David W.
Yelp
If I could give 3.5 stars I probably would. This place was good enough that I wouldn't discourage anyone from going, but not so good that I'm likely to go again. Neither the best nor the worst BBQ I've had in Chicago.
The decor and ambiance, nothing amazing, but we were there early and in the front room. Service was fine, neither amazing nor bad, just normal table service which is nice for BBQ, so no complaints. Let's talk food:
We got the pickle plate, I recommend the pickle plate. All the pickles were good, and they give you a generous helping of each. They bring out three sauces, kind of a pineapple / sweet sauce, a smoky barbecue, and a mustard horseradish, all were good on everything.
We tried the Meat the Meats. The smoked chicken was great, which is surprising because that's hard to nail. To balance it out, the pork was surprisingly dry, the pickled onions from the pickle plate helped to make it work but that was a shame. The brisket was fine, nothing special, could have been trimmed / rendered a little better. The beef sausage was nice, a little heavy on the fennel, but a good texture and a nice surprise, you don't see that often. With the sauces, the average was good but not great. If we did go again, we'd probably go all in on the chicken.
For sides, we got the coleslaw, the smoked sweet potato, and the cheesy cauliflower. Everything needed more salt, but there was no salt on the table, which always disappoints me - if you have the confidence to not put it out, make sure you're using enough. Coleslaw was fine, maybe a tad overly sweet, I added some of the mustard to it and that balanced it out. The sweet potato came with maple butter... it was fine, it was a sweet potato. The cauliflower was cooked well, still firm, not cooked to death, but the cheese sauce was a little too thin for what it was. On average the sides were okay - nothing was bad, but nothing stood out. There was a lot of grease on both plates and there was no white bread or anything to soak it up.
For dessert we got the ice cream sandwiches, banana chocolate and key lime. Honestly, if we lived nearby I'd go there at least once a month just for this - it was really good. If we ever do go back, we'll also be trying all the other desserts.
Overall it was fine, touching on good at points. I'm not disappointed we went, it was a nice night out, but I probably won't go again unless I happen to be in the area and hungry.