7 BBQ Chains With The Best Meat Samplers

BBQ restaurants might seem simple — after all, they're all about meat, meat, meat — but in truth, they're actually pretty overwhelming. With the sheer number of cuts, flavors, and different meats on offer, it can be hard to feel as though you're covering all the bases and making the right decision. That's where the meat sampler comes in. A standard option in BBQ restaurants (although not all of them explicitly refer to them as a "sampler" — they may also be called platters, sharing plates, or feasts), samplers generally consist of several meat options with a couple of sides, and allow customers to try a few of the eatery's best or most popular choices in one go. They're reasonably priced, usually fairly hearty, and all kinds of delicious.

However, sampler plates can suffer in BBQ restaurants when every element isn't quite on point. In chain restaurants, where dishes fly out of the kitchen at rapid speed, this can be especially glaring: If the brisket is too dry, or the sausage isn't cooked optimally, the whole thing can be ruined. Thankfully, there are a lot of chains that get their meat samplers right, and which customers flock to again and again. In this article, we combed through dozens of recent customer reviews to figure out which BBQ chains were nailing their samplers.

City BBQ's a big old chain, and scale can often go hand-in-hand with a middling quality. Thankfully, when it comes to its sampler plate, this restaurant gets it right. City BBQ has a range of samplers for customers to choose from, including its Judge's Sampler and City Sampler, as well as a few meat-and-sides combos. Its most eye-catching option, though, is The Motherload, a hulking sampler plate that has six different meat options, six sides, cornbread, and Texas toast. This one's designed to be shared, people.

Most customers, though, drift towards either the City Sampler or the Judge's Sampler, both of which win a lot of praise for their quality and quantity, as well as their variety. "I ordered the City Sampler and everything was hot and delicious," stated a happy customer on Yelp, who also cited the great service at their Charlotte, North Carolina restaurant. If you're looking for something more modest, the City Sampler is the smaller of the two, coming with beef brisket, pulled pork, Texas-style sausage, and turkey breast, as well as two sides and slices of Texas toast (okay, maybe it's not that modest). The Judge's Sampler, meanwhile, subs out the sausage for a half-slab of ribs and goes hard on the poultry. Either of these would go down a treat right now.

Like all good barbecue chains, Mission BBQ knows that choice is everything. Its sampler options deliver on that front. Mission doesn't do set samplers, but instead gives you either a choice of a two-meat or a three-meat plate, and you pick the ones you want. Up for grabs on these plates (which cost $14.19 or $21.29 each, both coming with a slice of cornbread) are brisket, pulled chicken, pulled pork, sliced turkey, and classic or jalapeño and cheese sausage. Yum.

It's a simple offer, but it definitely works for customers, who consistently state how good the quality of these sampler plates is, and of each individual component. "The food though ... Can't say enough. The wife and I shared the 3 meat sampler w/ 3 sides. Every single thing we had was delicious," said a reviewer on Google Reviews. Another customer (also on Google Reviews) stated that "My wife and I shared the sampler and could finish it but it was so good we ordered a second sampler to take home. We found our new BBQ spot!" Ordering the same meal again to enjoy later? If that isn't a glowing endorsement, then we don't know what to tell ya.

Red Hot & Blue clearly knows the importance of catchy menu item names. It doesn't just call its samplers boring old "two-meat" or "three-meat" options; no, no, it has a bit more style than that. Dine at this BBQ chain, and you get to choose from the Two-Timer, Tennessee Triple, or the Whole Smoker, which have two, three, and five meats to choose from, respectively. With the first two, you pick from the old classics of pulled pork, pulled chicken, brisket, Texas sausage, and smoked turkey breast; the Whole Smoker has 'em all. Oh, and each plate comes with two Southern sides.

Although we get why you might not want to over-extend yourself here, the Whole Smoker is definitely an option worth going for, and it's a bit of a fan favorite. "The whole smoker is amazing. Best of all worlds," said a diner on Google Reviews, with others pointing out the generosity of the portions on this plate, and the tastiness of the food itself. That said, the smaller-sized Tennessee Triple and Two-Timer have also won rave reviews, precisely because Red Hot & Blue's meat is all pretty decent — so it's hard to go wrong, even if you're only picking two meats. Its sides are also a winner, and folks repeatedly praise the hush puppies. 

The Salt Lick BBQ may not be the biggest chain around, but you shouldn't write it off. Not if its sampler is anything to go by. This family-run restaurant dubs its sampler "Thurman's Choice" (named after patriarch Thurman Roberts, who conceived of the idea of The Salt Lick with wife Hisako, years before it took off), and for just $21.95, you get a heaping portion of brisket, pork ribs, and sausage. The menu specifies that you can't make any substitutions here; apparently, it's best to eat it the way that Thurman himself did.

Don't worry, though: The Salt Lick clearly knows what it's doing by keeping things to these three key elements. Thurman's Choice goes down a treat with customers, who repeatedly praise the overall plate and the flavor of the individual meats. "All of the meats were so good. Tender, flavorful, and had that nice crispy char on the outside," said a Google Review. The meat manages to burst with flavor and intensity without being overly fatty, and the whole thing feels delightfully balanced. Plus, with that price, you can't go wrong.

Sonny's BBQ knows the power of variety. That's why it offers you a lot of options with its sampler plates. Sonny's opts for a choose-it-yourself format with its samplers, which it calls its "Pick Of The Pit" combos. You can opt for a plate with either two, three, or four meats, all of which come with several sides. The variety of meats you can choose from is pretty wide, too: Brisket, smoked pork, smoked wings, baby back and St. Louis ribs, jalapeño cheddar sausage, and a quarter of a BBQ chicken are all on offer.

We're pretty sure you'll find something you like — that's if what customers say about these plates is anything to go by, at least. The Pick of The Pit samplers are a hit at Sonny's, with people continually highlighting how consistent they are, no matter the size or the combo that you go for. The sides that come with the plate are also a real highlight, and help to balance out the heavier meats without distracting from the star of the show. Throw in reasonable prices and great service, and this joint is one of the best places around to get a sampler. It's just a shame that you don't see it that much anymore. 

When it comes to its samplers, at Famous Dave's, it's all about sharing. This chain, which recently made some big changes to its restaurants, has sampler plates that are massive affairs, and actually aren't referred to as "samplers" at all on its menu. Instead, they're known as "Feasts," which feels appropriate for their size. Its Feast for 2 combines three meats and five sides, and is designed to serve two to three people. If you're eating with an even bigger crowd, you'll want to go for its All-American BBQ Feast, which again gives you three meats (although one of those is a whole country-roasted chicken, so it's not exactly skimping here) and the same sides, but in a serving size that will feed up to six.

Trust us when we say that you won't leave Famous Dave's hungry. Its Feast plates are absolutely enormous, so much so that customers have had to leave the restaurant with doggy bags for the next day. They're not just big, either — they're good. Each element on the plate is honed to perfection, with all the meat shining in its individuality and the sides bringing everything home. "Brisket was terrific, BBQ chicken and ribs over the top in goodness. That corn muffin was delicious! Soft, moist, flavorful! Too much for us to eat it all," said a pleased diner on Yelp. Well, we're hungry now.

Underestimate Edley's Bar-B-Que at your peril. This chain may not have the size to compete with the likes of City BBQ or Famous Dave's, but it knows how to do barbecue, and its Nashville-style food stands toe-to-toe with some of the best BBQ in the country. Ordering its Smoker Sampler is one of the best ways to see this for yourself: With a choice of any three smoked meats and four sides (as well as cornbread, pickles, and sauces), it's a plate that's designed for sharing and enjoying.

Need more convincing? Well, luckily, content customers are happy to do that for us. "We got the sampler platter with ribs, brisket, and pulled pork. Everything was phenomenal," said a pleased diner on Google Reviews, one of many who have praised this menu item at Edley's. It doesn't skimp on the sides, either, with its portions of mac and cheese, coleslaw, and green beans coming in big ol' sharing cups (the mac is topped with a scattering of breadcrumbs, which we frankly love). If you want an authentic BBQ experience, you can do far worse than dining at Edley's.

To establish which U.S. BBQ restaurants had the best meat samplers, we first had to establish what a meat sampler actually was. Several chains don't use the term "sampler" to describe their meat combo plates, but instead opt for terms like "platters" or "feasts," which nonetheless offer several meats and sides – and so uphold the central concept of a sampler plate. As such, we first combed through all the major BBQ chains in the U.S. to find the ones that offered options like this, and then we looked through customer reviews from the last 12 months to determine which places were doing it well.

We did this not by looking at the selection of meats they offered (as all sampler plates generally contain similar things), but by how much customers praised each element. Chains that didn't make our list usually had one or two parts of the sampler that didn't quite stand up to scrutiny, creating an inconsistent plate of food that didn't feel worth the money. By contrast, the chains here all had multiple reviews where customers said that each meat portion on the plate was good in its own right, and ones where people cited the plate's value for money and generous portions. The samplers listed here also put a lot of care into their sides, which customers also highlighted as a positive in their reviews.