Charlottes Rib Barbecue

Great find during our short stop in St. Louis /​Chesterfield! We called in an order to go and felt welcomed by the staff upon arrival and our food was ready on time. The baby back ribs, BBQ plate, green beans, potato salad, fried mushrooms and toasted ravioli were all spectacular! I’m not even a BBQ sauce fan and I loved the sauce on the ribs! Talk about being able to feed an army in one meal this was it — but we had to taste it all! I’ve had BBQ in just about every spot in the U.S., and I definitely recommend these ribs!

Charlottes Rib has never disappointed. The food is consistently good as well as the service. We’ve taken small groups and had excellent service as well. We’ve taken people from out of town and they said the ribs were tender and excellent.

Got a sampler plate with pretty much everything and it was a huge plate. But it was so good I ate it all. The sauces were a little sweet for me, but they worked well with the meat. The biggest surprise for me was the vinegar-​based slaw. I typically hate that kind of slaw but I was wanting more when I finished it here. Scott came out and talk to me for about 15 minutes knowing that I was from out of town. I am a barbecue fan and I know what good barbecue should taste like. This is good barbecue. The only negative that I see is that they do use some MSG in their product. I don’t see where this would need any flavor enhancers. It is good enough without it. The white meat chicken breast was actually very moist and not dried out like you get at most places. I’ll be back and I’ll be bringing friends with me next time.

Being new to the area, thanks Unilocalers for directing me to Charlotte’s Rib. The fried mushrooms were huge, freshly battered and delicious. The pulled pork was good, and the baked beans were really tasty, especially since I am not normally a fan of baked beans. The service was attentive — all the servers seemed to check on the tables as they passed by, even if they were not «theirs». Glad to find a good country place in the neighborhood.

I had a bite of each food and I was disgusted…
The pulled pork tasted like it was five days old and heated up in the microwave. The potato salad tasted like dirt. The baked beans were ok.
Worse than the food was their service (or lack of it). It took forever to get us our drinks (I could hear them in the back just talking for five minutes). Then when we did my friend’s soda was flat and the waitress said she couldn’t do anything about it… didn’t even try. When we got our food my friend asked for bbq sauce and it was like asking for a kidney. She didn’t check back to see if it was good or not… and when she came back to ask about how we would be paying I told her my food was bad and asked for a refund… she just said ok, took my food and left. Not even an apology or anything. Then another lady came out to talk to me and didn’t apologize either she just said no ones ever said it’s bad before. (I find that hard to believe by the way) it’s like she was trying to make me feel bad for telling them it was poor quality food. Needless to say none of us will ever be back. Only go here if you want them to ignore you and make you feel like crap. If the service was that bad when it was slow I can’t imagine how it would be if it was busy. No wonder no one was there.

Excellent BBQ. Have been coming here for years. Fried mushrooms are an absolute must. Ribs are some of the best in the STL area. Service can be hit or miss.

Never actually got the chance to eat here — however, arrived before closing and the hostess/​waitress greeted us with «we were just about to close up.» Essentially informing us to hit the road. We asked if we’d be able to order and she said «depends on what you get».what does that even mean?! Will not be returning and would not recommend, simply based on the poor customer service interaction.

My wife and I carried out 2 O’Charlottes corned beef dinners for St Patty’s day yesterday. Corned beef was beautifully tender and lean, melt in your mouth. The best I have had in recent memory. Dinners came with tender cabbage which was wonderful as well and new potatoes, green beans and Irish Soda bread. We will mark this on our calendar for next year and would go nowhere else for corned beef now. The pulled pork is the best around also and have noted on past visits that they do a large carry out business.

Best staff in town! Love the catfish dinners and baked beans. Continuous supporters of the business. I go there at least once a week for outstanding food and service. Highly recommended to family and friends!

I ordered a pork sandwich and intended to use a $ 20 gift certificate to pay for the food. The person behind the counter told me in a rude manner, that she could not give me change. The cost of the order was around $ 8. She said that it was written in the fine print. Doesn’t this seem like stealing? Someone paid $ 20 cash and the restaurant wants to keep $ 12? What a racket! I sure it’s almost impossible to spend an exact amount, so they do this every time!

I decided to give this place a try based on other members’ reviews. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich, along with a side salad. The salad was disappointing, as it only came with lettuce and croutons. The sandwich itself was a little light on BBQ and came with the BBQ sauce already mixed in with the meat. The flavor was average, nothing terrible but nothing special. As I was leaving, I checked out their homemade pies, which looked pretty good, but I was too full to order a piece. I will come back and give Charlotte’s Rib a second chance, hopefully the second time around will be more satisfying.

Good BBQ but I wish they served it with an option of sauce on the side. I ordered the meat combo (chicken, sliced pork, ribs & brisket) which was very good… but it came with a whole bunch of sauce all over it. The sauce was great, but I;d rather decide how much sauce I want on my food. I prefer my ribs «dry» but my chicken sauced.
Anyway the food was great as well as the service.

I can’t believe so many people give this place high marks. I had some of the fattiest ribs I’ve ever had out. I didn’t like the way they were trimmed either. Too much gristle as well as the fat. The sauce was just okay. While my ribs seemed to not be cooked long enough my friends were over-​cooked. The baked beans tasted like someone had used pancake syrup on them. Potato salad was decent. The best thing I had was a plain side salad with ranch dressing. Needless to say I won’t be back when we have so many really good barbecue places here in St. Louis.

After moving to Ballwin and not wanting to drive to Pappy’s or Bogarts every time my wife and I needed a BBQ fix, I was excited to learn that there was a good BBQ place (according to Unilocal reviews) not too far from my house.
We showed up at noon on a Saturday and wasn’t sure if the place was open since there were only a couple of cars in the parking lot. Although now I wish they would not have been open, nevertheless, we walked in and were seated quickly. Out of the entire place only three tables were seated. Again, I felt like it wasn’t a good sign for noon on a Saturday. We started off by ordering a beer each and an order of fried mushrooms. The menu says to allow 10 minutes for the mushrooms to cook. No problem. The waitress brought us our $ 2.25 beer special (which was a 6 oz glass of Bud Light!). We didn’t know it was such a small beer until it was brought to our table. $ 2.25 is way too expensive for such a small beer.
I ordered a ½ slab rib plate with baked beans and fries for my sides My wife ordered the Charlottes’ rib plate with the same sides and she also ordered a side of pulled pork so we could try it out. After 30 minutes, we were still waiting on our mushrooms when our other food arrived. I asked the waitress about the mushrooms and she had totally forgot. She never offered to provide them free of charge either.
The food was NOT good. The pulled pork was sweaty and had an awful taste. The ribs were just so-​so. I’ve had much better but can’t really think of much worse. I think the only thing we really enjoyed were the fries. Just your normal steak fries. After paying $ 37 for that experience, my wife and I will not be returning.

I was familiar with the Manchester location that closed years ago. First time at this location. Kids liked their food. We had ribs which were fantastic. Chili was very good too. Good value here and service was great.

I guess I may need to visit this place again. Several Unilocalers that I usually agree with on their review of restaurants gave this place high marks. We went on a Friday night at 6pm, not a single one of us finished our meals! It was just plain terrible. There were only three other tables of two people seated when Fortel’s was packed??? This is usually a sign of a mistake. I personally had the pork steak… about an inch thick piece of pork roast dripping in three day old bbq sauce. It was terrible. At three of four bites, I called it quits! Usually there is something you get worth praising… it was all meh to yuck!
I know several folks have praise for this place, maybe, just maybe I will try again and give the ribs a go, but it will be by myself because I don’t want to be laughed at by my family again for suggesting this place.

Excellent brisket and pulled pork, the onion rings are delicious. Nice family run restaurant.

Having not been here since my 2009 review I thought I needed a BBQ fix now. Very good food. They do not use a heavy dry rub like a lot the newer places. They use good old fashioned smoke and sauce. I had the spare ribs. The ribs are huge and meaty and just the right amount of smoke and sauce. The sauce is a tomato based sauce is not hot nor sweet really no frills just plain good sauce. A wonderful companion to the ribs.
I also ordered a side salad. A BBQ place is not where one finds a great salad unless you come here. All the dressings are homemade and the lettuce was served ice cold. Bleu cheese dressing with nice crumples of bleu cheese throughout the salad. Mrs K. was staring at my salad and the next time the server came by she also had a salad. She loved it too. With the price of BBQ going almost upscale to the point of stupid high Charlotte’s keeps her prices very reasonable. So the price to food value is there for the taking.
On Thursday night the special is burnt ends. While I did not have them my friend had them and they looked great. Oh yeah the bill was $ 60 with soft drinks and food.

I got two slabs of ribs on a carryout. They were slathered in barbeque sauce, which is not my favorite treatment. BUT the barbeque sauce was good, and it worked.
The ribs were meaty.
Two slabs were $ 50. I did like them. My son did, too.
I think I have to go back to get Paul K.‘s pork steak. I DO love a good pork steak.

Charlottes Rib is my favorite BBQ in all of St. Louis. I usually get their beef brisket, but their pulled pork is wonderful too. Their potato wedge french fries have a great seasoning on them, and go wonderful with their homemade BBQ sauce. Its worth the drive out to Ballwin. It is kind of a smaller place though, so during dinner rush it might be a bit crowded.