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The Very Best of Texas
Barbecue Marshall, TX 5 picks

The Best Barbecue in Marshall, Texas

Five verified Marshall barbecue pits ranked, led by an 83-year-old Highway 154 smokehouse whose brisket and rib pit only fires on Friday and Saturday.

The Very Best of Texas Editors 4 min read How we rank →

The Short Answer

Bear Creek Smokehouse on Highway 154 is the best barbecue in Marshall, a Shoults family smokehouse running since 1943 with a pit that fires Friday and Saturday. Bodacious Bar-B-Q on Victory Drive is the pick for spare ribs and the longest hours, and Best of Texas Bar-B-Que is the Thursday and Friday lunch run worth planning around.

The Texas and Pacific Depot in Marshall, Texas
Photo: Nicolas Henderson from Coppell, Texas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bear Creek Smokehouse

Highway 154, northwest of town toward Harleton · $$

Known for Smoked meats from a family smokehouse operating since 1943

Bear Creek is the only name on this list with four generations behind it. The smokehouse began in 1943 as the dream of Hick and Nellie Shoults, who raised and smoked turkeys on the family farm to bring in income, and the operation on Highway 154 now runs a general store, a kitchen, and a barbecue pit out of the same place. The Shoults family motto, printed on their own site, is food, family and faith.

Understand the three parts before you drive out. The general store sells the smoked beef, pork and poultry that ship statewide. The Kitchen serves lunch from 11 a.m. most days. The Pit, which is the actual barbecue counter, runs Friday and Saturday only, or until it sells out, and Friday is their rib plate day. Treat it as a Friday or Saturday destination and a weekday lunch stop, not the same visit.

Go-to order or tip: Go Friday for the rib plate, and bring a cooler. The general store next door is the point of the trip as much as the plate is.

Address
10857 State Hwy 154, Marshall, TX 75670
Phone
(903) 935-5217
Hours
General store Monday to Saturday, the Kitchen from 11 a.m., the Pit Friday and Saturday only or until sold out
Website
bearcreeksmokehouse.com

Bodacious Bar-B-Q

Victory Drive, next to Domino's · $

Known for Spare ribs, and the only Marshall pit Texas Monthly has singled out by name

Texas Monthly reviewed this store in May 2015 and reported that Joe Isonhood took the reins of the Marshall Bodacious in 1994 and spent the years since focused on making great spare ribs. In a companion piece on the Longview original, the magazine put it more bluntly and said Marshall was where the best spare ribs in East Texas were coming out. Bodacious is an East Texas chain started by Roland Lindsey in Longview in 1968, but the stores run independently enough that the Marshall ribs are their own thing.

Order the ribs and the rib plate. Recent reviews are consistent on two points, that the ribs are the reason to come and that the rest of the menu is ordinary, and a few diners in the last year have flagged uneven service. The upside is availability. This is the Marshall pit most likely to be open when you want barbecue, which is not a small thing in a town where two of the better pits run three days a week.

Go-to order or tip: Ribs, not brisket. Skip the potato salad, which draws the most complaints of anything on the plate.

Address
2018 Victory Dr, Marshall, TX 75672
Phone
(903) 938-4880
Hours
Open daily on the longest schedule in town, roughly 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., so call for the current day

Best of Texas Bar-B-Que

Bailey Cut-Off Road, in the country southeast of town · $

Known for Large stuffed brisket potatoes and meaty beef ribs

This is the highest rated barbecue in Marshall on both Tripadvisor and Yelp, and it is also the hardest to catch. It sits on about an acre and a half of country outside town on Bailey Cut-Off, and the posted hours disagree across every listing we checked. Thursday and Friday lunch is the only window every source agrees on. Yelp shows Saturday open until 5 p.m., Tripadvisor shows Saturday closed, and Yellow Pages shows all three days running to 7 p.m. Call before you drive.

The menu leans on moist brisket, pork shoulder, pork ribs, large beef ribs, four sausage flavors, and the large stuffed brisket potatoes that reviewers name more than anything else. Multiple reviewers note that it sells out before the posted closing time, which is usually a good sign and always an argument for going early.

Go-to order or tip: Arrive by noon on a Thursday or Friday. They have no working website, so the phone is the only reliable source on hours.

Address
323 Bailey Cut-Off, Marshall, TX 75670
Phone
(903) 927-1080
Hours
A short weekly schedule built around Thursday and Friday lunch, with Saturday varying by source, so call first

Bar-B-Q Express

Elmore Street, near Elysian Fields Avenue · $

Known for Wednesday fried ribs, and a rotating board of soul food specials

Texas Monthly went out of its way to write about one dish here, the fried ribs that owner Herbert White serves as a Wednesday special. The magazine reported that White kept the menu largely unchanged for the first two decades and then started the rotation of soul food specials in 2015, and that one regular buys three or four racks of the fried ribs every week. The writer was skeptical on sight and the dish has a following anyway.

Marshall's own tourism office lists Bar-B-Q Express among the places to eat in town, which is worth something in a city where several barbecue listings turn out to be directory ghosts. Hours conflict between Yelp and Tripadvisor on how late it runs Friday, so if you are driving in for the fried ribs, go on a Wednesday at lunch and the question never comes up.

Go-to order or tip: Wednesday is the day. The fried ribs are the reason this place is on the list, and they are a weekly special, not a standing menu item.

Address
801 Elmore St, Marshall, TX 75670
Phone
(903) 923-8705
Hours
Tuesday to Friday lunch and afternoon, with sources disagreeing on the Friday close, and weekends closed

Porky's Smokehouse & Grill

East Carolanne Boulevard, south side · $

Known for A dependable Tuesday to Saturday plate, and fried catfish that outshines the barbecue

Porky's publishes its hours on its own site and keeps them, which puts it ahead of most of this list for anyone trying to plan a trip. Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. The site describes what it does as good ole' Texas BBQ and says it has served the Marshall area for years, and the menu runs the standard brisket, ribs and sausage.

Be honest about where it sits. Its review scores are the lowest of the five here, around 3.7 to 3.8, and the single most repeated comment from diners is that the fried catfish is the best thing on the menu at a barbecue restaurant. We kept it because it is verified, open five days a week, and the right answer on a Tuesday when Bear Creek's pit is cold and Best of Texas is closed.

Go-to order or tip: Order the catfish alongside the barbecue rather than instead of it. The regulars are not wrong about it.

Address
504 E Carolanne Blvd, Marshall, TX 75672
Phone
(903) 927-2144
Hours
Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday
Website
porkysmokehouse.com

How did we pick these?

We started with every barbecue business that shows up for Marshall across Yelp, Tripadvisor, the Greater Marshall Chamber directory and the city's own Visit Marshall dining page, then cut everything we could not confirm was open right now and doing barbecue.

Three names did not survive that. Wright On Taco & BBQ moved into 409 East Grand Avenue around 2024 and has real barbecue credentials, including Texas Monthly coverage of its original Harleton location, but its own domain now redirects to an unrelated overseas website and at least one directory flags it as possibly closed. We are not sending anybody to an address we cannot stand behind. Neely's Brown Pig, the 1404 East Grand sandwich counter famous for the Brown Pig, is closed, with a different restaurant in the building and only unverified reports of a food trailer. Boomtown BBQ on North Highway 259 is flagged permanently closed. Pic-N-Pay Texas Style Cookin' on East Travis is open and good, but it is a home-cooking cafe that happens to sell a barbecue sandwich, not a barbecue joint, so it did not belong on this list.

That left five we could verify. No business on this list has any relationship with us, and nothing here is sponsored. Where hours conflicted between listings, which happened on four of the five, we describe the pattern instead of asserting a time, because a confidently wrong opening hour is worse than no hour at all.

Which Marshall barbecue is open when you want it?

Hours are the real problem with barbecue in Marshall, more than quality is. Two of the five best pits in town run three days a week or fewer on the barbecue side. Here is the pattern.

Pit Days you can count on Best dish Price
Bear Creek Smokehouse Pit Friday and Saturday, kitchen and store Monday to Saturday Friday rib plate $$
Bodacious Bar-B-Q Daily, longest hours in town Spare ribs $
Best of Texas Bar-B-Que Thursday and Friday lunch, Saturday varies Stuffed brisket potato $
Bar-B-Q Express Tuesday to Friday, fried ribs Wednesday Wednesday fried ribs $
Porky's Smokehouse Tuesday to Saturday, 11 to 7 Fried catfish, honestly $

Read that table before you drive. A Saturday afternoon visitor has Bear Creek and possibly Best of Texas. A Tuesday visitor has Porky's, Bar-B-Q Express and Bodacious. A Sunday visitor has Bodacious or nothing.

What should you know before you go?

Two of these are out of town, not in it. Bear Creek sits at 10857 State Highway 154 northwest toward Harleton, roughly fifteen minutes from the courthouse square, and Best of Texas is southeast on Bailey Cut-Off in open country. Neither is a walk from downtown, and neither is somewhere you want to arrive at 2 p.m. hoping.

Selling out is a real risk at the two best ones. Bear Creek's own site says the Pit runs Friday and Saturday or until sold out, and Best of Texas reviewers repeatedly mention arriving to find the counter picked over. Noon beats one o'clock, and one o'clock beats two.

Phone ahead, particularly at Best of Texas. Its old domain is now a parked lander page, so there is no website to check, and the five directory listings we found gave four different sets of hours. The number is (903) 927-1080.

Finally, if you are building a day around this, the barbecue pairs naturally with the rest of town. The Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and the other things to do in Marshall are a ten minute drive from three of these five, and the courthouse square is where you want to be between lunch and the drive home.

What about Longview and Nacogdoches?

If you are willing to drive, you can do better, and it is worth being straight about that. Marshall has no Texas Monthly Top 50 pit. Longview, twenty five miles west on I-20, has several pits worth the trip and the Bodacious original on Mobberly Avenue, and our Longview barbecue ranking covers them. Nacogdoches, about seventy miles south, has an actual Top 50 entry in Brendyn's BBQ.

Marshall's case is different. What you get here is an 83-year-old family smokehouse, a rib counter Texas Monthly singled out by name, and a fried rib special that exists nowhere else. That is worth a Friday, which is more than most towns this size can claim.

What should you do next?

Pick your day first, then your pit. If it is a Friday, go to Bear Creek Smokehouse for the rib plate and walk out with a cooler of smoked meat from the store. If it is a Thursday, call (903) 927-1080 and get to Best of Texas by noon for a stuffed brisket potato. If it is a Wednesday, go to Bar-B-Q Express for the fried ribs. Any other day, Bodacious on Victory Drive, and order the ribs.

More Marshall is at the Marshall city guide, and the rest of our rankings across the state are at the barbecue hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. No Marshall pit has made the Texas Monthly Top 50 list. The magazine has written about two of them, reviewing Bodacious Bar-B-Q on Victory Drive in 2015 for its spare ribs and covering the Wednesday fried ribs at Bar-B-Q Express, but neither has been a Top 50 entry. The nearest Top 50 pits are in Nacogdoches and Longview.

Not easily. Bodacious on Victory Drive is the only one of our five with any Sunday service, and its hours vary by week. Bear Creek's general store, Best of Texas, Bar-B-Q Express and Porky's are all closed Sunday. If you are passing through on a Sunday, plan on Bodacious or plan on something other than barbecue.

Both, on different schedules. The general store sells smoked meats to take home and ship, the Kitchen serves lunch from 11 a.m. most days, and the Pit, the barbecue counter, runs Friday and Saturday only or until it sells out. If you want a barbecue plate specifically, go Friday or Saturday.

It is normal for small-town Texas pits that cook in limited batches and close when the meat runs out. Best of Texas builds its week around Thursday and Friday lunch, Bear Creek fires the pit Friday and Saturday, and Bar-B-Q Express runs Tuesday to Friday. Treat posted hours as a starting point and call ahead.

The restaurant at 1404 East Grand Avenue is closed, and listings for that address now show a different business in the building. Reviewers report a Neely's food trailer still selling the Brown Pig chopped pork sandwich around East Grand, but we could not verify its current hours or location, so we left it off this list.

Sources & further reading

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

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