Uncle Bub's and Req. For West Suburban BBQ Recommendations

I was out in the western burbs visiting the folks for an early Father's Day lunch. My dad likes ribs. His favorite spot out their way is Famous Dave's in Yorktown Mall. I've eaten there a few times with him. Some of the food there can be OK, but the overall experience (such as the suburban mall setting, the faux Northwoods lodge interior, and the hyper-friendly service) generally leaves me depressed. I thought we'd try someplace different, so I did some research and came up with Uncle Bub's in Westmont. We ate a late lunch there today, and, I must say, we both left happy.

I was feeling optimistic as we pulled into the parking lot, and I spied what apprared to be a smoker in use. It looked like something you'd hitch up to the back of a pick-up, but there was smoke coming out of it, it smelled good, and restaurant staff were pulling stuff (not sure what) out of it periodically and bringing it inside. Anyway, I ordered a ordered their sampler platter which included a few ribs (baby back), some tips, brisket, pulled pork, and 1/4 chicken. Quite a bit of food for $13.95. My dad got a slab of their baby backs. All the items on the sampler (except the chicken) were served with a bit of sauce on them, which I thought was too bad because I generally like to add the sauce myself. Otherwise, all of the food was quite good. I though the tips were the best of the bunch. They were pretty meaty and had a nice smoky flavor with a decent char on them. Surprisingly, although I liked the tips, I was a bit disappointed by the ribs. The flavor and texture were good, but they had very little meat on them. The brisket and the pulled pork were also good. My dad, for his part, liked his ribs quite a bit.

So Uncle Bub's was good. Hopefully, my dad will head there next time he wants ribs instead of Famous Dave's. For future reference, are there any other decent BBQ places in the western burbs that folks would recommend?

I haven't seen any recent information about Uncle Bub's so I trekked on over this afternoon for lunch. I ordered the two meat dinner with riblets and a hot link. Now, I have no idea what riblets are, but when they are nicely seasoned and smoky to the bone they are wonderful. The hot link, however, while it maintains a wonderful flavor, still has the mushy texture I remember from previous visits. It was a little dry and ground too fine. One of my two sides was their rendition of baked beans. I think I'll drop off my recipe for these because it would appear that they take Campbell's pork and beans, add Open Pit bbq sauce with a few chunks of meat, then have the audacity to call them good. However, my second side dish can truly be called a monument to artery-clogging gluttony, FRIED MAC&CHEESE . Eating this was truly ethereal, a baseball sized scoop of what appeared to be homemade mac & cheese lightly breaded (cornmeal?) and deep fried YUMMY!!! I think I'll stop in next time and just ask for 2 or three of these. Overall I would say that the items I didn't care for before remain the same, but GODDAMN I loved that mac & cheese.

Flip


Uncle Bub's BBQ
132 S. Cass Ave
Wesmont, IL 60559
630-493-9000

I continue to have a love/hate thing with Bub's. It can be pretty decent with good smoke flavor and tasty ribs, or it can be mushy and tasteless. It never is great, but it can be good.

I lean toward their specials when I go - roast pig, smoked ham, brisket, or corned beef, usually. They are often more like roast with a touch of smoke, but they are also more reliably fresh and tasty. Since I am not much of a fan of baked beans, I have not tried them, and can't comment. The slaw is decent.

Fried Mac 'n cheese, eh? Okay, I will try that for the thrill.

Not sure what to say about those riblets. I tried one once, and between the owner steering me away from them and the fact that they are a processed meat product more akin to the McRib sammy than anything else, I did not go any further. Maybe I was being narrow minded? The owner did say they tried real tips for a while but found these sold better "out here."

Famous Dave's, in three visits, qualifies as possibly the worst place I ever ate. I could forgive the ammonia flavor in one serving of chicken - heck I had that problem with some broth once at one of my favorite chinese places - but the fact that every meal I have ever had there had a major sensory defect in the main course has convinced me this was no isolated event, and I would gladly dine at Applebee's every day for the next week in order to avoid Famous Dave's. (though bamboo shoots under my nails would be preferable to either).

Of course, under the mentorship of G Wiv, my favorite rib place in the western burbs is now my house, and it is not even close. For the fireworks at the Ribfest I even smoked up 4 slabs for my companions - the daughter looked at me funny, and asked (dripping with irony) "You are smoking ribs to take to the Ribfest???" But my companions inhaled them gladly, and no one felt any compulsion to sample the others on offer.

My suggestion: stop at Honey 1 and take some links, slabs, and tips out to your dad. Eat at his house. Be happy.

There are no other good rib places around here. Uncle Bub's is as close as you will get, and that place is hit and miss. They will put the sauce on the side if you ask, though.

I had a positively miserable lunch at Uncle Bub's today, leaving most of the sizzling steel-in-wood platter untouched, which annoyed me for the price and waste and for the moderately high expectations since I've had some very good takeout / catering (especially a whole pig roast) from them in the past few years.

But this time, I decided to go for something other than pulled pig, and stack up their tips, links, and burnt ends of brisket. The tips smelled like smoke, but they had zero smoke flavor and were almost completely unsalted, making them desolately bland, and they had not been in long enough to break down some of the fat and collagen. I was served one length of link, which was unidentifiable as pork or beef, with a grind so fine as to be paste. It was heavily seasoned, though exactly two-note, with red pepper and sage, and no other flavors like garlic, black pepper, burnt sugar, thyme, or anything else you can usually pick up in a good link. No snap to the casing whatsoever.

The "burnt ends" were unforgivable, no true end pieces with that characteristic fatty char, but rather disturbingly uniform cubes of beef that had been put back in a hot part of the smoker to drive all the moisture out of them and turn one edge black, but with no caramelization. They tasted exactly like (and may have been) dried out beef tenderloin.

Dumb choice on a hot, busy day where most of the UB staff was out loading catering trucks. "Broasted" potato wedges were a bizarre travesty of spuddom, breaded and poorly heated like so much Market Day freezerburn leftovers. I'll likely return for pulled pork only. I rectified the situation with some refrigerator case choices from Katy's (sorry for not calling, dicksond, was in a foul mood at that point) and a quick stop at the Whole Grain Fresh Market (former Diho Market), Ogden and 83 in Westmont, both places run by people that really care about what they're doing.

i went to uncle bub's today for lunch with the a bbq group.

and had a good lunch.
the sausage today was tops.
had brisket,pulled pork,corn bread,cole slaw,fried mac & cheese ,brunswick stew
& cake.
a big improvment sence last i was at uncle bub's

on the way out of town last week by way of 55 we asked google for the:-( nearest BBQ and were directec to Uncle Bubs. ordered the large sampler, large tips, slab of st louis ribs and a couple sides.

The bad: the slab of ribs was herald way too long so that it was not edible. I promptly returned them with no hassle for a nice slab. They shorted us on at least 2 sides which we did not figure out in time so we did not bet to try everything. The sauces, we got both the regular and spicy, were nearly the same. If you like the sauce on the sweeter side then this is probably pretty good.

The good: The BBQ! Holy cow we were impressed. Without much expectations the tips were among the best I have had. They were large, meaty and juicy, with just a little less bark than I prefer. The chicken was moist with enough smoke flavor, the ribs were solid and the sides were also very solid.

I dont remember ever having Uncle Bub's before, not because I haven't, but because it was not memorable. This time was certainly memorable and will put Bub's in consideration anytime I am SW of the city.