Urban Bar-B-Que

Very nice folks. Very good sandwiches. Service isn’t «fast food» but it’s also not the slowest ever. Would be nice if they would have one more person making sandwiches but it’s still ok. Only complaint is the speed at which they make the sandwiches. But the customer service makes up for it.

This place was recommended to me by a coworker a few years ago. I’ve been coming here ever since for good barbecue. My lunch choice is the pulled pork platter with greens, macaroni and cheese and cornbread. A great deal for $ 9.99. For dinner, I order the ribs. They have about 3 or 4 barbecue sauces. My favorite is the atomic flavored. I have been pleased every time. The service is good. I order carry out but there is a nice size eating area.

I’m not a big fan of bbq from restaurants because they are rarely good. This place was very good and it was quick. The ribs were ⁴⁄₅ but the pulled pork and fries were amaazzzzing! The Mac and cheese tastes like it looks, just bland. I went back again for a second time and the ribs were dry but the pulled pork and fries were great again!

This was some bad BBQ. Pork was not tender and very greasy. It did not even have a smoke flavor which I feel most BBQ lovers look for. The coleslaw was pretty dry and hard to eat. Their red sauce was pretty nasty tasting but their yella sauce tasted suprisingly very good. Sucks that this is one of the only BBQ restraunts in the area.

Very disappointed. Ordered carry-​out pulled pork with fries and cole slaw. Picked up and at home discovered a half serving, no barbecue sauce, and no fries. I called and they said I could return and pick up the fries. When I objected, they said the snooty clerk said he would refund the amount. After hanging up I remembered I had paid cash so there was no way to refund. I tried to call back but they refused to answer my call.
Later: I returned and spoke to the manager. She settled my complaint amicably. So, I’ll chalk up the bad experience to an inexperienced cashier at a busy lunch time. The barbecue here is good.

Good local barbecue. People are friendly and it’s always satisfying. There is a reason this place has been around for so long.

This place has really gone downhill. It use to be our favorite place when we moved here.
First we get there and the guy is sweeping the floor which was fine but then he told us to wait while he finished before he would take our orders.
Then the root beer tap I guess was broken but there was no sign so when my husband went to use it root beer went everywhere.
The worst part was my husband ordered a pulled chicken sandwich which had a huge chicken bone in it. (Like 2 inches long) That was the end of the meal for him. He told the guy and he was offered a new sandwich which my husband wasn’t willing to risk. No offer of money back or something different.
I am sad that this place went so far downhill from when the owner use to work there. We will no longer visit despite living so close by.

Came today to pick up some ribs and took the half slab which came mixed (half from the smoker half from the leftovers that was probably from the last portion) it comes with two sides so I took BBQ baked beans and potato salad… The potato salad smelled like old milk and mayo, absolutely gross!!! Definitely expired for a longtime, after couple of seconds of almost puking from the potato salad I went back to the ribs that was 4 out of 10 which means edible due to hunger, was a bit dry and burned. The reason why I’m giving two stars and not one is be cuz of the nice guy at the cash register. That’s it. Please check your food before serving it to people

Oh snap I don’t know how I haven’t gotten around to reviewing this place. The bbq is really good. I usually get it to go the prices are quite reasonable for the generous portion you get. I normally get the brisket sandwich. The dining area is on the smaller size but it’s nice and cozy inside. After you get your order there are a selection of sauces to choose from depending on the type of sauce you prefer you’ll likely find something that compliments your meal. They have a nice variety of side items. I’d skip the Mac and cheese it’s sort of blah. But the mashed potatoes are yummy especially if you like the skin with your potatoes.

Wow, this place has really changed. We used to come here years ago with the kids and it was much better. Tried the full rack of ribs (dry) with some friends and they were served luke warm. It was obvious that they had been cooked a long time ago. The corn bread was not worth eating. This is factory cornbread at its worst. The young kid at the front desk was bothered to be there and the restaurant was not clean, greasy tables everywhere. I guess this is what happens when the owner gets tired of being there all the time and hires a «crew» to run the place. This is now a C– place with C– food. If you are looking for Que go somewhere else.

Yikes, I too either came on an off day, or all the good reviews are just some joke I wasn’t let in on. I had the three meat sampler with Mac and chz, baked beans and cornbread. All three sides were ranging from edible to not anything special. The brisket honestly is the worst I’ve ever had. No flavor or seasoning it truely seemed like it was just boiled for an hour, not being tender either. The pulled pork wasn’t terrible, but not pulled properly, and was very tough for a bonafide now joint. The pork sausage was just odd. All the salt that could have been spread out among the bland sides and other meats was packed in this tube shaped salt delivery device they call a sausage. The sauces were not any saving grace, two– the «yella» it think and the regular thick weren’t bad (although could have come out of a bottle), the others being different, but not in a good way. The cornbread was dry and flavorless. I actually feel ripped off.

Need Bar-​B-​Que in a pinch, place will do. I live in Silver Spring and only suggest coming to this location (Rockville). All Urban Bar-B-Que’s are not created equal.

Still eh… Service lacking, maybe because this is mostly take out at this location these days. Root beer on tap was disappointing — foamy but no carbonation. Guy behind counter says tank was full but that was as much as he knew. Tea was old and over steeped. Pulled pork was on the dry side. However, the buffalo wings hit the spot! The corn bread was good too.

The Urban Burger on Norbeck Rd. closed, becoming an Urban BBQ location like this one — but there they put in table service so you have to tip. Here it’s counter service, so you get the same food at a 15% lower price over all. (Strictly speaking, if your tip is 15%, what you save by not having to tip is 13%, because you have to calculate the percentage based on the total. But most readers will have difficulty getting this subtlety, I suspect.) So why would I ever go there anymore? They had great burgers, but if I want to go for a BBQ plate, I’ll come here. True, it’s in a bit of an out-​of-​the-​way location, where you can’t see it from Rockville Pike, but it’s not that hard to get to if you know where they are. And the sausage — the one thing besides burgers I used to get at Urban Burger — is great. I went there yesterday for lunch — first time in a long while, but there are so many other places to eat in the area — and I was quite satisfied. For $ 10 you get a plate of any meat they have except ribs or brisket, two sides, and cornbread. (One of the sides I had was beans, which actually had little chunks of meat in them, a big plus. The other side I had was fries, and that was a much bigger portion.) With the cornbread, and two tasty sausages, I was quite happily filled. Good value for good price.

So disappointed! The meat portion was very small, the beans over cooked and looked/​tasted like a week old and the coleslaw was gross. The bright spot the cornbread. Will try to brisket next time and different sides before I give up.

You’re going to wish your stomach were bigger! I haven’t had a meat here I didn’t love. One of my favorite things is actually that they have a rootbeer on tap, which is both authentic and delicious.

This place used to be great. A month ago it was ok. We went last week and it was awful. The pulled pork was fatty and gristly. The mac and cheese was so salty that we threw it out.

Pulled pork was really good. Glad I didn’t cover it in bbq sauce. Probably would eat here on a regular basis of I lived closer. Not busy at all… could be because of the location. Nice short walk from the Hilton.

Just had our first meal from here, take out ribs, chicken and sides. The meat is good and that is the main thing really. Sauce is sort of ‘main-​line’ red tangy, just a bit spicy. Ribs had good meat and a nice color. Sides, the beans were great and the corn bread was very good. Less thrilled with the corn and the slaw. Overall you can get your craving handled very well, which is good enough for the 4 stars.

The food here is pretty good and the service is quick. The BBQ Soul Rolls are a family favorite, we usually get an order to share every time we come in. The brisket is tender and the ribs are flavorful.
They also have a barrel of peanuts at the condiment bar where you can get some complimentary salted peanuts. We usually snack on these while we wait for our food. To top it off, their after meal «mint» is an Atomic Fireball.

Love the food. Love everything. Always consistent with the cook and taste of everything that leaves the kitchen. Small dining area, but that’s not their fault. Much rather make a huge mess of myself at home anyways to phase the embarrassment of having all the delicious sauce everywhere haha.

Okay, felt the extreme need to update after running into UBQ for lunch recently. I had mentioned a couple of months back my disappointment at a big (in my opinion) change to their menu. Fine, Urban, you don’t offer the chicken breast on your salad anymore so I figured I’d go with their chicken breast sandwich, which I’ve always relatively enjoyed in the past.
So I place my order and step to the side to let others place theirs. I’m bored, and there’s not a lot to look at, so I watch the kitchen staff make what I assume is my sandwich in the back (you can see everything through the open window). Well, I almost hurled in the nearest can when I saw the cook place the chicken breast on the sandwich bun using a spatula (fine) and then proceed to pick up a raw tomato slice with his BARE HANDS and place it right on top of the very same bun. Then, immediately after, the cook put on plastic gloves to cut up something (brisket? ribs? No idea — I was too disgusted to examine further)…so clearly, glove use is mandatory here or at the very least, fairly common when food is being prepared.
Look, I know that far worse has probably happened in a kitchen and that I’ve probably eaten some really nasty stuff after drunkenly dining on late-​night eats in DC at 4am but for some reason, this just really bothered me. Who knows how often (or not) this guy washes his hands? Maybe I’m just forever jaded after watching the movie Waiting…

Sad face.
It’s been a while since we’ve been here but it’s no where near as good as I remember. The ribs used to be our favorite — lots of bark and no need for sauce. This time? Not so much. The ribs were tough and drenched in cloyingly sweet sauce. The baked beans were also way too sweet and the cole slaw had no flavor. Even the cornbread was meh.
Time to smoke my own ribs.

Not good at all. I ordered the pulled pork plate with a side of coleslaw and potato salad. The small amount of pork I received on my plate (I’m usually not picky on portions, but it was tiny) was mostly inedible fatty pieces with little real meat at all. A bit of this is expected with pulled pork, but there were barely any good pieces of pork. Whoever served this should have realized that they picked up the worst possible part of the butt and thrown some real pulled pork on the plate.
Now onto the sides. The coleslaw tasted like bland finely chopped cabbage with no discernible additional flavors at all. The potato salad tasted like over cooked potatoes swimming in mayonnaise. Maybe they were out of spices in the back when they made the sides (if they didn’t purchase from a 3^rd party)?
I would never return to this location. That being said, I really like the Urban BBQ in Sandy Spring and can’t understand how this could be so much worse.

Horrible. Paid $ 9.99 for pulled pork with two sides. The plate is barely full of meat. I wont be coming here again. Really?

3.5 stars. We ordered from Urban Barbecue for our Father’s Day. The rich, smoky flavor of our beef brisket dinner still sticks to my ribs. It was hearty, tender, and was full of barbecue flavor. They must cook it over a hickory grill, because the smell is the first thing that tingles your senses. Then, the flavor burst, just makes your mouth want to jump for joy!(no pun intended). It was mouth watering delicious.
There were plenty of fans for the pulled pork. It was tender, packed with barbecue taste, and delicious. The aroma is smoky and full of flavor.
We were not huge fans of the barbecued chicken. It was over cooked and drowned in barbecue sauce.
As for the sides, the red potato salad was my favorite. It was creamy, with cooked egg, and full of chunks of potato. It was not too sweet. It was delightful.
The macaroni and cheese was okay and so was the coleslaw, but nothing that made them a standout.
So, why the three and a half stars? My order was 20 minutes late. The insult to injury was after waiting almost a half an hour for my meals, they charged an additional $ 4.50 for the rolls. So, customer service is not a strong point for this restaurant.

Mediocre at best. The pork was slightly burnt. I don’t consider myself a professional when it comes to judging bbq sauce, but I didn’t like the selection. I prefer hearty, sweet bbq sauce. This stuff was a bit tart and reminded me a bit of vinaigrette. If you like that stuff, you’re in luck.
The sides were just… bleh. Not bad, but nothing I couldn’t cook just as easily. Prices were expensive for what you got. I got a pulled chicken sandwich — that by itself was 6.75. Crazy. The parking here is also insane.
The one thing I would say to come here for would be the root beer on tap. That stuff was amazing. The ambiance of the place was nice and laid back, too.

Haven’t been here in 5 years and it has gone to hell. It was top notch last time. Today the food presentation is sloppy, the collard greens tasted like they came from a can and they have no horseradish or onions for toppings.
What bbq place doesn’t have horseradish and onions?
Never coming back. I’m surprised it’s the original owners as the food is as if they never been to a great BBQ place before.
Effing Rockville had no soul.

The collard greens themselves are worth coming for. SO good! The mac n cheese is pretty good too, but I’m not one to order something at a restaurant that I could easily make myself at home, so I only tried it once.
I usually get the pulled chicken and then drench in the Carolina style BBQ sauce. Yum! Love their sweet tea, too.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been, so I’ll have to visit soon.

I went with a group of 4 people for lunch on a Wednesday. We got there around 12:45 and the restaurant was fairly empty, but it seemed to fill up over the next half hour.
I ordered the Pulled Pork plate. It comes with two sides — I chose mashed potatoes and house cut fries. The choices of bread are a roll, tortilla, and cornbread — I seriously wonder if anyone gets anything besides the cornbread.
The pulled pork was good, there seemed to be quite some variance between the various plates in how the meat looked and how much there was. The meat itself didn’t seem to be seasoned, not a problem because of the variety of sauces available (carolina was the best).
The cornbread and mashed potatoes were good. The fries could have used some more salt or seasoning, while warm they were enjoyable but as they cooled it became difficult to eat them.
Overall the food was good and the portions were ample.