Couch’s Barbecue

I have been coming to Couch’s since I was a young boy. I keep coming back because they have the best BBQ sandwich around.

I just don’t get it. I came two times before the review as I had heard so many good things here. It’s just very average and I don’t see the lure. The building is old the food was fair. There are several bbq places I prefer in Chattanooga.

Ordered BBQ sandwiches 2 pork and 1 beef. Pork was extremely dry. The sauce was bitter and tasted old. Bun was hard as a brick and burnt. French fries were still frozen inside and freezer burnt and they charged $ 1.50 for a 8oz drink. This place should shut down. Definitely not worth stopping for to get a bite to eat. Drive on by plenty of food choices north and south of the place. Don’t make the same mistake we did. Unless you just like to throw your money away.

I feel bad writing this review but I don’t want other people who haven’t been there to go. Obviously the locals here love it so the business will thrive but if you’ve never been I want to save you from a bad experience. My husband had to work late so he wanted me to bring him dinner so we could spend some time together. We were going to eat in his truck and have a little nice hour together so I went to a new place to bring him a surprise and I felt awful for the terrible food I brought :(
The chicken was the driest I’ve ever had in my life! It was really bad. I opened the bbq sauce to try to drench it in and the container barely had a quarter in it, I was worried as to whether it was never properly filled or was someone’s left over
The coleslaw looked like it went through the blender and the buns they gave for my husbands chicken were the cheap dinner rolls & my French fries… oh the worst! Had to be a frozen bag of the most generic brand. The gravy on the mashed potatoes was good. There something nice I could say :)

Doesn’t get much better! Love the name of the place considering it is my last name, but we’re not of any relation that I know of … Well on to the food, everyone in my family loves this place we always get the family meal with an additional pound of pork to save for later. No one goes hungry ! The family meal includes 6 buns, 1 lb of either pork, chix, or beef, pint of coleslaw and a pint of baked beans. They are darn near famous for their hotslaw and can’t walk out the door w/​o a pint of it… This place has been one of my absolute favorites for as long as I can remember … Don’t forget to grab some banana pudding … You’ll love it !

Off the beaten path but worth the drive. The fried pickles were great and the ribs and beef are better then average for a local BBQ joint. The regular and hot slaw were both very good.
The waitstaff was very attentive and our food was served promptly. The portions are better the average and reasonably priced.

One of our favorite Bbq places. We love the sliced Bbq. Something different. Been going there since I was a kid and nothing has changed. It tastes the same every time. The owners are very good, personable people. If you want something iconic to Ooltewah, this is it.

Excellent, tasty, totally enjoyable dining. Treat yourself for lunch or early dinner. I have never had a poor meal and love the burgers, salads and pie.

As my wife said, as you eat here you might wonder «if Arby’s did bbq, this is what you would get». That being said, the pork we got was thinly sliced and relatively tasteless. The two sauces offered were ok. The buns looked like they just came from Bi-​Lo. That being said, the place was busy so there must be a contingent who really like the place but of the few bbq places in the area, this is so far on the bottom of my list. Water was a little funky tasting too which is always a turn-​off. Soft drink appear to be glass bottled Coca-​Cola products though we didn’t order any.
On the pro-​side, service is good and really the only thing making this two stars, the cost is low. If I do return, I will be not be ordering off the bbq side of the menu.

Great ribs and pulled pork. 2 kinds of sauce. Fried pickle spears are the best.

Kind of off the main drag and away from major highways. I stumbled upon this place a few years ago and stop in from time to time. Just average BBQ. Good pulled pork. But really nothing sets them above all the rest. Every town has one of these. Some have several. After hitting about all of the BBQ joints in Bradley and Hamilton counties, I would just day this place is average. The hungrier the more you will like it.
The other issue is its really out of the way to find it. And since it’s nothing special there is no need to waste gas finding it with other options around. You must really want the BBQ to drive out of the way to get it here. But if your in the area you can add to the bucket list.

The atmosphere here is absolutely horrible. It the kind of place where the employees talk loudly to each other across the dining area and the floor is dirty. I really wouldn’t mind that so bad if the food could make up for it. I don’t know what’s happening with the pork. It’s not pulled pork, but weird slices of it on a hard, crunchy bun. The one thing that made me say «I’m not coming back here» was the fact that they don’t have potato salad! What BBQ place doesn’t have potato salad? It’s like selling burgers but not fries. I know a lot of people who actually do enjoy the food here, but it’s just not for me! Maybe that’s how some people like their BBQ?

Disappointed –looked so cute from outside. Everything was store bought including the stale buns. Service was slow and the box mashed potatoes were terrible. The facility was a bit dirty. The sauces –only two –were sweet and house nothing out of the ordinary and especially not worth yer time. Skip this try something else… wish we had.

BEST Mom and Pop Barbecue EVER!!! A must when you are in Chattanooga, TN. If you don’t know what a traditional BBQ sandwich is… this place nails it. The Fried Pickles are yummy too.

Good bar b q restaurant. I will becoming back. Their food even besides bar b q is all good no matter what you get.
It is kind of a Ooltewah’s as well as Collegedale’s hidden gym of Bar B Q. You got to try it.
We have been here numerous times and as Arnold would say «I’ll b back».
Service is always fast and friendly as it is a Southern Hospitality restaurant.

This place is a joke. Sad, because we were in town all week for a softball tourney less than a mile from here.
1^st of 3 people to walk in and sit down to order…3^rd to be waited on.
Mayo, lettuce and tomato on a bbq sandwich? I asked for it with just the slaw on it, but it came with the other set up. I found out because I was going to putt bbq sauce on myself and just throw the lettuce and tomato off. Meat was Luke warm and cold in the middle… I asked for and received my money back, which is why I gave them one star.
Not much to choose from in this area, but Chattanooga is close.

Not a fan of the thin sliced (think paper) dry BBQ that seems to please many folks in this area. I’ve gone here once by choice and wrangled in to returning several times with colleagues from work. The servers are very friendly, but the food just isn’t real BBQ in my opinion. I couldn’t squeeze enough sauce on my pork sandwich to make it moist enough to enjoy. I tried a pork plate on a subsequent visit thinking it might be a thicker cut of meat, but I was wrong. Same pile of dried, sandwich sliced thin meat. No apparent sauce was used in the cooking of the meat. (either mop sauce, vinegar or BBQ sauce) so it was really flavorless.
Unless I’m forced, I won’t return.

Not bad at all. Unfortunately, the locals build-​it-​up to be more than it is. Despite what you hear, this is not the best bbq on the planet. It is good and it is very reasonably priced. I had a pork sandwich. It came thinly sliced, which was nice for a change from pulled pork. The medium sauce was quite tasty and the cheese sticks came with bbq sauce, which was different but good.
Nice, small/​quaint atmosphere. One of those small locally-​owned places that you could quickly get to know the staff/​owner (s) if you went on a consistent basis. Will definitely be back in the future. (Don’t let my three-​star review persuade you from going — almost no one is good enough to get five stars, so my three star review is probably the next guy’s four star review…)

In Ooltewah on business and was looking for a local taste for dinner. Couch’s fits the bill. Old building that was probably built in the 1960s and visited by a cast of regulars. For the quick summary, solid BBQ and worth a visit.
I went for the half rack of ribs with fried okra and BBQ beans. First, the okra was as it is pretty much anywhere you get fried okra, so no surprises there. The sauce for the beans was different than I expected; a bit more savory than sweet. I liked it pretty well.
The BBQ sauce is quite good. A hit of sweet with a nice touch of spicy. Not too thick, not too runny. The thickness was just right. This is a good sauce and would work well with either beef or pork. Don’t know about chicken.
The ribs were a bit dry, but I think that is on purpose. They have a good flavor to them, such that you don’t need the sauce except to moisten them up a bit, but the sauce is good. Cooked to the point that the meat came off of the bone easily, but it didn’t fall off. Suffice to say, not disappointed.
The reason I gave this a 3 instead of a 4 is based on the fact that it was only my first trip to the restaurant and it didn’t blow me away. I’ve certainly had better BBQ; a place in West Jefferson, NC (the name of which escapes me) comes to mind. However, this was pretty solid. If I could give half stars, it would get a 3.5. It was good enough that I’d try it again; I’d go with a beef BBQ plate next time to mix it up a bit.
Oh, and it you don’t like lettuce and tomato on a BBQ sandwich, I’d suggest asking for cole slaw instead. That’s a BBQ sandwich topping, for sure.
Also, I hit up two other BBQ places while in town: 58 Bar-​B-​Q Too and General’s Smokehouse. Check out my reviews of those places before making up your mind.

Slight hangover + exhaustion + horrific wreck and therefore traffic on 75N = a very cranky Kiki in need of barbeque lovin’.
I was hoping for some lipsmacking good stuff but was disappointed. The meat was alright but kind of dry in spots and I’m not sure if the bun was just over-​toasted or hella stale. Either way, not good. Also, I’ve never had lettuce and tomato on my pork sandwich and I don’t think I like it. Sides were all pretty lackluster and seemed like afterthoughts, which would be fine if the meat had held it’s own.
But, for $ 3.50/sandwich and given the circumstances, I’d do it all over again. This spot is certainly far superior to my typical drive-​through road trip eats, and you know, I’m kind of a fan of supporting the little guys. Even if their ‘cue leaves me a little sad inside.