Robinson's No. 1 Ribs, Chicago, Illinois, Barbecue Restaurant Details

Food:

They sauce is nasty at union station.. Ugh better ur sauce

Food:

Best decision I've made today. Ribs and fries are amazing

Food:

I'll be honest, I was spoiled by my time in Kansas City. But laying here in my Robinson's pulled pork induced food coma, I have to say I'm very happy I finally tried this place. After riding the train out of union for eight years. Shame on me.
The pulled pork and sauce are great. I'm very happy, and I'll be going back soon to try their brisket. Quick service. If you're in union and need a sandwich, the pulled pork is definitely something that should be on your list.

Food:

It's been awhile since I've tried out an actual restaurant devoted to the craft of ribs or bbq. While I was downtown Robinson's seemed like a place worthy of trying out. Walking up I noticed there wasn't a long line (maybe 5-6 people) for it to be near summer time in downtown Chicago and it was around 12pm which is the lunch rush hour.

The food looked good, nothing really stood out, but I decide to chomp down on the chicken and rib tip combo. The combo was $15 and came with 2 sides and some bread (2-pieces), no drink. Side entrees consisted of the standard fare of mac 'n' cheese, coleslaw, baked beans, corn, etc. that we've all known to appreciate.

I watched the cook as he took a delicious looking half slab of ribs (which was surprisingly big for a half slab) and put it on the grill. After it was done he cut it into chips. He then proceeded to go in the back and grab 3 pieces of raw chicken to freshly fry to my delight. Service was honestly not as fast I as expected. Altogether it took about 15-20 minutes to complete my order which consisted of a half slab of rib tips, 3 pieces of chicken, coleslaw & baked beans. I asked for a receipt and the cashier accidentally pressed the wrong button and couldn't generate one. Obviously 2 people (one of them clearly new) weren't enough for this job so they had to bring in the manager (or owner) to help out. Once he got involved the ball started rolling and orders were coming out regularly.

One thing you notice with a lot of these franchises is that some of them are pretty much turning into "school lunches". What this means is in-order for them to cater to the general population they don't do anything special or season anything so nobody gets sick. This leads to bland tasting food pretty much.

Robinson's #1 Ribs is the school lunches of ribs. No marinating, no seasoning, nothing special done at all making the ribs about as average as you can get. They weren't even as tender as they could be. Honestly, I've had way better food at family functions and know family members that can easily out cook Robinson's. The bbq sauce wasn't that great as well, there was almost no zing to it leaving you majorly disappointed since they didn't skimp on things at all. At a place like Robinson's you should expect sub-par to decent quality food showered in a great sauce like "Sweet Baby Ray's", but I guess Robinson wanted people to appreciate it's sub-par food more.

The chicken, beans, coleslaw were just as average with the coleslaw being unusually spicy for some reason.

Pass on this one people. You get some bang for your buck, but in the end you might as well go down to the park and crash someone's family reunion. You'll find better food there and it might even be free.

Food:

There's a lot of amazing BBQ in the city. So when you are getting BBQ in a food court you have to know you aren't going to be expecting the cream of the crop.

That being said Robinson's does provide some 'OK' BBQ and will probably be the best bang for your buck for it in the area. The food is all right though with the Ribs being belled as #1 you'd think they would be the best thing on the menu and they really aren't. Maybe I've been spoiled from better BBQ ribs? I only felt the flavors here would be OK.

While most of it doesn't overly stand out I'd really say if you are going with anything snag some of the Wings as they've proven to be my best bet here. The second up would be the rib tips. While they aren't the best in the world they will tide you over and tasted better than the ribs themselves.