Southbank Original Barbecue — Restaurant in Kendall Township

I only gave this place 1 star because that was the lowest rating I could give. If the option of "none" was available then I would've selected that. When my boyfriend and I ate at this barbecue spot we thought the food was okay and the environment was great! We actually ending up seeing 2 of his coworkers at the same location! After finishing our meal my boyfriend received the check and gave the waiter his card for payment. His coworker ended up coming over to our table and speaking to us for about 20 minutes. In passing, the waiter came up to our table and asked 'did I give your card back to you?'. He responded "No" and continued talking to his coworker......no biggie. After another 20 minutes passed by, we see our waiter leaving another table and get his attention. My boyfriend asked him where his card was and expressed that he still hadn't received it. The waiter then said that there was an incident that occurred and that 3 cards had been stolen and his card was one of them. We then asked why wasn't he notified sooner (i.e. 30-40minutes ago) and we had to seek him out for the card. The waiter said it was due to him being busy handling tables. We asked if the manager knew what occurred and he responded that he tried to tell her but she was busy handling tables as well. After that we went inside to speak directly to the manager ourselves. It was quite unbelievable at this point because as we are waiting to speak to her and employees are "fake" looking for the card, she walks past us with two drinks in her hands. It was almost as if she was aware of what went on but didn't care. After taking the drinks to a table she came in, listened to the story and basically did nothing. We even asked what happened to the other two cards that were stolen as well and she told us that we were the only people that this happened to. We asked to speak to the owner which wasn't in at the moment so they called him over the phone. After hearing the entire story over the phone, the owner said we didn't have to pay for our meal. It was at that point that we really became upset because it wasn't about covering the cost of the food......it was moreso about how this entire situation was handled. We then noticed a camera over register area and we asked if the tapes could be reviewed to monitor the activity within the last hour. They said the owner would have to do that on Wednesday (4 days from now). It was at that point that I called the police because things weren't adding up. The police officer that arrived was super nice. He actually said we were calmer then what he would've been. Long story short we cancelled his card and the police officer will review the tapes with the owner. Honestly it's not even about the money on the card because we were able to freeze the account before any unknown charges were made. But it was just crazy that no one in the entire establishment wanted to know how this card disappeared. Shame on the manager and shame on the owner. Please do not eat at this place....or if you do make sure you have cash so your card doesn't come up missing.

Update to the story of my boyfriends card being stolen and the police being called : The police called and said “Supposedly the server Luke found your card in the pocket of his work apron....I don’t know but that’s the story that they are telling us”. The card has already been cancelled so them finding it now is whatever. However, this confirms my reason for calling the police in the first place. I suspected an employee to have the card and in the end and employee DID HAVE THE CARD. Also, I think this situation was handled terribly especially given the fact that an employee supposedly lost someone’s card and then had the card in his pocket. Again, shame on the owner Don, shame on the manager and shame on the...

BBQ LOVERS BEWARE!!!

This place has the atmosphere down... it is right off the river and has a cool ambience to it with the trees and outdoor seating.

But the food was awful. Probably some of the worst BBQ I have ever had. This is going to be a long review as we were furious with how much we paid for the god awful quality that this was.

The meats were not smoked (or I have a hard time believing that they were). I have 2 different large smokers out back and smoke meats quite often (have been for years). There was zero smoke ring at all and zero smoke flavor. I had the (smoked?) 'roast beef' (odd that no brisket is on the menu), as well as the "smoked" pork. The roast beef tasted like it'd been cooked a day or two before and texture was like it'd been rewarmed in an oven (it tasted REALLY bad). The pork tasted exactly like liquid smoke had been added to the outside of it.

The cheese that came with the giant pretzel had almost no taste to it (very watery and thin). The "cheesy potatoes" were literally frozen ore-ida hash browns, cooked with a little bit of the same cheese base added to them (no cheese flavor). They were extremely over-salted and peppered. As if they were doing everything they could to spruce up the flavor (what otherwise would have had none). The Mac n cheese had the same flavorless "watery cheese" to them.

I literally felt like I was eating food from a nursing home, no joke. Low quality, not smoked, and no taste. Which btw there was no one on the "smoker" and no smoke coming out of it. I also stopped by it on the way out. It was cold to the touch. We spent 60 bucks on food that was absolutely terrible. It was not the waitresses fault so we still tipped her 20% as she was very polite and provided good service.

How this place got high stars is so beyond me unless there are regulars who drink to get tipsy... And then anything tastes good.

I will never return here again. These people know they're cooking extremely bad food and charging high "bbq prices" for it....

Been coming there for past few years with mixed reviews. Today was by far the absolute worst experience ever. Got there and had to go inside to order and pay. Stood in line and a woman walked to the front of the 5 deep line. She told the man in front of me that she was talking to a friend at the front and felt that gave her the right to order her drink. There was no organization to ordering or paying. I ordered our food after standing in line for 20 minutes. Food showed up relatively quickly. There were 2 of us…. No eating utensils so i asked for them…. Waitress comes back and throws 6 on them the table. I then asked for sour cream. She brings it back at that time I asked for bbq sauce… she said they did not any. My boyfriend said they we cant eat our bbq without it. I asked her if she could find some. In the meantime i noticed another patron at the bar who appeared to be done and they kindly shared. The waitress never came back but another girl did and said she realized what was going on and was super nice and friendly. While we were chatting with her the manager on duty came over and asked us to give her staff grace. I said excuse me do you know what has transpired and she said no but that her staff deserved grace. How does the manager who did not see any of what is going come over and ask me to give her staff grace? For asking for the necessities of eating at your location. She is absolutely not qualified to handle issues that may arise at a restaurant. The other girl was handling it just fine. I asked the manager for her managers name and she directed me to info@southwestbarbecue no such thing exists. I have NEVER in my life asked for a refund and walked away from food on the table but the managers demeanor was so uncalled for we not feel we did not a choice. We asked for a refund and did get it. Terrible way to treat your...