Chicago’s Ribs

Good food for price. Honey butter and cornbread was great, babyback ribs are fantastic and so was the shrimp. Rings, chicken, beans and slaw was good. Beef ribs were just ok.

This was our second visit. Our first was over a year ago. I don’t remember much about it but I remember that the food was good.
The live music was excellent. Just one man with a keyboard and a mic but he kept our group for the two and a half hours we were there. Yes two and a half hours. More on that later.
The food this time was somewhat good. I had the «two pounds» of baby back ribs with a garden salad. My wife had the garlic chicken with a Caesar salad. Cornbread was served before the meal.
The cornbread was pretty awful. The first basket was cold. The second was nice and hot however they were both nearly as dense as clay.
The salad was fine. Good vinegarette dressing. Fresh lettuce.
My ribs were quite good. There were a few charred bits but the meat was tender and tasty.
My wife’s Garlic chicken was not very good. I tried a bite and the only way I can describe it is to say that the breast had no flavor in the meat. I mean absolutely none. I think I could actually taste the gas used to cook. There was plenty of garlic and black pepper on top but none of that flavor made it into the meat.
I think her side dishes were ok. Corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. We never talked about them.
Now the real reason for the single star. We came in a large group, with a reservation. Quite large. A sports team and a bunch of parents. The restaurant was ready for us before we arrived. Nice comfortable patio seating. Our group finished arriving and we all placed our orders about 20 minutes later. The team sat separately from the parents and placed their orders immediately before us. Their food arrived a while later, they all ate and had their dishes cleared before any of the parents were served. It took about 90 minutes for me to receive my order from the time I placed it.
One of our party asked to speak to the manager but she never came. He later found her (had to go looking). All she did was complain about how expensive it is to keep everyone employed. What a mess. Your problem is not our problem.

So sad, I was so excited to come back to Ventura to eat here again after 2 fabulous meals I had in 2013 at this place. Well, I am not sure what has happened but the food that was delivered to us was not the same as the year before. The portions were tiny, the fries, soggy and the order was wrong. Plus they delivered to our hotel yet not enough cutlery was given per meal ordered! Sadly I won’t be ordering from this place again because it has just gone down hill with their food quality and attention to detail.

Food was good. Our table had ribs, BBQ chicken sandwich and chicken caesar salad. Everyone enjoyed their food. My daughter said the fries were bomb. I got the caesar on the side so I could also taste their homemade blue cheese dressing — best I’ve ever had — very flavorful and lots of blue cheese chunks. Yummy.
The ambience was lacking which is the only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars.

My meal earned a solid 3, maybe 4, stars. Good ribs, reasonable corn bread, and friendly service.
However, how is it possible to arrive with soup a solid 20 — 30 minutes after the ribs and sandwiches with no explanation? Plus, when a tiny portion is brought out by mistake, why does it take ten more minutes to get the appropriately sized size to the table?
Food: Tasty, filling, and just what you would expect.
Service: Get it together.

Good food but customer service was a bit slow.
A great deal for their baby back ribs — 2lbs for 13.99!
Also go their tri tip salad and portions were huge!
Cornbread was good even though I’m not a huge fan of cornbread normally, I ate like 2 pieces.
Best part of my meal: the bacon loaded potato soup! Crispy bacon and thick potato soup, what more can you ask for?! ($ 4)

It’s fucking Saturday night. If you advertise that you deliver, you should deliver.
I have had their food before, but I was looking to sample a cheeseburger and fries. I can not leave my home because of cancer. Didnt want to cook. What a bummer.
False advertisement is false advertisement, and for that– one star and a giant SUCK IT.

I came here on Sunday during President’s Day weekend. There was no wait, which was great in comparison to the other restaurants on Main Street. We were seated and the server asked us if we wanted any drinks. Five minutes later, another person asks us if we want any drinks. Five minutes later, my friend receives his iced tea and I receive my hot water, minus any tea bags for my hot tea.
The food was great. We had the combination platter, which included tri tip and a kielbasa sausage. I also ordered the beef ribs and we shared sides of creamed spinach, macaroni and cheese, beans, and coleslaw. All in all, the barbecue was good, but the service was extremely slow for a not-​so-​busy Sunday evening (it took her a long time to take our order and bring us our check).

First I’d like to say I’ve been coming to this Chicago for Ribs for easy 7 to 10 years and I have never had a Bad Experience. We just left on a Sunday night, medium crowd, long, long wait to be seated even though there were many open tables… Seated & waited 7 minutes for our Waitress. Order the «Feast» and drinks… The wait continued… Drinks empty, had to ask about the food… Finally came & didn’t recognize it as the «Feast» … Small plates, not the right items… Just a nightmare… Waitress said they had an accident with the stove… Should have eaten somewhere
else… I won’t give up on Chicago for Ribs, ill come back but I’ll give it a while… So Bad I’m gonna call their Corporate Headquarters

We had them deliver to us at our RV at Emma Woods State Beach! It was so amazing and the food was outstanding!
Thank you again for being so wonderful to deliver too!

Better than I expected from previous reviews! The service was great, and the staff was friendly and attentive. The baby back ribs were very good. I docked a star because my baked potato was clearly reheated and was gummy. The cole slaw was okay, but didn’t do much for me.
I might eat here again, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. I would try different sides if I did!

A group of us descended on the inside dining because the outdoor seating was a little breezy. The servers did a great job of handing our late arrivals and our appetizer orders coming in waves.
My husband and I arrived early and took advantage of the Unilocal check in offer of half off their yummy onion rings, but man, their happy hour specials are amazing even without the check in-​$ 3 glasses of some decent house wines, lots of beers, half price mozzarella sticks, chicken wings and fried zucchini from 4 – 7 on week days. So the happy hour is technically only available at the bar, but they relented and gave us the happy hour prices to us since we were only one table away from the bar.
My husband was very impressed with the quality and quantity of the ribs. My shrimp salad was nothing special, but the cornbread was tasty and the big bowl of chili looked great. I’d probably come back for another happy hour sometime.

You’ll probably be safe ordering a beer because the wells are measured out to the ounce. My Jack and 7 tasted like ginger ale. Ordered two before any food came and not even a buzz and that was on an empty stomach.
Wife had a bland potato soup that was removed from the bill. Finally the meal came and we had Mac and, well let’s just say watery pasta cause there was no cheese in that Mac. I even asked if they changed cooks cause it has been awhile since our last visit (kind of out of our way) and the waitress said no… But then advised us that they use to buy their Mac and cheese but now they make it fresh… I’m pretty sure this was to save cost however just take it off the menu if that’s the case.
Creamed Spinach also sent back… Flavorless meal. Ribs were dried out and chicken breast were just as bad. Seems like their sauce was watered down as well.
Doubt I’ll be back… Plenty of better quality spots in that area and especially if I’m going to spend close to a $ 75 (thats including a good tip cause the food wasn’t our waitress’s fault) on a dinner for two.

Our second time here and we were thinking the less than ordinary experience the first time was a fluke, especially since one friend thought so highly of this establishment. We were exploring the KIDS EAT FREE options here one Tuesday evening. The Deal: every Tuesday buy 1 adult entrée, not including a la carte specials, and get 1 kids meal free, which includes a kids drink, for all kids 12 and under. Cool aesthetics. Friendly staff. We were seated promptly and sampled a few menu items…
*THE RIB DEAL ($ 17.99): 2 lbs. of baby back ribs, more than a ½ rack, but less than a full rack. Good quantity of meat on the bones. Sauce had a sweet, yet slight tartness to it, but the meat itself was overcooked. Not as succulent as I would have liked. A saucy mess, just not juicy. The two sides: steamed veggies plus Mac & Cheese were good.
*BARBECUED CHOPPED SALAD ($ 11.99): Chose baby back ribs (came with 3 ribs) over fresh chopped greens, corn, black beans, red onions, tomatoes, and cheese. Basically lettuce dominated the salad, everything else was scantly there. Same rib experience here as well.
*CHILI CHEESE FRIES ($ 7.99): Nice heaping serving of fries and chili. Tasty stuff. Disappeared fast.
*KID’S CHICKEN STRIPS MEAL (free!): 8 pieces of chicken, all white meat. Tender, chunky meat covered with a thin batter. This was enjoyed by the boys. Came with 1 side. One chose fries, the other chose fresh fruit, both good choices.
*KID’S BABY BACK RIBS MEAL (free!): Came with 3 ribs. Unfortunately, the tartness of the sauce was too much for my young squire, and kept saying sadly «My lips are really tingling!» Our server was kind enough to exchange them with unlathered baby back ribs. He ate more meat, but not enough to finish all 3 ribs. He did finish the fresh fruit though. Drawback of this act of kindness was he developed a pretty severe rumbly tummy in the next few hours and we had to keep him out of school the next 2 days because of persistent regurgitation :(Since we all had the same food up until then, I can only assume it was the 2^nd set of ribs that was the culprit. LESSON: DON’T GET BARE Baby Back Ribs!
So much for hoping for a better experience. Better baby back ribs can definitely be found elsewhere in our town. Chicago’s may have «the best bones in town,» but their meat is a totally different story. As their claim to fame is «RIBS», they really need to step up their game. And it PAINS ME to watch my son feel so sick. However, our server was a peach, pleasant and very attentive to our little ones, so 2 stars instead of 1. Oh well.

I really enjoy this place! I love the outdoor patio, great for people watching. But the food is fantastic! I love the ribs and the cornbread they bring out is so yummy. I love love love their mashed sweet potatoes.
I really love the, meat salad, I believe it’s called. It’s a garden salad, cheese, veggies, all the good stuff, and then your choice of meet. I always order it with the baby back ribs. When it comes out there’s three ribs on top of the salad and its so perfect because I, always torn between ordering ribs or a salad… they make it so easy here!
Great service, staff, prices and food. Aka and if its your birthday, the bring you cake and sing at your table — one of the guys even had a tambourine – it was awesome! Love this place!

While trying to figure out why we disliked the BBQ so much my brother stated «it tastes like school lunch cafeteria BBQ». BINGO! The sauce and meat tasted like it had been sitting out, it had a weird stale/​rancid taste. This place was terrible. They have a very misleading amount of stars.
The service was slow and inattentive. The servers were too busy socializing with each other and on their phones (you can see them hanging out in the hallway)
The sodas were all soda-​water and no syrup. (How do you mess up soda?)
I hope Robert Irvine picks them for Restaurant Impossible.
P. s. (owner of business) the «Chicago» fries are just French fries. So call them French fries!!!

Decided to get out of the valley heat and head to where it was cool to grab some vittles for dinner and just happened to drive by Chicago’s. First off what grabs your attention is that this place is house in what I believe to be a former bank and the outside has a very cool design. We thought we would give it a try as we do love our pork ribs. The inside was pretty cool also, the décor was very 1930’s art deco and was pretty cool to see. But what you want is to know about the food; well, the pork ribs have to be some of the best I have ever had. Succulent, juicy, crisp and a little crunch on the outside. The meat is so tender it falls off the bone and the sauce has got just a touch of a kick to it, but not overdone. The prices aren’t bad for the amount and quality of the food. We also tried the baked beans and the creamed spinach which were both very good. We also had a cup of the baked potato soup for starters as we split the dinner it was so big, the soup was awesome; a lot of «baked potato» soups are too thick and don’t taste much like baked potato, Chicago’s is the real deal. The soup wasn’t overly thick, but it had great potato taste and had cheese and bacon and green onions on top that really put it over the top.
I will say these people are evil though, after putting as much food away as we did, they brought out the desert tray and everything looked great, I opted for the apple cobbler and was not disappointed (probably one of the best I have had anywhere).
The service was great as well and Jamie was very helpful with our first (but not last time) in to grub on some killer ribs.

OK, so I have eaten at Portillos, Al’s Beef, and this place is CLOSE w the dogs… It has NO italian beefs, but the DOGS ¹⁰⁄₁₀
:ALERT! MUST BE OUTSIDE DINING TO ORDER DOGS: (weird but true)
DONT go inside its nothing special, its overpriced and food was average.
I had Louis as a server and he was A+ server! thank you!
I ordered bout 6 dogs to go back to hotel w, soon as i got in the car, my fat butt wanted to try it, and HOLY COW!!! it instantly brought me back to chitown on the first bite!
GET THE CHICAGO DOG! … its on a menu written in chalk outside dining area.
inside dining = EH
Service = A+
hot dogs 5 stars!
Italian beef not on menu = COMPLETE FAIL

This is a huge place but somehow, there was a long wait. I sat at the bar and ordered a drink so I wasn’t worried. However, when I sat down at the table, it was not great service. I literally had to flag down my waitress every single time (I’m talking at least 5 times from ordering drinks, to ordering my food, to basically anything that was was a requirement in her job).
I got the sampler platter to try everything and the beef ribs are pretty juicy. If there was more than 1 bathroom and if the servers were more attentive, I’d come back!

So, yeah, I already had lunch at Art’s Corner Café, but thought on my way home I would stop and get some ribs for dinner. It was a weird hour (3:00 pm) so there was nobody in the place. The owner was there and told me that the bbq beef ribs are his favorite dish.
Put them in the trunk so I wouldn’t be distracted by the smell and went at them an hour and a half later. Wow… them are some BIIG, BEEFY, BBQ ribs… these are the ribs I have been waiting for. Too bad I hardly go to Ventura anymore, so they’re 1 ½ hrs. away! Have to find another Chicago Rib Co.
The were just plump with meat (ya know how some ribs are just bones?), and there wasn’t too much bbq sauce (hate it when it’s slathered on). Didn’t even get any sides. Just wanted the ribs.
Shaved off the meat from one of them and mixed with Joey’s food and both of us were in seventh heaven.
A good food day.