Welcome to Mastication Monologues, one and all! If you’re new to this site, I am a world traveler and eater who posts about my adventures in restaurants and life through witty and delectable anecdotes. If you’re a returning fan, thank you for keeping up with my blog even though it has been on pause again. This time it’s due to the Thanksgiving holiday season and transition to another university teaching gig, but that doesn’t mean that my food forays have ceased by any stretch of the imagination. Today’s post is about Q-BBQ, a relatively new kid on the block when it comes to the smoked and savory stuff.
There are lots of different branches for this barbecue joint throughout the Chicagoland area, but I went to the La Grange location. It is quite pleasant in the summer since they have the patio open for diners along with seating inside if the sun and the Q-Style sauces get too hot to handle. 
Looking over the menu, they boasted a wide variety of meats ranging from pulled pork to wings which are prepared with a 13 spice blend and smoked up to 22 hours over hickory and apple wood. So I could see that they talked the talk, but could they walk the walk? My mom eventually settled on a basic pulled pork sandwich with a side of mashed potatoes and the complimentary hushpuppies ($7.99). As for me, I got a brisket sandwich Q-style which meant that in addition to the sauce and meat, I got a helping of Q slaw and blue cheese crumbles on top, and for the side I had cornbread.
We took our seat outside on the patio since it was still a warm and enjoyable late summer day in Chicagoland which seems like a pleasant, distant memory now that the freeze of winter has set in. Eventually, our food was brought out to us, and it looked delicious. However, I wasn’t that impressed. I’ve had barbecue in the Carolinas and Memphis, and this was a pale comparison to those respective grilling styles. I felt that Green Street Smoked Meats in the West Loop in Chicago even did a better job. Why did Q BBQ not measure up to my other barbecue experiences? Easy, the meat. 
I felt like my brisket was rubbery, semi-tasty but not bursting with flavor, and covered up by the cole slaw and blue cheese crumbles. I even had a bite of my mom’s pulled pork sandwich, and it was a shrug of the shoulders from my stomach. 
It had a supposed North Carolina vinegar sauce slathered all over its porky interior, but I didn’t taste one bit of the sour tang from this Southern thang. As for the sides, the mashed potatoes were admirable with their beef based gravy with a bit of spice to liven up an average meal. 
The cornbread was dry and uninspiring, and the hushpuppies were mediocre.
Even the mustard sauce couldn’t cut it
Instead of being light balls of fried dough, they were dry and crumbly which left my big dog of a stomach woofing for something tastier. I don’t think the taste of each item fully justified the price they charged.
So if you’re looking for some delicious barbecue, I would look elsewhere in the Chicagoland area. Q BBQ will just leave you with more Qs than As.
Mastication Monologues 