Carsons for Ribs
400 E. Roosevelt Rd.
Lombard, IL

Meat: 2.5
Sauce: 3.5
Sides: 4
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 3.5

Overall: 3.5

Reviewer's Comments:  Surprising thing, When I checked for Q joints in Illinois there were none. I felt it was imperative I find someplace to review. After checking with the locals I was told Carsons was the best place for Q in all of Chicago area. Finding it wasn not hard, so off I went on an adventure last night. The building is north of Roosevelt Road, west of Chicago in what's locally known as the 'Western Suburbs.' Make sense to me. It is a large place as Q joints go. It does a lot of catering and banquets so the space is needed. I didn't notice a pit or smokestack as I drove up so that's when I became wary of what I was about to get. The menu is limited to steak, baby back ribs, and chicken. The side dishs are a coleslaw with garlic, Potatoes of three varieties, and salad. I ordered the 1/2 & 1/2. 1/2 a rack of ribs and 1/2 a chicken, the coleslaw and the baked potato. The other varieties are french fried and Au Gratin. The slaw was very good. it had just the right amount of garlic for spice but it was not overpowering. The baked potatoe was 'baked', not much to shout about. The meat came with what I remember as the old shake and Bake BBQ coating. (Fess up, we all tried it at least once.) It was sweet and tomatoy, slightly burnt and sweet but else non-descript, just messy. Sadly, the ribs had a warmed up flavor and seemed tough. I like a little tug but this was what I would call a 'rip and tear' to get it off the bone. Again talking to the locals, this is somewhat normal. If the ribs are good they are very, very good. It they are bad, they are very, very bad. The first bite of the Chicken breast was dry but got better as I went along. The sauce was a tomato/molasses based sauce with the heat from cayenne pepper. Not much smoky flavor in either the chicken or ribs. The interesting thing was the licorice taste, probably from fennel, which was very subtle but quite noticable. Even at 3am the next morning I kept noticing it. It wasn't bad, just different. It seems the owner is or was of Greek ancestry. So that explains the difference, that and it's Yankee land. (Just kidding.) The best part of the night was the warm, wet towels the served to clean oneself as you go. They were welcomed after I bragged to being a professional in order not to wear the silly BIB and proceeded to drip sauce all over the front of my shirt and get it ear to ear to there. I drove around the building when I left to check out any pit they my have. Found none. Did find a stack of Wood of unknown specics. Of course there may be an ordinance against smoke stacks and they may have used a commisary arrangement for the meat. All I know is what I tasted.

I would recommend a return trip but be wary of the ribs.........

Reviewed By:  Ken Haycook ( khaycook@airmail.net ) on 4/21/99.

Nardo's Ribs
36 Fiesta Drive
Joliet, IL
815-730-8337

Meat: 5
Sauce: 5
Sides: 3
Service: 4.5
Atmosphere: 1

Overall: 4.5

Reviewer's Comments:  There aren't many good BBQ places around but this one is awesome. They have alimited menu, Ribs, Rib Tips,and the best Chicken I ever tasted. The place is very small with just carryout. The ribs come in a bucket and are just right. Tender and moist. The chicken is smoky and so juicy. The best part is the sauce. Finger-licking good. Sides are limited to coleslaw and potatoe wedges. The price is excellent too. It hasn't been open too long. Worth the drive. The address is misleading. Its at Larkin and Plainfield road.

Reviewed By: Kelly (Kelly_Strache@excite.com) on 6/11/99

Name: Leon's
Address: South Side
City: Chicago
State: IL
Phone:
Meat: 5
Sauce: 5
Sides: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Overall: 4.5
Date: 1-1-01
User: Paul Saltzman
Email: saltzman@tc-law.com
Date: 1/25/2001
Time: 1:43:46 PM

Comments

You must go to Leon's. Order through bullet-proof glass (good ribs may at times require a small sacrifice in the realm of personal safety). Atop your tray will be placed two slices of white bread and a small mound of french fries. Atop your french fries will be ladled your choice of sauce, hot or sweet. Leon's hot sauce is so good I could drink a gallon. But it is much more pleasant to consume with Leon's ribs, which are so darn good, that I may have to interrupt writing to hop on a plane to Chicago right now.

Leon's bones are long and lean, crispy-black but not burned on the outsides, with a crust of sweet spice and smoke that explodes in your mouth. With that hot sauce, it represents an unmatchable combination. The meat is dry and pink, infused with subtle wood smoke and bereft of even the slightest trace of fat. Put a bone to your lips and its entire length of meat comes right off with the slightest pull, sliding into your mouth like a loved-one's car into the warm and dry garage after a long, snowy commute at the end of a hard day. Welcome home! You will enjoy this chew, as the magical flavors merge with the mythical texture of the meat; synaesthetic gastronomic ecstasy!

Name: Hecky's
Address: Green Bay Road
City: Evanston
State: IL
Phone:
Meat: 4.5
Sauce: 4.5
Sides: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 4.5
Overall: 4.5
Date:
User: Paul Saltzman
Email: saltzman@tc-law.com
Date: 1/25/2001
Time: 1:46:35 PM

Comments

Let's start, as I did some eighteen or so years ago, on Green Bay Road in Evanston, Illinois, where local do-gooder and activist Hecky Powell bought and re-opened a small barbecue pit in this college town a mile or so from Chicago's northern city limit. I was working at a local hardware store that summer, and among orders for screws, nails, and custom cut and threaded pipe (regular or galvanized), I heard tell of the wonders being served up. One afternoon I trudged in, smelled the smoke, and for the first time in my life heard the tell-tale smack of the cleaver. I will never forget that sound!

So titillated was I by that smell and the look of those mahogany crusted bones that I sat myself down on the nearest park bench I could find and proceeded to inhale an entire half-slab of Hecky's ribs, with hot sauce, and a link of his wonderful hot sausage. Those ribs! Firm to hold, but tender to the tooth, each bite tore away like gauze. The outer crust maintained a barrier between the spicy, smoky, saucy outside and the sweet, gentle meat within. The sauce, more brown than red, was sweet, but with a peppery punch that quickly left a nice warm glow on my lips. The leaner end of the bone was dry and a bit chewy, while the broad, meatier end (or "tip" end) had the soft consistency that comes from long, slow cooking and rendering fat. By the time I finished (a full ninety seconds, I think, after beginning) I was spent both physically and emotionally. I was awash in sauce, surrounded by picked-clean bones, and in a state of spiritual rapture the likes of which one would think no atheist could achieve.

I recovered and became a devout and frequent pilgrim to Hecky's shrine (he has, I hear, become the caterer of choice to the Chicago Bears).

Name: Super Smokers
Address: Ofallon
City: Ofallon
State: IL
Phone:
Meat: 5
Sauce: 5
Sides: 4.5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 4
Overall: 5
Date: 06/29/01
User: Rich Polacek
Email: Rkcchiefs75
Date: 6/29/2001
Time: 7:51:59 PM

Comments

I've ate lots of bbq in my day, and in my opinion this is the best all around bbq joint there is. Nothing on the menu is less than spectacular!!!

Name: Reds Rib Shack
Address: ilrt 156 + IL RT 162
City: maryville
State: il
Phone:
Meat: 1
Sauce: 1
Sides: 1
Service: 1.5
Atmosphere: 1
Overall: 1
Date: 1/27/01
User: kenny
Email: kjohnsom46758@aol.com
Date: 1/2/2002
Time: 2:15:52 AM

Comments

This place is really unclean! It was dirty and the food dry and burnt. Save your time and money.

Name: Uncle Bub's
Address: 132 South Cass Ave.
City: Westmont
State: IL
Phone: 630-493-9000
Meat: 4.5
Sauce: 4
Sides: 4
Service: 4.5
Atmosphere: 4
Overall: 4.5
Date: Jan 17, 2003
User: MikeLM
Email: SafeStore@aol.com
Date: 1/17/2003
Time: 12:01:45 PM

Comments

A top-notch operation with excellent meats, sauce (regular and spicy)and sides that are all made in-house. Well worth a trip to the western suburbs.

The pulled pork sandwich is a terrific lunch. Also serves wine and beer.

Just doubled the size of the restaurant-he's still mostly full!

Name: Fat Willly's
Address: 2416 W. Schubert
City: Chicago
State: IL
Phone: 773 782-1800
Meat: 5
Sauce: 4.5
Sides: 5
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 5
Overall: 5
Date: 6/20/2003
User: Riley
Email: anon_account@yahoo.com
Date: 6/20/2003
Time: 12:15:17 PM

Comments

The best barbeque in Chicago. The meat is slow smoked on the premises. The ribs are the best I've ever had. The pulled pork sandwiches are perfectly smokey and tender, and huge. Even their side dishes are great. They serve burgers and brisket too, which I hear are great, but I've only had the pork (many times) because it's too good to pass up. It's a little joint that looks and smells and sounds like a barbecue place should. They don't serve alcohol, but you can bring your own. Across the street from a gigantic movie theater (City North 14.) Parking sucks... but they do delivery too.