Food reviews

Shack attack

Above: Chicago Rib Shack

Throughout the 1980s, the Chicago Rib Shack was a popular and fun place for families and groups to enjoy slap up platefuls of meat with barbecue sauce, onion loaf and chips. When it closed down 10 years ago, it seemed to have come to the end of its life but now, responding apparently to an angry campaign to “bring back the shack,” it has reopened on the potentially unlucky and extravagant site that was Isola in Knightsbridge.
Inside, it’s all exposed brick walls, neon signs and lots of pigs everywhere. Most of the tables are downstairs and there are three cosy-looking cubby hole booths for private parties. Loud blues music creates a high energy feel – this is no place for subtlety. Children are bombarded with special treatment: crayons, stickers, a design-a-pig competition and their own special menu; adults are faced with a vast menu of meaty options, cocktails, kosher sausages and predictable American excess. We started with chicken wings and a Caesar salad, both served in awkwardly small bowls and sticky with sweet sauce. Mains were a steak and a burger, both of which were fine, though not improved by the “house rule” that everyone must wear an awful bib made from an ugly-feeling plastic bag. Was this a relic from the old shack? We couldn’t remember. Anyway despite the bib and a few teething problems on the service front, we enjoyed ourselves.l PH