Call the BBQ Police!!

I thought I'd start yet another post about BBQ on the LTHFORUM. I went to The Pit Rib House on Roberts Road in Hickory Hills for lunch where appearently their motto is "Its so good cooked with wood!"

I ordered a sampler platter of pulled pork, ribs and chicken. I started with the chicken that is supposedly smoked according to the counter person. There was no smoke flavor whatsoever and the skin was covered in sauce that just slid off the chicken. Next, I went for the pulled pork where it says smoked for 8-10 hours. Again, no smokey flavor, no smoke ring at all and covered with sauce. Lastly I grabbed the ribs which fell off the bone when I grabbed it. The bone was a strange gray color that went a whitish color when it dried off. Meat was kind of mushy and definitely no smoke ring. It did have beautiful grill marks on it under all the sauce though! I went up again to the counter and asked if the ribs were smoked or baked or boiled or something! She said, "they were smoked, why, see, there's the pit." She pointed to what looked like a corner fire place.

What's funny is that when I was walking out I peered over the counter into the kitchen and saw what looked to be about 8 slabs of ribs being cooked on the gas grill.

So I named this post Call the BBQ Police. I do not really care how "BBQ" is prepared as long as you don't lie about how it's prepared. I've gotten used to the typical Chicago style ribs being baked and finished on the grill, ala Twin Anchor's, but I've also recently gotten accustomed to the real deal ala Smoque, The Maple Tree Inn and my house.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you are around Hickory Hills and see the Pit and decide to try it out...Do not expect good authentic slow smoked BBQ!! That's all, have a nice day.

if you don't see a pile of wood and smoke pouring out of somewhere then your food ain't smoked on site or possibly even smoked at all.

Thank you for posting this. The love for this place in the neighborhood confounds me. I've been there twice (just to be fair) and both times I had a horrendous food experience. No discernible smoke flavor. All the food was dry and tasteless. The only positive was the Texas toast was okay, but how do you screw up toast? I went there with my family one of the times as a sort of barometer of taste, and they all agreed that a) there was no smoke flavor they could discern and b) even smoky claims aside, this just was not very good food.

I would have just pointed to the "pit" and started laughing and said something to the effect of, "It looks like a BBQ pit only smaller!"

The Pit is a bit deceptive in that when you show up there is a stack of wood outside, and the smoky wood aroma in the air. Unfortunately, that is from their wood burning fireplace, and not from the ribs.

The greek style chicken there is very good, and for chicago style bbq, it is not terrible. The chopped pork sandwich also has a nice texture from the crunchy outer pieces and tender inner pieces of the shoulder they use (just no smoke).

It can't be compared to true q places, like Uncle John's, but then again, it isn't really bbq.

Glenn

Signs I'm raising my kids well:

I took Andrew to Northfield's Ribfest last weekend for some BBQ. (we hoped) We rolled up and walked through the crowd and after about three minutes Andrew looks at me and says

"Dad, the sign says Ribfest but there's no BBQ here?"

He was correct, there were dozens of Webers and more bags of Matchlight than you could shake a bottle of Liquid Smoke at, and on top of each blazing grill were slabs of ribs, some already in their liquid filled aluminum foil jackets.

But the boy was right, there was no BBQ there. I took him to Honey1 and gave him a hug.

I've sort of had a vendetta against The Pit since the last time that we went there and I ordered a baked potato with sour cream on the side. When they served the dish, I discovered that the sour cream was imitation!

A small complaint, but really -- even Portillo's gives me real sour cream with my baked potato. Stop being so stinkin' cheap.

Couple that with a mediocre meal and I haven't been back since. (A pity, since they're literally two minutes from my work.)

Dear Octarine,

<b>RIGHT ON!</b>
The next generation of Food Polices has gotta come from "somewheres"!!

Give them kids a "Deputy Dawg badge"!!

Next up- a trip to various Chicagoland Taquerias serving "Tacos al Pastor"
:: in search of the quentissential Tacos al Pastor....and then see if they can spot the slow-spin-of-the-Pastor machine!

Thanks for sharing!

Hombre de Acero wrote:
Next up- a trip to various Chicagoland Taquerias serving "Tacos al Pastor"
:: in search of the quentissential Tacos al Pastor....and then see if they can spot the slow-spin-of-the-Pastor machine!

Thanks for sharing!

The machines are usually broken but you will see the taquero
give a quarter turn every couple minutes