if you get the craving for inconsistent bbq that on a good day will be made from the loving sweat of the bbq gods or on a bad, the sweat of the bbq gods balls and will taste like it, go here. the patio in the summer is packed and is great for people watching, and i have a pavlovian response to the mac-n-cheese, even the mention is making me slobber right now. overall its good, not great. read more

Some of the worst delivery service of all time. I ordered and waited an hour , no show. I called and they said they would call their driver and call me back , no call. I called one more turn and was told that the order was lost and that they would send out a free order. I waited another hour and had to call again and was told they would call their driver again and call me back. They called back and said it would be fifteen minutes. I live like max 8 blocks away. read more

live music and awesome ribs, what more do you want? no 5 star cuz sometimes the wait staff is pushy and annoying when you come in with just dudes. read more

i have to come back here and try some ribs, but i was lucky enough to share pulled pork/burnt end nachos with a friend. we sat outside on the patio on a beautiful tuesday night and it was pretty empty. nachos were terrific. they have a pretty great beer selection and my vodka/tonics were flowin'. read more

Smokedaddy Run, don't walk to Smokedaddy. Ohhhhh man. This place has the market cornered on all things BBQ. It is also a pretty good value because you get an insane amount of food for your money (although, that kind of goes without saying - skimpy portions don't really conjure up images of a good barbeque). I always get the pulled meat platter (yeah PS this place is not good if you are on a date and want to look like a delicate flower) and then you get two sides - the mac and cheese is amazing, the greens, the cornbread - I haven't had anything that wasn't good. The drinks are delicious as well. You might have to wait awhile, the times I went we were quoted anywhere from 30-45 minutes but we didn't have to wait that long. Very relaxed atmosphere. There was live music one of the times we went too, which was insanely loud but added to the environment. I scoffed when the people in my group ordered pulled meat nachos (have SOME dignity, people) but then ate like half the platter. I would consider renting an apartment above Smoke Daddy so I could be as close as possible to the sweet bbq lovin. read more

First of all, let me just share that I LOVE RIBS. I could eat them 3x a week and my taste buds would still not be jaded. My husband and I went to Smoke Daddy after my sister recommended it, and we were not disappointed at all. The babyback ribs are the best things there, in my opinion, but the beef tips were tasty. The sides are really good -- the individual mac & cheese with buttery crumb topping is rich and very comforting, and the coleslaw is terrific, crunchy, and not overly "sauced" -- plus, they use cilantro, which is an unexpected but delicious twist. The fries are good, the squirt bottles of 3 kinds of BBQ sauce on each table is great for those who want some variety or just some more sauce, and I love the fact that they have SWEET TEA! We lived in the South for 3 years, and the one thing(one of the only things) we miss is "swayte taye." So pumped to find this. One note: the fried apple pie is kind of gross. This place is for ribs, not dessert. It tasted like McDonald's apple pie (don't ask me why I know this). The ice cream that came with it was fine, but in general, I'd rather save my calories for a much better dessert or just more ribs. read more

I went to this place because it was on 'Check Please' but now I don't think I can trust that show anymore. I went on a Sunday and they brought me food that had to be from Saturday night. It was just plain awful. Everything we ordered was NOT good. I would recommend that you find another restaurant if you are craving BBQ. read more

I'm still very new to BBQ, but this place easily rests at the top of my list. I'm certainly not unfamiliar with mac and cheese, and can confidently say this is the best mac and cheese I have and will ever eat. It's a must for any non-vegan or person who is not religiously devoted to the blue box. read more

Very casual atmosphere, apparently it has live music every night (though there wasn't any when we were there.) Bit of a run down appearance - the benches were peeling and nothing seemed very new. Still, that's certainly no direct reflection on the food. I had a drink called the Lucille, which had something peachy in it, maybe Cointreau, not sure - but it had a very Southern feel to it, and I liked it enough to have a second one. The rib platter was big but I ate almost the whole thing! The ribs were tasty, I really liked the sweet sauce. There wasn't as much meat on the bone as I hoped, but they were still really good ribs. The sweet potato fries weren't as hot or crispy as I'd hoped, but still tasted good because of what they are. I didn't care for the beans, they were really smoky and had big chunks of meat in them - I think there's enough meat in the ribs, thanks! Still, it was a fun, casual place to go for decent BBQ. read more

best ribs in town. falls off the bone. great bloodys too. service is mostly good, but sometimes u get someone who just ruins it for 5 stars. the music is always a great bonus! read more

I live around the corner, and probably eat at or take out from this place two or three times a month. The spare ribs taste exactly how ribs are supposed to taste (except better). (The baby back ribs are kind of dry though.) The blue-cheeseburger is outstanding. Their fries are great. The coleslaw is unusual (no mayo!) and good. And they have a great beer selection. On a warm summer night, there's nothing better than sitting out on their patio, enjoying bbq and beer, and listening to the sounds from their inside stage. read more

I'm out on this place. Pulled pork sandwich was below average meat, average bbq sauce and a good bun. And the collarded greens were bad, no favor... almost like sautéed spinach. Also small portions. read more

When craving BBQ(which is often), I immediately think of this place. It's a little further out for me so I am not able to go there often, though I do dream about the sauce. I purchased their half pound ribs and they were phenomenal. Not only were they nice and meaty but their sauce had the perfect amount of spice and sweetness. It was delicious. We went in the afternoon and were able to take the meal to go which was a plus. If you are ever in the area or are ever craving BBQ this place is a go to. read more

Smoke Daddy is amazing from their food and service to their catering/delivery team! I have ordered this personally and for 150 person - 300 person catering deliveries. They have always been professional to work with, and the food arrives hot and delicious every time. Zero complaints. These guys are the best! read more

4 of us had dinner and overall it was delicious! We had fries and Mac and cheese as our sides. I blame myself totally for not saying anything, but the Mac and cheese, all 3 of them, were COLD. As I was with my kids who don't want to be embarrassed I didn't mention to any of the staff who nicely inquired how we were enjoying our meal that I found the Mac and cheese inedible. I will go back, the ribs were delicious and the sauce is great. Dessert was delightful we inhaled the iron skillet cookie with ice cream - sans the caramel sauce. So go, but if your food is cold please mention it. read more

Friendly service, good food at a reasonable price! I had KC burnt ends BBQ and it was very flavorful and tasty.

had the Big Daddy Breakfast which is outstanding,my kid had excellent french toast

Completely terrible. The food was poor quality and the service was just as bad. Even though it wasn't crowded, our waitress ignored us for the first 20 minutes. Then she forgot half my order and never brought us silverware. They also charged us for the food they forgot to bring out. The toilet was broken in the bathroom. The chili was bland and flavorless. Will not eat here again. read more

I wanted to like this place. I read a short and seductive article about this restaurant in a travel magazine and thought my friends and I should give it a try. The article turned out to be just written very well. Wicker Park in the evening hours is not really my crowd, but I will ignore that because it doesn't really have to do with the establishment, its food, its service or its ambiance. We walked in and sat at a table. I think it was a Saturday night. Now, the two friends I were with are completely different. One, has the remarkable ability to have fun anywhere she goes. She could find a way to have a blast at a funeral. The other friend is a little more reserved and prefers loud, obnoxious punk music. However, we all had the same opinion of this particular joint. We were incredibly underwhelmed from the moment we sat down. I have a bit of an obsession with pulled pork, so I ordered that with sweet potato fries. The fries were heavy and gooey like a used tampon. The rest of the food lacked flavor, and quality. It was just bad. The fun loving friend ordered a margarita and it sent it back for being much too sweet. The bartender looked at her sinisterly and then made her another one...which tasted exactly the same. We all left feeling like we wasted our time and money. However, there is a reason for that...we did. read more

who said Twin Anchors is better BBQ? Smoke Daddy is the best BBQ in town by a fair margin. Perhaps a bit cramped inside during peak dining hours, and the music (which has been GREAT every time) starts a bit early since I like to eat later. I could eat at this place every day and not get sick of it (disclaimer: i'd bathe in BBQ sauce if socially acceptable) read more

Well my friends, gather round' and I'll tell you a story that is the truth, the whole truth so help me GOD!!! and nothing more. Alas on this, the fourth of July my fiance and I decided we had a taste for bbq. We live in the bucktown/ wicker park area and we heard of the puke daddy, I mean the smoke daddy and saw it at the taste of chicago last year. We read the reviews and thought hey we might have a good bbq joint right down the street let's check it out. So we went, from the moment we walked in to the time it took for someone to realize we were waiting for a table was ten minutes. Ten minutes of loitering around the host station with employees staring at me and saying nothing, giving me looks like why am I here. Once we were seated we sat in that excessively hot restaurant for twenty minutes before we had any contact with another employee(the hostess said that she would bring us some water) In the end we sat at the table for 25 minutes until we got some water which the ice was completely melted out of, and the place is so unorganized that a few minutes later a waitress put two more cups of water on the table and then after a few More minutes another waitress came to put water on the table, saw four cups and stopped and went back. Keep in mind that we have now been sitting her for 30 minutes and have not been able to place an order. The group that came in before us sat on one side of us. They received prompt service and got their drinks, food and ate and paid the bill all before we even ordered. Two groups that came in after us sat right next to us and they received their drink orders and food before us, and they ate and paid their bills all before we even received our food, BUT THEY CAME IN AFTER US!!!!! Ok, so after 30 minutes of sitting there, the waitress finally comes and takes our order. My fiance ordered the sangria and I ordered some rum drink with ginger ale, then she ordered the burger daddy style and I ordered the taste of daddy with St. Louis Ribs, pulled pork and brisket. She didn't bring our drinks out for twenty minutes. By the way, I am being completely honest about the time, I started timing these happenings with my stop watch function on my watch. By the time she brought our drinks our food arrived five minutes later. I was also surrounded by a bunch of weird hippie bastards that thought the nasty food was good, but they all attacked their food ravenously and shoveled it into their mouths so fast I doubt they tasted it. Watching the "hipsters" in wicker park eat smoke daddy's disgusting food is reminiscent to watching homeless people fight over a sandwich or two dogs with rabies going at it over a turd. So now the food. I thought that it was going to be pretty good. I was so horribly wrong. The fact that they would even serve something like that and try to pass it as good food to paying customers is beyond me. To be honest, my fiance's burger was not bad it was ok, mediocre but nothing spectacular. Jake Melnick's or Kuma's Corner have infinitely better burgers. My food was attrocious I didn't even finish any of it. The pit beans were not bad, macaroni and cheese was not bad. But that was the best part of the meal. The ribs I was served were not only burnt, but tasted like meat that had been cooked on a grill that wasn't allowed to burn all of the lighter fluid off yet. Delicious lighter fluid gasoline ribs, what more could you want? I know what that tastes like because I made that mistake when grilling for a bbq a long time ago when I was FOURTEEN!!! Pulled pork was horrible mostly fat and burnt. The brisket was ok but nothing special. A bbq joint is supposed to serve good bbq. I would feel bad feeding this crap to someone's dog, it was just disgusting. I didn't finish the ribs I just couldn't eat them. I almost never ever tip below twenty percent but I could not give our waitress a good tip and still sleep at night. But then again I couldn't sleep last night because of the stomach cramps, excessive heart burn and soon to come explosive diarrhea I was soon to experience from crap daddy's. My advice, if you want good bbq, do it yourself or go to smoque, they're pretty good. The sauces at smoke daddy were actually good, however there was nothing worth putting it on. How can you expect people to pay for this horrible service and disgusting food. Also I want to point out that I have never written a review in my life, however I was so appalled by this experience that I had to create an account and post a review. If this review saves one person from the culinary hell that is "the smoke daddy" I will be happy. I seriously don't know where all of the good reviews are coming from, probably from starving "hipster" bastards that have never had a family bbq. Please, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY. DIE SMOKE DADDY DIE!!!!! read more

Solid barbecue. Great drink/beer selection. Brunch menu is limited but very good (pulled pork benedict and brisket breakfast skillet both great option) Bloody Marys come with a meat skewer read more

living close by i used to like this place. But I have boycotted them for over a year now. why? when they overcharged my credit card by $10, essentially doubling the price of my meal, i thought i'd just walk back over with my receipt showing that they'd overcharged me and straighten it out. nope. THEY WOULDN'T GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK! Even after talking to the manager, they insisted that there was nothing they could do except give it their accountant to work out. BS!! how bout reachin in that cash register and giving me my $10 back. i went back once more to try again, still to no avail. Bad business is bad business. BOYCOTT SMOKE DADDY!!! read more

My favorite BBQ in Chicago, and I've been to them all! I usually get the Taste of the Daddy with ribs, pulled chicken, mac & cheese, and coleslaw. I highly recommend it! read more

I've had smoke daddy many times, and everything is always amazing. Tonight we just ordered dessert, the key lime pie is a must have!

Only interaction with this place has been the Taste of Chicago. After hearing about Smoke Daddy from friends I've wanted to try this place for some time. So, seeing them while I was at the Taste yesterday put a spring in my step and got me excited. Even though their BBQ Pork sandwich is 14 tickets, the most expensive item I saw at the Taste, I went right for it. I love BBQ pork and I want to love Smoke Daddy and decided to bypass the smaller 4 ticket taste portion and just go for it. I wish I hadn't been so gung-ho. It was tasty, a nice BBQ flavor with good smokiness, but sadly it was also an utter rip off. The large portion seemed barely any bigger than the taste portion and not worth the 14 tickets which equals to something over $8.00. Get the taste portion only. Save your tickets. Don't be me and want to love so hard. Even though their food tasted good, this small interaction I've had with Smoke Daddy has put a bad taste in my mouth. I worry that they don't care enough about their customers in their search to make a buck. My excitement and longing to visit their actual restaurant has gone down considerably. read more

Actually the side order of BB-Q beans has improved.

We've ordered take out and eat in more than a dozen times here and everytime I think about it I precum a little bit. Keep up the good work Daddy! read more

I was really hoping the food would be as good as the smell of BBQ, I even ordered food though I wasn't hungry. Everyone's dish was below mediocre, no one was able to finish their plate. Service was fast and friendly, but unfortunately the food was bad and not worth the money. read more

sauce is terrible. obviously people have no clue what bbq is....more like liquid smoke daddy

I was so excited to finally go to this place and was sadly disappointed. The bbq sauces were underwhelming at best; the bbq chips were over-seasoned; the sweet potato fries had too much cinnamon on them. Ordered the sweet tea vodka lemonade- tasted like watered down Country Time lemonade. Very, very disappointing- don't understand the hype. If you're looking for good bbq in Chicago, I suggest shlepping on up to Irving Park for Smoque BBQ! read more

I'm a sucker for brunch, and also for any place that lets me bring my dog. Not only does Smoke Daddy have a gorgeous patio and great menu, they brought out a bowl of water and a pigs ear for my pup. This kept her happy and quiet, which let me enjoy time with my friends without being distracted. A great experience. read more

The service was pretty good. The server was nice and brought out our food pretty quickly. We ordered the rib platter and nachos. The nachos were good but the ribs were not good at all. They tasted like burnt smoke. The bbq sauces were not good and didn't cover the nasty taste of the ribs. We got Mac n cheese as our side and it was disgusting. I've had better boxed Mac n cheese. Last but not least the busser kept watching our table making us feel uncomfortable and we were still eating and he was trying to take our plates away. read more

smoke daddy is okay. the macand cheese is the bomb. and often get some good rockabilly / surf bands in there. besides that, it could go to hell. read more

We had take out last night as part of a fundraiser and once again was reminded why Smoke Daddy does not stack up with the best BBQ places (Smoque, Uncle Johns, Lem's) in Chicago, ribs were not meaty, sauce already on (you should always be able to eat meat dry), greens were not cooked (you can't steam greens- you need to cook) and over priced...not a fan!...North Siders need to learn what good BBQ should taste like.... read more

i ordered a half order of rib tips, and the portion was enormous. i couldn't even finish it, i'd hate to see the fatties that get the full order. the meat was good, the cole slaw was good, HOWEVER the collard greens were undercooked and bitter, and that's an unforgiveable sin. overall, this play is ok, but not great. read more

Another Wicker Park/Change in Ownership bitching review. Smoke Daddy certainly used to seem like a place I wanted to go eat. Authentic Texarkana style barbeque on the north side of chicago...what a treat. Like a goddamned barbequed orgasm. That you could eat. But over these past 12 months, every time I've been to smoke daddy has been less and less satisfying. The last time I went, I found it to be HIGHLY disappointing. Yes, the meat was juicy and tender. Yes, the sauce was smoky and sweet. But without the sauce, the meat was bland and flavorless, and the sauce just smothered that flaw. I used to want to just eat the sandwiches plain; they used a certain blend of rub and meat tenderizer on the meat that was absolutely delectable. Now...now I feel like I'm eating a BK pulled pork sandwich. Ugh. It's not bad, but it's like so many other places in the neighborhood; no character, no face, no vibrance. I love it when a restaurant pleases me by giving me things that I want, but I like it more when the make bold choices. Obviously, I prefer the bold choices that I agree with, but you never know when something's going to surprise you. And even if you absolutely HATE it, you can understand why it is the way it is. I guess I understand the direction Smoke Daddy's moving towards; Sauce-on-Meat no thrills. I just don't think that it's the best idea for keeping people around. read more

Finally after living in the area for six years I made it over to Smoke Daddy. It was ok. The smoked chicken wing appetizers were the best thing I had here, crispy outside, tender and moist inside, with a spicy kick. I had the rib sampler and enjoyed the tips the most. Ribs seemed a bit on the dry side and a bit over charred. Mosty ribs are smoked and finished with sauce and charred on a grill, i feel like these were a bit overdone on the grilling. The jalepeno corn bread was interesting though. Not terribly impressed with the wateryness of the mac though. Service was a good point, friendly and fast. Interior is nice, but I sat outside, which is nice too. Not really an exceptional BBQ place, but really Division street has become one long line of restaurants. I feel like this place is just making money of of its reputation, vibe, and location as opposed to the BBW. This neighborhood really has changed into Lincoln Park west. For real good BBQ Ribs or tips go to Honey 1 on Western, for for Brisket (or ribs) try Smoque on Pulaski, for pulled pork or a more sit down restaurant type feel try Fat Willys also on Western. But if your in Wicker/East Ukr Village, feel free to stop by Smoke Daddy, they may have a good band. read more

Food is great and so is the service. Ally was kind to me and my buddy for walking in 10 minutes before close. Didn't realize that it was closing time until I looked at this app. P.S. I'm a server so I do know how it feels to have a last minute walk in. Feel bad. Food is excellent would recommend grabbing some food here. Good beer selection. read more

Ok.. so I was a sucker and went to this place because I saw it on Check Please! I have been to many of the restaurants on Division but this is the first time I have been to Smoke Daddy. OMG I am so glad I went because it was the best BBQ I had in Chicago. We came in early which was wise because it isn't a big space. There is a big stage on the right hand side that was empty so I believe bands do play there? We didn't want to sit by the door, so we went back. We sat by these great older guys who were so entertaining to talk to... which was nice since the tables were so close to each other. I wanted to try everything but ended up getting the combo sandwich..I picked pulled pork and chicken. My friend got the brisket sandwich and we both enjoyed our meals. The sandwiches comes with one side and if you get an entree you get two sides. I got the beans.. which were smoky and tangy.. AMAZING! Erin got the mac and cheese which she enjoyed. We also got a side of Sweet potato fries because we wanted something for the 3 BBQ sauces that were on the table. Our service was good but it wasn't fantastic. If you are anti-meat this place is not for you. they do have a veggie burger and BBQ Veggies but there is meat everywhere! I forgot to get my dog a pig's ear they sold for 2 dollars. I highly recommend this place.. it was fast good food! read more