Real time dinner review of Uncle Bub's.
Menu: Not bad, reasonable price, carry outs were done efficiently. Since I was going to cook tomorrow night and now I'm not because I'm leaving for ABQ the next morning and don't want leftovers, I ordered both the Monday special (7 big beef ribs, two sides, and a cornbread for $14) as well as a pound of hot links (3 full sized and a runt). Total came to $22. Drove home and changed into more appropriate BBQ-eating clothes with 3 of the beef ribs, 1 of the links, and a packet each of regular and hot sauce and typed the above paragraph.
Links: The links have a casing so they look more like a kielbasa. This is not what I normally expect, as places such as Robinson's in the Northwestern station and Kenny's on the west side generally have links without a visible "crunchy" casing. The inside is more finely ground, finer than a brat and closer to a hot dog. There's no real charing on the link, they've been very slowly cooked over indirect heat. There's some pepper heat, but it's definitely toned down for DuPage standards compared to say Kenny's (BTW, RIP the Kenny's on 17th/Roosevelt in Broadview, which was my west-side BBQ oasis until they closed a couple of years ago).
Beef ribs: I ordered the beef ribs because that's something like the links that the Patio on 75th/83 does not have. They're impressive looking because of the huge bones, and as always with beef ribs there's far more bone than meat. Still the meat tastes very good. At $14, however, they are not a good value compared to a half slab of baby back ribs.
Sides: I ordered the two sides that I would have at the Patio - cole slaw and fries. Neither was bad, but the Patio's are better.
Verdict: I will go here again because nothing was bad. $8/pound is a good deal for the cooked hot links, especially with a buy 10 get 1 free card where you can get credits Mon-Thu. And I'd like to try the rib tips as well as the baby backs next time. But my guess is that I'll still go to the Patio more often than here, and they're the same distance from my house.