Review of "Carson's Ribs"

Continuing with my fascination with ribs, on Saturday my wife and I visited "Carson's Ribs". They currently have 2 locations, one at 612 N. Wells in Chicago and the other at 200 N. Waukegan in Deerfield. We drove 45 minutes to the Deerfield location and were promptly rewarded with an hour long wait. In Deerfield there is plenty of free parking while the location in downtown Chicago means you need to pony up for a pay lot or search for a meter(good luck). Why such a long wait? Sure the place was busy but it was also not a very large dining room. The waiting area did offer crackers and spread for people waiting as well as a fireplace and a selection of leather arm chairs. The restaurant is dimly lit with white table cloths and cloth napkins. Yes this place does serve ribs.

Once seated we open the menu and were pleasantly surprised with a good selection of not only ribs but prime steaks, chops, burgers, and salads. So this is a place with multiple personalities, on one hand you can eat ribs with a plastic bib around your neck or you can have a $35 prime steak. Our waitress comes by and we know what we want right away. My wife orders a slab of ribs(half to take home) and I order the half slab of ribs and pork chop, both of us get the fries so we can dip it in the sauce. Both come with their house cole slaw. The waitress was very friendly and passionate about their food. Have to say, I do love friendly service.

Before the food arrives we do receive a bread basket filled with corn bread, bread sticks and bagels. My wife eats all the corn bread before i realize it's gone! All warm and tasty but remember I'm here for ribs. After a couple of minutes the cole slaw comes and let me tell you this is the best cole slaw ever, in my opinion! Perfect balance of flavor, crunchy texture, and creaminess. I added a little fresh cracked black pepper and man is this stuff good! I finish my bowl in just a few minutes while my wife prefers to enjoy hers with her meal.

Dinner arrives and we are greeted with this intoxicating aroma of BBQ. My wife's baby back ribs are literally hanging of her plate and my half slab and chop bring a huge smile to my face. My chop was about 2 inches thick and basted in barbecue sauce! We both reach for the ribs first and wow, these are darn good. Tender but with a little crispness to the outside and the sauce is the best sauce I have ever tasted. These are some amazing ribs. I cut into my monster boneless chop and it is juicy and very flavorful. Pretty darn good but not as good as the ribs. The fries are steak fries and are good but on this night they were used for scooping up as much of that wonderful sauce as we could. The sauce is slightly sweet and slightly spicy. It has small bits of what I believe are onions running through it. This stuff is so good I would almost pour it over ice cream and still eat it!

After devouring dinner and going through a stack of warm wet napkins it was time for dessert. My wife ordered the warm peach cobbler a la mode and I went for the "Gold Brick" sundae. Her cobbler was warm with large chunks of peaches with a crumble crust that had cinnamon and sugar all over it and some caramel drizzled on the plate. Definitely made from scratch and it was quite good. My sundae was a fancy version of ice cream and "Magic Shell". While it was good, it didn't live up to the rest of the meal.

With tax and tip we came out to $65 for the two of us. Definitely expensive for a rib dinner. But worth it. Even the 45 minute drive and hour long wait to be seated didn't ruin the experience. If not for a small dining room and an average sundae this would have been a perfect visit. With that said the official rating is *** and 1/2 out of ****.