Hendricks BBQ — Restaurant in Saint Charles

This was my 1st time at Hendricks, but it definitely will not be my last!! Being that I worked in the Food Service industry as a Chef & Kitchen Mgr. at numerous Restaurants, Hotels, & a Country Club for many yrs. I am a person who likes exploring new places to eat & I must admit I am a lil' picky & have high standards !! The server we had was exceptional!! very friendly & accommodated us superbly. After looking over the menu thoroughly we decided to order "The Shebang" which we thought was the best deal for the money. We ordered Baked Beans, Mac & Cheese, Sweet Potato Casserole & French Fries for our 4 sides & we also ordered Creamed Spinach & Greens & Fried Potatoes(Hey, we were hungry!!😋) All of our meats were tender & had very good flavor(especially the Brisket). The Sausage had a lil' kick to it, but it was good & the Turkey was delicious!!🤤. As for the sides, I read several reviews commenting that they were skimpy?? I felt the sides were reasonable, there was enough of each 1 for each person to get a spoon full👍. The Mac & Cheese was a lil' different than what I was expecting as they used large, thick noodles. The cheese sauce was very thick(almost pasty), but the overall flavor was very good. The Creamed Spinach was very good & had a very fresh taste to them. The Sweet Potato Casserole was awesome!! very light, not overly sweet or filling( definitely worth getting👍). The Baked Beans were delicious!!, not overly sweet & they had a delicious mild maple flavor to them(I ordered 2 side orders To-Go). The Fried Potatoes were good & had a very good fresh potato flavor to them, but I thought the French Fries were better, they were crunchy with their delicious batter & they held their temp excellently!!👍(they were worth ordering a order to take home). The atmosphere was very historic & eclectic. Now, after all that they even had dessert which I plan on coming back & trying(Pecan Pie, Banana Pudding, Ice Cream, Banana Cake). Now, the things that I thought could've been better: #1. The size of the fountain drinks, although U get complimentary refills 3 or 4 good swallows & U were ready for another refill. #2. The Mac & Cheese could've been more creamy rather than so thick & pasty. #3. We had to deal with gnats or mosquitoes flying around our table & food which I assumed was from the flooding of the river being so close, but they need to do something about this problem, because it was very annoying & a lil' unappetizing!!. #4. The BBQ Sauces were not that impressive overall. They were very liquidy & had a vinegar twang to most of them. Our server said that the "House" BBQ Sauce was the hottest, but it wasn't. I was surprised that there was no Sweet & Smoky, there was a Sweet BBQ Sauce, but it could've been much better!!! The sauce is supposed to compliment the meat & I don't think any of the sauces did that, the meat was very good dry with no sauce... I read a few reviews saying the prices were high?? I would disagree with that!!! U get what U pay for! Most items are prepared In House from scratch & the portions are very reasonable. I hope that Hendricks is around for awhile & maybe even considers expanding out to other areas(especially with all of the vacant buildings Ex: Kmart, Sports Authority, Walmart,...

I would give this place 0 stars if I could. I grew up going to Hendricks BBQ and absolutely loved it! So, naturally, I booked it for our rehearsal dinner for 80 people. We had a COVID engagement and are not getting married until 10/22. However, we put our deposit down at Hendricks because we knew we wanted it. We brought my (soon to be) mother in law here for dinner a couple of months ago. The service was horrible. They served cold food and did not have the same cocktail drink menu we had selected our "signature drinks" off of. That's totally fine if you change menus! However, we were not made aware of this change and the waiter was no help. He told us they don't have a cocktail menu and didn't know what I'm talking about. Our food was very cold (pulled pork, brisket, etc.) so we simply asked for the food to be heated up. The waiter would not come out to us so I had to bring our plates of food to him (sitting at a table inside with friends drinking) and ask him to heat them up. He returned the plates to us just as cold as we gave them to him. We let him know we had a "party" scheduled for October. I was so disappointed with this service and did not want this same service at our rehearsal dinner in October. So, I contacted the manager the following Monday. She had absolutely no records of our rehearsal dinner scheduled nor our paid deposit. I cannot believe we were going to bring our whole rehearsal party here and nothing was going to be ready or set up! We come to find out there are new owners of Hendricks. At this point, we want out of our dinner and want our deposit back. Long story. . . she will not refund our deposit even though we are giving 30 days notice (per the contract you are allowed the refund of deposit within 30 days notice). She suggested we contact the previous LLC but will not provide any contact information and this is not available online. At this point, the owner will not contact us back. Absolutely DISGUSTED with this place and the reputation they are taking on. I wouldn't recommend this place to my worst enemy. Thankfully, we have a great new spot for our...

It’s rare that I wouldn’t simply not recommend a restaurant, but actively advise those I know against it. Hendrick’s BBQ may have achieved that honor. My wife and I previously dined here in 2021 and were underwhelmed, but we chalked it up to COVID’s adverse impact on the restaurant industry. We decided to give it another chance, but to our dismay, it was one of the most disappointing culinary experiences either of us have ever had.

To start with the good/neutral, service was decent. Atmosphere was a bit quiet & the staff seemed a little bored, but I think we were there during a pretty slow point in the day and no one was unpleasant so I don’t count that against Hendrick’s. Their sauces are also solid—nothing mind-blowing, but they check all the basic expectations of a barbecue joint.

On to the bad. My wife and I split a pick 2 meal: brisket, rib tips, green beans, and Mac n cheese with sweet tea. After finishing it, I am convinced that Hendrick’s BBQ is afraid of flavor.

The Mac n cheese is a bland, slightly-buttery and certainly-not-cheesy penne with what I believe are bread crumbs on top that contributed no flavor. The green beans were even more flavorless—an impressive feat considering they were cooked with onions and bacon, which if blindfolded I could not have picked out due to their absent taste. I attempted to perform some emergency flavor resuscitation with salt and pepper, to no avail. Even the sweet tea tasted watered down—even for me, who normally prefers a slightly-less-sweet sweet tea, it was shockingly plain.

The brisket mercifully had some hints of pepper & smoke, but the distractingly large amount of fat overwhelmed any value those brought. The rib tips, by contrast from the rest of our meal, were actually quite tasty—if only they hadn’t been about 75% cartilage, fat, and bone, they might have been enough to cast a silver lining on the experience. It’s a sad day when the most exciting part of the meal was the slice of white bread glazed with sauce from the rib tips.

I can honestly say I do not think we will dine here...