Big Lou’s Bar-B-Q

FYI… I visited this location on 01÷20÷14 only to find it closed /​no longer in business. bummer! :(

Delicious!

Ridiculous. What an atmosphere. So friendly. Drink selection was a little sparse, but who cares. You’re not there for the diet mountain dews. You’re there for the BBQ, which is superb.
My sides were Mac and cheese and baked beans. Loved em. And the pulled pork. So good.
Keep it up, Lou.

I moved to San Francisco a while back and am sooooo happy my family introduced me to this place last year. Every time I am home I get a ridiculous amount of food, and literally eat every single bite. I have been to bbq spots all over the US, as well as some in Europe (which were kind of questionable), and I cannot emphasize enough how AWESOME this place is. I touch down in PA on Monday and will definitely be heading straight there.
Drooling at my desk right now thinking of those brisket end things… omg. Do yourself a favor and go get lunch. Right. Now.

My niece was looking forward to having Mac & Cheese for Thanksgiving and was disappointed when she didn’t see it on our menu. So while we were downtown, we stopped into Big Lou’s. Big Lou’s is a simple, basic place but don’t let the nondescript ambiance sway you. There were two patrons in the restaurant who told the staff that they had driven all the way from Harrisburg for Big Lou’s BBQ. If you drive that far for food, you know it has to be good. I only ordered a large side of Mac & Cheese for my niece and we both really enjoyed it. If I’m back in town, I’ll definitely make it over to Big Lou’s BBQ with a bigger appetite!

Big Lou’s is amazing! I am moving to KC and I the BBQ is much better than anything I had in KC during my many visits. There is nothing like the Burn End with Mac and Cheese and Baked Beans.

First off, do not be afraid to go to big lous because its in what you think is the ghetto. People hear «princess street» and run for their lives. I’m from Felton. I go where the real food is. Lou is awesome. He is super friendly, and happy to serve you no matter what you look like. And the food is so damn tasty. Go in, get the Carolina meal. And let that flavor melt in your mouth. Before you know it you will feel it drip right into your soul. That’s real southern loving people. Enjoy it, and spread the word. We’re lucky to have Lou!

In town on business from California with a half dozen foreign clients and wanted to show them what good US of A BBQ tastes like. Found this tasty joint on Unilocal and all the 5-​stars are absolutely spot on. Any place that can survive and prosper only being open 3 days a week piqued my curiosity.
We arrived for lunch and the steady flow of customers mainly doing take-​out answered the first question quickly.
I had the pulled pork and it’s right up there but I’ll point to three things that really earned Big Lou’s a full 5-​stars in my book:
1. The cornbread. Amazing twist on the usual and I’ll let you beg them to tell you their secret just like I had to. Killer. Just killer. I called my Texas raised wife immediately and said we have a new mission to try to master Big Lou’s cornbread.
2. The beans. I get to taste a bunch of them a year all across the country and these are my fav of 2013. I just wish they were a few thousand miles closer to my house.
3. The kickin’ green beans. Just the right amount of heat to warm the mouth. Entirely unexpected.
York is super lucky. Good BBQ is hard to find and Big Lou’s delivers.

My fiancé and I have come here twice an each time the food has been superb. They’re the ONLY good authentic BBQ place within the York/​Lancaster/​Harrisburg area. I’d highly recommend the Beef Brisket and the Ribs. The staff is always super friendly and they end up talking to you as if you’re family. The conversation really flows naturally. We were even offered a piece of the one mans birthday cookie! Happy Birthday again (for the third time!) :)
Big Lou’s is also an Open Carry friendly establishment which is very nice to come across!

Fantastic. You must try the burnt ends, aka meat marshmallows. They are absolutely amazing. They melt in your mouth. A word of caution though… You might need a nap afterwards…

This place is the real deal. Definitely can’t wait to go back again and again. Best ribs I’ve had in a loooooong time.

WOW! Awesome!
Just read the other reviews. They say it all.

Excellent Bar-​B-​Q! The best I’ve had. My ribs were perfect, great smokey flavor and cooked the right time. The pulled pork is incredible, and the sauce is awesome. Will definitely be going back!

Coming from someone who has eaten BBQ all over the country, I can honestly say Big Lou’s is absolutely the best ever. You can tell he puts his heart into every dish. Don’t expect bow-​tie waiters and fancy accommodations, just insanely good food.

Best Bbq in along time. Keep up the good work. Can’t wait to see you on Man vs Food

This is definitely a real BBQ place, the kind you’d find way down south. Although the atmosphere isn’t much, the service was very friendly and the food is great. If you’re not familiar with this part of town, it’s a little scary but safe. And Big Lou’s is small and a little rundown, but clean and very friendly. Prices are about what you’d expect to pay for real BBQ, which is a labor-​intensive process, and the menu varies a little each day depending on what Lou’s cooking.
Like I said, the food is the real deal… so if you’re looking for salads or ‘lite’ fare don’t even bother. The sparse menu is traditional southern soul food… rich sauced meats, a few greens, mac & cheese, and cornbread. $ 15 will get you a two meat combo that includes ’ two sides, cornbread and a canned drink. The ribs are excellent. More what I would call home-​style than competition style, since they were heavily sauced and a little fatty, but big, smokey and DELICIOUS. If he’s serving it you should try the «meat marshmallows;» cubes of beef, brisket slow-​smoked until they are amazingly tender and slathered in sauce. I have to admit these were really delicious, but pretty fatty (hence the deliciousness) and rich; so while I wouldn’t recommend a full serving of them, they’re definitely worth trying. The other sides are good and homemade (spicy green beens with turkey sausage. mmm), but my biggest surprise was the cornbread. It had an amazing cinnamon/​pumpkin taste that I wouldn’t think I would like, but I really really did. And my muffin was kinda dry, maybe even a day old, but still so flavorful I wanted to get the recipe.
Bottomline: if atmosphere is your thing, you’d be better off going to Smokey Bones or some other chain. But if you like real, rich home-​style BBQ prepared by someone who cares, you can’t beat Big Lou’s.

I had lunch today at Big Lou’s and it was incredible! The staff was very friendly, and Big Lou certainly knows his barbecue. Everything is homemade and delicious. I had the pulled pork platter with collard greens and Mac and cheese. The pulled pork was perfect and his spicy BBQ sauce was out of this world. The sides were very good and the cornbread muffin was really different. It almost tasted like cake.
But the highlight was something Big Lou calls Meat Marshmallows. You may know them by the more common name of Burnt Ends, but Big Lou calls them marshmallows because they melt in your mouth. Unbelievable. Essentially, he takes the fat cap from the top of a cooked beef briskett, uses some magic on it, and a couple hours later you get these wonderful little pieces of heaven on your plate. I could not have been happier with my meal.
Next time I’m in York, I will definitely be hitting up Big Lou’s!

Big Lou’s is a warm and welcome addition to a hopeful resurgence of the downtown York area. The service is fast, friendly and I felt right at home here. I ordered Big Lou’s ribs tonight. It comes with 2 sides and I chose beans and slaw and 3 bones. It’s a nice plate for $ 8.95 and a good value.
I really liked the ribs. They’re heavy on the rub, perfectly smoked, a little on the dry side and lightly sauced. The sauce is really nicely balanced, not heavy or sickly sweet and not too spicy. I would love it if they made 2 kinds of ribs like they do in Memphis, dry or wet. They could baste with their Carolina vinegar (I tried it later) or their sauce for the wet and finish with sauce for service. The dry they could just serve straight up without the sauce. I like their rub, there was a little too much of it in spots for me but I know a lot of folks who love this. I thought the sauce was better. Lou definitely knows how to smoke meat though and if he got a fattier cut it would be juicier. This is a personal thing as I like a little fat on my ribs.
The slaw was great. Not too sweet, light and crisp black pepper multi-​color slaw. I wouldn’t change a thing. The beans weren’t beans, it was 4 bean chili with ground beef. All it needed was some onions and cheese and it’s a bowl of chili. It doesn’t really go with the BBQ, it’s pretty heavy handed. I love beans and I want to taste them. Just complement them with some peppers and a bit of pork and let them shine through. Keep it simple and your love for your food will steal the show.
Lou came out and offered to let me try the pulled pork with his Carolina sauce. This might be better than the ribs. The pork was nice, juicy, tender and I really thought he nailed the Carolina vinegar sauce. Just enough sweet to balance the vinegar and nicely spicy and seasoned.
I hope Lou’s thrives so that the next time I am in town I can try more sides and meats. Please go and support Lou and give his food a try.

I was channel surfing the other day and came across some type of public access like channel where Big Lou was cooking up a storm and swearing he has the best ribs ’round. Well I’m not really a rib fan, haven’t had good ribs since… See back home (FL) they use to have this one club that had a food stand inside it. Crazy right, but those were the best ribs. They were so good they were dirty!
Hoping that one day I would find ribs like the ones in the club back in Jax I thought that I would give Big Lou’s a good college try. The place is easy to find and parking is on the street only. It’s not fancy inside by no means, so what. The menu is written on a board on the wall behind the register and there are a few tables in the dinning room.
With that said I ordered my son a chicken wings platter with yellow rice and fries. My other son got a rib platter with fries and yellow rice. Son 1 says the chicken wings were really good, the fries needed salt (when don’t any fries) and the rice was okay. Son 2 loved the ribs and said the rice was ok.
As for me… I’ll start simple. The mac n’cheese wasn’t bad at all. It had a slight smokey flavor to it, which I liked. Just would have liked it to be a little creamier but over all it was good. The rice was ok. The ribs will make you slap your momma. Heck they were so good they were dirty as we say and that’s a good thing!
I definitely plan on returning here for some other things on the menu.

Big Lou’s is delicious. The owner (Lou…definitely not Louie as another reviewer said) is always there, cooking up a storm and filling the place with his warm personality.
It’s a simple joint with a white-​board menu: things get erased when they run out.
All the meat is really, really good. I highly recommend the baked beans side, too. The service is real friendly, too. A lot of carry-​out orders, but there are a dozen small tables.
Absolutely not vegetarian friendly. But wonderful for us meat-​eaters!