Smokey Joe's BBQ
The pork ribs come off the pit with the skin crisped and laminated like Peking duck, and The Infatuation's Kevin Gray scored the room 8.6 on the strength of them.
Why go
Joe Melton and Kenneth Manning opened this in the mid-eighties and later passed it to Manning's son Kris, who still runs it out of the same small building on Interstate 35.31 The original brick pit is gone and offset smokers took its place, and Sarah Blaskovich reported that the new smokers and a change of wood were what turned the brisket around.36 Brisket now goes over hickory and oak while everything else stays on oak.2 Brian Reinhart ranks it second in North Texas and writes that it is by a huge margin, the best barbecue in city limits.
4 Todd David, who was then running the pit at Cattleack up in north Dallas, told the same guide he drives down for the ribs: There's great ribs, but not like that. It's like the first time I ate Aaron Franklin's brisket.
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Order this / avoid
- Order: the pork ribs. Kevin Gray:
These might be the best ribs we've had in this town (or any other). The skin is crispy and laminated, like Peking duck, and the dark pink meat is super tender and deeply smoky.
1 - Order: the brisket, which Gray reads as
good Central Texas-style brisket
withpeppery bark,
and which Lauren Drewes Daniels calls the best between Cattleack and Waco.15 - Order: the Maxi if it is on, a sandwich of sliced sausage and chopped brisket under thick pickle disks in a buttery bun, which Texas Monthly singled out in 2021.3
- Order: a slice of the sweet potato pie. Yesenia Diaz makes the pies here.2
- Avoid: the house sauce. Gray:
the house BBQ sauce is too sweet and ketchup-y, so it often does more harm than good.
He finds the sausages and sides inconsistent and says to stick to brisket and ribs.1
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation Dallas, 8.6 (Kevin Gray, 8 April 2026):
These might be the best ribs we've had in this town (or any other).
1 - D Magazine, number 2 in North Texas (Brian Reinhart):
The result is a something old, something new combination unlike any other in Dallas, and, by a huge margin, the best barbecue in city limits.
4 - Todd David, then pitmaster at Cattleack Barbeque:
We drive from up here to [Smokey Joe's] to get ribs, because there's no rib like it.
4 - Dallas Observer (Lauren Drewes Daniels, 25 April 2026):
owner Kris Manning's personal passion happens to be brisket, which might be why his has become the best brisket between Cattleack and Waco.
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Good to know
- It is on Texas Monthly's Top 50 with no number on it. The 2025 and 2021 editions both place it in the unranked block the magazine calls The Best of the Rest.23
- Four pitmasters work the pit, Santiago Barrera-Garcia, Patrick Foreman, Kris Manning and Pablo Montoya Aguilar.2
- The sausages are made here, including a jalapeno-cheddar and a pepperoni-and-mozzarella.2
- Kris Manning cooks for shelters and high school teams, which Texas Monthly prints as its own note on the room.2
Verdict
should-visit — The pork ribs are the reason to come. Kevin Gray describes crisp laminated skin over dark pink meat, which is what a well-run pit does to a rib. Reinhart puts the room second in North Texas and first inside Dallas, and Todd David, who cooks at Cattleack twenty miles north, drives down for the same rack. The brisket is where the praise splits, Gray calling it good Central Texas brisket and the Observer the best between Cattleack and Waco, so order the ribs first and judge the brisket for yourself.