Robinson’s No. 1 Ribs

I had a layover at Union Station and wanted some food towards the end of the lunch rush. This is the place that sounded the best and had the shortest line.
I had the pulled BBQ chicken and fries. It tasted good! Good sauce, good flavor in the chicken. The fries were good albeit not anything special steak fries.
The guy working the counter was nice, and my order was ready quick.
Oh yeah, the price was awesome. Under $ 10 for a fairly large meal at Union Station.
Overall, if I have another layover there, I’ll try another item off of their menu.

Tried the brisket tastes horrible ! Looks like cat food. Chips are stale and don’t even waste your money here. If I wasn’t in a hurry for my train would of went back and threw it back so gross ! Tasted like the meat was old. Aghh disappointing !

Probably the worst bbq ever but eating at Union Station is kinda like eating at the mall. Dont waste your money eat a pretzel next to the place or walk down to Corner Bakery.

Have been here multiple times over the years because of it’s convenience in Union Station, and always regret it. Today’s meal was no exception.
Today, I ordered the pulled turkey with beans and cole slaw. They make no effort on the side items whatsoever. The beans tasted straight from a can of Bush’s, and the cole slaw tasted prepackaged, almost identical to the local grocery store (Jewel). No homemade recipes here. The pulled turkey was a bit mushy and essentially a gut filler. On previous trips, I’ve had the ribs and they were not memorable.
The staff were friendly enough, but go elsewhere when in Union Station. Get a Gold Coast Dog or other place. Sorry, but I swear this is my last time here.
Total unremarkable BBQ. Can’t see where the «No. 1» comes from. Perhaps Number One repurposed package food.

Headed to the Taste of Chicago again today and thought I would try a brand that is quintessential Chicago. I was so disappointed. I had a pulled pork sandwich that has 20% pork, 80% fat. It was gross. I was so disappointed. I am just happy there was no line although now I know why.

Really good BBQ. Pulled pork sandwich and ribs were a dream come true. This is the first BBQ place I tried after coming to Chicago, and it is gonna be my primary BBQ place. Good selection of dishes.
The food was hot and menu clear. It did not take too long to get my food and Union Station had just enough seating (went on a Thursday midday). Place is loud and lots of comer and goers so be prepared to have MANY people watching you eat and hearing kids crying.

Possibly the worst food ever.
So union station for the most part does not have good food. I get it.
This place however is the worst of the worst.
The service was alright but the pork was cooked in the same oven and possibly the same tray as the catfish. How can I tell you say? One taste. Everything on the plate tasted and smelled of fish. Except for the fries which tasted of old frying oil.
The soda was flat, which wasn’t so bad as it tasted like soda at least.
So kudos for getting three out of three wrong.
To be honest if you like fish flavored pork with indifferent sauce this may be the place for you.
Otherwise just stay away.

My first time eating Robinson’s Ribs was at The Arie Crown Theater In Chicago @ a comedy show. They were literally the BEST ribs & Hot link I ever had, so after that experience I decided to take my mom here with me to show her the goodness! It’s only about 3 locations in chicago & I thought the food would taste the same way it tasted when I went to Arie Crown. WRONG! after ordering my food & being embarrassed after bragging about this place to my mom her & I was disappointed, the ribs tasted like they were put in the oven or something. I mean these were the worst ribs I ever had, they were so tough that I couldn’t even chew the ribs without it getting stuck in my teeth & then being too thick to swallow. I ordered the rib tips & chicken Combo, the chicken was so greasy if I held the wing in my hand and squeezed it, grease would start pouring out. They were very crunchy, nice & golden brown, they had me fooled I just knew from the looks of the food it would be good, The chicken also had no flavor at all. After I told the guy that was serving us. (Which was the only server at the restaurant) that our ribs were horrible & that I would not be paying for this. He was polite and told me ok & he took $ 18 off the meal which I was still upset about considering the fact my bill was still $ 27 & all We enjoyed was baked a beans & a muffin. When I went to the register to pay my $ 27 the man who was serving us dident say a word. it would of been polite to at least say too bad you Dident like the ribs, or maybe even a nice thank you or have a good night would have At Least added good customer service to this horrible resturant. After doing my research I found out that the Robinsons ribs that was at Arie Crown was actually the one in oak park on Madison st. :(

Yesterday, I went to Robinson’s Ribs in Chicago at Union Station. I ordered a hot link that came with fries and cole slaw. The hot link looked good and smelled good, but tasted horrible! It was somewhat spicy but had no flavor! I equate it to eating a spicy piece of cardboard. Because it cost me $ 7.49, I tried to continue eating it but after 3 bites, I had to stop! Thank goodness I had the fries to eat. Do not waste your money on the hot link! If I could give less than a 1 star rating, I would.

I stopped by today as I had been craving hot links. The menu did not disappoint and the service was good. The guy who took my order was pleasant and my food was prepared in a timely fashion. I ordered the rib tip and hot link combo for $ 12 and some change. It comes with fries or beans, cole slaw, and your choice of bread. Well I must say that I was sorely disappointed. Everyone I know, knows just what a hot link is. Apparently Robinson’s missed the memo. The sausage I received with my order was definitely no hot link. It was spicy, to be sure, but I’m not sure what kind of meat it was. I’m thinking polish sausage, polska kielbasa, or smoked sausage, but it was definitely not a hot link. It tasted okay, it just wasn’t a real, true hot link. The steak fries that came with the meal were decent, and the rib tips were better than average. I may be back, I just won’t order hot links expecting to get, well hot links.

Terrible. Got the ¹⁄₃ burger. Literally boiled piece of meat with a piece of cheese. No tomato, salad anything else. Coleslaw was cabbage, onion and mostly bad mayonnaise Will never eat there again!

It took awhile to get my food here, but I really appreciated the staff on hand. They were sassy, conversational and seemed to be trying their best. The wings were great, and the people were even better. The rude commuters in line who were apparently dying of malnutrition, however, were not so great.

Food was generic and bland. Got the corn beef for $ 7 and got a tiny little thing with a couple of fries. Wouldn’t go back or recommend.

I went to the BBQ Fest at Six Corners in Chicago to try some ribs from different vendors. I’ve always wanted to taste Robinson’s ribs, so when I saw that Robinson’s was there I was thrilled. The fest started at noon, I got there at about 12:30 and went up to their booth only to be told they didn’t have any ribs yet! WHAT… isn’t that what you sell??? Wouldn’t you get there early to start making the one thing your «supposedly» famous for? While I was waiting in line at another vendor, they must have turned away 10 other people… what a joke! Because of their incompetence I have NO desire to ever try them and from their reviews I don’t think I’m missing much.

Stopped in at Union Station location before getting on the Blue line to O’Hare. I had the pulled pork, hoping the better reviews had some validity. Turns out the others were right. No flavor pork, on a now-​soggy bun, coupled with very mediocre frozen fried okra. It sure was not worth the $ 6.95. I hate to say this, but a burger off the dollar menu I also had at McDonalds across the hallway had more flavor. Needless to say, I was unimpressed. I’m not sure how they ever won an award, as the sign claims.

It’s been awhile since I’ve tried out an actual restaurant devoted to the craft of ribs or bbq. While I was downtown Robinson’s seemed like a place worthy of trying out. Walking up I noticed there wasn’t a long line (maybe 5 – 6 people) for it to be near summer time in downtown Chicago and it was around 12pm which is the lunch rush hour. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, if it’s lunch time in downtown Chicago and a restaurant isn’t packed and/​or doesn’t have a line going around the corner then something’s off.
The food looked good, nothing really stood out, but I decide to chomp down on the chicken and rib tip combo. The combo was $ 15 and came with 2 sides and some bread (2-​pieces), no drink. Side entrees consisted of the standard fare of mac ‘n’ cheese, coleslaw, baked beans, corn, etc. that we’ve all known to appreciate.
I watched the cook as he took a delicious looking half slab of ribs (which was surprisingly big for a half slab) and put it on the grill. After it was done he cut it into tips. He then proceeded to go in the back and grab 3 pieces of raw chicken to freshly fry to my delight. Service was honestly not as fast I as expected. Altogether it took about 15 – 20 minutes to complete my order which consisted of a half slab of rib tips, 3 pieces of chicken, coleslaw & baked beans. I asked for a receipt and the cashier accidentally pressed the wrong button and couldn’t generate one. Obviously 2 people (one of them clearly new) weren’t enough for this job so they had to bring in the manager (or owner) to help out. Once he got involved the ball started rolling and orders were coming out regularly.
One thing you notice with a lot of these franchises is that some of them are pretty much turning into «school lunches». What this means is in-​order for them to cater to the general population they don’t do anything special or season anything so nobody gets sick. This leads to bland tasting food pretty much.
Robinson’s #1 Ribs is the school lunches of ribs. No marinating, no seasoning, nothing special done at all making the ribs about as average as you can get. They weren’t even as tender as they could be. Honestly, I’ve had way better food at family functions and know family members that can easily out cook Robinson’s. The bbq sauce wasn’t that great as well, there was almost no zing to it leaving you majorly disappointed since they didn’t skimp on things at all. At a place like Robinson’s you should expect sub-​par to decent quality food showered in a great sauce like «Sweet Baby Ray’s», but I guess Robinson wanted people to appreciate it’s sub-​par food more.
The chicken, beans, coleslaw were just as average with the coleslaw being unusually spicy for some reason.
Pass on this one people. You get some bang for your buck, but in the end you might as well go down to the park and crash someone’s family reunion. You’ll find better food there and it might even be free.

This place catered at a flea/​antique market event. I got to try their BBQ pulled chicken sandwich, which came with a side of mac and cheese and either cole slaw or potato salad (I chose cole slaw).
The sandwich itself was good — the chicken was moist and flavorful. They didn’t really distribute the BBQ sauce too well, so some bites had WAY too much sauce, and other bites had none. The mac and cheese was… very soggy and rather bland. the cole slaw was good, but I have never seen such a small serving of cole slaw in my life. They gave it to you in one of those plastic condiment containers, so I literally had 2 forkfuls.
Not bad, but not amazing (especially with the sub-​par sides).

Not going to lie I was expecting to be disappointed… but instead I was pretty impressed.
I am not a big fan of eating out for lunch during work… trying to watch my calories and I hate long lines! However, I made an exception to go out and grab lunch. Being as cold as it is, grabbing something quick across my building made sense. After looking at all the restaurants in Union Station this was the only one that looked pretty good. Well, at the least their special of the day. So what was this special of the day? TURKEY LEGS! I am a huge fan of turkey legs… pour on that hot sauce cause we about to be best friends! It also didn’t hurt it was only 6 bucks.
The service was surprisingly fast, nice and attentive. The meal came with one giant turkey leg grilled in front of you, choice of steak fries or beans, cole slaw and of course bread. The turkey leg was juicy, perfectly grilled and not at all greasy. The fries on the other hand were meehhhh. The cole slaw and bread were pretty good too. Did I eat the whole leg? Nah, only half… saved the rest for later! Otherwise, I would be in food coma the rest of the day. haha! Would I come back… sure!

Wow. THis place suck’s. Ribs were probably boiled, they had no flavor to them. Where were the award winning ribs? So disapointed in this place. The sauce for the ribs and wing were the same and it was drenched in a flavorless sauce that neither tasted like bbq or buffalo wing sauce. Anyone that raves about there Ribs is an idiot.

I mean… It’s the Union Station Food Court. Do you really expect high quality BBQ ribs?
As long as you set your expectations from «F*ck yeah! BBQ time! Let’s dig into the smokiest, most tender BBQ ribs ever!» to «So… I’m at the train station. What is going to offend me the least?» you’ll be okay.
With a hankering for a grilled chicken sandwich, but completely lacking the willpower to walk into the McDonald’s and buy just a grilled chicken sandwich without the obligatory fries, I decided to give Robinson’s a whirl. Granted they’re a BBQ spot, but there is most definitely a chargrilled chicken sandwich on the menu.
So I ordered it.
I was happy to see the guy behind the counter throw the chicken for my sandwich on the grill right then and there. No heat lamps in this spot! While yes, I waited a bit for my chicken, it’s always worth it to know it’ll be grilled to order, hot and fresh when it’s done.
I was rewarded with a pretty good grilled chicken sandwich. I LOVE the bread at Robinson’s. It’s so soft it actually kind of catches in your teeth. I know that sounds gross, but it’s just a sign of ultimate freshness.
I can’t really grant Robinson’s more than three stars. While everything was fresh, it was super boring. The fries didn’t look so hot (thank god… I wasn’t even tempted to order them) and a large diet coke is basically the size of a sippy cup.