bb.q Chicken Uptown Minneapolis — Restaurant in Minneapolis

The first time I visited this establishment the food was excellent. The chicken wings were probably the best I ever had in town. They were crispy, very juicy, and the sauce was freshly outstanding = 1 star. However, the price was nearly $2.50 per wing after tax and small tip = no star. I roughly waited about 30 mins for my order of 8 wings to be done = no stars. Customer service was ok considering it was very busy = 1 star. At the end my of meal, I decided that I would return to try some more sauces = 1 star. This gives my first try here a total of 3 stars out of 5 for the rating.

1/18/2023 - I decided to come back to this establishment on this night since I got off work a little early. I arrived and walked into the store at roughly 9:15 pm. However, to my disappointment, I was told by the cashier that they stop taking orders at 9 pm. I was confused but I thought that maybe I misread the time they had on google, so I left the store. When I checked the posted closing time in my car, it said closing time is at 9:30pm. I then wondered why they would stop taking orders 30 mins before their actual closing time. I looked at their online menu but there was no alcohol sales nor any other reason for them to do so, and I also could not find any notice that states the kitchen close at 9 pm. All there was on both google and their actual website is that they close at 9:30 pm (Wednesday). If you stop taking orders at 9:00 pm, then you should probably say that you close at 9:00 pm instead of 9:30. I then decided that this hidden variable drops this establishment by 1 star and that I will not be returning since it takes me about 20 mins to get here = lost another star. Therefore this attempt tonight received a review of negative 2 stars.

In conclusion, 3 stars for the first visit and negative 2 stars for the second visit gives an overall total of 1 star. The wings are exceptional, but I cant say the same for everything else, especially the hidden variable.

Edit again in response to owner's comment (1/31/2023)

You just admitted that you have the process backwards. The important info is when you stop taking orders, not when the dining room closes. Therefore, if you only have one closing time that can be put up on google or your website, it should be when you stop taking orders. For example, you can legit lock the front door at 9:00 pm (while having the closing time as 9:00 pm) and only take online orders until 9:10 pm, all the while letting the customers who are already in the store finish their food since it's not like your staff will be out anytime soon anyway. All orders that are done after 9:00 pm can be picked up by drivers/customers at the front door.

Real examples

The MCDONALDS near me use to list their closing time as 11:30 pm, but they close their dining area at 11:00 pm instead. Their orders didn't stop at 11:00 though, all orders after 11:00 are only taken by drive thru until 11:30 pm as the closing time states.

WALMART has their closing time as 11:00 pm in which they don't allow any more customers in afterwards, however if you are still in the store after 11 pm they don't say "hey you can't pay for those items anymore since its already pass 11.."..... They just tell you to choose your final items, pay for your items, and then leave in a very well put together announcement.

CHIPOTLE lists their closing time as 10 pm, and customers can walk in and order up to that time. The only thing would be that if you arrive after 9:45, they will tell you that they recommend you order to go instead of dining in. Even when CHIPOTLE is short staffed, they just close off their dining area early and only take online orders.

All in all, it is your business so you can do whatever you like, even if you have the process backwards. Good luck to you and your business.

*I deleted my first edit and my explanation to how I rate restaurants since I exceeded...

I have gone here twice so far and both visits have been very positive experiences. I'm going to answer the question that a lot of people likely have and that is if BB.Q Chicken is better than Bonchon, who for the most part, was the only chain place to have Korean Fried Chicken. The answer is yes, but it may differ for other people. There are quite some key differences between these two.

BB.Q chicken is far crispier and saucier. At the time of this post, there were 14 flavors that you can choose from, which beats Bonchons flavor offerings by a good stretch. If you're someone that enjoys crispy saucy wings, you likely won't be disappointed at the many sauce choices that BB.Q offers. I had the Secret Sauce, Maple Crunch, Honey Garlic, Galbi, and Gangnam Style. Out of the sauces I had, I recommend Galbi, Secret Sauce, and Honey Garlic. Bonchon wings are what I would describe as "light and airy", which is a polar opposite of what BB.Q has, which is dense and saucy. A nice bonus is even if you take home, the wings are still pretty good because of the sauce, where bonchons tend to be quite stale after several hours.

I did also have their Ddeok-Bokki and Rose Ddeok-Bokki. The Rose is more like a lighter less spicy version of the traditional ddeok-bokki. I find them really tasty and quite flavorful but for some people, it may be on the sweeter side, which I personally don't mind as I do have a palette towards sweeter foods. It is imo, better than Bonchon's Ddeok-Bokki, which I find to be a bit... soupy. You do have to pay extra for cheese, but they do not skimp out on the cheese at all.

Being a new establishment that is still learning the ropes and getting a feel for the rush and procedures, it does take a while to get your food. Both times I have gone, I have been quoted 20 - 30 minutes. I do order a rather large meal, so that is expected

I never once had trouble find seating, but I do go between 11 AM and 1 PM, so seating wasn't an issue for me. As for parking, you do have street parking, and they do have parking in the back of the building if you are lucky.

Now for some negatives. You cannot order your wings in separate sauces. Bonchon you can order "large" wings, which is 30 wings, and you can order half spicy, half soy garlic so you get 15 of each. BB.Q does not offer this option unfortunately. If you want different sauces, you will have to order that separately, which can be quite pricy.

You'll also notice they have a whole chicken option, which is quite fantastic, however, they only offer that in 3 flavors. There is a half and half option which is choice of Secret Sauce or Hot Spicy, and their Golden Original. I have overheard that you can get Secret Sauce and Golden Original with Hot Spicy sauce on the side.

I hope in the future they will allow an option of Whole Chicken with more additional sauce choices and to allow half and half wing options if you order medium or large wings.

Overall, BB.Q Chicken is a fantastic addition to MN, and we're quite lucky to have it. Would love to see another place open up in St. Paul area one day. If you're on the fence, give them a try, they are worth trying!

Happy...

1 star for customer service. 5 star for the food.

First of all, me and my husband were first time customers. It was a bit confusing if we needed to be seated first or order first. It would've been nice if they had a cool sign saying "ORDER HERE" with arrows or something. But we figured it out.

Then ordering the chicken wings wasn't rocket science. The menu gives you directions on how to order. Lots of variety of sauces to pick, which we loved.

We decided to go with the 16 piece chicken wings because 8+8=16 AND it's only the two of us. We wanted 2 different sauces since there is 16 pieces cause again 8+8=16. I went and told the cashier lady what we wanted. But she said they couldn't do half and half sauce on the 16 piece. And instead said to get 2 orders of the 8 piece chicken wings to be able to do the 2 different sauce vs doing 16 pieces. (YES reread that part again.) THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. Cause 16 pieces of chicken wings IS ALREADY 8 pieces together. Mind you there is 8pc, 16pc and 24pc on the Menu.

Since it WAS our very first time, I did order what the lady suggested. Then compared the prices after I got my receipt. Felt like we were robbed. We still didn't understand why we couldn't do the 16 piece order with two different sauces. The lady never explain properly why. Just said we can't do that. As a FIRST TIME CUSTOMER, I HIGHLY SUGGEST that the person who takes orders should ask the confused customers if it's their first time here to EXPLAIN WHY CUSTOMER CAN'T DO 16 PIECES OF CHICKEN WINGS WITH 2 DIFFERENT SAUCES. Why make customers order TWO order of the 8 piece chicken wings when there's already a 16 piece set???

Also this place is a self serve. Where you get your own plates/water/utensils after ordering your food.

AND!!!!! Since it's a self serve, you clean up after yourself aka bring the plates and etc to the dirty table, & your trash to the garbage.

Oh and lastly, they have TWO bathrooms where you need to ask for the key. To me, that grosses me out because people eat the chicken wings with their fingers. And would want to wash their hands afterwards. Imagine the unsanitary key. This restaurant should have WET NAPS.

Our "TWO ORDERS OF THE 8 PIECE" with TWO DIFFERENT sauces was DELICIOUS. Best Part of the whole ordeal.

Will we come back? No. Not til at least we get an answer why we couldn't do the 16 pieces and do a split of 2 different sauces. Otherwise we'll stick to BONCHON. And since it was our first time here, we wanted to try and enjoy our day at a new food spot.

Edit: Found my receipt and the cashier lady...