We took the team out today to celebrate finishing off a major set of accounts. Since it seems that making the decision for where to go for lunch always seems to land on me I decided I might as well tick off one of the restaurants on my list. Thankfully Jules didn’t mind that we took the afternoon off and had to travel a bit on the tube to get there.

The Chicago Rib Shack at Knightsbridge re-opened with a bit of fanfare a few months agao spouting its new logo “The Shack is Back.” I’m a sucker for any rib joint and so it wasn’t so much the advertising campaign that convinced me that I wanted to visit as much as the promise of another restaurant that served a good set of ribs.

Top Table came up trumps today again with a £15 offer for a USA Rib Sampler Platter which consisted of

– 1/3 rack “sweet and tender” baby back pork ribs,
– 1/3 rack “meaty and juicy” St Louis cut pork ribs,
– 1/3 rack slow braised BBQ beef ribs

served with BBQ sauce, coleslaw, corn on the cob and spicy potato other bits

AND Dessert of Warm pecan pie & ice cream or Warm cinnamon apple pie & ice cream.

Mmmmm ….

I love the decor at the Rib Shack – its fun and funky. My favourite aspect were the ‘decorate-your-own-pigs’ (the ‘exhiPIGtion’) at the top of the stairs and all the funny paintings on the surrounding walls.

As soon as we sat down the waiter brought over some bibs, laughingly titled Bone Appetit, which we all of course accepted. Ribs can be a messy business especially when you’re wearing white or yellow!

When the ribs came out we were very gratified to see the giant platter of meat. The difficulty was in knowing exactly where to start on the platter. The coleslaw was in a surprisingly small cup so that wasn’t too hard to polish off. Then there was the corn which was barbecued perfectly and super sweet and finally I was left with the ribs and the suprisingly deep-fried
potato wedges. The wedges had to be eaten in turn with the ribs otherwise the balance would have been overwhelming on their own. The barbecue sauce, rather than being of the bottled variety, came warmed. I didn’t so much like the beef ribs though they were okay but its clear that barbecue best suits pork. The “sweet and tender” and “meaty and juicy” were perfectly cooked and generally quite easy to pull off the bones. I think eveyrone else on the table went for fingers but I found that knife and fork did me well enough.

Dessert was a little delayed in coming out and as a result we all started to feel quite full. It was delicious looking though so of course I ate it all. And it was perfectly delicious. Surprisingly for once my ice cream was enough to go with the pie.

I’m surprised that when the restaurant first opened that it was panned by the critics. And quite viciously. I didn’t really see the need. The restaurant doesn’t pretend to be more than what it is – an American-styled barbecue shack – so why expect fine dining and posh food. I totally enjoyed meal and the atmosphere we ate it in so you’ll find no complaints from me.