Hungry for some BBQ, we decided to check out Bub City while staying downtown. What drew was here was the old school atmosphere, whiskey selection and barbeque selection. We were not disappointed even in the slightest. I do recommend the Trucker Snacks as an appetizer. The hot links were delicious and the cheese sauce they used was amazing. If you know anything about barbeque then you know that burnt ends are the holy grail of meats. If don't know anything about barbeque, burnt ends is the "bacon of brisket". With brisket already being tender and flavorful, burnt ends taste like heaven in your mouth. They came in a small skillet pan, maybe 10 pieces or so. The platter is served with a piece of bread, pickles and coleslaw. The chipotle brisket mac and cheese is such an awesome treat. It's an enormous portion of mac and cheese with jalapenos and brisket. The tender pieces of meat and spiciness will make you not want to put your fork down. My girlfriend ordered the cheeseburger and practically inhaled it. Their menu has so many different options that coming here will make for one tough decision about what to order which is the best kind of problem to have at a restaurant. The food, friendly service, great bar, TVs, and live music make this place simply perfect. I'll definitely come here regularly and you owe it to yourself to try it as well. read more

I'm not impressed. I ordered take-out, and got the Lobster Roll. When I got it back to the office it was inedible because of all the shells mixed in with the lobster meat. I'm definitely not someone to complain, but after dropping $20 on a sandwich, I felt like I should call the restaurant. I just wanted the manager to know that there were shells in the meat, so they wouldn't serve it to other customers. She ended up sending me a $25 gift certificate to try their restaurant again. I was really happy about that. A few weeks later I decided to give this place another try. I ordered the same take-out meal, and walked over to pick it up. I couldn't help buy notice that the service was a little off. I waited at the bar for quite a while. I was then given my food and the check. I waited about 5 minutes for him to come back while he was taking the order for an employee's meal. I was in a huge hurry, and I watched as the employee (I believe it was the manager) decided on his own lunch. Like I said, I'm not one to complain, but I think I'm done now. If you read my other reviews, I only write excellent reviews (for the most part), and it takes a lot for me to write a negative review. But this place put me over the edge. read more

Quite aggressive, if Im going to be honest. I was standing still and one of the staff members tripped over me. I was litterally standing still but I was probably in the beer lane. This staff member decided that was enough for me to leave. My friends followed me out, quite bewildered. Im still confused as to what I did wrong. The bouncers also didnt know but were just following orders. Seems like a great place. read more

Love/Hate relationship: I love a good barbecue, but I hate country music. This place is ideal for a casual yet solid BBQ lunch/dinner with family or friends. The atmosphere is always upbeat and food is always good. Giddy-up fries, blue cheese spicy tater tots, cornbread, pulled pork. YUM. The fake paper plates and mannequin in the girls bathroom may have added to my likeness as well. 4 stars because I once came here on a Friday night, and it was filled with some of the worst people ever. Bitchy single women in their 30's, douche bags, and drunk college girls. read more

5 stars based on the Bloody Mary bar alone. I've been searching for a good Bloody Mary bar with all the fixins' and this one is on point. Oysters, shrimp, bacon, grilled cheese, the list goes on. 10$ per trip. The Nashville hot chicken sandwich is the perfect pairing. Having lived in Nashville I feel back at home with the live country music, food, and a bloody in hand. read more

Bub City - Barbeque Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Great atmosphere and huge selection of bourbon, even 23 yr old Pappy shot for $90. But everyone knows I'm in it for the Q. Bub City boasts of an 18 hour smoked brisket. I can't for the life of me understand how they can smoke a brisket that long. 8-9 hours max if you are using wood for heat. Methinks they don't actually have a pit and use the high dollar units, read fake bbq. I'm sure the city has laws about too much smoke. If you are a BBQ lover and live anywhere south of Peoria this might not be for you. At $18.95 for a plate of uninspired brisket maybe you could try Arby's new lineup and save $12. Sorry but brisket bbq lovers should move on. read more

This place is awesome! I've eaten here many times and am finally reviewing now. Almost everything on the menu is delicious. Definitely get the general joes chicken appetizer. We almost always order another round after the first one. The buffalo tots with blue cheese and buffalo sauce are another good appetizer as well as the giddyup fries. The mac and cheese is amazing and the cheeseburgers are awesome. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the pulled chicken sandwich. I would advise against that one. It was a bit dry and had a couple of bones in it. And the bread didn't really soak up the BBQ sauce like I would have liked. I still have to give Bub city five stars because of the countless amazing meals and service I've had here. I really couldn't see myself giving it any less. Another note is that have live music in the evenings. I do that the bands usually aren't set up too loud and you can tell a lot of care was put in to the sound and the acoustics of the room. Lots of places with live music tend to be harsh and noisy but they seem to have that worked out at Bub. Looking forward to my next visit! read more

5 stars for live music, sports playing in tvs, bloody Maria's. 2 stars for service friendliness, 1 star for servers availability. Overall, illl be back but expect terrible service trickling from management down. read more

Damn good BBQ and when you factor in the scene/crowd, its another notch in the belt for the Melmans' winning formula and takes them one step closer to complete domination of River North. First off, its River North....you're not going to find a bunch of cowboys with a dip in their mouth spittin' on the ground type authenticity. Deal with it, if you expect otherwise...take your ass to Texas. Expect the typical RN crowd with a little more plaid/madras mixed in (if that's possible). I'm not a country music fan, but the live music offered a good vibe. It would help if they cleared the tables in the middle once the dinner crowd left to allow the place to flow a little more. Now on to the food, which was great. We tried a little of everything, the fried chicken was some of the best I've ever had. The pulled pork and brisket were good, but didn't have the bark that I crave out of bbq. Surprisingly, one of the best dishes we had were the fried pickles. I'm usually not a fan, but these had a Breaking Bad blue meth level of addiction to them, especially when alternating between those and one of the dozens of beers they had available. The sauces were all really good, and the "hot" packed some unexpected heat. Prices were affordable given the location(they have half a dozen beers available for $4, which is unheard of in the area), portions are Texas sized big. We were shocked at how low the tab was compared with how much food we begrudingly had to leave on the table because we were so stuffed. Any way you slice it, this places blows the doors off the little "ranch" next door.... read more

I was tasked with finding a LEYE restaurant that a 12 year old would appreciate and I immediately thought of Bub City. I have been here several times for the live band Kareoke, however I have never eaten here. I wish I had, because I would have never recommended it for dinner. Service was great through out the entire meal. We showed up on time for our reservation and were immediately seated. It was very crowded, but that was to be expected for a Saturday night. I did not appreciate being sat at a high top in the bar area for our reservation. Drinks were good/strong. The fried pickle appetizer was delicious. However, the rest of the meal was mediocre at best. The meat quality for the wings and ribs was nowhere near the price point. The fried chicken was cut weird. The breast piece was only half a breast. And it was completely over-breaded. The Texas torpedo was not a real Texas torpedo because those have brisket in them. Bub's version was just a sad, over breaded pepper stuffed with cheap cheese that made a giant mess when eating. All the BBQ sauces and the ketchup are in squeeze bottles that need to be cleaned because the sauce was not dispensing properly. You had to squeeze them extra hard to get any out, and then they would explode across your plate and table. The food all tasted frozen/pre-made. It would be perfectly acceptable for a dive bar with one cook. Not a big restaurant in the Loop with Loop prices. If the service hadn't been so good, this would be a one star review. The kitchen needs a complete overhaul. I can think of 10 places off the top of my head that I would rather eat BBQ at in Chicago. However, if you go for live band Kareoke and only get drinks and fried pickles, you will most likely enjoy yourself. read more

Monday night, girls night, where should we go for dinner.. Bub City is pretty meh bbq at pretty meh prices. Yeah, it's cheap for River North, but I have a hard time calling a place that charges $15 for fried chicken with no sides cheap. The $13 baby back mac was basically velveeta with some pork thrown in. It's another Chicago BBQ fail in my book, with a crappy beer list. It's a been there done that kind of place. Service was terrible, it took 40 minutes to get our waiter to come back to take our food order after bringing us drinks, and aside from when he dropped the food and check he was never seen again. It wasn't busy. He was suddenly mister attentive when the boyfriends showed up and wanted to stay to watch football though. Finding out it's a Lettuce Entertain You joint kind of explains it. Not the worst meal I've paid for but I see no reason to return. read more

After my last review, I was promptly contacted to give Bub City another chance. Since we are fairly loyal to Lettuce Entertain You, we decided to do just that this past Saturday. My husband and I walked in around 6:30 and were promptly seated by a very polite and energetic hostess. Not 10 seconds later, our waitress was there to take our drink orders. We each got a beer and ordered the jalapeno torpedoes -- they were fabulous, if you love Poppers, you have to try them! We also ordered the BBQ chicken and rib plate to share with a side of baked beans. All of the food was delicious. All in all, we are so happy we tried Bub City again and look forward to going back in the future! read more

Two bar areas. One larger than the other. Friday night hustle n bustle had them both basically full. Good drinks good food! read more

Bub City - Barbeque Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Fun Atmosphere, especially with the country band that was playing on Sunday! We didn't have any food so can't speak to that but they have great patio seating and a good beer menu! read more

Bub City - Live music - Barbeque Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Oh boy, am I a huge fan of brisket! When you have the differentiation between "Lean Brisket" and "Thick Fatty Brisket"--YOU ALREADY KNOW IT'S ABOUT TO GO DOWN. So of course I ordered the Thick Fatty Brisket.. no sauce, no bells or whistles. Just plain ol' tasty MEAT. And their tots were tasty! I'm boring and like plain ketchup, like Heinz. They had the fancy organic stuff that tasted like applesauce so that wasn't good lol. My friend had their cheeseburger and she said it was super tasty! So next time I'm in Chicago... Brisket and Burgers it is! Cannot wait! Note: My friend came from the bathroom freaking out because they have a "male" mannequin pretending to pee in the women's restroom. That was... weird. Kinda funny. :) read more

The good: -Great atmosphere and something different and slightly more casual in River North -Great food: The pulled chicken and pork, chopped salad, waffle fries, fried chicken sandwich, and lemon dessert were all great! The not-so-good: -Very slow service-the food took a while to come out and the waitress was difficult to find at times. However, the manager took care of us which made things much better. It's still pretty new so I"m assuming they will resolve this issue at some point. -Non-stop country music (was there on a Wed so am not sure what music situation is over weekend)-granted it's a country western bar but listening to country music for that long was not something I could do on the regular (Perfect for true country music lovers!) read more

Do you like country music? Do you like Whiskey? Do you enjoy huge American flags made out of beer cans, and having fun? If you answered yes to any of those questions, Bub City is the place for you. I came in last Friday night and can't wait to go back. The music is straight country, ranging from current hits to deep stuff your parents loved including The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and John Denver. Regardless of era, it's all blended well and the screens across the bar show the music videos to add a country flair. The drinks are top notch and the selection of whiskeys is truly impressive. They cover an entire floor to ceiling wall, categorized by variety as soon as you walk in. The staff was friendly and quick to serve, and the space gets crowded but never feels overbearing or packed. If you're dying for a little country in life, need a taste of the south, or just want some fun, I highly recommend stopping by. read more

Just a quick note in a carry out order. Slab of ribs and some tater tots. The tots were surprisingly good for carry out, still crispy and a nice amount for $3. The slab on the other hand was one of the driest I've ever had. I don't mind a real smoked slab that you need to work to get off the bone but this was cooked for way too long (like double). Should not have ever been sold to a customer. It was closer to jerky than bbq... read more

Bub City - Barbeque Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

As I've stated in past reviews for other establishments, I ALWAYS give the benefit of the doubt... always. We've been to Bub twice now, two times, and I wish I could give a great review, but it's beyond horrible. I won't bore people with a long, drawn out review since I have two to give, so here they are: The first visit- sat at a high top in the bar, weekday afternoon, not busy at all. A large piece of long black hair was wrapped in one of our roll-ups, not just on it, wrapped into it. We push it to the side. Ask our server for another roll up and she says "oh here ya go" and slides it back in front of me. Are you kidding? You don't see a long black hair wrapped in that bright white napkin? Gross. So I politely pointed it out and got a new one. Everything we ordered was made wrong. We ordered the pull pork nachos with only pulled pork, BBQ sauce, and cheese- they come out with EVERYTHING on them. Politely we send them back. While we're waiting for them the rest of our lunch comes out. My husband asked for his $8 buck cluck (chicken sandwich) plain (aka nothing on it but sauce). It looked okay, but I'm so happy he looked at the top and bottom buns. Hiding under the chicken on the bottom bun were pickles. He's very allergic to pickles (and cucumbers). We had to send it back. There was no going around it. In the meantime the nachos came out. WRONG again. They looked better, but still had sour cream and tomatoes all over them. I pushed them to the side as I had previously did my roll-up. Sandwich comes back, plain as can be. Luckily the manager did stop by to ask how our lovely lunch was going. We didn't point fingers or blame anyone, we just told him how annoyed we were. He took the nachos off the bill- but didn't seem to care that everything we ordered came out wrong. After a year, we decide to try it again, this time for brunch. How hard is it to screw up breakfast food, right??? Ugh... easier than you'd think. We walked in and were told the wait was about 15-20 minutes, okay we expected that. Saw two 2-tops next to each other, both empty. Maybe it's for a reso? Maybe it's going to be a 4-top? Who knows, we don't work there. After 10 minutes my phone gets the text saying our tables ready. Awesome it's sooner than we were quoted.. not awesome that they sat us at one of the previously mentioned 2-tops that had just been sitting empty. Fine. Maybe the server was weeded. Anyways, we were just going to let it go and have a fun brunch date. My chair was in an aisle. I know, it's busy, I should expect to get bumped here and there by other customers having a good time. That's fine. What's not fine is four different STAFF members hitting my chair in passing and not one of them stopping to say "I'm sorry". Our server was pretty bad as well. She walked up, didn't say hi/hello, just brought over a water bottle and started to fill our red plastic glasses that were already on the table. I had to stop her because just like our last server with the roll-up, this girl wasn't very observant either. My glass had a huge white, crusty, line down it. It looked like old eggs or potatoes. No apology. It's not her fault the glass is dirty, but she could have pretended to care. We order. Food comes out. My husbands plate looked so sparse. He had a pork trio that he said tasted so horrible he barely ate any of it. He only ate his over cooked eggs and half of my disgusting waffle. I ordered the cinnamon apple waffle. There was no taste of cinnamon. It was supposed to have a caramel sauce on it- what I got was a caramel colored sauce that was super runny and tasted like water. The apples were flavorless. I think store bought pie filling would have been better, and we all know how gross that can be. For my husband to tell me that my breakfast tasted better than his.... I can't imagine what his tasted like. We didn't send anything back. We learned from the last visit. Our sever was never around so even if we wanted to, we wouldn't have had the opportunity. The kicker to this visit: we were over charged. Got our bill and the waffle said $9.95 when on the menu it says $8.95. It's only a $1, not a big deal, but since it tasted so bad I hated paying the $8.95, I sure didn't want to pay more. When our sever comes back to get the payment, I point it out. She didn't say sorry or anything, didn't care. Took our check, came back 7 minutes later with a new total and just said voila and walked off. Still no sorry. Not one manager came over to apologize for the mistake or inconvenience. But this time we didn't expect them to. After the first time we left Bub, I emailed the restaurant, not to complain, but to let them know about their kitchen mishaps, and with all the allergies people have, it could have been a more serious situation for my husband. They never responded. It's hard to believe it's a LEYE. read more

Fun upbeat place to go for a happy hour or drinks after work. Not the best food just your typical bar food with burgers sandwiches ect. But it is a fun country bar and always has a pack. read more

Bub City had me at hello. Upon entering we were greeted by the mellifluous sounds of Jason Aldean. Now that's My Kinda Party! The atmosphere is very Memphis country like (or at least as Memphis country like as River North can get). The staff is friendly and attentive. Our waitress Hollie did her best to keep us entertained. The 115+ selection of different whiskeys does not hurt. Their sauces, from spicy to sweet are delicious!!! The food was great. We started with fried pickles and then moved on to burnt ends and bbq ribs. The crowd is a lot of fun too and they have a stage for live concerts. My attempts at karaoke were discouraged however.... I will definitely be back. read more

$8 Buck Cluck. Whats an AMAZING sandwich. This place has a very simple plan. GOOD BBQ and GREAT whiskey. Love you bub city. d read more

Came here with my family for the second time. Loved the food both times. The one issue we had was the up charge for a drink on the rocks. Ordered Woodford Reserve on the rocks. Thought $15 was a little pricey, but oh well... The bill came and there was a $2.00 up charge for each drink on the rocks! Never in in my travels has a bar charged extra for rocks. The explanation was that it was a heavy pour for rocks? Really? Kind of nickel and dime if you ask me. Bigger issue was that this caused a fight with my wife over the issue. How stupid is that? Lettuce Entertain You knows better than that. read more

Waitress forged more of a tip - getting in touch with management. Extremely unprofessional and untrusting if waitresses are doing this. Good environment, but not worth it if workers are untrusting and stealing. read more

More like 3.5. Bub city is a fun place to watch a game. I went with a couple Univ of Michigan alum to watch the Michigan - Michigan state game and we enjoyed ourselves. There are tvs everyone and there's no live music Sat afternoon which is good so you can focus on the game. In terms of food, get a biscuit. Whatever else you eat will taste better because of the biscuit. The other food was fine, not amazing, but enjoyable enough. There's a great brunch deal that let's you pick an entree and three sides and a drink for $16. Pretty much everyone in our party of 7 got that because it's a great value. I'll probably catch another game here at some point. read more

Bub City - Barbeque Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Good for whiskey, entertainment, and a few good food items. We had pulled pork and brisket, both were good. Tots were nice and crispy, fried pickles were tasty although one minute away from burnt, and the pulled chicken was awful. It was completely over-seasoned with cumin so that you couldn't taste anything else. read more

Bub City - Barbeque Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Really cool bar and a fun crowd. I liked the music selection because I enjoy country. The menu items seemed high-priced, but might be average for the city. I'm not really familiar because I live in the west Chicago suburbs. The American flag made out of beer cans was very unique. The bartender was very helpful and the hostess was very kind. The beers were reasonably priced. Mixed drinks were expensive, but looked really good. This bar just had a really good atmosphere. read more

Bub City - Barbeque Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

This place is a lot of fun for a girls night. They have live music going on all the time! This is good for dancing, but a little hard for talking. We went before the music began, so we could partake in both atmospheres. The food is good but not the best BBQ I've had. For being in River North, it is nice to have a bar with a change of scenery (and this is coming from a non-country fan). The girls bathroom is hilarious because there is a fake guy pretending to pee in there...definitely tricked my friend, who freaked out about this. I think they need to create a reality TV show of all the different responses they get from this incident. Can I patent that idea?? More than the food, I thought their drinks were FANTASTIC. My favorites, besides the craft beer selection, include Old Fashioned, North to Alaska, and especially the Ponderosa Pine. The Ponderosa Pine is the perfect gin/ginger drink and actually has a piece of pine in it! It hits the nose and mouth at the same time and it's just delicious! read more

My second trip to Bub City was a lot like the first. The food was impressively average. I'm almost blown away by how average everything is. At this point, I would have expected something to be amazing and something to be terrible, but everything was average, right down to the frozen waffle fries. I really enjoyed my Old Fashioned. Shout out to Paul McGee, I see you. read more

How can you go wrong with country music and BBQ? Knowing my penchant for anything country, my friend made b-day celebrations here on a Saturday night for a group of 5. A word of advice is to book your reservation early, especially for large groups. We ordered quite the array of foods to sample as much of the menu as our appetites would allow. As I am a self proclaimed picky eater, I didn't sample everything, but the waffle fries, pulled pork, and peanut butter pie are not to be missed. The oysters, onion straws, and brisket were also solid dishes. My friends raved about the spoon bread and cheese grits. The sweet potato fluff was a miss as it was way too sweet. As if it were timed perfectly, our stomachs filled up just as the live music was starting. In my opinion, Bub City beats other area bars/restaurants as it has the best combination of food, atmosphere, and wait staff. The live band makes it one of the most fun restaurants in the city. Bub City may be my new favorite bar in Chicago. read more

I've gone here twice now in the past 2 weeks. Food - The first time we ordered their special mac and cheese with rib meat. That was AMAZING! the second time we went back they didn't have it =( We also got pulled pork and the patty melt. Patty melt was definitely better. But don't get me wrong, the pulled pork was great too. The second time we went I got the ribs, and those were kind of a rip off. Half rack for like $14 and they were nothing special. I like my meat to fall off the bone, but for these ribs I was tearing it off. We also got the spicy taquitos, which were very good. Some problems with this place... it's super crowded all the time. If you don't have a reservation, don't even think about coming here unless you are okay with waiting for at least 1 hour. Most likely it will be 2 though. Because it's so crowded they end up sticking a lot of parties of 4 at table tops that should only seat 2 people. So with the bbq sauces and napkins and salt and pepper in the middle of the table, you barely have enough room to eat and put a drink down.. If you get a booth you are golden, but I'm not sure how you get one of those, because both times I've gone I've seen parties of 4 sitting at the booths, not sure why we got stuck at the tiny table top for 4 people, especially when 2 booths were open. They also have live music that starts around 10:00 which is pretty sweet. I'd like to go back here more, but like I said, you really need to make reservations 1 week in advance or it's just pointless to try and come here.. read more

I'm torn between 3-4 stars here. The BBQ was pretty good but definitely not the best in Chicago, and especially not in Texas (it would go out of business there). 1. Space is cool but small/loud, but not too bad. It is a mix of people which is interesting but due to the location obviously. 2. Food is ok. Burnt ends sound great but only yielded about 20% good meat and 80% fat - don't waste your $ on these I'd say. Brisket was ok only. Pulled pork was definitely dry. Sides were pretty good but they are sides. Hot links were average but again a little dry. Get BBQ somewhere else I'd say but maybe go here for entertainment if someone is playing you like. 3. Want to try the weekly live Karaoke sometime so will have to review that piece later... read more

AHH! I loved Bub city. I strongly suggest going for brunch. The build your own bloody bar was awesome and one of the best ones i have ever seen! I am giving a four because i got the chicken and waffles, the waffles were delicious but I didn't love the chicken. Although my boyfriend thought the chicken was good so maybe it was just me. He got the spicy nashville sandwich, which was delicious. I would recommend this to anyone visiting Chicago. I am sure it's awesome for any other meal besides brunch, probably fun to watch a game too! read more

Bub City - I went a little overboard, but so worth it. Great price at 12 dollars. - Barbeque Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

This place is solid to say the least. When you walk in, you get the feeling that you are transported to some roadhouse in Alabama where the country music is playing loud and the shleves behind the bar are filled with every kind of whiskey (and other liquor) available. The place was packed when we arrived but our server was awesome in spite of the crowd: cool, calm , and collected, and super-friendly and helpful! My baby back ribs were pretty good. The meat was good and tender with just a little amount of BBQ on it to give it a good flavor. My wife's chicken sandwich was under cooked. When we brought it to our servers attention, she immediately apologized, and offered her another one. The replacement came out fast and was removed from our check. They did a GREAT job of rectifying the problem. If you are looking for a place to have a quiet meal, than you may want to take a pass as this is quite a loud restaurant. If you are looking to have a little fun and unwind a bit, than this is your spot. read more

A little piece of Texas in Chicago. We ended up here by accident as Three Dots and a Dash was not open yet so we decided to grab a beer here while we waited. As a life long Texan I was really happy to walk in and see a Shiner Beer sign and Lone Star beer in stock. So I am biased and I give these guys a bit of a bump for that reason. Our bartender was a really cute chick from Montana and was really friendly. The beer selection is diverse. Unfortunately I did not get to try the food but I would give it a shot but I would be skeptical that it can live up to true Texas BBQ but hey I could be wrong. read more

Fantastic food & service. Much better than the Dragon Ranch next door. We had 6:30 reservations on a Sunday and we were seated immediately. It was busy, but not annoying packed. Interesting crowd - this place seems to attract all walks of life. Cocktails - the Stone Fence was good, the Riverboat Gambler was better (and stronger). Best fried pickles I've ever had. You must order these! My date had the chili and the St. Louis ribs. I sampled both and they were good, but needed heat. Good thing Bub City has awesome hot sauce. My BBQ Salmon was perfectly cooked and came with a tasty side of pickled cucumber and tomato salad. This dish is the smaller side (at least in comparison to the massive entrees that passed by our table) and was an excellent choice because I really wanted dessert. Which brings me to my favorite part of the meal - their homemade banana cream pie with graham cracker crust. The slices of banana were delicious and it wasn't overwhelming sweet. I love how pies are making such a comeback in this city. Also noteworthy was how reasonable the bill was. I have been struggling lately to find 5-star worthy establishments and it's exciting when you find a place that actually deserves it! read more

I had been here a few times before this past Saturday, and the food, drinks, and crowd were always fun. Came with a large party on Saturday for a late reservation and our table was nowhere near ready. To be frank, the hostess had a stick up her ass and was not friendly to deal with, but when I asked to speak to a manager, he was a HUGE help and got our evening back on track. Big call out to Ricky for helping sort out the problem and checking on us to make sure we were all set. read more

Came here with a few friends for a birthday dinner. The drinks were good. atmosphere was very energetic. The food was okay. I had some high hopes for the brisket. it seemed a bit on the dry side and not too flavorful. The restaurant was nice to provide a warm cookie with a candle to surprise the birthday girl. read more

Pros For someone who's been to Nashville and Smoque (best BBQ ribs in Chicago) I always refrain from going to BBQ places because I am worried they'll mess up my taste buds for this kind of food. I ordered 18 hour fatty brisket here, it exceeded my expectations. Would I rather this place over Smoque, well if I had a group of friends that want to listen some country music in river north to start a night with a great BBQ food, definitely. Sidenote Their brunch menu comes with lots of things so unless you can eat 3times your weight, plan to share it with the other person. Cons Singer so loud that I had difficult time hearing people that I talked with. If you and your group aren't used to screaming each other when talking chances are you'll be listening music whole time and try to make sense out of people's mouth movements.. After all Will definitely be here again! Sidenote 2 Food came so fast, still shocked by how quick it was. read more

This review is for the bar only. Didn't try the food, though I'm not sure I'll be back to do so. 'Meh' is the perfect word to describe my experience at Bub City. We waited in line outside for 30-45 minutes, and once we finally got inside, we were forced to stand in the totally overcrowded space. Also, we waited about 15-20 mins for drinks, but that's standard in River North on a Friday night. Once a table opened up and we were able to sit down, we discovered that the live country band was also very 'meh.' I can imagine that this place might be decent if you arrive early and are able to get in without waiting and sit down at a table to watch the band. Otherwise, I'd say pass. There are better places to spend your time and money. read more