Hickory Pit

With an indecisive hungry stomach, on my way to Johnsburg, I ordered over the phone at Hickory Pit. Phone order was easy; no wait very pleasant customer service and not super loud. All my questions were answered without being rushed. I ordered the ½ chx ½ ribs and sliced brisket.
Everything tasted great and my order was ready within minutes. The restaurant looked clean and staff was servicing tables efficiently — from what I could tell. Everyone was smiling too. :-)
Food was still warm when I got home 20 mins later. Everything tasted good. Nothing over cooked. Nothing dry. The only two things was the spicy barbecue could have been spicy, which is relative but it surely was not spicy it was more chili spice rather than spicy. And the coleslaw was watery. Next time i will try beans and mac. The fries were good.
I will recommend people here and will most deff eat again. Not sure if will be able to count on eating there as it is not huge in seating space and was packed when I went in.
Thanks Hickory Pit!!!

We come here quite often. Food is always good, service exceptionally friendly. We’ve tried all the meat options, but our go to has to be the sliced brisket!

The Pulled pork was moist and good. However, the beans, i did not find very good at all. The potato salad was ok, the slaw was the best side. My corn muffin was cold (sadly or it would had been excellent). Its decent BBQ if you dont want to drive else where.

best ribs around. pricey but again. best ribs around. Hubby likes their other bbq meats. I wasn’t kean on the sloppy joe.

This place keeps getting better and better and you’ll notice because there are more cars in the parking lot every time we drive by. It’s the best flavored and smoked pork in the area. The hickory fries are great and hand a nice large portion of pork on them. The ribs have a nice smoky flavor and are not over cooked. The sauces are pretty good too! Love it!

Stopped for lunch and got the pulled pork platter. Everything was so good. Four different kinds of sauce, nice smoky pork, mac and cheese like homemade. Tried my friends cornbread, so good. I can’t wait to go back. And they have a take out menu also, will be using that too.

We were there last summer and I ordered the ribs. They were not fresh and tasted like jerky.
I said something to the waiter and he said sometimes the rub causes them to dry out. That is bull. I make ribs and they are great and I use rub. These ribs were probably cooked days before and heated over in a microwave. My husband ordered the chicken it was not warm.
I can say the sides we ordered were good that is why I gave them 2 stars. We never went back.

I’ve continued to frequent this place and it continues to impress. I did twice over this last period of time have ribs that I was not impressed with. It was on a Tuesday which I’ve determined may not be a good time for ribs since they are always closed the day before. Since prep of smoked meat takes hours, I assume that they may be from Sunday. When they are fresh, usually Thursday thru Sunday, they are amazing. Same with their rib tips which are absolutely terrific and a great way to have ribs if you don’t want to spend the extra money. Their pulled pork and sliced brisket are really the best around. There are a couple of new places within the county that are also good but Hickory Pit still continues to be the best. If you don’t appreciate truly «smoked» meat then maybe it’s not for you. If you do, none better if you are a smoked BBQ fan.

This place is great has the best chili I’ve ever had and the brisket sandwich is great and the hickory burger is awesome as well, definitely a place to visit

The food here is pretty good. In the area, for bbq, one of the best places. The meat is tender and delicious and the sauces are great. Its a nice place as well. The service was good, though the employees don’t seem enthusiastic. It’s definitely a place to try.

I came again after my first review and I am glad I did. Under new management? It was really good compared to what it was like the 1^st time I got it. Now is it 2^nd times a charm? I dunno.
It was really delicious. Wasn’t there another place before Hickory Pit, though? I’m not sure on that either. Ok. Fries were cooked to perfection, and the brisket was amazing. I know it runs out early, and now I know why!
I’m visiting another time soon!

The manager did step up and apologize, find some brisket but still frustrated.
The problem is the brisket here is just that good, it frustrates to go withoutit.
Always willing to fix the review but they are dropping the ball as of late. 6.30 at night on a Saturday and they are out of brisket. If it was later in the night I would understand but this is way too early.
It also happens too often. At least four other occasions this has happened to me.
The staff had a don’t care attitude about this common problem. This is something that can be corrected and should be corrected.

Its ok. Decent portions nice place. Ive been there 3 times with family that likes it better. Had three different items and just cant get on board. Sorry.

Meats were delicious — tried the half chicken and sliced brisket. Loved all the sauce choices. I know we aren’t in the south, but having no brewed sweet tea in a barbecue joint seems sacrilegious to me. I was glad the baked beans weren’t too sweet but I still got tired of them after awhile. Sweet potato fries were good.
They had a couple TVs with the Cubs game on; ambiance was pretty good. Restroom was very clean.
Overall, prices were fair and there are a lot of choices, both for meats and sides. I doubt we will be up this way very often, but I would come back.

Hands down best food in Mchenry. Tried the chopped brisket with a side of mac. Both were dynamite!

Good BBQ for the area staff is very nice portions are kinda on the small side so get a combo with sides to fill you up. Brisket runs out early but its really good that’s why. All in all the taste is great and well balanced, I just wish there was just a bit more meat on the plate and they would get 5 stars from me

when we moved to mchenry we read the reviews and they were not good, so we never tried it. However a couple of our friends said ignore those reviews and recommended it. So we gave it a try and we are sure glad we did.
Very good food for a good price, we will be back!!!
my wife had a burger from their selection and i had smoked sausage and brisket dinner. It was all good!

All I can say is the food actually taste like it came from a HICKORY PIT. UGHHH! FINALLY some real smoke flavor because i have been trying these so called BBQ joints in Schaumburg/​Palatine and they suck. The food here was delicious, the rib tips were so tender and full of flavor. Burger was to die for, oh and the pork sandwich was great, yes I just ordered a bit of everything, my ribs were a little dry but overall everything was great, those rib tips mm mm good, please try them if you go. I would drive to Mchenry any day just for the Hickory Pit. My food was hot, fresh and on time.

My review may be colored by the fact that the day before I had the best macaroni n cheese in Chicago. I am a mac n cheese fiend and was pretty disappointed. But there were quite a few pros…
Pros– My pulled pork sandwich was ENORMOUS! Enough to feed two of me! Very filling and I experimented with the different sauces on the table.
Con– I only liked the chipotle maple sauce. reminded me of Arby’s sauce. (which to me isn’t actually a con because I can drink a bottle of that stuff which means I can drink a bottle of Hickory Pit’s version!)
Pros– The sweet potato fries are actually some of the best I have tasted in Chicagoland!
Cons– none, order the sweet potato fries! Make that TWO SERVINGS
Pros– HUGE Piece of cornbread.
Cons– it was sortof cold when I tasted it. I expected it to be warm. It was just ok.
and the mac n cheese…
NO PROS. It was bland. WAsn’t anything special. tasted just like Boston Market Mac N Cheese.
Would I come back. Sure. The cashier was helpful. Facility clean. Food wasn’t horrible. It was decent, but not the best. If I am in the area, I’d definately come back. It’s just not worth a trip from the city for me.

Holy brisket! are you kidding me? Where has the Hickory Pit been my entire Illinois life? This is one of the best briskets I have had.
The brisket has no need for sauce, buuuuuuuttt. The sauce is so good its hard not to slather it on. I put down a little blob of sauce from each of the sauce choices and had a little taste of each. My favorite was the mustard sauce, it has a great tang that compliments the BBQ flavors real well. The mac and cheese is good, and so is the cornbread.
I had a great experience and HIGHLY recommend this place to people that like real BBQ.