather just driven thru somewhere and not wasted time at a sit down for mediocre food, at best.
Five stars for their fried pies!
We stopped for bbq on the way home from a family reunion. I wish we had found it on the way so we could have stopped twice.
I think the bbq was good, as were the sides, but the fried pies were awesome. We split a pair, then ordered another pair, then ordered a second one of each!
This place is epic. Every time when I am close to Nick's I will stop. That would make me a very fat person if I would live in the area. How can you not like it? Real southern cooking, Memphis style bbq(is there any other kind - we are not in Kansas anymore). The tea is amazingly sweet(almost diabetes in a glass but the friend pickles balance it out). If you looking for fancy wall decor and to have a discussion about Nietsche: This place isn't it. Amazing food for good prices. THIS IS THE PLACE TO TAKE A FAT GIRL ON A DATE
Review Source:Disappointment.
There is virtually no decor so I thought to myself "ok, they are saving money on decor to have a better quality food. Â I can respect that."
I was wrong.
The food is mediocre. Â The meat has virtually no flavor of it's own. Â They drown it in a mediocre bbq sauce. Â The baked beans were CANNED with a few chunks of their brisket thrown in. Â The fried okra was pretty good though. Â
We also shared the homemade chocolate fried pie. Â The pie crust was one of the best ever. Â The chocolate filling was nothing but cheap pudding. Â
Our waitress was cute, sweet and helpful. Â
I think this place has the best bbq in town only because its the ONLY bbq in town.
Dog food.
I got suckered in by the big sign on the interstate!
Craving good BBQ on a road trip, wound up with garbage that my dog thought twice about eating the leftovers.
And the service was S...L..O...W.
Molasses in winter slow.
Canned Sloppy Joe's are better than the pork sandwich I had. Blecchh...
I arrived at 7:30 and there was one couple left in the dining room on the right. The girl behind the counter motioned me towards the room on the left and said pick any clean table. The waitress followed me to the table with a menu and returned 30 seconds later with my water.
The room was about half full and everyone else was already eating. I was the only new customer. I looked at the menu for about a minute, then closed it and slid it across the table. The waitress came right over and took my order - chopped pork BBQ, onion rings and cole slaw.
I sat there for 15 minutes. Several people left and a few more came in. They also received their drinks right away. But during that 15 minutes NO food was served to anyone. There appeared to be some sort of activity in the kitchen, but it didn't result in food being brought to the dining room.
As I was leaving I told my waitress she could cancel my order.
Decided to check this place out on April 6, 2012. Short wait for service. Waitress pleasant and helpful. Bathrooms were unpleasant. However, the food was was passable. The ribs were tender but parts were dry and overdone. Beans were tasty. Fries soggy. Hush puppies were crisp outside while tender and slightly sweet inside. The catfish (which is available in a lunch, small, regular, and deluxe plate) was lightly breaded and cooked well. It had a very good flavor. The baked potato was a bit underdone for my preference. Our waitress was polite and showed the right amount of attention. All in all will try Nick's again.
Review Source:Jumped off of the interstate to try some Arkansas barbecue. The BBQ ribs were good with a sauce that was better off in the jar. The BBQ pulled beef sandwich was good - which is were the good parts of the meal ended. The cole slaw was just OK and the baked beans should have stayed in the can they were poured out of. You expect much better tasting baked beans from any place selling BBQ. We might have been able to overlook the terrible service if the food had been great. We waited for more than 5-minutes to have anyone approach our table; than we waited for 20-25 minutes for food that is already prepared and just needs to be dished up. We have definitely tasted better BBQ, but combined with the poor service really made us wish we would have kept driving down the road.
Review Source:Phil J. from Cocoa FL who gave this restaurant a one star obviously obviously doesnt know chain BBQ restaurants from real BBQ. Â I have stopped here to eat on several occasions, and was even invited to look at their kitchen in the process. Â Their ribs are actually smoked, not liquid or baked or powdered bullsh!t that Phil says. Â Quite frankly, I doubt Phil even stopped at this place, because the real smoke taste is completely obvious when you compare it with liquid smoke. Â Perhaps Phil's tastebuds have been killed by his steady fastfood trash diet, because based on his description of what he had, he probably can't even tell honey from hot sauce.
This is one of the best places to get bbq not just along the I-40, but the entire region. Â I would put Nick's right up there with any big name places like Corky's and Neeley's in Memphis.
If this was my last meal on this earth, I would be a happy camper. My husband and I are very well-traveled eaters and this is the best BBQ we've ever had. Great service, not too hard to get to from the highway, and healthy servings. We may even make a special trip just to have a repeat in the future.
Review Source:The other reviews are right. It is a lot of food. And the good ends there.
I had the chopped pork. No smoke flavor at all, it was most like a thinly sliced roast pork. The coleslaw had no flavor--needed a dose of salt. The beans were okay, as was the fried okra.
However, a location I would have given three or four stars, simply because it's a non-chain in a teeny pull-off area, dropped all the way to a two because of the wait staff. Nick's wait staff left a bad taste in my mouth  They were rude, and very unfriendly. I almost walked out after being first ignored, then rushed, and then listening to the waitresses snipe at each other. It wasn't a very good atmosphere. At least the waitresses lounging at a dining table were being quiet while ignoring patrons.
Save your money and go across the street to Sonic. They were friendly and made a great limeade. :)
Normally in joint like this you wouldn't think to order the seafood don't continue the prejudice here, be sure to order a combo plate and try the catfish (or the shimps) they are (I think) the true specialty of the house, not taking anything away from the ribs but this place really knows what it's doing when it comes to frying (some if the best onion rings I've had in a long time too), they even fry their pies (really more of a turnover) get one a la mode or the peanut butter pie (a pie of the truer sense).
I don't want to get a reputation for judging the waitstaff but there are some lookers here FYI. Definitely stop in if your driving through Arkansas across I-40 not that you would very often I'd think.
When I say YUM, capitol letters don't do it justice. Â This spot was AWESOME!! Â Now I see why it was so packed, the food is delicious. Â This place is a jewel. Â The catfish was great, the ribs were excellent & every single side dish was fantastic (yes, we ordered them ALL). Â We stopped in during a cross country drive after seeing the sign at the off ramp gas station. Â It was worth the detour, at this point, it might even be worth the drive back to Arkansas! ;) Â Loved it!
Review Source:Close to Memphis, Nick's is truly a southern treasure in the middle of a swamp. The parking lot is always packed (we ate here twice, ahem) but the service is excellent. Lawdy though, the smoky pork barbeque and fried catfish with hush puppies are the holy trinity. You know you've crossed the Mason-Dixon when you are served cole slaw to put on your BBQ sandwich. The catfish are farm-raised, thus clean and almost sweet, not muddy tasting like the wild cats. A placard listing pies baked daily included peach and apricot. Fried pickles and green tomatoes are also available, although we didn't try them.
Check out the paeans to Nick's by the front door, including signed pics from Pink and Johnny Cash. Regulars here come in daily and sit at the same tables and I surely don't blame them.
Stopped here for lunch with a group of ~35 college guys in my choir as we drove across Arkansas. Â Good speed, authentic food, great value - perfect if you're on I-40 and don't to stop some fast food chain.
Service/speed: I called ahead of time, so they were all ready for us and very prompt to seat, bring water, take orders. Â Payment was also as quick as could be for that many people. Â Staff were friendly enough and explained dishes when asked by clueless Yanks.
Food: Disclaimer: I'd never had fried catfish before. Â But this was delicious and the portions good, especially for the price. Â You can choose sides: my sweet potatoes were indeed very sweet, and the fried okra tasty. Â Fried chocolate pie wasn't so appealing though - kind of like an empanada with chocolate inside it. Â
Ambiance: made me feel better that there were a lot of locals, truckers, etc!
Light Lunch, grilled catfish with hushpuppies, side salad, and baked potato.
Grand total: $6.51
Oh my gosh, this meal was huge and delicious. I went into this, random ass restaurant on the side of the road in Arkansas, feeling pretty dang hungry. The lovely bbq aroma upon entering, hit me like a hurricane, and pictures of all the past beauty queens made me feel like I stuck out like a sore thumb, oh well.
The waitress was super nice and the food came out really fast, too, which was a delight because my stomach was eating itself.
So the food- the grilled catfish was seasoned and piled with salt and lemon juice... oh my gosh it was great. Every bite was just as amazing as the first. The potato was soft, buttery, and huge and the salad was petite and fresh. I was not a fan of the hushpuppies, but my friend devoured them. Overall, the meal was two thumbs up, 4 stars and I would give them a pat on the back.
The reason why it did not reach 5 stars is because I felt like a just consumed 5000 calories because, for sure, there was a pound of butter on my fish and potato. But ohhhh man, for six dollars, I think I would sacrifice my health anyday.
Good job Nick's, good job.
The pretentious Hollywood Eurasian fusion crap I've eaten for the last 10 years in S. CA can shove it! Â This is how real men eat. Â
For $15 bucks, this is the best blackened Cajun catfish man can buy. Â Last time I had fried okra, or fried green tomatoes this good was when I was still living in N. Florida. Â
You know you're at an authentic restaurant when the dining room is packed with truckers, hunters, blue-collar workers, pretty blonde misses in their tight jeans and cowboy hats. Â Yeah! Â this is how I used to rope em, before I moved to CA and became...Asian??
Yeah, I might look like a grown-up version of Data from the Goonies, but I pack a mean gun where it counts, and know good food when I taste it. Â
If I ever get a chance to visit Little Rock, no way I'm gonna leave without my fill at Nick's Catfish house.
Never did I eat in restaurants located in little towns between Memphis and Little Rock. Well, my husband told me that he would like to just check Nick's Bar-BQ and Catfish. His friend strongly recommended this place to him. In the end, we stopped and had a brunch there. Dishes tasted good and perfectly prepared.
Fried Green Tomatoes were crisp. Creamy ranch dipping sauce enhanced flavour the dish.
Lite Catfish dinner was all right. Hush-puppies were crispy outside and tender inside. Coleslaw was not overly sweet or sour.
My husband enjoyed Fish and BBQ combination dinner. The plate was huge.
The place is relatively clean and smell-free.
So I probably made a mistake in ordering a chicken sandwich considering the name of this place contains "BBQ" and "Catfish"... but oh well.
The chicken sandwich was alright. The okra was Southern perfection. The clientele was exactly what I would have expected for Carlisle... kind of that "walk in the door and everyone turns to look at you because you're not from around these parts" crowd. But friendly enough.
I feel like the big draw here is the fried pie... I mean, really, you can't go wrong with frying something that is delicious to begin with.
On my way from TN to CA, I was hungry and my place in Memphis wasn't open yet so I was forced to keep on driving. Â I saw their sign and thought I had better get something quick here before I get into Little Rock and another couple of hours go by since I was getting hungry.
Got my lunch to go and it was a deep-fried heart attack on a tray. Â Ohh it was good! Â They know how to cook catfish, it was crispy but not overdone. Â Likewise, the hushpuppies were crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. Â The onion rings were some of the best I ever had! Â
Nick's was a pleasant experience that was more than I expected.
Out on the highway, somewhere in Arkansas (just east of Little Rock on I 40), is Nicks. It is a truck stop BBQ joint. The serving are huge, the price is low and the food is good. I will recommend the chicken and the ribs. Both top notch. The brisk, well let's just say not Texas worthy. The brisk is sliced paper thin, dry and doused in sauce. This is probably to cover the dryness.
But again, ribs & chicken fantastic. Onion rings are hand battered and fresh. Baked beans were good. Once you have stuffed yourself, dig into the fried pies. Â Fantastic.
A solid 3.5
Not to be long winded here...but this was a refreshing little stop on my way back to California! I stayed the night in Carlisle, and had dinner at this wonderful little bbq restaurant in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. Although it was the middle of summer, and this California boy felt like he was in a pressure cooker with all the heat and humidity, Nick's really made it all better! The service was good, the sweet tea was awesome and the bbq was superb. If I'm ever back that way again...I'll definitely stop in for a bite.
Review Source:Four and a half years later I go to review the place, and discover someone beat me to First by a week. Â Odd how the universe aligns...
I came upon Nick's in an act of serendipity. Â I was headed home on a leave of absence from college, and in the middle of my epic 3 day, 3,000 mile journey from Santa Cruz to DC, I pulled off of I-40 for gasoline at what was then a truck stop that is apparently known as Carlisle, Arkansas.
I asked the lady at the gas station's register if there was a place in town to get food. Â She pointed me in one direction - down the road, to Nick's Bar-BQ & Catfish. Â I pulled into a mostly empty parking lot.
I still remember, almost half a decade later, the feeling I got walking inside. Â Three incredibly cute girls made up the wait staff, and I swear they giggled at me as they got me seated and fed. Â It just seemed so warm and authentically American - if you allow that the South is an area with particularly American traditions. Â I felt more comfortable in that restaurant in the middle of Arkansas as a stranger passing through town than I ever have in San Francisco.
So I'm sitting down for my meal, and another patron is seated at the table next to me. Â He's a big white guy, shiny bald head, heavyset - Â a real American, if you will. Â He sits down at his table and after ordering, he leans over and asks, "Is that your rig out there?" Â I started to explain that yes, that was my souped up Volkswagen Jetta 1.8T, before I realized he was talking about trucks. Â Like, trucking trucks. Â The kind that anonymously haul nebulously defined "loads" across America's highways, and that supposedly power large sectors of our economy. Â It turned out that his, in particular, was hauling formica to somewhere points west.
My new trucker friend and I spent an entire meal discussing our lives. Â It was one of the most open discussions I've ever had with a stranger, talking to each other from across our lunch tables. Â He had been a normal family man in North Carolina until him and his wife divorced. Â His grown son away in the Army, he decided - f*ck it, I'm selling the house and buying a rig. Â And off he set to deliver things like formica through places like Carlisle. Â Total strangers from relatively different worlds, on neutral meeting grounds at (oh right, I'm reviewing a restaurant) one of the most authentic, delicious, richly appointed culinary establishments I've had the pleasure to enjoy.
So, in the tradition of Memphis Minnie's (a BBQ spot in my SF neighborhood), I raise a glass of sake in honor of this gem: To Nick's, with  enduring gratitude for a warm memory and a fantastic meal.  And to my trucker friend, I hope you found that the journey was indeed everything you were looking for.
day 27 of my space odyssey
musings from the road. wonder why there are so many jesus billboards? wonder why there are so many xxx stores off the freeway? hmm weird america is.
either i was delirious or it was a sign. but i must have seen 20 signs for nick's. i skipped over tons of exits to finally get to this place. it called me like a beacon.
yelp update the address its on 1012 north bankhead ave.
man yelp needs to pay me for all this modifying i am doing.
either case so i came here and passed up a lot of other joints. for a while i was scared driving through the ozarks and i pulled over and saw hunters with mullets, one nodded his head at me. no mullet will nod at me! so i drove off!
but this place was cool cuz... i dunno i saw the signs. the place looked like the roadhouse from the movie, roadhouse, with swayze. Â who called the cooler.
as soon as i got there i felt a little better cuz i saw black family leave. haha call me american survivor man but any type of diversity is a good sign for me. i am always nervous when i am in a homogeneous area. all asians, blacks, hispanics, whites, etc. like it makes me wonder, why aren't other folks around here? what you all do to them??
when i got inside i guess this place is famous cuz they had a lot of autographed photos of arkansas stars who had visited, from miss arkansas who is a super hottie, to country singers, to razorbacks.
the food here was good. real good bbq. the catfish was delish and the ribs tender. a bit too smothered for my taste but most people here probably like that. they bring you sweet tear and i got tiny taters and fried okra and hush puppies. its a must. i cleaned my plate, one of the few people to. i will show these people how small asian people eat!
my waitress was super cool and she asked me about what brought me here and she was really interested in it. it really is starting to hit me that this sort of thing is not common haha. she told me about her own traveling and she is moving herself to north carolina. nice.
the thing i noticed about people here. related to the sports here. i can see why so many athletes, like football players, and power lifters and large athletes come from here. cuz they eat a lot of protein, starch, and carbs. that will get you big, and create big athletes! and a strong sports program. and if you don't do sports or work out, i guess you will just be large then.
its funny one of the waitresses was 19, married with kids. art imitates life imitates art. i really felt the southern hospitality from my waitress though. i saw one dude tip her with change from his pocket. Â i was like hell no. so i had to tip extra for that dude. which was like 30%. dang i can't afford to do that anymore but when people make me feel good, i want to make them feel good.
another enemy of the traveler besides getting lost is, losing time. i passed another time zone so i lost another hour. danggit!
so arkansas is the home of bubba clinton and of a town known as texarkana and also the ozarks. they even got an ozark university. and mullets are still cool here. and so is living large. and pageants too. miss arkansas is like a big deal there.
on my way here i also passed the hometown of bob dole and carrie underwood! so sometimes big things come out of small towns. imagine you looking like carrie underwood coming out of a town so small, you must be like religion there. or imagine looking like me living in la, wow i would be sam y!
i ate all this!
<a href="http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/k2f2P3EFstUC9RlcrazoAg/l">http://static.px.yelp.co…</a>
so good and so salty and so rich and so sleepy...
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