Bandana's BBQ

This is a small chain with only one store in Iowa.
I ate at the Ankeny store yesterday and it was corporate food.
Lots of chili powder in the bbq sauce.
They claim that they cook over hickory, but all the meat was very bland and we had a 4 meat sampler.
Service, cole slaw and garlic bread were good.
Al

Hmmmmmm...quite the contrary here. They originated about 10 miles from my house and have been excellent since day one. They are now up to 20 restaurants in 4 states. I'd say they must be doing something right! They are always voted one of the best BBQ joints in St Louis and I have to agree. I buy their sauce reguarly and have never tasted chili powder in any of the four except for maybe the HOT one. I know that they smoke their meat over hickory because I have bought wood from them to smoke meat at home. Perhaps the new place just needs to work the kinks out.

Uh O, sounds as if the chain syndrome might be setting in.

John

I think their outlet here in Columbia MO is the best BBQ in town, which is faint praise but there you are. They modeled it more on Texas than KC BBQ (which is ok by me, being from Texas). I find the brisket and sausage to be better than the pork. Sides are ok too, but I wish they (or someone) would do classic KC barbecued beans-- those are great! In fact, I'd love to see an Oklahoma Joe's or even Arthur Bryant's here.

If you're on I-70 between StL and KC, you can do worse than pull off at the Providence exit, go right at the light, and Bandana's is right there, kind of sunk down from street level.

I used to eat at Bandana's quite a bit when they only had one location in Arnold, MO, and back then the food was awesome - it seems like the more resturants that they have added, the quality of the food and service has went down quite a bit. I used to prefer another local chain - SuperSmokers, but they closed all their resturants but the original in Eureka, MO. Last time I went there the meat really tasted funky - don't know if they changed the wood that they used to smoke, or what, but it just wasn't as good as it used to be.

The only one I have visited is in Collinsville, Illinois. A convention results in my staying a couple of blocks from the restaurant every year.

It isn't terrible - I've gone more than once. But it isn't great - I have only gone back a couple of times in 8 or so years.

Keith

I ate at the Collinsville Bandana's a couple of years ago and felt that the restaurant didn't adequately separate the smokers from the non-smokers.

Brad