Sampler Platter from Uncle Bub's - $16.99

132 South Cass Avenue, Westmont, IL - (630)493-9000

The sampler platter comes with a combination of 3 BBQ back ribs, pulled pork, BBQ sliced beef brisket, ribtips, and BBQ chicken along with your choice of two side dishes. The side dishes we chose were the fried mac & cheese, and the chili.

Without trying to hype this place up, this is perhaps the best BBQ I've ever had. The sauce has this very unique flavor that I can only describe as "pruney." Prunes in BBQ may sound gross, but man, I was tempted to swig that stuff straight from the bottle.

Everything that came with the sampler platter was fantastic with the exception of the ribtips and the chicken. The ribtips were very tough and difficult to eat around the cartilage, and the chicken dried out quickly (I covered up the chicken problem the best I could by dousing it in more pruney goodness).

I read other reviews saying the service was terrible, but you pay at the counter before you receive your food so I don't think this is the type of place where you're expected to tip.

Chopped Beef Brisket Sandwich from Smoque - $8.95

3800 N Pulaski Rd, Chicago, IL - (773)545-7427

This restaurant has had a lot of hype after being on the Food Network channel, so I went to check it out for myself. The sandwich was tasty, but nowhere near as phenomenal as what I had heard/read about. The sauce has a striking similarity to a watered down A1 sauce, so I think they'd be better off just using A1 sauce itself. The peach cobbler was yummy also, although it tasted like they used canned peaches.

Like I said, the food was good, but there's nothing exceptional to make me want to go back. There are nearby BBQ joints with better sauces, better hours, and cheaper prices, so unfortunately for Smoque, I don't see the need to settle for this one.


This is the last picture I was able to take with my camera before it died, so please excuse the bad quality.

Half-Rack Baby Rack Ribs from TGI Friday's

650 South College Avenue, Newark, DE - (302)737-3700

I'm feeling lazy today, so I'm ganking the description from the fridays.com site:

"A half–rack of tender baby back pork ribs fire–grilled, glazed with your choice of original or new Tennessee BBQ sauce from the Grand Champion of the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbeque. Topped with onion rings, served with fries and a side of barbecue sauce."

Now that I'm reading the description, I don't recall getting a choice of BBQ sauce so I'm not sure which one I tried. I didn't try any of the sauce provided to me on the side either since I was sharing these with my dog and I didn't want him to get the carpet messy. The small amount of sauce that was already drizzled over the ribs leaned on the sweeter side with hardly any tang. The ribs could've stood to be a bit more tender, but they were still yummy to my tummy.

Just like the fried Oreos I recently posted, the fries and onion rings became a bit soggy by the time I arrived home. Both of these taste much better while they still have their crispiness so I recommend you eat those first.

BBQ Cheddar Burger from Cheeseburger In Paradise - $8.49

40 Geoffrey Drive, Newark, DE - (302)368-9060

It's a yummy burger with what tastes like fresher ingredients. It's simply cheddar cheese, BBQ sauce, pickles, lettuce and fried onions so it's nothing extraordinarily fancy, but enough to give it character.

I was most impressed with how well they nailed my cooked-to-medium order which is why I felt compelled to show you a picture after I took a bite. That's about as perfect as you can get with medium.

Spare Ribs from Oxford Farmer's Market - $3.99

193 Limestone Road, Oxford, PA - (717)283-5183

There's a lot of things I don't understand about the Amish. Like, how come they have a phone number? How come they accept credit cards and have their shop air-conditioned and lit up with electricity? Aren't all these things against their beliefs?

Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that they have a reputation for good barbeque. And the BEST part is that it's all pretty cheap! The spare rib itself is $3.99 but you can get the combo for $6.75. The combo includes BBQ potatoes (picture below), coleslaw, a small bag of chips, a roll the size of my fist, and a drink.

Personally, I like my BBQ with more tang, but this was still a good find. The meat's texture was so tender that it fell right off the bone with a little bit of fork jabbing.

They also sell deserts for very cheap (the CD-sized pies were only $1), furniture, produce, ice cream, and soft pretzels (these were fantastic!), but unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of them.

My biggest complaints about the place are that 1) it's a bit hard to find since you have to drive through very rural areas and 2) there's nowhere to sit to eat your food, but both of these complaints have nothing to do with the quality of the food. All in all, I was happy to try Amish barbeque, but the location is too far away (40 min drive for me) to make it worth the effort to get their food again.

XXL Ribs from Famous Dave's - $22.99

100 West Main Street, Christiana, DE - 302-737-0300

Since this was my first time at Famous Dave's, I decided to go with their "Award-Winning" St. Louis style ribs. After all, if their best can't impress me, why bother with anything else?

The description on the menu is: "Hand-rubbed with Dave's secret blend of tongue-tingling spices and pit-smoked for 3-4 hours over a smoldering sweet hickory fire. Then they're slathered with sauce and flame-kissed to seal in the flavor and caramelize the sauce for just a touch of crispiness. Served with corn bread muffin, corn-on-the-cob, and your choice of two sides."

The XXL Ribs, aka the "Big Slab" is the serving size with 12 bones. The ribs were good, but the meat didn't really fall off the bones like they do on spectacular ribs. As for the sides, the fries were soggy, the mashed potatoes were good, and the corn on the cob and the cornbread muffin are standard.

Baby Back Ribs from Balan's Produce - $18.00

851 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, DE - (302)292-2606

Here's the baby back ribs I spoke of yesterday. As you can see from the shininess, these suckers are soaking in BBQ sauce. The sauce is a lot thinner than most BBQ sauces I'm used to - I'd say even thinner than A1. Also, I didn't detect any tang that I usually do with BBQ sauces either. The best comparison I can make right now is the sauce that gets coated over orange-flavored chicken.

This particular batch was charred a bit more than I would've liked, so they were not quite fall-right-off-the-bone tender but they were still fairly tender. As with the pulled pork sandwich (pictured in the back), these ribs carry the same smokey flavor, perhaps even moreso because of the slight overcooking.

Overall, these ribs were a great add-on to one of the smaller sandwiches and the portion is large enough to split with two or three other people who also order a sandwich.

Smoked Pulled Pork Sandwich from Balan's Produce - $3.50

851 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, DE - (302)292-2606

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a Filipino dish, but it came from a Filipino grocery store. Whatever the case, good food is good food.

The picture didn't turn out so great, but the pulled pork sandwich tastes much better than it looks. The meat is moist and tender and saturated with a great smokey flavor. Then the bun is soft and chewy, similar to the buns you get for Italian beefs in Chicago. MmmMMm.

The size of the sandwich is fairly small though, but the price is fair for what you get. It's probably about four or five inches long and chockful of pork. I think even my sister can pack away about two of them without too much trouble. As for me, well, that's a different story...

Side Note: My friend ordered the Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich ($4.25, no picture available) and said the meat was sort of tough. Just wanted to throw that out there because I doubt I'll ever order it when I have to pulled pork to pick instead. Ooooh... alliteration.