6 Best Barbecue Spots in Arlington Heights

Nothing beats good barbecue. With its tender meat cooked low and slow, unique flavor, and the sides that go with it, sitting down with a big plate of barbecue is hearty and fulfilling. If you’re in the Arlington Heights area of Illinois, there are several excellent restaurants to choose from, including several that serve award-winning barbecue food. Learn about some of the best places for barbecue in and around Arlington Heights, and head out for an unforgettable meal.

Famous Dave’s

Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Barb-B-Que is one of the top barbecue restaurants in Chicago. This place does barbecue right and serves it in a fun and relaxed environment. The menu features all your favorites, including starter plates such as smoked pork, burnt ends, and traditional wings. The staff members at Famous Dave’s smoke hundreds of slabs of meat daily, so they’ll always have plenty of what you want, no matter what it is. 

The award-winning ribs are a must for your meal at Famous Dave’s. The St. Louis-style ribs are hand-rubbed with the perfect combination of seasonings and then smoked low and slow for several hours before they’re finished on the grill to get that charcoal-broiled flavor and caramelized coating. The All-American BBQ Feast is enough food for four to six people and comes with spare ribs, a whole chicken, brisket, chopped pork, coleslaw, fries, beans, sweet corn, and cornbread muffins. It’s served family style so that everyone can enjoy it together. 

Porky’s BBQ & Catering

Stop by Porky’s BBQ & Catering for some of the best barbecue food in Arlington Heights. They smoke and grill all the meats in-house and make all their sauces from scratch. The menu features smoked ribs, pulled pork, brisket, and pulled chicken, and if you can’t decide which one you want, get a combination of your favorites. The sides are always the perfect addition to any meal. Choose from housemade buns, Porky’s beans, brown buttered cornbread, cheese fries, roasted-garlic mac and cheese, or Porky’s potato salad. 

If you like your barbecue in a sandwich, try the pork and brisket sandwich on a homemade bun and your choice of sauce, or get the smoked pulled chicken sandwich with hibiscus pickled onions. The menu at Porky’s has something for everyone who loves barbecue. 

Big Ange’s Eatery

You’ll find some of Arlington Heights’ finest barbecue at Big Ange’s Eatery. You can get the barbecued meats by the pound or choose one of the delicious sandwiches. All the meats are carefully selected and then smoked in-house every day. The beef in the chopped prime brisket sandwich is smoked for 12 hours with hickory and oak and served on a buttered and grilled Brioche bun. The Tri-Tip sandwich comes with slow-smoked sirloin on haystack onions with a grilled Brioche bun, and the pulled pork comes with coleslaw on the Brioche bun. 

Big Ange’s Eatery has homemade sides to go with their barbecue, and the homemade mac and cheese is a must. They make it with white cheddar cheese, cream, and butter. Remember to try Big Angie’s fresh potato salad, based on a family recipe.

Blitz Sports Bar & BBQ

Check out Blitz Sports Bar & BBQ for delicious barbecue and an unforgettable fun-filled experience. They smoke and grill their specialty barbecue in-house. Get it by the pound to bring home, or enjoy it with friends at Blitz. The smoked brisket dinner comes with the 12-hour in-house smoked brisket covered in homemade barbecue sauce. The smoked chicken breast dinner and the pulled pork are superb. The menu also features half a smoked chicken, a full rib dinner, baby back ribs, and burnt ends. 

Your meat comes with a choice of sides. You can get it with mac and cheese, Blitzing Chili, sweet potato casserole, mashed potato, coleslaw, baked potato, or baked beans. Blitz has fantastic barbecue sandwiches too. The smoked prime brisket sandwich comes with homemade barbecue sauce on a fresh kaiser roll. You can also get the pulled pork or pulled chicken sandwich. If you can’t decide which meat you want, the half-and-half comes with your choice of two. 

Brothers Ribs

Brothers Ribs smokes all its meat in-house and grills it to order. The place looks unassuming from the outside, but the food is terrific. They serve the meat with their award-winning BBQ sauce, and it’s always delicious. Make sure to try the ribs; they are always tender and juicy, with the perfect amount of seasoning. If you get the chicken, it’s so tender it’ll fall right off the bone. 

Blackwood BBQ

Blackwood BBQ in nearby Schaumburg serves barbecue made with pasture-raised brisket, all-natural chicken, and locally sourced ingredients. They create all their dishes from scratch, so you know they’re fresh and made on the premises. 

Choose from premium meats such as beef brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken, or brisket burnt ends. You can also get smoked Mikeska sausage. Once you choose your meat, you can get it on a sandwich with house pickles, on a taco topped with fresh salsa verde, onion, cilantro, Kansas City sauce, or Alabama sauce for the chicken. The platter comes with meat, apple coleslaw, and housemade pickles. If you’re in the mood for a vegetable dish, they have jackfruit that’s rubbed, smoked, and hand pulled. 

Make sure to get one or more of the housemade sides with your meal. The 3 Cheese Mac & Cheese has extra sharp yellow and white cheddar and Gruyere that’s individually fired and served with a panko crust. Other sides include smokehouse beans, honey cheddar cornbread, and charred Brussels sprouts with maple. 

At our family-owned company, Dahme Mechanical Industries, Inc., these are the places we go to when we’re in the mood for a hearty and down-home barbecue near Arlington Heights, Illinois. Do you have a favorite spot that we missed? Let us know about it so we can go check it out. We’ll add it to our list if we like it as much as our top picks. 

Photo Credit: BBQ done Right (Pecan Lodge, Dallas, TX) by Luis Tamayo is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0