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The Very Best of Texas
Barbecue Arlington, TX 8 picks

The Best Barbecue in Arlington, Texas

Eight verified Arlington barbecue joints, from the Michelin recommended Tex-Ethiopian smokehouse on South Cooper to the Kreuz Market sausage at Texas Live.

The Very Best of Texas Editors 3 min read How we rank →

The Short Answer

Smoke'N Ash BBQ on South Cooper is the best barbecue in Arlington, Texas. It is the only Tex-Ethiopian smokehouse in the state, the only Arlington restaurant in the Michelin Guide, and a 2025 James Beard semifinalist. For straight Central Texas brisket downtown, go to Hurtado Barbecue on Front Street.

Plates of brisket, pork ribs, and sausage
Photo: Kent Wang, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Smoke'N Ash BBQ

South Arlington, in a strip center on South Cooper · $$

Known for Central Texas brisket and ribs plated next to injera, tibs and berbere

Patrick and Fasicka Hicks ran a food truck starting in 2012, opened a brick and mortar in 2018, and moved into the larger South Cooper space with a full bar in 2023. Patrick smokes Central Texas style. Fasicka was born in Addis Ababa. The menu is the two of them refusing to pick a side, so brisket and pork ribs land on one plate and doro wat, tibs and berbere on the next, and some of the barbecue gets finished with awaze.

The recognition is unusually heavy for a strip center pit. It was the only Arlington restaurant in the inaugural Michelin Guide to Texas in November 2024, a James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist in 2025, and an honorable mention on Texas Monthly's 2025 barbecue list. The City of Arlington published the family's story on its own news page, which is not something that happens for an ordinary restaurant.

Go-to order or tip: Order a combination so you get the smoked meat and the Ethiopian side of the kitchen on the same tray, and eat with the injera instead of a fork.

Address
5904 S Cooper St, Ste 110, Arlington, TX 76017
Phone
(817) 987-7715
Hours
Lunch and dinner most days with at least one closed day each week. Published hours disagree across listings, so call before you drive.
Website
smokenashbbq.net

Hurtado Barbecue

Downtown, in the old depot building on Front Street · $$

Known for Central Texas brisket with a Tex-Mex accent, what Brandon Hurtado calls Mexicue

Brandon and Hannah Hurtado started with pop-ups at breweries in 2018, moved to a food truck in 2019, and opened the Front Street restaurant in February 2020, weeks before everything shut down. Texas Monthly put it on the Top 50 barbecue list published in October 2021, and it came back as an honorable mention on the 2025 list.

The brisket is orthodox. The rest of the menu is not, and that is the point. Birria tacos, brisket tostadas and hatch chile mac are what locals argue about. Hurtado has since grown to Dallas, Fort Worth and Mansfield, plus a stand inside Globe Life Field, but Front Street is the original room.

Go-to order or tip: It is a short walk from the Urban Union block downtown, so park once and pair it with a drink afterward instead of driving twice.

Address
205 E Front St, Arlington, TX 76011
Phone
(682) 323-5141
Hours
Seven days a week, late morning into the evening. Popular cuts sell out on game days.
Website
hurtadobbq.com/locations/arlington

M'Jays House of Smoke

Southwest Arlington on West Green Oaks, sharing space with TJ's Catfish and Wings · $$

Known for Brisket stuffed baked potatoes and loaded smoked cornbread

Marcus Jerod Campbell started selling smoked turkey legs and ribs in 2019 and went into barbecue full time in 2021. Texas Monthly's barbecue writers profiled the place, and their advice is the useful part. Ask for the brisket sliced rather than chopped and you get a real read on Campbell's smoker work, with juicy lean slices and well developed bark.

What made it famous is the excess. The loaded baked potatoes went viral, and the biggest of them arrives buried under brisket, sausage, ribs, cheese and sauce. The sign is so small you cannot see it from Green Oaks. It hangs above the door of TJ's Catfish and Wings, which belongs to an uncle of Campbell's wife, Koyia.

Go-to order or tip: Order the brisket sliced, not chopped, and split one of the loaded potatoes between two people unless you plan on a long nap.

Address
4261 W Green Oaks Blvd, Arlington, TX 76016
Phone
(817) 572-1600
Hours
Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays. Known to run out, so go early.
Website
facebook.com/mjayshouseofsmoke

225° BBQ

East Arlington, on East Main Street · $$

Known for Texas barbecue crossed with Mexican home cooking

Rene and Joyce Ramirez started 225° as a food truck in Dallas in 2018, worked through Grand Prairie and a run of parking lots, and finally landed the East Main storefront. Rene traces the whole thing back to a brisket he ruined at a family cook-off in Pleasant Grove.

Fort Worth Magazine has covered it twice and UTA's Shorthorn called it a tucked away gem, which is accurate. The brisket, ribs and burnt ends hold up on their own, and then the menu goes somewhere else entirely with birria ramen, brisket elote and green spaghetti.

Go-to order or tip: Order a plain sliced brisket alongside whatever fusion plate tempts you, so you can judge the smoke before the chiles take over.

Address
601 E Main St, Arlington, TX 76010
Phone
(817) 962-0226
Hours
Open daily with a shorter Sunday. Posted hours vary by listing, so confirm before a late run.
Website
facebook.com/225BBQ

Jambo's BBQ at the Arlington Steakhouse

West Division, in the 1931 Arlington Steak House building · $$

Known for Barbecue served inside the oldest restaurant building in town

The Arlington Steak House opened on Division in 1931 and ran until 2015, when Jambo's took over the building. UTA's Shorthorn marked the building's ninetieth anniversary in 2021, and the room still reads like the old highway restaurant it was, which is most of the reason to come.

The Jambo name belongs to Jamie Geer, the Fort Worth pit builder who has been welding Jambo Pits since 1989 and opened Jambo's BBQ Shack in Rendon in 2013. If you have watched competition barbecue, you have seen his smokers.

Go-to order or tip: Come for the building as much as the tray. It is the one Arlington barbecue stop that doubles as a piece of the city's history.

Address
1724 W Division St, Arlington, TX 76012
Phone
(817) 275-7881
Hours
Open daily, roughly late morning until early evening.
Website
jambosbbq.com

The Original Roy Hutchins Barbeque

Entertainment District, on Copeland Road just off I-30 · $$

Known for Texas Twinkies and a 450 seat room with ten smokestacks out front

This one opened on March 12, 2026, with a ribbon cutting alongside the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce the next day, so treat it as promising rather than proven. It is the second restaurant from Roy Hutchins with his son Wes and grandson Zack, following their Trophy Club location, and the family dates its recipes to 1978.

The scale is the story. Five rooms, seating for more than 450, and ten smokestacks visible from the interstate, less than a mile from AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field. The Texas Twinkie, a jalapeño stuffed with cream cheese and chopped brisket and wrapped in thick cut bacon, is what the family is known for.

Go-to order or tip: This is the one to pick when you have a group of twelve and ninety minutes before kickoff. Everywhere else on this list will make you wait or turn you away.

Address
1600 E Copeland Rd, Arlington, TX 76011
Phone
(682) 237-4100
Hours
Open daily. The room is built for crowds, so it absorbs a game day rush better than anywhere else on this list.
Website
royhutchinsbbq.com

Lockhart Smokehouse

Entertainment District, inside Texas Live! · $$

Known for Kreuz Market sausage, served on butcher paper

Lockhart Smokehouse started in Dallas in Bishop Arts and opened this Arlington location inside Texas Live! in 2018. It is the only place in Dallas Fort Worth serving Kreuz Market sausage, shipped up from Lockhart, and that single fact is why it earns a spot here over several closer options.

Understand what you are walking into. This is a restaurant inside an entertainment complex next to the ballpark, with the prices and the crowd that implies. The sausage is the reason to go, not the atmosphere.

Go-to order or tip: Order the Kreuz sausage. It is the one thing on this entire list you genuinely cannot get anywhere else in the Metroplex.

Address
1650 E Randol Mill Rd, Ste 130, Arlington, TX 76011
Phone
(817) 769-1747
Hours
Open daily from late morning. Event nights change everything, so check before a concert or a home game.
Website
lockhartsmokehouse.com/locations-and-menus

Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Q

South Arlington, on the I-20 frontage road · $$

Known for Barbecue sold over a gas station counter, open when nothing else is

Rudy's is a Texas chain and we are not going to pretend otherwise. It is on this list for one honest reason. It is open seven days a week starting in the morning, which makes it the only barbecue in Arlington you can reliably get at breakfast or after the independents have sold out and gone home.

The brisket is competent rather than remarkable, the creamed corn has a genuine following, and the whole thing runs out of a convenience store attached to a fuel canopy. For a road trip stop off I-20 or a Monday when half this list is closed, that is enough.

Go-to order or tip: Ask for moist brisket rather than lean, and buy a bottle of the sauce on the way out if you liked it.

Address
451 E Interstate 20, Arlington, TX 76018
Phone
(817) 465-7839
Hours
Seven days a week, opening early in the morning and running into the evening.
Website
rudysbbq.com/location/detail/arlington-tx

How did we pick these?

We started from the sources that have actually eaten in Arlington rather than the ones that aggregate reviews. Texas Monthly's barbecue desk, the November 2024 MICHELIN Guide to Texas, Fort Worth Magazine, the Dallas Morning News, UTA's student paper The Shorthorn, the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce and the city's own convention bureau. Then we checked every address, phone number and operating status against at least two listings before anything went on the page.

There are no partners, clients or sponsored entries here. Hello Web Designs has exactly one client in Arlington and it is a salon suite operator, so nothing was pre-filled into this article and nothing was cut because of a relationship. Every entry is on the merits.

Three candidates came out. Bodacious Bar-B-Q on East Division, an Arlington fixture for years, is now listed as closed, so it is gone. Smokin ACE BBQ is a food truck we could not pin to a verifiable address or find in a second independent source. And one widely repeated "best barbecue in Arlington" award turned out to belong to a restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, which is a good reminder that a lot of what ranks for this search was never written by anybody who lives here.

What should you know before you go?

Hours are the real hazard. Several of these joints cook a fixed amount of meat and stop when it is gone, and the posted closing time is the latest possible one, not the likely one. Monday is the common dark day among the independents. Lunch is safer than dinner everywhere on this list.

Joint Area Best for The one thing to order
Smoke'N Ash BBQ South Cooper The meal worth crossing DFW for A Tex-Ethiopian combination
Hurtado Barbecue Downtown Orthodox Central Texas brisket Sliced brisket, then birria
M'Jays House of Smoke West Green Oaks Excess, cheerfully A loaded potato, split two ways
225° BBQ East Main Barbecue that goes sideways Brisket elote
Jambo's BBQ West Division Eating inside 1931 Whatever the room suggests
Roy Hutchins Barbeque Copeland Road Big groups, game days Texas Twinkies
Lockhart Smokehouse Texas Live! Sausage you cannot get elsewhere Kreuz Market sausage
Rudy's I-20 frontage Early mornings and Mondays Moist brisket

Parking is only a problem in two places. Downtown around Front Street fills up on event nights, and the Entertainment District becomes its own weather system when the Cowboys or the Rangers are home. If your visit lands on a game day, either eat before noon or pick the room built for a crowd.

What about the barbecue just outside the Arlington city line?

David's Barbecue is the one everybody brings up, and it deserves the mention. The Bryan family opened its first barbecue restaurant in Oak Cliff in February 1910 and the business has run through five generations since. The catch is the map. Its address at 2224 W Park Row Drive is in Pantego, the small town Arlington wraps around on every side, so a list that calls it Arlington barbecue is bending the geography. Go anyway if you want the oldest lineage in the area, Tuesday through Saturday, and know that you are technically leaving town to do it.

Where should you eat on a game day?

Work backwards from the crowd. If you have ninety minutes and a group, The Original Roy Hutchins Barbeque on Copeland Road can seat you when nowhere else can. If you have a couple of hours and want the better food, eat at Smoke'N Ash in South Arlington before you head to the district at all, because the drive back across town at 6 p.m. is not the problem people expect it to be. If you are already downtown, Hurtado is a four minute walk from the bars on Front Street.

What should you do next?

Drive to South Cooper and eat at Smoke'N Ash. Nothing else in Texas is doing what that kitchen does, and the Michelin listing and the James Beard nod are not marketing. Save Hurtado for the next trip, when you want brisket without a second idea attached to it.

For the rest of the city, our guide to the best restaurants in Arlington covers everything that is not smoked, and the Arlington city guide collects it all in one place. If you are working through the region's pits, the best barbecue in Dallas is thirty minutes east, and every city we have ranked so far sits in the barbecue section.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. It is Michelin recommended, which is a different thing. When the inaugural MICHELIN Guide to Texas came out in November 2024 it listed Smoke'N Ash as a recommended restaurant, the only one in Arlington to make the guide at all. It was separately a James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist in 2025.

Hurtado Barbecue for the most orthodox Central Texas version, and it is the one with a Texas Monthly Top 50 on its record. M'Jays is the sleeper if you ask for the brisket sliced rather than chopped. Smoke'N Ash smokes excellent brisket too, but you go there for what happens next to it.

There is no single answer, and that is the point. Most of the independents here cook a set amount and stop when it is gone, which on a busy Saturday can be early afternoon. M'Jays in particular has a reputation for running out. Going at lunch rather than dinner solves most of it.

Sunday is easy. Monday is the problem, because several independents take it as their dark day. Rudy's on I-20 and the larger Entertainment District rooms are open seven days a week, so a Monday visit generally means one of those.

Three of these are inside the Entertainment District or a short drive from it. The Original Roy Hutchins Barbeque on Copeland Road is under a mile from both stadiums and seats more than 450, Lockhart Smokehouse is inside Texas Live! next to the ballpark, and Hurtado Barbecue is downtown with a second stand inside Globe Life Field itself.

Sources & further reading

Hours, prices, and menus change. Call ahead before you drive.

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