Russell's BBQ Reviews

Excellent Chicago area long established BBQ specialty restaurant

Super good food. Great atmosphere. Outside, and inside dining. Love this place. Been in business over 70 years. Great beef.

A great piece of Northwest Suburban history. Opened in 1930, so has been around for 88 years. My parents got married in 1933 and used to date there. The food is good. I've eaten their BBQs many times growing up. They have the most uncomfortable booths ever built, but it is fun to take a step back in time. Well worth the trip.

First time I always wanted to go and so I treated my family and it was an experience well worth it.

Excellent Barbecue, you gotta get the baby backs. the brisket is good too.

Have been going here since I was a little kid. Still a great place to get bbq. Loved it and it is a Family tradition for us. Absolutely love how they are dealing with the pandemic. Always a classic place to get food.

Ordered a brisket dinner to go and got brisket on a bun in a sandwich. Quite a but of meat, but would have ordered and paid for a sandwich if thats what I wanted. Maybe the brisket sandwich is on a different/smaller roll. I'll still go back because I want to try the ribs. The sauce is great!

I have been coming here since i was a child. I'm older than the extension on the building. I've generally had the ribs but have had the chicken and brisket. I love their sauce, so I grab s bottle wherever I go.

Smother that bbq sauce on everything. It tastes better in the cups than out of the bottle.

This restaurant offers best BBQ beef sandwich around. The staff here is really amazing. I recommend highly!

Consistantly amazingly good food for the decades I have been going there!!

Great Mai Tai's and Combo meals. Chevon the bartender is awesome!

Pretty good BBQ overall. Sides were delicious! I got the brisket and was very happy with it, but my fiance got the bbq pork which was less then impressive. Upon looking further, we may have got bbq pork which was sliced pork versus the traditional pulled pork bbq sandwich. The pork was very dry and tasteless in our opinion. The house sauce also left a bit to be desired, although the packets of their hotter bbq sauce was very good. The mac n cheese bites were very good as well!

It's just a little bit better than Uncle Bub's and I hate Uncle Bub's

Great place for Good old fashioned BBQ great price and food the service is good. This place has been open forever

Food staff isn't very friendly but the food is delicious

Yum! Love the barbecue pork! 3 generations of my family have enjoyed Russell's. Generous servings and the sauce is the best!

Wife loves this place. Been coming here since she was a little girl. Great food, great service..

This place needs to get with the times, get a app, get a delivery service.

I have been going to this place since I was a kid and has never disappointed me

If you didn't grow up with Russell's, you probably won't like it. But the beef sandwich has been a staple for decades. Be sure to drown it with Russell's sauce. Fries are fresh and hot.

Love this BBQ joint. So many good things. I don't even know where to start. Keep up the great work!

Love the beef sandwich and sauce since I was a kid. Over priced 2 beefs will coleslaw and fries $18

Went to this place as a kid. Went back with my kids and it looks the same but the food is not. Dry sandwiches, fries had no taste and there was a hair in the food. Sorry but will not be going back.

Still good after all these years. A little expensive.

Tried this place for the first time and the food was horrible. My baked potato wasn t cooked all the way and the fish taste like shake and bake corn meal. I don t live in the area but I was hungry and decided to stop there. Never again what a waste of my money.

Great food and they hold nice car shows. Highly recommend.

Coming here is like stepping back in time! So many details are exactly the same- things I instantly recognized. I was here exactly 30 years ago and never expected to remember every taste....how have they kept it the same!????!!!

Run here and get the BBQ platter it s the real deal and you will not finish it!

We've been eating here since I was a kid and now my children enjoy it too. The sauce is everything on the beef sandwiches and fries. Delicious and family friendly.

Ribbs were a little bit fatty today. The beef was great.

Not as good food that it was .. would not go there account changed on food meat was dry and you would not like it like it was 5 years ago ..

Been eating here since I was a small child. My grandfather took me here years ago, now I take my grand children!!

This place has the best curbside service and the staff is pretty awesome. I love the ribs but I have to say that I'm not crazy about the rib sauce, but a lot of customers really like it. But the highlight of my meal was the baked beans. They were absolutely delicious!

If it's BBQ shouldn't there be smoke from the chimney and an aroma that can be tracked for miles? Brisket has a smoke ring. This should be called pot roast. No thanks.

Great place, potato salad is great but the meats..... i couldn't eat it, I'm so sorry. Nice people nice place just bad food so sorry. Not smoked no flavor no rub, but generous quantity :)

BBQ sandwiches with a side of fries and coleslaw for about $9. Food was decent, sauce was good.

Its Russell's.
Decades of great consistent barbecue.
A one of a kind.
What are you waiting for?

I've been going there since I was a kid, I still go with my dad. It's a bit pricey but the BBQ pork is worth it!

This review is based on Russell s not being a good neighbor and being a nuisance. They have not been aggressive enough in dealing with a horrible rat problem. Rats are constantly running around and if you live in or visit the area you are guaranteed to see rats any time of day or night. Deal with it! Rats are a public health and safety issue, Russell s! Come on get extremely aggressive

That what I expected very Bland nice place for elderly and senior citizens I won't do it again

Ordered a brisket dinner to go and got brisket on a bun in a sandwich. Quite a but of meat, but would have ordered and paid for a sandwich if thats what I wanted. Maybe the brisket sandwich is on a different/smaller roll. I'll still go back because I want to try the ribs. The sauce is great!

Great brisket and beef sandwiches. Place really feels like a step back in time and the service is fast, friendly and polite. Some great BBQ in Chicago.

Best barbeque every, have been going their from the late 60's

It was horrible!! The pork sandwich smelled like old turkey lunch meat!!

Restaurant looks great, lots of classic neon and a nice blast-from-the-past feel. My first clue was the lack of food smell in or near the place. No tantalizing scents of smoking meat, nothing. I had good memories from childhood. Maybe there's some region where this is considered barbecue pork, but I've never been there. Like lunch meat but dry and bland. Sauce in tiny tubs, not much better. I got it carry out, so when I got home i smothered it in some old sweet baby rays I had in the fridge, and ate it anyway, cause I was hungry. Seriously disappointed. Not going back.

The food here is just OK, not great. I won't say it was bad, but I won't go out of my way to come here again.

The brisket was alright and the cole slaw was pretty meh.

Long lines and you can see this is a very "old school" kind of spot.

Prices were reasonable, but I'd prefer to spend more money and get better food.

Thee best BBQ on the north side by far. Great sauce which you can buy in a pint

Waited a long time for food. The have their own signature sauce which is nasty. Rib tip were nasty, fries cold, my kids Philly was super dry. My oldest that loves brisket didn't like and me and husband tasted and was not fans either. I was there first and four cars after me got their food while I still waited. The runner was ok but I will say the young kid sitting in order box was kind and very patient. He probably was the best out the situation.

Ribs is what you come for but don't leave without a brownie.

BBQ Sauce is always good. They seem to have changed something about the way they cut their ribs. Last visit not as good as before. Hope they didn't change too much. Be ready to get your fingers dirty!

Ordered the cheeseburgers great burger but they don't give you any mustard or ketchup for your takeout order

Went there for a birthday food was excellent. The only part that sucks was the drive from Palatine. Can you please open up a restaurant closer to Palatine I would greatly appreciate it

Asked for a ham and cheese sandwich with no veggies and got it with lettuce and tomato. And i have allergies on those, thank you!

I love barbecue and I really wanted to love this place. There is not a lot of great BBQ around Chicago. The the best thing about my meal was the sweet potato fries. They were crispy and hot. The brisket was cold and very low on flavor. It was also quite dry. Maybe the driest brisket I've ever had. The pulled pork was at room temperature and had a little bit of flavor to it. I just got the feeling from the employees that they didn't care. From the bartender on her phone to the busboy moping around with his shoulders hunched over it was just a subpar experience. I wouldn't care about the people if the food was good, but the food was not good. Do you know that coleslaw that you get out of the bag and it's pre-made at the grocery store for like $0.99? That is basically what they served me. I didn't even think it was coleslaw, I thought it was cold sauerkraut out of a jar until I remembered that I actually ordered coleslaw.
This is probably a great barbecue restaurant, but then they hired a bunch of $10 an hour people to run it and now it is what it is. I would steer clear of this place if you want some good, hot, smoked barbecue for dinner.

Always great food nice atmosphere.... Nice to sit outside when weather is good...

Certainly a spot worth stopping by, the food is awesome and well prepared, the costs are fair and it is consistently well organized here. Great work.

Love this place..pulled pork sandwich is so yummy. The BBQ is #1

great bbq place...they have almost anything I can imagine

Great place! Eds family has been going there since the 40's. When they also had mint jelly n Apple sauce n sold for .25!! We have been going since the 60's n it's still the same GREAT tasting food! Atmosphere is still the same, prices just a bit higher but all so good. Worth the hour drive n a fun family trip.

Excellent food and service. Rib meat falls off the bone

I've been going to Russell's forever! It has a large variety of foods and recently started serving margaritas!

Great food and atmosphere Same for the last 50 years