Bandana’s Bar-B Q

No notice not a sign on the door nothing. The parking lot was empty and I looked inside and all the chairs are up on the tables. Closed. Sign gone out front. No reason for closing other than I guess their lunch business did not carry over to supper.

Since this place is right next to my work I eat here about once a week. I’ve never dined in but my carry out order is always done in less than 10 min and always fresh. My favorite is the pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw on it! Totally to die for!

I grabbed a quick lunch here this week. The food was good. I had the turkey lunch plate that came with two sides. The meal was a good average. I would return for lunch for a safe bet on food.
The service was fantastic. Zach was my server. He was very friendly and prompt. He kept checking in often to make sure I had all that I needed, without being overwhelming.

Barbeque is excellent the meat is so tender. Love having multiple choices of sauce on the table. Side dishes are very good. Prices reasonable, something for everyone regardless of budget.
Restaurant is clean and the service is always great.
Thanks especially to our server Julia!
Eat with friends quite often and Julia takes great care of our group, separate checks are not a problem.
French fries are really good too! (Bubba agrees lol)
Thanks for the great food and service always.
(Only problem, boiled peanuts. Difficult to replicate outside of Georgia)

My parents and I used to go to the Bandana’s location on Dorsett, which is really small and always packed. We were happy when they opened a new, larger location on Olive. The place is usually practically empty when we go for dinner, but don’t let that turn you off. The food is as good as it’s always been, brought out quickly by friendly staff. I’ve never had a bad meal here.

Two of us came in on a Monday night with maybe a half dozen people total including us in the whole restaurant. We ordered a kid’s rib platter (which comes with two sides and garlic bread) and a half slab of ribs (which comes with two sides and garlic bread). The kids’ ribs were okay. It was two ribs, already cut. My son enjoyed them. He liked the applesauce and the fries. My ribs, however, were totally inedible. I knew there was a problem when I couldn’t even cut them to separate them with the steak knife they’d provided. I tried to eat them but just couldn’t. The BBQ beans tasted okay but honestly looked seriously disgusting — like dog food or something worse piled in the dish. So visually unappealing! The fries were extremely greasy as was the garlic bread. I decided to be a good sport because it was so dead in there, I was tired and my appetite was gone from the appearance of the food. Normally I might send everything back because it was really that bad. The waitress came over to see if we needed anything, and I asked if the ribs were always so overcooked. She seemed embarrassed by them and said she’d noticed that about them too. She offered to see if they had better looking ones in the kitchen, but at that point I wasn’t even interested. I just wanted to go home. I politely declined and asked for the check. She came back over with the check and without my asking had taken half off the entire check which was very nice of her (although, looking back, it didn’t even cover the cost of the meal that I didn’t/couldn’t eat). I gave her my credit card, and a moment or two later the manager on duty came over and sort of half apologized. I don’t know that I’d rush back to this place even though my son enjoyed his food. It’s been there for several years. I’d been to the Dorsett Road location many years ago, and my dinner companion and I both ended up with terrible food poisoning which the restaurant adamantly denied when we called the next day so I’d been turned off on the place for years between the severe illness and the attitude of the management. The waitress here was lovely (I think it was Haley), but that’s not enough for me to go back.

Smoked Sausage, served with garlic bread and your choice of two regular sides. $ 7.59 YES PLEASE!!!
I could eat here every day it’s that good!!! Highly recommended.

This review pertains to the Creve Coeur location only. Very friendly and prompt service time and again. BBQ is good. It’s standard commercial retail BBQ fare. Nothing spectacular but totally acceptable.

That is some good BBQ

Got take-​out for the family the other day. Had a variety of sandwiches and a half rack of ribs. All the food was good, but none of it blew my BBQ socks off. I’m sorry, that’s the way I see it. Would I go back? Yup, for a BBQ pork sandwich and a draft. Go all in for a rack, I think not. I should just do the ribs myself and stop trying to find the easy way out. I know, don’t say it. BBQ is too pricey for it to be just average food.

I ordered the wet BBQ, which was beef and pork already covered in sauce. It had been cooking all day and was a little burnt. There was also too much sauce for the meat, so it was a mess. The beans and potato salad were good. Our waitress only had 2 tables (on a Tuesday night) and was annoying with all of her visits to our table. That’s a good problem to have, I guess. I’ll go back an order something different, but not anytime soon

I like Bandanas, I really do. But this location leaves a lot to be desired. When I go in to get an order to go, I am stuck listening to a girl who obviously hates her job and complains about her co-​workers when they’re not around. The only person that seems to be friendly is someone who I think is a manager or co-​manager. Everyone else seems to have a sour look on their face.
If I could just get an order without being regaled with complaints, I think I’d be able to give this place a better rating.

The best BBQ I have ever had.
Ribs, beef, baked potato, and coleslaw. All of it was perfect. I hint of smokey flavor under a rubbed flavor.
Service was excellent.

Always have great service and the food hits the table quick. While it is not the best BBQ, it is very good for what you pay.

First of all, I love Bandana’s. It is no Pappy’s but the pulled pork platter is usually perfectly fatty and pretty good. Unfortunately, multiple things went wrong on our first visit to this particular location.
Everyone had a Schlafly Pale Ale. A few gulps into our drinks we realized our beers seemed a bit of stale… we started inspecting the label for expiration dates, and apparently all three beers were manufactured in December 2009 (one was manufactured on December 3^rd!). While some beers taste better with time, most, like the Pale Ale, do not. We were also a bit puzzled by the dated stock considering the restaurant opened in December 2009. My hunch is they still haven’t sold all the Pale Ales that they purchased when the business first opened. Yikes!
We ordered a chicken nachos appetizer. It was decent until my last bite, which was particularly saucy and thick. I tasted something chewy and had to spit it out only to find out it was a rather large piece of Saran Wrap-​ish plastic… um eww?
And then onto the main entrees… most of us had the pork and beef platter. The meat were uncharacteristically dry. I have had Bandana’s pork and beef platters at two other locations no less than 30 times in the past 4 years (it helped that I used to work three minutes away from one of them). Never before have I tasted such dryness.
The restaurant’s reaction to our complaints were in general positive. The manager apologized at end of the meal and took off the appetizer and all three beers off the check. However, overall service was lacking. The waitress only stopped by our table twice during the entire meal, once to drop off the check and once to apologize for the Saran wrap after she heard it from the person we complained to. In general, she seemed to be a bit in over her head. It took a while for us to get water initially and the check/​to-​go boxes in the end. The restaurant didn’t seem very busy at all (maybe 8 tables at most and 2 servers). I guess maybe they had alot of takeout orders? [Shrug]
OVerall, the experience wasn’t positive. It seemed like management cared, which was good, but they just didn’t seem to have all their ducks in a row. Considering my previous much better experiences at other Bandana locations, I will probably not return.

First, there is a difference between pulled pork and chopped pork — they serve chopped pork. Second, there is a difference between creamed corn and canned whole kernel corn — care to take a guess which I got? The ribs weren’t overly tender and the sauce was a bit bland. Overall, the food was OK. I wouldn’t go back but I don’t have any horror stories either.

Not bad!
If you’re not familiar with the area that this particular location is situated in, its very easy to miss. The service was great! The food wasn’t the best barbecue that I’ve ever had but it was still pretty good. They have some pretty nice platters for those who either don’t really know what the best thing on the menu is or are too indecisive to choose just one thing to eat. You have a choice between either the Choose 2 or Choose 3 platter… which as the name implies allows you to choose either up to 2 or 3 smaller portions of entries accompanied by two sides. It wasn’t that expensive either… the Choose 2 cost me $ 11.99 and I believe the Choose 3 costs around $ 13.99. Not a bad deal. It also didn’t have a whole lot of people in the restaurant, which made it more relaxing (I’m not sure if that contributed to the efficient service or not). It had a Western theme to it and a tv playing the sport channels on the farther end of the restaurant. This is not a bad place to go for some decent BBQ in the STL.

Meh. It’s okay for a chain BBQ restaurant, but I’ve definitely had better. I had the brisket and sausage and it was just okay. Not much flavor to it. I do like how they have so many different BBQ sauces though! It was fun to try them all, but I doubt that’s enough to keep me going back.

It was my first trip to Saint Louis, and I had a hankering for ribs, so I ordered a slab. I am used to _​fall off the bone_​ribs (see my review of SaltGrass Steakhouse for a reference).
These were more like: _​knaw off the bone like a hungry dog_​. The sauce and rub was good, but the ribs were tough. If I ever go back, I won’t touch the ribs.

This location just opened about a week and a half ago, and we tried it today for a takeout lunch. Online ordering was a breeze and the order was ready and correct 20 minutes later. It’s no Pappy’s, but it’s pretty good for a casual chain restaurant. Not bad.
The restaurant itself is where Macaroni Grill used to be… it’s a pretty big restaurant with a full bar and a few beers on tap. They have table service and lots of booths. Very casual. Friendly service.