i grew up seeing ads for carson's on tv (http://www.ribs.com/), but i gotta stick with pizza as our signature dish.
Pizza nice and thick and cut with scissors instead of a pizza cutter....mmmmm!
Anyway - The Chicago Rib Shack:
Decor is really nice. Tables are spaced quite well apart so you don't feel like you're on top of each other. It's spread across two floors, with glass full length windows to the front so you get natural light even on the lower ground floor.
Food:
Started with the potato skins (no bacon so the veggie at our table could share them) and the Iceberg wedge. The bleu cheese on the iceberg wedge was great. And a really generous amount of bacon sprinkled on it as well. I will definitely have it again next Friday. The potato skins were nice, but a could have been a bit warmer...as could have the Onionloaf. It was still really tasty, though, and a good size. There were three of us, and we couldn't finish it.
I then had the pulled pork, which comes with The Other Bits (fried potato bits), coleslaw and corn on the cob. The BBQ sauce was, in my opinion, perfect. It's exactly the sauce I've been looking for since moving to the UK. Sweet enough, spicy enough, strong enough. Just fabulous. A lot of sauce, too. Not sure if that's to everyone's taste, but that's how I like it. The Other Bits were lovely - the other people I was with kept picking them off my plate! Crunchy enough, but full of fluffy potato inside, and stayed warm for the whole meal (unlike the other potato items). Didn't try the coleslaw - but it looked lovely! Corn on the cob was very pretty to look at and very tasty as well.
The two people I was with had the Italian salad topped with Grilled Veggies, and the Rib Shack Burger.
The Italian salad looked gorgeous. The veggies were really colourful and the "goats cheese croutons" are actually two huge circles of crouton covered in melted goats cheese. I was *almost* jealous!
The burger was a really nice size, and the person who had it kept saying how lovely it was. She also kept saying how full she was getting, but managed to finish the whole thing minus 1 bite of bun!! The fries were crisp, but a little on the cool side, too, she said.
We were too full for afters - but saw (on the back of the menu) that the choices include Mississippi Mud Pie. Will endeavour to leave enough room on Friday to give it a whirl!
We were held to a set choice of items - the only thing we didn't try that we were offered were the ribs, funny enough.
All in all, definitely looking forward to taking my family there next Friday, even though it will cost me!
