Rub BBQ & Pub

On the way home from the recent beer festival downtown, thought we'd give Rub a try... Wish we hadn't.

First, our server was terrible. It was a Saturday afternoon and this place was EMPTY and our food and apps took forever to come out, she never checked up on us and then all of a sudden, all of the food, including the apps, arrive at once after about 45 minutes of waiting. There is no way the kitchen was trying to over compensate for being really busy; we just had a lazy server. She did the dump and run: Here's your food... see ya in about 45 minutes when I drop off the bill! Where do these people come from and why do they continue to be hired as servers? This drives me nuts!

As far as the food... rubbish. The corn on the cob was quite good, but the rest of the meal was sub par; Rub just wants to cash in on the BBQ craze, they don't want to serve you good food. The brisket was rubbery and it had that fake hickory smoke flavor... I understand that BBQ is all about smoked meat, but this tasted like it was fogged in liquid smoke rather than slow smoked... you know, like real BBQ. I was excited to try the sliders just to get a little bit of everything, but the meat (pulled chicken, pork and brisket) all tasted a like; rubbery bits of matter that tasted of liquid smoke...

The menu was largely uninspired. There was the standard fare of meat (chicken, pork, brisket... etc...) and then a bunch of sandwiches that sounded horrible, but you might order one because they just picked random Detroit landmarks and icons and made it into a sandwich. "Hey, let's split The Kid Rock!" Yeah, that's original.

I also didn't like been patronized by their menu. There was a big header telling me that everything is half off and all of the prices had numbers with slashes through them next to a number that is half the size. The bill even had the amount we "should have paid" if we paid full price. I suppose this is supposed to make it seem like you're getting a good deal, but no... It just pissed me off and it's a tacky tactic.

Yeah... Our meal was cheap, but there's no value here. Poor service, awful food... Just cheap. I really wanted to like this place too.

For better BBQ, go south to Slow's, or north to Bad Brad's. You'll thank me later.

I REALLY wanted to like this place but I doubt we will be back.

Our server was horrible. All our food (apps and meals) came out at once, and it took forever!

Place was EMPTY!  It is a huge building, I don't know why places with this size insist seating people 90ft away from any other table...it doesn't look/feel right.  On a slow day...use one section.  It doesn't give people the impression that you are so dead the tumbleweeds have room to blow around!

Food was ok.  Nothing amazing.  Corn on the Cob was good.  Sadly, since there are so many other great BBQ joints in the area with much better food and service, I don't see this place lasting too long here.  If there was zero choice for BBQ, it would have half of a chance.

Skip it.

WHAT???? No lunch buffet?

Well, the next best thing. Half off on all meals and appetizers at lunch. This is much better than the buffet as you choose what you want. The best part is you don't pig out.

Tried the Burnt Tips appetizer. Excellent. Oh, and for my diet, the tossed salad. decent iceberg lettuce and fixins, not much else to say about that. (Can't wait for daughters wedding, going to really pig out that night).