Doc Watsons Smokehouse — Restaurant in Romeoville

Was really looking forward to my first trip to Doc Watson's after viewing their menu. For lunch today, we ordered the sampler platter (ribs, sliced brisket, pulled pork, and sausage), plus a side of pig candy, monster beans, brisket chili, and some burnt ends. Starting with my favorites, the monster beans and brisket chili were outstanding, and the brisket burnt ends were the best I have eaten locally in the western suburbs thus far!!! I also enjoyed the pig candy, the sauces were good, and so were the pickled onions and pickle slices. The sausage was decent, as well as the pulled pork. The restaurant atmosphere is charming, the staff was very friendly, and I will be back to try more items from the menu. Now, here comes the food critic in me, and let it be noted, I am an amateur BBQ connoisseur. I have eaten some of the best of Central Texas BBQ, and hold very high standards. I was disappointed in both the sliced brisket and the ribs. The brisket failed both the bend and pull tests. It was not dry, but also not moist, and lacked a smoke ring. The ribs were tender, but neither fall off the bone or pull off the bone, Both lacked flavor or smokiness, and there wasn't much bark on the brisket. I am of the Aaron Franklin mindset, that "good barbecue does not need barbecue sauce", and unfortunately, the ribs and the brisket were very disappointing. Nonetheless, I was overall satisfied, and will be back to try some other items on the menu. As I continue to visit other local BBQ establishments in the western suburbs and throughout Chicagoland, I am starting to realize a pattern that differentiates Texas from Illinois. Anyone can claim "Low and Slow", or "Smoked for 12-18 hours". However, the difference in Texas is that the finished product must be served fresh (after a proper rest period), which is why some of the highest ranked BBQ establishments are only open from one day a week (#1 - Snow's BBQ), or until the meat runs out (#2 - Franklin BBQ + many others). Also, the vast majority of the Texas Monthly Top 50 use post oak or oak, with a minority using hickory, mesquite, or even pecan. Your staff told me you use cherrywood for smoking. If that is true, it might be time for a change to better replicate Central Texas BBQ. Nonetheless, you are doing enough right to get me to come back for another visit. Up your brisket and rib game, and I will up my next review. And I am also game to a brisket smoke off, as none of your higher rated local competitor's (Sharko's BBQ, Station One Smokehouse, Q-BBQ, Baby Back Blues BBQ, or Firewater BBQ) can even compare to a mail order reheat brisket from the Salt Lick BBQ, or what I can produce on either my Weber grill or Traeger...

This was my first time getting food from Doc's. I was initially going to get a burrito next door, but the sheer number of people eating outside at the patio tables, and the extra $20 burning a hole in my pocket suggested that I should get a slab of baby back ribs. I was worried that showing up at 7:30pm on a Friday evening might have them sold out, but I was in luck. This is the type of place that apparently has to slow cook the food well in advance, so if they sell out, well, that just means that business was very good that day. Which in turn speaks strongly of the quality of food. Since I was riding a motorcycle, I asked that it be split into two halves to fit in my tank bag, and they happily obliged me with a carryout bag that wasn't obnoxiously large. The resulting 2 half-slabs were wrapped in saran wrap, and then in tin foil. This helped the meat stay tender and not get dried out. I like that they have a standard dry rub on the slab, and give you a choice of sauce. This way, you can select how much or how little sauce gets slathered on. I went with the sweet, but would also like to try the spicy next time. I first had a rib with just the dry rub and no sauce in order to judge the basic goodness of the meat. It had a nice flavor and texture overall even with no sauce. The rest I drenched in the sweet sauce, and it was a nice compliment to the dry rub. I really only needed to eat a half slab, and save the rest for later. But the second half slab was insisting that it needed to be savored right then and there. So, there you have it: 2 sticky thumbs up, five stars, and a well deserved reputation for quality bbq. I'm looking forward to...

Was so looking forward to BBQ ribs this past weekend. Found Doc Watson’s Smokehouse on DoorDash. Was a little hesitant to pay the high price for delivery charge along with the other charges that were charged besides the food alone. But decided to go ahead and order anyway because the food looked so good on DoorDash. Well the food was horrible, portions were small, plus some items were missing from out order. The ribs tasted like an entire salt shaker was dumped on the BBQ ribs, barely ANY sauce on the ribs either. There was so much salt on those ribs that I couldn’t eat them and they went straight in the garbage. My partner ordered the combo and it came with two choices of meat and he chose the pulled pork and the brisket, the meat was so dry, no sauce on either of those meats at all. He couldn’t eat either of them because of how dry the meats were. Again those went in the garbage. They should give an option for small sides of BBQ sauce in their menu, if that was an option we would have ordered a side of it, maybe then the two meat combo would have been edible to eat. The side of Texas green beans tasted like candy they had so much sugar in them, way to sweet. The green beans also went into the garbage. The elote (Mexican corn) was just ok, a little too watery for our liking. The potato salad lacked salt, maybe that’s because all their salt was used or dumped on the ribs that we had. They also forgot to give us one of the orders of potato salads that we had paid for, as well as the corn bread that we had ordered. For two people to eat, the $83 that we spent was not worth it. We will not be ordering from this place again. Very...