Rub BBQ Pub

This place usually has the best happy hour beer deals in Ann Arbor. It has plenty of ok barbecue food options and something like 60 beers on tap. Absolutely wonderful place to watch a game or unwind on a Friday after work.

While the entrees and sauces tend to be on the better side, sides can be hit-​or-​miss. Weeknight happy hour deals are pretty good. Service, though, can be nothing less than awful if the place is more than half full – a common scenario whenever there’s men’s basketball, ice hockey, or a football game happening at the University.
During my most recent visit, my dining companions and I waited 45 minutes just to have a drink order taken. Were it not for the fact that any other place in the immediate vicinity would have been just busy (and they’re all a lot smaller, seating an average of around 15 people), we’d have left and never returned – but, as it was, I was essentially stuck if I wanted to eat something other than concession stand food at the hockey game I was going to attend later. It was as if my table (and the table immediately next to ours) was in some sort of black hole, ignored by everyone working in the restaurant. There were only two servers to handle a restaurant that was completely packed. Clearly, ownership of the establishment did NOT consult a University of Michigan schedule of athletic events – if they had, they’d have realized that between a 1 PM men’s basketball game and a 5 PM hockey game that they should expect to be busy during the afternoon, and especially from 2:30 to 5. If you are that ignorant of the community and your patrons to not do this basic level of research, you deserve to close. This is what should happen here.
I have just read in the Detroit News that the location in downtown Detroit on Adams St. (in the vicinity of Comerica Park, Ford Field, and Grand Circus Park) will be closing, becoming a place called «Cykel». I expect this location will not be far behind, especially when you consider their website (apparently) no longer exists.

What can say about this place.? Delicious BBQ, and an excellent selection of beers. They have dynamite BBQ sauces, including, Michigan Apple, Carolina, Memphis and Texas styles, all of which are delicious in their own right.
Plenty of seating and very pleasant waitstaff.

Friday night in Ann Arbor MI. Six at our table, we were the only people in the whole restaurant. Did not have many of the beers listed on one of the boards, waitress informed us the board behind us was the updated one, very limited selection. I had one domestic beer (bud light) husband had a tall dark beer, he had brisket dinner and I had a sandwich. Food was ok nothing special. Bill was $ 40.00. Would maybe go back if group wanted to go but no need or desire to go there for dinner again. There are many excellent bow places in the area I would choose above this one.
Service was good, stayed open for us to have some drinks after dinner even though we were the only ones in the restaurant.
Side note, has a strong sewer smell, gets worse when you head downstairs to use the restroom.

I frequently inhabit this place. But it’s always on Mondays when everything is half off. The discount is what always has me coming back. If it weren’t for that I wouldn’t waste my time.
I have several discrepancies with this place. I feel like it has steadily gone downhill over the past couple years.
Here are the issues:
1) The kitchen always closes too early. I’ve walked in at 9:45 and have been told that the kitchen is closed. Seriously? What kitchen closes before 10? Any real restaurant has a definitive closing time. This just shows that the kitchen guys are lazy and will stop making food whenever they feel like. Way to kill your sales brah!
2) Beer served in plastic cups? That is just plain unacceptable. I know a lot of the clientele are students that are used to drinking beer out of plastic but for the great selection of high quality beers that are on the menu, actual GLASS should be available at all times.
3) Service. It’s usually bad. I’m even well acquainted with a lot of the staff, and still there are times I’ve sat at the bar and have waited 10 minutes before even being greeted. Sometimes I’ll wait for service while watching the bartenders actively engage in sidework or stand around doing nothing. Every time I order a cocktail I have to guide the bartenders through making it. It’s obvious that the staff are barely trained.
4) The food is rarely consistent. I’m a big fan of the jalapeño cornbread, but sometimes it comes out really dry and stale. Sometimes the mac and cheese is good, but sometimes it’s really dry yet greasy. It’s always a crapshoot when ordering anything that isn’t meat.
5) The facilities are never upkept. There is a complete lack of maintenance. A lot of times the bathrooms don’t have toilet paper or soap and whatnot. There was one night I couldn’t even enter the building. One door was broken and the other was locked. I had to bang on the windows to get someone to let me in.
In summary, all of these issues seem to fall on the shoulders of management or lack there of. It all just seems like the folks running the place just don’t care about it at all. It’s really sad, because if someone cared enough to actually fix these issues this place could flourish.
On the upside, the actual bbq is good. All of the ribs, brisket, chicken, etc. I’ve had are on par. The beer selection is vast. The deals are unmatched in Ann Arbor. You can really get the bang for your buck, especially on Monday nights. The staff is friendly even when their service is terrible. And the overall atmosphere has a particular charm that is unique and inviting for your typical sportsbar/​pub. I’ve been a huge fan of this place and will continue to support it through all of its flaws. I just wish someone would step up and take the reigns on ensuring the quality that such an ambitious establishment deserves. Because right now, with the way the place is run now, it’s a joke. And it has the potential to be great.

Very understaffed for a michigan hockey game. I had to wait 30 minutes for our food. Completely ignored by wait staff.

People seem to either love this place or hate it. I like it a lot for what it is: a conveniently located, well-​stocked (beer) and BBQ place with occasionally very good beer specials.
I’m not a fan of sports bars, so I avoid this place on Friday & Saturday nights and on football Mondays. But on the other nights that I’ve gone (Sundays and some weeknights), I’ve found the staff attentive and courteous, and I enjoy the quiet, relaxed atmosphere. The manager drops by to schmooze and talk beers, and that’s what I like in a bar. The televisions are turned down to a reasonable volume on non-​football nights, allowing me and my companion to talk and enjoy bar snacks.
I haven’t tried the bbq proper, but I’ve liked most of what I’ve tried so far. If I could change anything, I’d suggest some more vegetarian snacks, but hey, it’s a BBQ place after all.

It’s honestly the definition of «okay» They have barbeque here so if you are in the mood to eat it, it’s located on campus and you don’t have to drive anywhere.
But the meat wasn’t particularly well prepared or anything, it was just meh.

Bought a meal deal for this place. Didn’t read the fine print saying that it’s not valid during any home game. In Ann Arbor, there’s always a home game of some sort, so of course, our voucher was invalid. They did give us the amount we paid for it, and it’s a long drive, so we took it. Overall… no big loss. I won’t be going back. Food was mediocre at best. Nothing stood out as excellent. Not worth throwing out, but not worth driving all that way and spending good money on. Seriously, just buy a slab of ribs to go from Kroger and a 6 pack & eat in your car. There’s way better places. Hell… there’s a Famous Dave’s on every corner, & for a chain restaurant they aren’t bad. I’d eat there anyday… but not here. Oh yeah… I did have a glass of mead that was pretty good… but it shoulda been… it was 10 bucks!

I was here for lunch on a Thursday afternoon around 2 pm and the place was practically desolate with only 3 other individuals around. The server greeted me quickly and provided me with the menus. I went with a pulled pork sandwich (The Nugent) and it was brought out very quickly in ~ 5 minutes (or just about as much time as it took me to read and reply to a long text!)
Rub’s sandwiches can come either with Texas Toast or Kaiser Rolls. I went with the Texas Toast but found it disappointing as it was nothing more than a big fat slice of white bread, with minimal seasoning (e.g. butter or cheese). The pulled pork though was better; it wasn’t great or memorable but it was pretty decent.
At $ 6, the Nugent was a good deal and I don’t regret having come to Rub. Given their super-​quick service and the fact that they refilled my water on time, I might even come back to this place over the Subway right next door if all I want is a quick lunch. You should feel free to try out this place as long as you have very modest expectations of it.

Shockingly bad.
We ordered delivery via GrubHub. First sign of trouble was that several items were missing. GrubHub is great about resolving that, so let’s focus on the food itself. The burnt ends were fantastic — moist, flavorful, though not very charred as others have said.
Things went downhill from there. My rule for good barbecue is that it shouldn’t even need sauce. Well, the St. Louis ribs had no sauce — and no moisture, either. They were absolutely blasted to death. One third of the rack was completely inedible — a lump of charcoal. The brisket was tasty, but similarly overdone. The pulled pork was better, but they really skimped on the sauce — and this is the kind of BBQ that needs it, as we’ve discussed.
Sides are a mixed bag. Collard greens are tasty and spicy, but nothing remarkable. Sweet potato fries are good but probably better not delivered, since they steamed in the container and got soggy. Cornbread was more moist than the meat. Wish I could mention the Mac and cheese, but they failed to deliver it, TWICE. Texas toast was soggy (under a pile of meat) and boring; a super-​thick slab of wonder bread.
Satchel’s isn’t the best BBQ I’ve had, but it is light-​years ahead of R.U.B. I will never order here again, and neither should you.

I went for half-​priced Mondays, which turned out to be an excellent way to load up on rib tips, collards, cornbread, and bottles of beer (their draft system was broken for some reason but they have a decent enough selection of bottles). Highlights included the authentically cooked collards, though they tasted a little bit sweet, which I wasn’t super into; mysteriously delicious «Detroit» style sauce, which is half mustard-​based and half-​not; and some Yankee style jalapeño corn bread, which was great. I think we paid something like $ 42 including food for the two of us, several drinks, and a generous tip, so that seemed cheap.
Minus one star for the 1) prices that would be high if it weren’t for the half-​price deal, and 2) the fact that the service really could not care less about you. They kept running out of things over the course of the night, and it was mysterious that their whole CO2/​draft system was just… broken.

This place smells delicious but fails to deliver on service in a big way. I went in for the first time with a large group yesterday. Yes, it was crappy outside. Yes, we had a big group and the place was mostly empty otherwise. I stood by the bar while two guys were by the register without anyone acknowledging my presence for a few minutes, then just went to the other guy who was working there.
I ordered a beer and the basket of «boneless wings.» The «wings» were actually little bits of breaded and fried chicken nuggets that looked like the leftovers from other chicken pieces. Oh, and it filled up about half the basket, so it was actually a terrible deal. The Texas BBQ sauce was good, but that was the only redeeming thing about it.
In addition, their daily specials were unclear from looking at the menu, but I found out later that it was supposed to be half off everything for Monday. And I looked at my receipt and found that the guy didn’t even apply the half off discount.
Don’t bother with this place. If you want barbecue then go to Blue Tractor or some of the places that are outside of the downtown/​campus town area.

Meh. Overall, everything was meh. Had ribs and a burger for dinner, the server was very nice, albeit a little slow considering how dead it was.
One day a couple months ago, someone from Rub BBQ came into our office with a big box full of wraps and handed us a couple each. He had 3 varieties and handed us our choices, which were actually not, when we opened them. Regarding this, I thought, no biggie, this is a free lunch, no reason to complain. Then upon taking a bite of these mini wraps that were honestly, just pathetic in arrangement (literally a half mini wrap, a couple pieces of meat, a leaf of lettuce, a couple tomato pieces?), I tasted dry, very game-​y chicken. Office consensus was that these wraps were sad and tasted like they used old ingredients.
I appreciate the marketing efforts but it tasted and felt like they were giving away food that they couldn’t serve. Sadly, this effort completely backfired for me. I have no urge to try this again.

We went in tonight having no idea that it was half off Monday – what a wonderful surprise!
First off, the beer selection was great. They have a fantastic selection of Michigan beers and even a few ciders.
The food was mostly excellent. As others have mentioned, the burnt ends are more «ends» than «burnt»…just basically chunks of meat. But the sauce was so good that I was able to overlook it.
The chicken was good, the mac and cheese was great and so was the cornbread. The sauces were excellent, esp. the «Detroit sauce». There was something about it that was just delicious.
The service was great and the food came out fast and hot. And it was all half price (and the students are gone, so it was nice and calm inside).
We will definitely go back.

This is the closest bar to my house, so I was sad when Packard Pub closed, but now I can enjoy RUB when I don’t want to go to South U. or Main Street.
We have not eaten here, just enjoyed a few drinks, but we enjoyed ourselves! TONS of tv’s, friendly waitress, a huge selection of beers, what’s not to like?!

Food: Go for the sandwiches. I’m not a big fan of pub food but sandwiches here are great. Don’t forget to ask for the happy hour specials (starts at 4PM everyday).
Drinks: Large selection of bottled and tapped beers.
Staff/​Service: picture Hooters, but the waitresses have more clothes on. Service is what you would expect from a pub, nothing more, nothing less.
Ambiance: It’s pubby. There are TVs all around, great on game day.

Just a disclaimer, im writing this review off of only one experience and one dish, so take it as you may.
I think the main word to describe my experience at rub would be disappointment. I was pretty excited to find a place that offered burnt ends, which if you dont know what that is, google it, and tell me you dont start drooling all over yourself.
Anyway, the reason I gave rub 1 star was a combination of price and portion size. For nearly 10 dollars, I got maybe 8 cube sized pieces of just regular brisket, which also seemed overly fatty. I expected the burnt ends to be similar to kansas city burnt ends which they werent, and the portion size and overwhelming amount of fat was just a complete turnoff. I like the idea of what rub is trying to do, and im sure there other dishes are worth trying, but after that experience, im going to just stick with satchels, my opinion of the best bbq place in the a2 area.

RUB BBQ is a great restaurant, so I really hope its delicious food can attract loyal customers and overcome the horrible parking situation and the seasonal student crowd.
Today I ordered the Slim Shady (all their dishes are named after notable Detroit-​ers), and it was awesome. I recommend ordering it with the Texas toast. My boyfriend got pulled pork with macaroni and cheese and sweet potato fries. The macaroni and cheese was garlicky, cheesy heaven!
RUB has some great deals too. On Mondays from 4 – 7, everything on the menu is half off, so our dinner tonight was only $ 15! The only stipulation is that you must order a minimum of 2 drinks to get the discount. But still, two entrees and two beers for $ 15? What a great offer!
The only downside I could point out is that the servers aren’t too experienced/​knowledgeable about the menu (We asked if there were any requirements for the ½ off special and the waiter said no. Later we double-​checked and asked if we had to order two drinks to get half off he said yes, and that he forgot that was the rule earlier. He also didn’t take off the full 50% from our bill at first and we had to ask him about it– he gladly changed it for us after though!). This will get better with time though, so don’t let it deter you from trying the great barbecue that RUB serves!
My boyfriend and I have already set up a standing date (every Monday night for happy hour)– highly recommended!

I went in at 6:40pm, left at 8:50pm and not by choice. I was meeting with five buddies to try Rub and we were excited for a new BBQ joint in Ann Arbor and a great addition. I’m always on the look for a new bbq joint.
We walked in, put our name down… we were told it’d be 20 minutes… then the original host left and other guy came up… I felt like they were little confused as to what was going on… others that came after us were just grabbing tables that were empty,. Finally, not able to wait, I asked the guy how long and he told me he’ll check and I said, what about that table that’s been empty for last 10 minutes? He had to go check to see if the customers that were there paid out and left… really?
So we waited another five minutes while the host and two other folks were looking at the monitor. Ok, before I go further, I’ll give them some slack because they just opened less then a week ago… HOWEVER, they have tow other locations, thus they should have experience behind them…
Finally got seated… menu came… and the waitress came and asked what we wanted for drink… we all opted for water. To ensure we got our food on time, we ordered our food when the waitress came back with the water.
I went with Bases Loaded… (Ribs, pulled pork, pulled chicken and brisket) with mac – n-​cheese, greens and ordered a side of cole slaw. I also got the fried pickles and nacho’s with pulled pork.
Then the wait game started. Also note, their specials are only good from 4 to 7… it’s not clearly marked, so the whole daily specials are kind of misleading. Oh and yeah… we never got our drink menu, but it’s ok.
We waited 20 minutes for our appetizers and the nacho was cold when we got it. Not sure if it just sat there or not, but one should never send out cold food. The chips they use in there is too salty! As for the fried pickles, it was warm.
Then we waited another 30 minutes for our main course. I must say, I was really disappointed in the base loaded platter.
Brisket — the brisket was warm and very good. I tasted the smoke flavor and the meat was easy to cut with the fork.
Pulled Chicken — they should rename this to chopped chicken, because it was just chopped… and the meat is very VERY SALTY! Couldn’t eat more then two pieces.
Pulled Pork — too many burnt parts of the meat and it was cold.
St. Louis Rib — too dry couldn’t even eat it. Others that got the same plate, their rib was much better then mine.
Cole Slaw — don’t get it. not worth it. I couldn’t put my finger on the sauce they use…
Mac-​n-​Cheese — little salty, but at least it was warm :) They put lot of paprika on top.
BBQ Sauces — of all the six bbq sauces they offer (Texas, Memphis, Kansas, Detroit, Carolina and Apple), my two favorite was Memphis and Apple.
I should also note that this was BCS game night as well. The place was packed… both top and basement were full of customers. This is definitely a good sign for the restaurant and I hope they will do well in this location.
I hope the host will work things out, they hire more wait staff and be more efficient in the operations. I’ll be back, but maybe few months down the road and hopefully they service, food and the overall experience will be a lot better then my first visit Until then, all I can mustard is 2 stars.