Lem's Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in Hyde Park Township

Where do I begin. I believe I've written a review about this restaurant before but now they're updates. My family and I had eaten here for close to 15 years. The quality in their ribs has been inconsistent throughout but in the past, the good outweighed the bad which is why we patronized them for so long. Within the last five years, we stopped purchasing their ribs because they were inedible. 95% of the time, their sauce is darn near as liquid as water. You seen them putting sauce on your food but when you get home and open your bag, it's as if there's no sauce at all. We banned them for about a year recently, for receiving subpar ribs. My husband was there today (09.01.25). He and others were in line 15 minutes before they opened at noon. He bought three orders of small end rib dinners with sauce on them and fries. He came directly home, I opened it and knew immediately that I could not eat that. I've included a picture. When you see "striations" on your ribs, you already know that that meat will be tough like beef jerky and difficult to swallow...and it was. There was a scant amount of sauce on the meat and just like in the past, the sauce saturated the fries at the bottom. The striations are akin to those anatomy pictures of the human body, where the muscles are depicted. You have to remove that hard beef jerk portion so you can try to find meat that you CAN eat. How are you serving hardened meat to customers when your store just opened for the day?! Anyway, the store is tiny, narrow but clean. Only 5 people are allowed in at a time. Staff is relatively friendly. There are two older women who work behind the counter and they're always frowning or berating the other gentlemen who work there. The only positive is the R&B music that's played on their loud speakers. There's one long, rectangular heat lamp near the entry door during the cold months. There are also times when they run out of cooked meat. The long line just stops moving suddenly and before you know it, you've been waiting in line over an hour for food, trying to figure out what's going on. Every blue moon, someone from the store will come out and yell to the crowd what the issue is. Otherwise, you'll hear that they've run out of meat, chicken, etc, from other patrons in line. Their jumbo shrimp, chicken wings and fries are the ONLY food items that they've been able to provide consistent edible products to their customers. Some type of honor was bestowed to them for their ribs but based on my experience, I don't see how. The parking lot is small and is seemingly shared with the lounge next door to them or the liquor store across the street. Prices are reasonable. We've bought Lem's for guests who've come to visit. 50% of the time the ribs are good...50% of the time, they're NOT. I've grown weary of rolling the dice for edible ribs with this place and won't patronize them...

Worse experience ever! I found this place on social media and thought I’d give it a try. Why not! And they are black owned, let’s support. I live a hour away from Chicago and wanted to show some support to a new place I never been. My husband decided to take the drive due to the weather I didn’t want to pack up all the kids. 30 minutes into the his drive I called my husband to see what he wanted from the menu to call in and have it ready to go. It took about 10 minutes to get our order together and for the kids to decide what they wanted. He’s a bit closer now right… I call the restaurant first try all I heard was “Lem’s!!! Click…” I was hung up on. I called back again “Lem’s!!!” Me: Hello can… then click… hung up on again. I called the third time as soon as she answered she said “I CAN HEAR YOU…WHAT!!!” I said “I would like to place an order for pick up please” The lady said “ WE DON’T TAKE CALL IN’S BYEEE” click… I immediately called my husband and warned him of this lady attitude. He said well I’m here now I’ll just go in and order. He goes in and everyone is lined up against the back wall in the restaurant. When it’s his turn to order he proceeds to walk up to the counter to order and she yelled “DON’T COME UP HERE. TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT FROM THERE.” He’s like you want me to yell my order across the restaurant? She said “IF YOU STEP OFF THAT WALL YOU NOT ORDERING NOTHING” He starts yelling his order across to her. Mind you he is ordering for a family of 6. He asked for 3 tips, 2X 6 pc wing and half order of shrimp. Before he could get the last thing out she said “YOU NOT ORDERING NOTHING ELSE DON’T YOU SEE ALL THESE PPL IN LINE BEHIND YOU”. My husband is not one to disrespect women let alone an elder so he just paid and waited for the food. I would never recommend this place or give this place my support again. I’m sure with her attitude she has ran off plenty of customers. She also was yelling at the cooks telling them to “hurry up and get the damn orders out” the guy said one sec I just used the restroom I need to wash my hands” she told him “no you don’t!!! Any other time you don’t wash your hands” This place is a joke. I’m surprised being in the neighborhood it is in no one has put this lady in her place. DO NOT...

Saw they won an award recently. Took out of town guests to try it, as I only eat seafood, so I never tried it. Arrived before they opened. Stood in line for about 40 minutes....which I NEVER do for ANY restaurant. The owner (female) was not a pleasant person, at all. She greeted me, the guest before me and after me with a Scowl on her face, which was telling. Her demeanor seemed to express that she does not like patrons....period. She was rude to me and unapologetic. She asked what I ordered, which was shrimp and slaw. (Her team mistakenly lined my food in the wrong order on the counter.) She said to me, step aside. Then said, who's actually next? I bucked my eyes in disbelief. I mean who did she think was going to stand in line that long and then allow me to randomly cut the in front of them....really? Then her team member in the kitchen said, the shrimp order is next. Then she yelled at them saying, you lined these orders up wrong. Her tone, facial expression and mannerisms seemed unprofessional and inappropriate. Why would an owner behave like that in front of customers. The food was below average. Shrimp was small for the price and dry. Fries were overcooked and not hot. Cole slaw was nasty. The sauce tasted like the Open Pit brand. The food quality was certainly not worth standing in line that long. Her bad attitude made the experience worse. I have absolutely no interest in going back. My guest got the JBL special and said the ribs were just OK, they were small, sauce was nothing special and there was not enough sauce on the meat. The chicken wings were small for the price, links didn't taste good. I'll never recommend Lem's again. No disrespect to those who like it and want to stand in line for hours to get it. But it's a waste of time in my opinion. Also, that owner needs to let someone else greet customers. She's not customer friendly, seems burnt out and her demeanor is...