I'm so over this place. The service is the killer for me. Â Food is good, portion size is decent, and price is within reason. Â With that said, there are other BBQ places in Chicago where I can receive faster service minus the attitude....
2 stars because the food is good (-4) for attitude and service.
A friend of mine got a group together to go down to Barbara Ann's to get BBQ one day after work so I tagged along. Â The bbq ribs were great - among the best I've had. Â I wasn't really a fan of the house-made hot links, though. Â Maybe not enough fat in them, I'm not sure, but they just weren't my favorite.
I would definitely go back for the BBQ, though. Â And I love the way they enclosed the grill so that it looks like a BBQ aquarium!
A friend of mine seems to be on a barbecue quest and has gone all over to try barbecue. As of late, he's focused on the South Side and it brought me here to other night. It's packed and disorganized with one lady and working the counter and in two modes: taking orders or giving out orders/taking cash.
The wait can be pretty substantial and a lot of customers start to get disgruntled, which is pretty easy to understand since it's like an applied psychology experiment: hungry people+limited space+high temperatures=some tempers flaring.
I would honestly knock it some more but I can't  when the Hot Links are delicious and spicy and the beef ribs are melt of the bone soft and the sauce is a good accompaniment to both. Obviously, I ordered the combo and at the suggestion of the lady at the counter I asked for mixed sauce on the side allowed me to control the amount of sauce I put in there. I should have asked for extra sauce on the side since it was so good-the mix struck a good balance with the meat-particularly the hot link because it set a sweet/spicy kick to the already spicy hot link-which was surprisingly hot.
My friend got the full rack of ribs with the mild sauce and I got a taste of it which was on the sweeter side but still very flavorful. If he hadn't have saved it for his kids I would have probably eaten more of it.
I ordered BBQ Chicken and Turkey Link combo....and it was Just awful, but Friendly and Quick Service. :-) Â Went on a Thursday evening.....too late to be eating crap like this.......that'll will teach me. Â
The chicken is not grilled, but fried. Â The Combo's are not the best deals, you only get two items.
The sauce is good, hickory. But i don't think it's homemade, it taste very familiar. Â
Maybe they are better with Swine!
Ribs are pretty good. I give this place 4 stars although the wait is almost unbearable. I advise you not to come here if you are on lunch break (like i was) because you will be waiting for your order for at least a half an hour. The hot bbq sauce is not intended for the "i want a little kick" consumer.
Review Source:This place is tremendous. Â I spend a lot of time in my car on the SS and I've hit most all the BBQ joints and this one is by far my favorite.
I've even done a taste test with Barbara Ann's and Lem's with slabs of ribs. Â Where's Lem's tends to be dry, Barbara Ann's is perfectly moist. Â Better sauce too.
Of course, it's carry out only. Â My one tip would be to get the sauce on the side thus saving your once crisp fries from drowning.
Like the other poster who gave it a bad review, I also came here during off hours in the middle of the day. Â I am really unhappy with the food I got.
I ordered it hot, like I do with all the ribs I order at every barbeque place. Â What I got, though, did not taste like barbeque with some heat. Â It tasted like pork slathered with hot sauce. Â I tasted no smokiness or sweetness, though there was certainly enough heat and tang (which I like). Â
The sauce had separated, so that the entire bottom of container was just clear oil with the sauce solids in little clumps. Â It was as if they had just given me pork in oil. Â The meat itself was very dry and chewy.
You know that feeling when you put a piece of meat in your mouth and it fills your mouth with this overly meaty, stale taste? Â It comes from really unfresh meat. Â That's what I got, and it was gross. Â I also grabbed a piece of meat and it ended up being a gigantic piece of bone marrow, which completely repulsed me. Â I could not eat any more.
I've gone to my favorite barbeque places during off hours before, and though sometimes the ribs tend to be a little less tender, the drop in quality wasn't this severe.
I wouldn't try this place again.
This barbeque is good as hell.
It takes a lady like Barbara Ann to stand out in a city full and deep with wack ass poseur meat purveyors slinging their acrid sauces and even worse hype:
Smokes Smoque (What the hell is that anyways? French? Phhsshht...)
Gives Honky Tonk the blues.
Honey 1? Uh no, sorry honey, you lost.
And I-57's got 57 problems and delicious ain't one. Â
This sauce has flavor - delicious flavor - and tastes worked, not just a choice between damn near ketchup or nasty hot. The links have a dry grilled snap with bite - might just wup Leon's old ass. Rib tips just rock - a perfect mix of crunchity, meaty, fatty and well smoked. It was all just beautiful food porn that I couldn't be bothered capturing - on film anyway. Â The ribs? The best I've had in Chicago, and trust me - I've eaten my fair share of food. Â
Double parked city trucks outside, even at night? If you don't know that spells delicious, you clearly don't know shit about shit. They are located smack dab in the middle Chicago's golden triangle of barbeque - and they still usually run out of ribs before night's end. Open til 3am on the weekends, til 12 on weeknights. No place to sit  except your car, but you probably don't want to be seen publicly sucking all seriously on ribs like that anyway...
Better come and get yourself some soon, before another New York or other out-of-town foodie comes and schools your asses and tells you where you should have been eating all along. You know, again....
(If you need more real credentials, further pre-vetting and whatnot, all of their LTH Forum, Time Out, etc. props are on full display there for your perusal.)
Can't believe I never ate @ Barbara Ann's before tonight.
How could that be possible?
Likely because it's just down the street froma Leon's & a Captain Curt's BBQ.
But around 10 p.m. and I just wanted some pork. What to do, what to do?
We hit the streets to the SE side searching for cars and shops with the lights on.
For the price, these are some of the best barbeque rib tips I've had in a long time. Really meaty.
What made it taste wonderful was the simple, understated sauce. The hot links/ rib tips combo was generous and gratifying grub.
It's hard to both miss & not to miss Barbara Ann's main marquee advertising low "Weekly Rates." Not only is the food great if you catch a bad case of the "itis" they've got your four-hour-nap covered.
<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymotion.com%2Fvideo%2Fx3y52f_the-boondocks-110-the-itis_fun&s=8b48c9061967c1f473b74f839d055ceacc2dd920ef55f194d678a8dfafeda3a1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailymotion.c…</a>
Nice.
Has a TON of potential, but my personal visit proved quite sad. Granted i went midday around 3pm, the food was far below edible. I ordered the ribtips/links combo meal. Large portions were a plus and prices were very fair($9.50 or so) but the taste was aweful.
1. the so well renowned hot links were extremely dry! they were crinkled and almost brittle as i bit into them. the taste of the spices were okay but overall, there was a slight hint that can only be described as 'spoiled tasting.'
2. the rib tips were also VERY dry and tougher than a boot. some pieces tougher than others but a few i swear my dog couldnt have chewed. i could tell they had been sitting in the smoker for quite a while. all texture aside though, the smokey flavor infused into the meat was delicious.
3. the only BIG PLUS was their sauce!! it wasnt too runny and was savory sweet with subtle tones of spiceyness near the end. still sticks in my mind and is probably the only reason I'll definitely be going back to give them another shot!
BBQ TOUR rankings thus far:
1.Smoque
2.fat willys
3.BK bbq
4.Barbara Anns
5.Lem's bbq house
6.Honey 1(although id rather not have this on here. worst bbq ever.)
holy shit $%^&@#$%!*
how the hell does this place only have a 3 star and Smoque has about 2 more than it deserves? what's wrong peoples? too afraid to drive south past University of Chicago?
forget the rating from Chicago Mag. just come taste it for yourself. enjoy the BBQ shack experience, replete with bullet proof windows and a neighboring broke-down motel. the smoke is so good even cheap meat like rib tips become divine! hmmmmm! rib tips! caramelized fat, crunchy cartilage! the sauce is house made and really, sauce isn't that important when the ribs are so smokey and fine.
i'm sorry Takelya W., why did you order pizza puffs at a rib joint? your taste buds need to be shut down!
"In addition to ribs and tips, which are all very good, Barbara Ann's uses a specially coarse ground pork sausage for its hot link that is just fuckin' excellent in every aspect of its being. Al of the barbeque at Barbara Ann's has a great smoke ring and a nice degree of fattiness that keeps its ribs moist."
Again, William P., totally agree, couldn't have said it better.
i hate this place. the meat is dry as hell and the sauce tastes like ketchup and water. i tried the pizza puff and they burned it. im sorry but, this place needs to shut down. oh yeah, they got closed down at one point but im not sure what for...i suspect roaches but thats strictly off the record
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