Decided to try out some BBQ here in Bloomington when I came across this delicious joint out on West 17th Street. Here I ordered a solid 1/2 lb  pulled pork sandwich for only a meager $9, which i would say is only the cheaper side for this quantity and quality of food. This sandwich was just about perfect, it was moist, tender, juicy, and covered in BBQ sauce. The only flaw was that the buns were not large enough to contain all that meat! Not to mention that this meal was accompanied by 2 fantastic pieces of corn bread, which were sweet enough to make me want to order more!
Service here was good too, nothing too out of the ordinary however. Just a a couple of waiters and waitresses going around to make sure everything runs smoothly.
The atmosphere of the place is what drives it all home. It wasn't too crowded, and it was fairly quiet; enough so that I was able to maintain a conversation with my company, but not quiet enough to make it uncomfortable. It made me feel as though I was in the south eating some of the best BBQ in the country. They had little pig statutes with old style wooden tables and chairs which made the experience all the more enjoyable.
Being from the South, I'm very picky on my 'que. Â Thought the que here was ok, but probably good for the area. Â I would have liked a bit more smokiness to it and the BBQ sauce was weak. Â Again, not saying it's bad by any stretch, just not what we have down south. Â It is definitely worth stopping by if you want que though. Â They get good props for having decent sweet tea too.
Review Source:Smokin' Jack's is one of Bloomington's greatest restaurants. Â Their prices are so cheap and the food is great. Â About the only thing in the restaurant that isn't homemade is their French fries, but oh well. Â I'd highly recommend the 1/4 chicken dinner or the pull-out pork sandwich. Â Smokin' Jack's could charge so much more for their food.
Review Source:Ok this place isn't bad, but it's not great. Â The selling point here is the price. Â I paid $16 for 5 ribs, a pulled pork sandwich and a brisket sandwich. Â Everything was extremely tender, but it seemed more like it was braised instead of smoked. Â
I am giving this three stars because it didn't seem like it was true smoked BBQ at all (lack of a smoke ring on anything, boiled complexion to the meat), but it was still good tasting food. Â If you are really fiending for some ribs and you don't have many other options in Bloomington, don't be afraid to go here, just don't expect competition grade BBQ. Â
PS...stay away form the pulled pork. Â IT looked as though it had been putthrough a blender too many times. Â It was the one dish that I completely left sitting there, and I hate to waste food, even if it's mediocre.
I went to Smokin' Jack's the other night with my boyfriend after the two of us got out of class. It's the only barbecue option in town, so it has the market cornered.
The prices are great, I ordered a half chicken meal with green beans and mac and cheese and my boyfriend had rib tips with greens, mac and cheese, and cornbread. The chicken was very tender and served very hot, not warm like at some places. The sauce is a bit sweeter than my preference, but it wasn't a problem to just pull the skin back. The mac and cheese is pretty standard southern style mac and cheese, it isn't baked, but it's tasty and the green beans were good. My boyfriend's meal was great, his rib tips were tasty and the greens were amazing. The corn bread is delicious.
It was about $18 for the two of us to eat and we had enough food for leftovers (1/4 chicken) for lunch the next day.
We'll definitely be back.
I've gotta tell you, I like the Smokin' Jack's. . . but now that I've been to $1 bone Wednesdays, I'm beyond a 3-star and onto the 4-star review!
Great BBQ place. Â Nothing fancy, but big portions with great sides. Â Love the pulled pork, but the winning entree for me right now is $1 bones (ribs) - yes, $1 per bone. Â I've only seen it on Wednesdays. Â The word 'bone' doesn't get it. Â It was sort of like I'd fallen into an episode of The Flinstones. Â HUGE bones. Â And perfectly cooked. Â
Also, as a plus, the staff is wonderful - extremely friendly.
But with $1 bones like these, they could punch me in the face and I wouldn't care.
This place is so good that while we were visiting Bloomington, we actually went back and ate here a second time. When there are so many exciting new places to check out during our first visit to Bloomington, you KNOW that Smokin' Jack's has to be good to have earned two visits in six days.
First, the process is a little strange, but the college kids working behind the counter are exceptionally polite and helpful. The iced tea is tasty (fresh-brewed, not Lipton) and all softdrinks are served in giant tumblers. I suspect you get free refills, but I never managed to finish the first serving on either visit, so I don't know.
On a Yelper's recommendation, I tried the pulled pork sandwich. A 1/4 pound serving that had to have been closer to 2/3 lb, heaped over my plate with homemade coleslaw. I also ordered a second side of corn bread and was rewarded with a construction brick-sized double portion for just a buck more. That entire meal cost $7? Seriously? The corn bread was solid, the cole slaw absolutely delicious and the pulled pork was perfection. My husband got a rib and chicken combo, both of which were in the "OMG so good" column, along with macaroni and cheese (kind of gluey, but apparently it's a Southern thing?) and fries (decent, not exceptional). I also ordered some cherry cobbler, which was a slice that could have easily served two, for the princely sum of two bucks. I was too full to even attempt dessert-- seriously the pulled pork was amazing-- but two bites of the cobbler showed that Smokin' Jack's means business when they claim they are homemade goodness.
On our second visit, I wasn't going to miss out on the ribs, so I got a quarter slab, along with red beans and rice and the baked beans. The spouse couldn't leave without another shot at the ribs, so went for the whole slab so that we could take some home (I married a wise man). The baked beans were peppery and delicious and the red beans with rice was so loaded with meat that it really could have been an entree by itself. The ribs... again, magnificent. The meat tasted of smoke and love and the meat had, as Charlton C said in his review, been smoked so long that the bones had become pliable and soft. If you like sucking marrow, you're going to be in a happy place at Jack's.
Decent BBQ at alright prices. I got the pulled pork and ribs. The ribs were smoked for so long that the bone was soft. I only know this because I accidentally ate the end of it. Yeah I was sort of disgusted, but hey, the meat was tender!
I was there for lunch and it seems to be the place to be for all the local blue collar workers. This isn't a bad thing.
Overall, it's nice to go to a place with some good tasting food that won't cost a ton (as BBQ sometimes can). I would go back.
Want to try their ribs at some point, but went for the bbq since I've only been here once.  Put that coleslaw right on top of your bbq sandwich=heaven.  Or better yet, go to Marsh, get the blue cheese cole slaw (sounds weird, but I still get it EVERY time I'm in town, in the largest container ever, someone makes fun of me, and then all my friends eat it, I'm lucky if  I get a bite), but go get taht, and put that on top of this bbq.  Love the variety of sauces.  It's a bit out there but still gets a worthy crowd.
Review Source:After a week of craving ribs, I finally caved in and decided to indulge in some good ol' fashioned southern BBQ at Smokin' Jacks. Bloomington isn't exactly a hotspot for traditional barbeque, but Smokin' Jacks had always seemed to leave me stuffed and satisfied in the past. However, this time, upon ordering, I had to deal with not one, but two, extremely rude waitresses. They acted like it was a HUGE inconvenience that my friend and I came in to eat, and made us feel extremely unwelcome.
While we initially shrugged off the poor service knowing we would receive a tasty meal, we were very surprised once we were brought our food. The ribs we had ordered were lukewarm at best. They were not served on the bone, and were so fatty that they were almost unedible. It was clear that the french fries we were served were an old batch, as they were soggy and cold. After all of that, when we asked for a refill, the waitress was extremely rude even after we thanked her.
I give this two stars because i have had a decent meal here in the past. However, after this visit I can guarantee that I will not be going back there anytime soon. Chains like Friday's and Chili's offer better ribs than those that I had tonight, and serve up their food with a much friendlier face.
I like this place, the food is filling, service is quick. and there is plenty of space in the dining room. Plus i get a kick out of the life size pink pigs sculptures out front.
I'm not a barbecue kind of person so I've never had the sandwiches or ribs, but I love the chicken wings. The wings are really big, meaty and five is more than enough to fill me up. You can pick from 4 or so sauces that are barbecue based and on the sweeter side.
The sides also make this place surprisingly vegetarian friendly....if I'm not in the mood for chicken, a side of potato salad, mac and cheese and cornbread (all for $1.49 each) makes a great meal.
Disclosures first: I am a barbecue nut. But I try very hard not to be a barbecue snob, because that would kill the joy of barbecue. My particular brand of barbecue fanaticism has a whole lot to do with North Carolina piedmont barbecue, which is to say that I like hickory-smoked pulled pork, especially the outside brown, and I like a dip/sauce that is vinegary and hot.
That said, I have discovered that if I order Smokin' Jack's *ribs* WITHOUT the sauce (which is that Kansas City sweet stuff, which frankly, I cannot abide) and bring my own or use some Tapatio, Cholula, Tabasco, or Texas Pete's, I will be happy as a clam. Why? Because the meat does have a pretty nice flavor-- I can taste smoke. Happy.
This place is fine, it's here, and I'm not complaining. Â But I DO need to make a road trip to Carolina.
Now, if YOU like thick sweetish sauce, and fatty-but-not-super-fatty ribs, knock yourself out and don't fuss your order. On the other hand, if you're particular about your pulled pork, be cautious.
Cake-like cornbread (my baby *loves* it), OK greens and sweet potato pie.
The kids who work the counter are nice.
I have to vote 3.5 stars, mostly because it is the only barbecue spot in Bloomington, and probably the only one within 30 miles at least. I will give it points for the authenticity of the building, seating yourself, ordering at the counter, and the rolls of very necessary paper towels standing at each table.
The food is average as far as barbecue goes, but the ribs are far better than anything else I've found in Btown. Giant, tender, succulent ribs piled high on a paper plate? How can you go wrong?
The chicken is very average. They just grill it and throw some barbecue sauce on it, no real attempt to flavor the actual meat, or cook it long and slow enough so the meat is tender. I've had real barbecue chicken, even smoked chicken, at BBQ joints before, and I feel I could get this chicken anywhere else in town.
Finally, the sides are relatively inadequate. The baked beans leave somthing to be desired, and I wish the cornbread came standard with a meal instead of the piece of wonder bread they plop on top of the food. The cornbread salad is delicious, though, and I was told the green beans and other veggies were good (I think they were swimming in butter, so how could they not be?), and besides, how do you screw up veggies?
Delicious! I went to Smokin' Jacks with a group. It was great fun.
I tried the pulled pork sandwich- yum! I washed this down with sweet tea (oh, how I love sweet tea) and peach cobbler. The cobbler was so-so. I was really full after that, but had to sample items on friends' plates. Their fries were amazing (and I wished I had ordered them). The cornbread was  good--sweet and fluffy.
Smokin' Jacks is great for an evening of gluttony. If the weather is nice, it's great to sit on the porch outside--you feel like you're in someone's home!
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