Vince B
is one Smokin' Farker
First off let me say I am a BBQ enthusiast. I love to eat and also make good Q! I have been wanting to try this place and it is close to house. We arrived at the Glendale Heights Illinois location about 6:00 and it was pretty dead. Even though it was during rush hour I figured there would me more people eating there. I did notice some cars in the drive through so maybe that is where the action is at.
As we were standing at order line looking the menu over I asked the cashier what type of wood they used to make their Q? His reply was "I'm not sure Oak I believe." I said really most places will use hickory. Then he replies "that it yes hickory. It even says it in our menu." I'm like ok well maybe he just doesn't know much about BBQ and this is just a job for him no big deal.
Anyhow my wife orders half a chicken and pulled pork with beans. I order ribs and half a chicken with beans and slaw for sides. As we were waiting on our food I was kind of checking out the kitchen. It looks like a normal fast food kitchen. A steamer table, grill, deep fryer, prep tables and some of the other things that you would normally see in a restaurant kitchen.
Then it hits me "what are they using to smoke their food? For the life of me I did not see anything that resembled a smoker. I have seen many different styles. I was thinking that maybe they smoke off site and just heat and serve there. No big deal.
Food was ready in about ten minutes if I had to guess. I thought this was pretty good for an establishment like this. While we were there 3 other couples had come into the place to dine in. I figured that maybe the time in which we went in was just a slow time. Whatever....
So we sit down with our dinner and the portions look like decent sizes. I decide to try the chicken first and man it was hot. No big deal I decided to let it cool a bit and move on to the ribs. The ribs were so tuff that when I cut them they seemed to flake apart and were very dry. Hard to cut and definitely needed more sauce in order to eat them. I even let my wife try one and she felt they were very dry. The chicken was ok for what it was but a little on the dry side.
The beans and slaw were what they were. Nothing special but eatable is all I will say. My wife had the chicken and really did not eat much of it because it was dry. The pulled pork was pretty good however it had to much sauce and we felt it was a bit much. I like to taste the smokey meat and add sauce as needed.
As we left I had this taste in my mouth. It definitely in my opinion was not from the BBQ sauce or from the smokey flavors I am accustom to when eating real BBQ. It was liquid smoke. I could be wrong but to me this place was not worth it to us. Not the authentic BBQ I was looking for. My wife even commented that even on my worst personal BBQ cooks it was way better than this. I would have been ashamed to serve this to any of my guests in my back yard BBQ!
In closing I would look else where if I were considering a BBQ place for dinner.
As we were standing at order line looking the menu over I asked the cashier what type of wood they used to make their Q? His reply was "I'm not sure Oak I believe." I said really most places will use hickory. Then he replies "that it yes hickory. It even says it in our menu." I'm like ok well maybe he just doesn't know much about BBQ and this is just a job for him no big deal.
Anyhow my wife orders half a chicken and pulled pork with beans. I order ribs and half a chicken with beans and slaw for sides. As we were waiting on our food I was kind of checking out the kitchen. It looks like a normal fast food kitchen. A steamer table, grill, deep fryer, prep tables and some of the other things that you would normally see in a restaurant kitchen.
Then it hits me "what are they using to smoke their food? For the life of me I did not see anything that resembled a smoker. I have seen many different styles. I was thinking that maybe they smoke off site and just heat and serve there. No big deal.
Food was ready in about ten minutes if I had to guess. I thought this was pretty good for an establishment like this. While we were there 3 other couples had come into the place to dine in. I figured that maybe the time in which we went in was just a slow time. Whatever....
So we sit down with our dinner and the portions look like decent sizes. I decide to try the chicken first and man it was hot. No big deal I decided to let it cool a bit and move on to the ribs. The ribs were so tuff that when I cut them they seemed to flake apart and were very dry. Hard to cut and definitely needed more sauce in order to eat them. I even let my wife try one and she felt they were very dry. The chicken was ok for what it was but a little on the dry side.
The beans and slaw were what they were. Nothing special but eatable is all I will say. My wife had the chicken and really did not eat much of it because it was dry. The pulled pork was pretty good however it had to much sauce and we felt it was a bit much. I like to taste the smokey meat and add sauce as needed.
As we left I had this taste in my mouth. It definitely in my opinion was not from the BBQ sauce or from the smokey flavors I am accustom to when eating real BBQ. It was liquid smoke. I could be wrong but to me this place was not worth it to us. Not the authentic BBQ I was looking for. My wife even commented that even on my worst personal BBQ cooks it was way better than this. I would have been ashamed to serve this to any of my guests in my back yard BBQ!
In closing I would look else where if I were considering a BBQ place for dinner.
