North Carolina is fairly well known for having good barbecue.  It’s not as good as Memphis (in my opinion), and it is unique with its mustard-based barbecue (instead of ketchup-based).  As a result, my friends wanted to go try out Jim’s Famous BBQ in Chapel Hill.  According to Yelp!, Jim’s is very highly rated for having good BBQ.  On the outset, I was concerned as Jim’s has obviously filled in a former Applebee’s/TGI Friday’s/Other Casual Dining franchise location, as the interior had the sterile atmosphere of a chain restaurant.  That is never a good sign for a BBQ restaurant, though I figured I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. 

For me, I can’t eat BBQ outside of the side dishes, which for the most part are the same, but I try to rate BBQ restaurants from the perspective of how good the sauce is (and if the sauce is vegetarian).  Fortunately, Jim’s provides its BBQ sauce tableside, and has all the ingredients listed on the back.  In case you can’t read, the first ingredient of the BBQ sauce is barbecue sauce.  Barbecue sauce cannot be an ingredient of barbecue sauce!  Sauce is not a fundamental element, so basically Jim’s BBQ sauce is just watered down barbecue sauce.  Not a good start.

What makes Jim’s worse is that they would not even let me get a combination plate of sides (despite the fact that you could get multiple sides with any main dish).  So, I ended up having to order 4 separate side dishes at full price just so I could properly review this place.  Jim’s obviously did not want to make my job easy.  The macaroni and cheese was pretty standard fare from what I would expect to get in a grocery store hot food section (and not a nice grocery store like Whole Foods that has GREAT mac and cheese).  It was pretty dry and flavorless, though was made edible with the watered down barbecue sauce.

The barbecue baked beans was pretty tasty, though were a little to sweet for my liking.  Also, I didn’t need to eat so much barbecue baked beans (this would be an instance where having a veggie combo plate would have been useful).

The coleslaw was very mayonnaise-y, but I liked it.  It too didn’t taste very flavorful, and tasted like it came from a grocery store.  I’m willing to bet that most of the sides are not made in-house.

The only dish that was decent (but nothing to write home about) would be the fried okra.  I think they were frozen okra, but the breading wasn’t too dry or hard (as is the case with many other fried okras that I’ve had). 

Overall, Jim’s is a pretty awful place if you’re a vegetarian.  I don’t even know if it’s a great place if you eat meat.  If you want the true southern dining experience, I think Mama Dips is a better place to go.  So save your time and money and don’t bother with Jim’s.  One cheese sandwich.

Jim’s Famous BBQ
115 South Elliot Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27514 
(919) 942-7427