Pop’s “Old and New” Bar-B-Que

Literally everything on their menu is so good. Their house BBQ sauces are so good that they make me want to weep tears of joy. If I could buy my own bottle of their Sweet Stout BBQ sauce, I’d bring it home and put it in everything: hotdogs, burgers, eggs, oatmeal, ice-​cream — it’s literally that good.
Their weekly specials never disappoint their meats and sides are phenomenal. I recommend their ribs which are delicious.
Best of all, the people who work here are always very friendly.
Food: A+
Service: A++

We had our fill of cooking at home and decided to try a new to us place. The front of house looked to be very clean and presentable. The smells of bbq filled the air. I got the Cuban with bacon and fries. My wife got the brisket sandwich with mac and cheese and coleslaw. The kid got strips and fries. I thought for the price of the sandwich it was very well sized. The bag of fries I got was the size of two large McDonald’s fries. The food was very tasty and I really wish I had eaten there rather then doing the take out as I am sure the fresh out of the kitchen would have been better rather then taking it out and driving the half hour to our place. My wife said she wanted the slaw to be a little sweeter though. I think it was definitely worth 4.5 stars or more, I just need to eat in to prove it out.

In short I wasn’t expecting much from this place. Boy am I impressed. No frills delicious Bbq joint. I have the real turkey burger. It was amazing. In short don’t take my word for it. Just stop in and have some que.

Hands down the best BBQ in Iowa City. I have been eating there off and on over the last few weeks and have sampled many of their menu items. Delicious! They have a large variety of sauces to choose from. They have sweet potato fries!!!
The employees are friendly and the place is clean. Def try this place out!

Great local beer on tap, fantastic pulled pork and a great deal located right in downtown Iowa City. What more could you want?! I love this place. It’s a must try for lunch and when you’re craving a quick BBQ stop.

Eaten at this place a few times just because of its proximity to my apartment and I haven’t been disappointed!
I’ve gotten the pulled pork and the banh mi. The meat for both of those is amazing, especially the pork belly from the banh mi. It is so tender and melt in your mouth delicious! I never thought I would be getting ‘banh mi’ from a BBQ place. Of course it’s no where near authentic banh mi and I thought the bread they served the sandwich on was too heavy and overwhelming (I ended up eating half of the sandwich sans bread) for the amount of filling there is. I would still recommend it though!
The sauces they have are also fantastic and so are the fries. I would definitely recommend getting an order of parmesan fries with your order, it’s so worth it!

i had been meaning to check this place out and i’m glad i finally did. first off, if you can smell the smoky meats BEFORE you even enter, it is definitely a good sign (in this case it was).
personally i love ribs, so i went for the ribs this time around along with sweet potato fries and chard salad. the ribs and sweet potato fries come wrapped in paper. i wasn’t disappointed by the food. the ribs were smoky and came off the bone easily. it didn’t knock me off my feet, but it hit the spot for sure! they have six sauces to choose from and i had a fun and tasty time sampling each of the six with my ribs. the sweet potato fries were on point as well, especially with the portion. for an extra 50 cents you could get fries seasoned with cinnamon and sugar or herbs and garlic. went with the simple this time. the fries came out hot and fresh! my only critique would be the fries could have been a tad bit crispier. chard salad was dressed well and a good balance to the meat and sweet potato fries. the serving size was towards the small side though. i never thought i would review a restaurant’s water, but shout out to pop’s for serving water that doesn’t taste like crap! it is much appreciated!
service was quick, friendly, and not overbearing at all. thumbs up!
i can’t wait to come again and try other things on the menu!

Was here for dinner today. We ordered the 6-​boned rib, sweet potato fries, and chard salad. When the food came, I was super excited becuz the sweet potato fries was huge!!! And I wasn’t disappointed, they were delicious too! I would definitely come back for the fries. Enjoyed the ribs also even though they were a little bit dry. (My friend loved it tho). But it was perfect with the sauce. The sauces they offered include Korean, Classic, chipotle pineapple, North Carolina mustard. My favorite sauce was the chipotle pineapple.
I will come back again definitely to try their other stuff, including chicken and brisket.

Much better experience the second time around! The pulled pork on my sandwich was smoky and juicy and the fries were piping hot and crispy. The accompanying BBQ sauces were all tasty and I was excited to liberally sample them, since the first time I went there you had to pay for sauce. My favorite sauces were the Korean BBQ and the original. Really the only suggestion I have food-​wise is that the ciabatta bread (new menu) is too thick and overwhelms the sandwich. It was something I observed the first time too; the bread to meat ratio was a little unbalanced. Overall, it was a very enjoyable lunch!

Better than The Pit!
Perhaps more deserving of 4.5 stars but the owner and staff have always been incredibly nice so I am going to round up. Once the owner even gave me a free plate of nachos!
I like the innovative menu, sauces, and sides. Prices are solid, but I recommend that they have some platter type options: Sandwich + sides + drink or what have you. That’s one of the reasons I like Jimmy Jacks so much. I’m not a meat/​BBQ enthusiast exactly, so I can’t speak to the authenticity but it’s a tasty and fun place that deserves to do well. I’m excited to try their breakfast!

We visited this place after some friends and we were hankering for some BBQ. We were quite excited by what we found.
Walking in your greeted by the delightful aroma of delicious meat and other meat related pleasantries. The décor is plenty rustic and really fits the vibe of the place as it is very casual.
The meat options are more plentiful than I was expecting. Plenty of different varieties of pork, beef, chicken, and sausage. Items come in single meat varieties 4 in sandwiches. The sandwiches were weird where we found most of our favorites. The Cuban sandwich was delicious pork Cuban style with some ham, cheese and pickles. It was really good! I have the Bahn Mi sandwich and it was excellent. Really nice flavor and on some great bread. The only downfall was that we were unable to enjoy the normal pork belly version as they were out of said belly. The substitution of smoked pork was just fine however. We also shared a half rack of ribs with some friends and they too were excellent.
The sides were equally lovely. We had some fried brussel sprouts and these where one of the best appetizers that we’ve had in a long time. Definitely not healthy like mom used to make, however we’re certainly not looking to save calories by going to a BBQ joint. The sweet potato fries and the normal fries where also strong to quite strong.
They have plenty of beverage options including a number of local beers and some really good iced tea.
The most exciting thing about this place however was the array of sauces that were available. The meats were all excellent and with the addition of any number of the sauces they were made even better. The sweet stout sauce with particularly good as was the Korean BBQ sauce. The Carolina mustard was good as well and gave those looking for a different option, something to slather with.
The lack of cornbread and pork belly the day we were there was a bummer and kept them from 5 stars at preeent, however they’re doing some excellent things here and we were pleasantly surprised by how good everything was. This is another great addition to downtown and will be another great reason to go get BBQ anytime you’re feeling like it.

Had the pulled pork sandwich on white bread (need an option here) and the sweet potato fries. It was a quick service, polite server. Nice to sit outside in the shade for lunch too. The pepper on fries was nice. That was $ 10. not a good value in my mind for the quality.

I went for lunch and ordered a brisket sandwich with fries. The brisket itself is tasty with a nice smokey aroma. I wish they were a little more generous with the BBQ as they are with their fries. The sandwich bun is quite thick, if only the BBQ matched it in size.

I went here when it was first opening up and had a very nice experience. The food was good and the service was very friendly. I like the mix of traditional BBQ and some fusion/​new options and sauces. My girlfriend has a gluten allergy and they were very accommodating and knowledgeable. Spoke with the chef/​owner and he makes a conscious effort to keep certain items gluten free. I would go again.

Lack luster food with very little taste. I have to say that customer service is lacking in this place. I would not recommend you eat here.

I am blown away by how good this BBQ is! Freshly made daily by friendly staff, the meat is done excellently and the sides are even better! It is well priced for the big portions served and I love that they support local breweries by only having Iowan made brew on tap. A must stop in Iowa city!

This is seriously delicious BBQ. I ordered the brisket sliders (w/​classic BBQ sauce) and shared an order of the herb fries with my dining buddy. Service was quick, food was hot and the place was packed. I’ll definitely be back. If anything else on the menu is as good as the Brisket, this place will give Jimmy Jacks a run for its money. I’ll definitely be back… way too often.

They serve mostly sandwiches from what I could tell, I heard the menu isn’t finished though. The service is very quick due to the location being in a smaller sized building along with a small parking lot I can see why they would keep things quick to avoid chaos at their location.
I had the brisket which was pretty good, not a strong smoke flavor but decent enough bbq. They have a few different sauces, I had the original and Carolina mustard. Both were pretty good, will have to try the rest.
This is a place that has a few unique options when it comes to bbq and serves up the traditional style as well. You can get your change of pace here, so far so good with my experience here.

Iowa City’s newest BBQ. Pulled Pork was decent. Tender. Meat was too salty. Classic sauce a bit heavy on the molasses. Reasonably priced.

Awesome food — the new barbecue is an awesome twist and a great way to change things up. Staff is quick and friendly! The building also doesn’t smell smoky like The Pit did! Will be back!