40 years ago I thought Clem's had the best bbq in Temple. I stopped in at the new building a couple of years ago and was sorely disappointed (it sucked).
Can any of you locals provide me with a recommendation?

Worlds Foremost Ag said:

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Millers in Belton.

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This.

Scheopfs is fine but that crap is way overpriced these days.

My family came up when we first moved here 13 years ago and said "we'll take y'all to clems. Great BBQ.."

My dad quickly apologized.

sandman82 said:

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Best Quality in Temple is a good alternative.

Backyard BBQ in Morgan's Point gives most for your money and also pretty good.

Just my 2 cents. Of course, I like Miller's, too.

Glad to see the Cen Tex forum back from the dead.

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I was going to give it to 1 month with no posts but the streak got broke.

Speaking of BBQ, I've gotten into smoking in my old age.

Has anybody got meat from Cheezy's? Any preference over L&R?

He's a distant cousin of mine so...
He worked at L&R for years. Got butt hurt and left. Tried a meat market with Ronnie and for whatever reason that didn't work out. When his dad passed, he was left with enough to go out on his own. His hours have changed due to school traffic. His location can be a PITA to get in and out of from 4-5pm so he's opening later and closing at 7. I think he's open on Saturday's until 2pm. He's a whorn fan but oh well.

We picked up some steaks and hamburger meat from them last week. The steaks weren't the best looking that I ever bought but they cooked up great. The hamburger meat was awesome for burgers. It formed patties very easily and they were nice and juicy. I would buy from them again.

My vote would be the trash plate at Best Quality in Temple

selzzz said:

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My vote would be the trash plate at Best Quality in Temple

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i see that place over off of 35 by Sammons, but i've never tried it. come to think of it, in 13+ years of living here, i don't know that i've ever been on that part of southbound General Bruce (access road) ever.

trash plate is similar to fire in the bowl at miller's i'd recon (which is what i always order.)

Cheezy's is very good.

Also, Miller's is my favorite all around, particularly when talking about the best place to go to eat at. They have good beers and good desserts too.

Backyard is good, best quality meats is good for a quick bbq option at lunch

As strange as this sounds, Dickeys at the Liberty Mart is a great place to pick up a quick sandwich. I eat a sandwich there quite often.

But MIllers is the best IMO. Backyard has a good thing going too but I got in an argument over a bar tab with the manager once that soured me. I still go back but not as much.

Millers in belton. The end.

Matsui said:

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Millers in belton. The end.

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They did make Texas Monthly top 50 bbq which was cool. Sad that Scheopf's isn't even mentioned nowadays.

speaking of Backyard, we went last night and i was actually really disappointed in the service and food in general. don't know if it is just staffing issues that everywhere is suffering from but it's normally one of my favorite places to get a burger and if last night was my first impression, i wouldn't be back. hopefully it's just a one-off.

That is sad to hear. I hope they can rebound and it was just a bad night.

Do you ever go to the taqueria across the street?

I eat there at least twice a week.


Let me start by saying that I recommend Back Yard all the time and enjoy going there. I probably eat there once a month. But I also have an almost comical customer service story that happened there. Before Covid hit they had Sunday happy hour. I dont remember exactly what was on special, but lets say they were two dollars. I ordered a double. My wife and I each had two doubles so the bill should be $16. She handed me a bill for like $62. Mind you this is the third week in a row we had been there and done this. Ask to speak to manager who is this militant woman who quite rudely said that the deal was for singles only and doubles were full price.

That makes no sense for a lot of reasons, but reason #1 and #2 is they didnt tell us that when we were ordering and we had done in two weeks in a row with no issues.

It ended with me putting $16 on the bar and leaving as she was talking to the owner I am assuming on the phone. I didn't go back in there for about a year but it has slowly worked it's way back into the rotation.

I don't. We have friends in Lakewood Ranch and Eagles Landing but I'm not that far west very often.

I'm certain it's just a one off. We've had plenty of fun, good meals out there.

The only 254 restaurant I ever swore off was Mama Fu's because they obviously has no idea what they were doing as far as running a restaurant. I think it was closed 2-3 months after I had that experience.

Speaking of a great restaurant that didn't know how to run itself, Bay Street (which is now Denny's) was exceptionally good. We had a lot of great date nights there.

I made a reservation for Mother's Day brunch after church and we showed up. They didn't open the doors for 10 minutes after our reservation. Us and 2 other families go in. I also invited a friend to bring his wife and kids. They get there and then get turned away due to no reservation. Felt stupid and like we wasted their time.

We all sit and I keep seeing families walk up to the entrance, then walk back to their cars. Even some friends from church do this.

We ate for almost 2 hours and one other family showed up. So for 2 hours they have 4 tables on what should be a killer day.

They had to have turned away 20 different tables for reservations that were either way later or didn't show.

Felt bad for them closing as it was really great food but they probably turned away $1000s of dollars at the maitre d' stand that day.

While I do think Miller's has very bbq, I spend my money at Schoepf's. Ever since they switched to prime brisket, theirs is just as good as Miller's. That being said, what the deciding factor for me is that Schoepf's does so much for the community. They are always sponsoring things and donating their time to charitable events. I've never once seen Miller's give back anything to the community. I can't support a business that doesn't give back.

I know both owners though neither really well. Ronnie Schoepf has the community outreach thing figured out. It is in his nature. That dude is everywhere all the time and seems to be genuine in his role in the community. Dusty is all about his restaurant. Open to close all day all the time. I think a lot of it comes from how they came about owning their restaurants and their personalities. Both recipes originally came from their dads but the sons are the ones that made them what they are.

I like them both and don't discriminate. We are spoiled in Bell County

mazzag said:

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Good job straddling the fence...

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i've known the Miller's since they were doing my deer mounts and processing my meat. they're nice people.

and i saw yesterday that Miller's gave free food to veterans, and then out of curiosity checked their website and they do have a charitable giving form. so saying they don't help in the community is a tad much. I like the Millers and Scheopfs a lot from my interactions with both of them.

i have an incredibly wealthy friend in Waco who gives at least a million away every year and you never see his name or company on any sort of news release or marketing (by purpose.) I know a person here that just basically organizes events where other people give money to the cause and their name is all over everything related to it.

Miller's did not give any food away on Veterans Day. Vista Real Estate paid for veterans meals yesterday. It's fine if a person wants to be charitable without everyone knowing about it. It's different for a business. The Millers make a ton of money off of the community. IF, and that's a big IF, they give back, then they need to do it publicly. Otherwise it appears as if they are just greedy.

Millers is generous. very.

I never thought of it that way. If they do it publicly, a lot of people will assume they are just doing it for the publicity.

Disagree. I used to for for Wal-Mart corp. They intentionally didn't want their name on the donations and they are one of the most giving companies ever.

We are to give in secret and not for publicity. That's the point of being generous. It isn't for publicity. That's not being generous, that's advertising.

I have never eaten at Millers (and honestly don't even know where it is). But, there is no reason for them to boast about their giving. That's silly.

Then I guess every business that sponsors something and has their business on a sponsorship banner is just advertising. Of course by a business sponsoring so many things, it just shows the businesses that aren't. Guess all those companies that sponsor little league teams should feel bad about having their name on the back of shirts.

Sponsorship =/= donating

If you want some good BBQ made the short drive down US 190 to Cameron in Milam County - Hecho en Texas is outstanding - They've got a food truck set up with a Pavillion, etc. It's really good food, but they're only open from 10am until they run out on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

They have been reviewed by Texas Monthly, although they didn't make the list.

OutdoorAg said:

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Then I guess every business that sponsors something and has their business on a sponsorship banner is just advertising. Of course by a business sponsoring so many things, it just shows the businesses that aren't. Guess all those companies that sponsor little league teams should feel bad about having their name on the back of shirts.

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I'm really confused by this line of reasoning.

I have nothing personal against Miller's. They have great BBQ. I'm just going to spend my money with someone that gives back to the community.

If you want some good BBQ make the short drive down to Milam County and try out Hecho en Texas. Dang good BBQ.

Only open Thursday-Saturday though. Start serving at 10:30 am and go until its all gone which is usually early afternoon.

It's a food trailer but they've got a nice Pavillion right next to the Fire Station.

Electrical_Ag said:

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Gives back publicly, you mean?

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Yes. If you're too good to sponsor sports teams, school functions, then you're not getting my money.