Honky Tonk Barbeque: User Reviews

I've been to this restaurant about 10 times now since last January! I LOVE IT! I can't get enough of it! The homeade bbq sauce and my favorite the beef brisket sandwich is outstanding. The prices can't be beat either! ITS A MUST TRY - IF YOU LOVE MEMPHIS STYLE BBQ THEN YOU WILL LOVE HONKY TONK!

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I love great barbeque, and cut my teeth on Rendezvous and Corky's in Memphis. Being a Chicagoan, I was very excited to find that Honky Tonk had won 3rd place in Memphis. Smoque is more of a Texas style, so I had high hopes for Honky Tonk. The ambiance is great, and our two waitresses couldn't have been nicer or more attentive. The side dishes were very good, and the three styles of sauce, including a mustard based sauce, were delicious. We got some St.Louis and some baby back ribs to give it a good try, and they just weren't great. I can't imagine that these same ribs were served in a championship competition. They were served literally cold. The St. Louis were hard to cut through to simply separate, and there was hardly any rub glaze. The baby backs were better, and clearly had multiple layers of rub and mop sauce to give them a glaze. But in truth, they weren't anything close to inspired. The ribs themselves just aren't worth coming back for, and that's the bottom line. I'm still searching...

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My husband, 4 year old daughter and I went to dinner this past Thursday. Hubby ordered a hot link sandwich and a side or garlic mashed potatoes, I ordered half a slab of spareibs with side or portabello mushrooms and my daughter ordered mac n cheese (as usual). Hubby said the hot links were one of the best he ever had. Daughter got side tracked on the yummy mushrooms and links and didn't really eat her mac n cheese (which by the way was okay...think the Trader Joe's frozen mac n cheese was better tasting). I am giving a straight 3 rating as my spareribs were just okay. It looked smoked (had the reddish tint character of a smoked meat) but strangely enough, I couldn't taste the smokiness. It is like they parboiled it first or something. The ribs were extremely tender though which was a plus. However, I had better smoked ribs. I couldn't really taste the ribs by itself other than slathering it with the bbq sauces that were provided. Not sure if I would go back. Maybe to see if that night was a fluke.

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Honky Tonk is a little piece of the South on the Near South Side. From the moment you walk in you know that this space is loved by its owners and patrons. We were drawn in after seeing Honky Tonk featured on Check, Please!. Turns out most everyone was. We learned from the server that each time the rerun airs they’re swamped with calls and customers.

As a vegetarian I was a little worried about my choices, but meat-eater my boyfriend was determined to try out this byob gem he never noticed in the neighborhood in which he grew up. We started with the fried-green tomatoes served with an addictively simple combo of ketchup and really good horseradish. The hand-battered tomatoes were crispy and delicious. I opted for an array of sides: mac & cheese, sautéed Portobello mushrooms, black-eyed peas, and garlic mashed potatoes. The mushrooms had a great, rustic flavor and the mac & cheese was one of the best I’ve had from a restaurant. The black-eyed peas were just like mom used to make, if in fact my mom could make them that good. The mashed were alright. I should have opted for the yams though. My boyfriend had the half-slab of ribs, as did our friendly table neighbors. They weren’t the fall off the bone type which gave them a for real bbq’d flavor and texture. Honky Tonk serves the meat dry letting you try each one of the sauces on the table. There’s a sweet one, a vinegar base, then a hot. Each has a great flavor, though the hot isn’t really that hot. And believe it or not the coleslaw tasted more like fresh cabbage than mayonnaise and water; an amazing feat for a dish that’s usually an afterthought at bbq joints.

The live music and lively conversation added to the ambience. Honky Tonk truly is a delicious trip to the south.

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BYOB is cool, band was great. Music WAY too loud though - hard to have a conversation. I was looking forward to the trophy-getting pulled pork - it was cold and dry. Good flavor though, so perhaps it was an off night. Ciabatta bread isn't the right texture for pulled pork. Their "sweet" sauce was overdosed on molasses. Spicy was the better one. The other sauce tasted like salad dressing. Must be going for a carolina thing. Undercooked ribs, with very bland rub. The smoke in the ribs was bitter. Brisket was cold & dry. Cornbread was dry. Beans were sweet, smokey, I like them. Slaw was creamy, quite good. My favorite thing was the sausage - good casing, a little spice, great flavor, looked homemade. I'll give HT one more try. The pulled pork has potential to be great, if I get a fresh serving.

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I've been eating at Honky Tonk since its openned and I think its the best!! Great food, great vibe!

Sounds like the crowds from Check Please overwhelmed the place, but what do you expect from local joint run by a normal people, a resuarant chain??? Sure there's no table cloths and its a littel disorganized, but the food is AWESOME and talk about a relaxed atmosphere. Great local place to chill and some Q.

If that's your scene check it out, if not, go somewhere else.

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After watching “Check, Please!” (on Channel 11), I was excited to take a trip to Honky Tonk for dinner. I invited some friends to join me.

We walked in and it was chaotic. There was no service at all. Everyone was getting in 1 line which said "Order Only". We had to ask the family in line in front of us for clarification. On the menu, it indicated “Freindly Service”. I think they spelled friendly incorrectly because they knew that their service was not to par. The music was alright, but it was too loud to have any conversation at all. The wait service was not attentative. The food took a while. The food was alright, but more or less everything else was not the best experience I had. Sure we were full by the end of the evening, but I have to say that it was not the best eating experience and BBQ ribs. Mediocre at best.

Just a brief bio on myself: I’ve lived grew up in the city and been to lots of places in the city recommended by Metromix and Check, Please! and never really had any dislikes. I was surprised it turned out this way.

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When I go to Chicago I always dine at the honky tonk barbeque. I get a wonderful meal that fills a big guy, and leaves me some cash to enjoy a night in the big city. I especially like to show up on Saturday night for live music. Urban is the greatest. In his red velvet cowboy outfit he is a western crooner like no other. I find the place hip and friendly with extraordinary art on the wall. The pulled pork sandwich or a full rack of ribs it is all good

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In 2008, Honky Tonk BBQ was the only Chicago restaurant to bring home a big trophy from the International Memphis in May BBQ Contest (3rd in the major "pulled pork" category). This summer their BBQ won top honors at the people's choice competition (out of 16 local competitors). On the recent tv show Check Please, all three guests raved about finding their new favorite BBQ place in Chicago. The ribs have a fresh, smokey flavor. There are three choices for sauce (sweet, spicy and Carolina mustard). The sides such as mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, sauteed mushrooms and friend green tomotoes are delicious. Few people know that they also serve one of the best salads in town (with fresh blueberries, walnuts hickema and shedded cheese).

The pulled pork sandwich is huge!! It's easy to see why it's winning so many awards. Probably one of the best sandwiches in town.

I saw one of their chefs Tim came out to talk with customers. He's really friendly and relaxed. He has decades of experience and it showed as he talked about the menu. He said that "dessert should have bling-bling". When I ordered the peach cobbler, I learned what he meant.....it is soooo heavenly and big.

The live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays (7 to 9pm) is wonderful. Saturday night often has Urban Gin dressed in a cowboy outfit and singing old western songs. Between verses, he puckers up and pretends to have horn music with his guitar....it's a riot. My friends and I love it!!

The owner Willie Wagner is a serious chef who knows how to make customers feel welcome. It's common to see him greeting people and recommending special menu items. His attention to detail makes customers like me rave that Honky Tonk BBQ is simply the best !

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This place is, as the old saying goes, all hat and no cattle. Unfairly or not, Smoque has become the gold standard for any new BBQ joint with any claim to authenticity in the city. And Honkey almost seems to invite comparisons offering almost exactly the same menu at the same price point . While Honkey boasts the edge in ambience with its art-covered walls and live music, they forgot the most important part of a great BBQ joint: the BBQ. I ordered the St. Loius ribs and the mini pulled pork and brisket sandwiches. The ribs were ok. The dry rub was actually similar to the one featured at Smoque (but then again, most dry rubs are 90% identical). The coveted smoke ring (the bright pink layer of color that develops just beneath the crust of dry rub) was nowhere to be found. The brisket was a bit dry and fatty and the pulled pork was...well lets just say that you needed the sauce. The sides were also a disappointing counterpart to Smoque's; the mac and cheese was served cold and without a crust and the cole slaw lacked the acidity of a good vinegar-based slaw. Overall, the food is decent and Honkey actually a welcome addition to the increasingly diverse 18th St. corridor of Pilsen. The main dining room is an interesting, eclectic mix of Mexican and Western art (cool Johnny Cash portrait). The live guitarist featured a similar mish-mosh of genres delivered via an old Strat and an unique Elvis-like croon. Despite all of the upside this might suggest, there was a glaring deficiency which was the deal breaker: bad service. Having waiters at a BYOB BBQ place is probably a bad business decision, but to have an inattentive, even rude staff is inexcusable. We waited 25 minutes for our food and our sweet tea (which was 50% lemonade for some reason) was not served until we got our entrees. Our dinner concluded with the hostess/cashier tossing change back at me as if she was doing me a favor. Unless you live in Pilsen and have some sort of Harold and Kumar-like craving for BBQ, you need to head to Smoque and taste the real deal, you will not be disappointed.

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