Bandana’s Bar-B Q

Great, great BBQ!
I haven’t found any other place yet outside St. Louis that uses apple wood to smoke meats. I am a big fan of their ribs. The apple wood adds a gourmet distinction over the common, everyday chip the Mesquite. Their smoked chicken and turkey are tender.
When visiting St. Louis, I always make at least one stop at a Bandana’s.

I feel like a heretic for saying so, but I think Bandana’s Bar-​B Q is only a slight notch below Pappy’s Smokehouse in terms of quality. The meats are generally pretty tasty, and they have a wide variety of sauces to please every palate. I’m a big fan of their Chicago Sweet sauce (does Chicago even have a style of BBQ?) which you can also buy in local grocery stores.*
Maybe their ribs aren’t up to the standard set by Pappy’s, and maybe all their sides aren’t as good. But they do a decent job of smoking meat, and that’s all that matters.
If I’m in the mood for BBQ and I don’t feel like driving all the way to Midtown, Bandana’s satisfies my craving just fine.
* Brown up a pound of ground beef with a diced onion and green pepper, pour a bottle of Chicago Sweet over it, simmer for a few minutes, and toss with cooked spaghetti. You won’t be disappointed!

Though they said they didnt take reservations we called ahead to seat our party of 15 and lo and behold when we got there a table was all set up for us. Serving a party of 15 is not usually an easy task, but our waitress has us drinks within 10 minutes of being seated and our food was out within 20.
They only have Bud Light and Bud on tap which is probably my biggest complaint. They bottled selection is also pretty weak.
I ordered the ½ chicken dinner with apple sauce and deep friend corn. The apple sauce was homemade yummy goodness, the deep fried corn was too much for me – next time I will just stick with regular corn. The garlic bread was not good, I just took a bite and then didnt touch it.
The sauces are really the only reason to eat BBQ, and Bandana’s sauces are just OK – most of them have liquid smoke in them, which frankly tastes awful. They are too sweet and the spicy sauces are not hot enough. My favorite, however, was the spicy sauce despite its lack of spicyness.
A party of 15 ate and drank beer for $ 150 (before tip) Thats pretty damn good if you ask me!