Real Urban BBQ is one of Highland Park’s hottest and most popular restaurants. Located on Central Avenue, this restaurant is perhaps the biggest and busiest store in downtown Highland Park.

Walking into the restaurants is an experience in  itself. Tons of smells fill the air, from dry rubs to smoked brisket, from beans to mashed potatoes. The restaurant is also well decorated, giving off a vibe that makes it seem like a good old southern BBQ restaurant. Littered with old truck stop signs and advertisements for Coca-Cola and Hostess, the restaurant gives off a real friendly ambiance.

The space is huge, and there is definitely good reason for this. The restaurant is more like a cafeteria, where people line up to order their food and get it served on a tray. Walk into the restaurant during their busiest hours and it’s going to be hard to find a seat. The place is usually packed, with people from all over Chicagoland flocking to the area’s best BBQ.

You can order meats as the sandwich or an entree. The entree gives you more meat and your choice of two sides from gigantic menu. The sandwich gives you the option of choosing from three different sizes: a mini, a regular, or a pounder, being an entire pound of meat on your sandwich. For those who prefer to eat a little healthier, Real Urban BBQ also offers a salad option that you can add meat to for $3.

Easily the best thing on the menu is the brisket, which is slow cooked and smoked for 14 hours in the restaurant. It is extremely flavorful, and when paired with one of the sauces, BBQ lovers will be in heaven. But that isn’t the only good thing on the menu. The burnt ends, which are a different cut of the brisket, are extremely delicious as well, along with the pulled pork and ribs. You also get two options of sauce at the front, between sweet or spicy. I recommend the spicy, as it is the more flavorful of the two and honestly isn’t that spicy. The sides are another highlight of the menu, giving you the option to choose from many different sides, including mashed potatoes and gravy (my favorite side), fries, mac and cheese, smoked beans, and many more. You can also get bottled drinks, such as Coke, Sprite, and IBQ Root Beer as an alternative to a fountain drinks.

The prices are fairly reasonable, but it isn’t the cheapest fast food around. Entrees and a drink will cost you around $15, which is fair considering the amount of meat and sides. Sandwiches, of course, are a little cheaper (except for the pounder option, which is actually a little more expensive than the entrees). If you choose the mini option, you can get one for $3 or three sandwiches for $8.

One of Real Urban’s weaknesses is their take-out. When ordering from the New Trier area, the food was significantly worse: it was cold on arrival portions were much smaller than at the restaurant. I remember specifically ordering a pound of brisket to take home, and they gave me about seven pieces of meat, as opposed to getting a ton of slices on the entree option at the restaurant. Take-out from the restaurant is not recommended.

Overall, it isn’t hard to see why Real Urban BBQ is one of, if not the best BBQ restaurant in the Chicagoland area. The food itself is delicious, and coupled with the atmosphere of the restaurant, Real Urban BBQ is a great experience for all BBQ lovers.People who consider themselves carnivores are likely to have a field day here, and I highly recommend it.