There’s a restaurant that opened near my work not too long ago called City BBQ (site: http://www.citybbq.com/) and I have to say, its pretty freaking awesome for chain food.
It appears to be an Ohio-based chain, but I am having difficulties determining how many locations there are so I don’t know if any Dopers outside of Ohio will have tried this place.
Its damn good BBQ food, though. Damn good.
Whoops, I found the info. There’s 18 stores in all, 16 of which are in Ohio and one each in Indianapolis and one in Northern Kentucky.
I went to the one in Indianapolis. I was really impressed. I’m a BBQ snob from Kansas City, and went in with pretty high demands, and they did a good job of meeting them. I had a sampler plate. The sides were excellent as well.
Cool. I really like that place, although its a bit expensive to eat there for lunch very often.
I also like the fact that they carry oddball bottled sodas like Cherrywine, Sun Drop, Grape and Orange Nehi, etc.
Had it when I was in Columbus this past year. Pretty good. Basic BBQ. It’s really not that hard to mess it up, but I have seen it done.
Some of the best barbecue to be had in Ohio. Try the smoked sausage; it’s easy to overlook on the menu, but it’s just perfect–the right blend of heat and salt and smoke, with a nice evenly-cooked crisp exterior and juicy center. The brisket is some of the best I’ve ever had.
I like it quite a bit.
If you have not tried them definitely give the Hush Puppies a shot.
We usually get the city sampler. It is big enough for a family of 4, or one 14 year old boy.
Yes, we eat there all the time. The food is always delicious. In fact, my sister loves City BBQ so much that they are catering for her wedding reception next month. It’s going to be the best wedding ever. 
Been going there since they opened the first store. They are Columbus based and were an instant hit. For a while they used buildings abandoned by other chains but are now building their own. The Gahanna store started out in an old style Pizza Hut building off the beaten track (there was good reason for the building to be available) but it was just too small and they built a new place that is easier to get to - far to easy.
I almost always go for their smoked chicken, either a quarter or half chicken. Its too much for one meal, but saves nicely and is very good.
The easiest way is by soaking everything in crappy HFCS BBQ sauce. City doesn’t seem to do that - they do a good job of letting the meat speak for itself, and providing a side station of a number of decent sauces to add at your leisure. They’re not great sauces (you’re not going to find a true Carolina sauce in the bunch), but they’re not KC Masterpiece bad.
You would think so, but that’s not true at all. At many establishments in the US (at least up here in the North), BBQ just means “fall-off-the-bone” meat that’s been slathered in liquid-smoke-containing barbecue sauce. People do crap like parboil their ribs or braise them in barbecue sauce. Whatever that is, that ain’t barbecue.
North or South? There’s a difference. North Carolina BBQ sauce is vinegar based, while South Carolina BBQ sauce is mustard based.
That’s the great thing about BBQ. Everywhere you go around the country, the local influences, make it unique.
Eastern North Carolina is vinegar-based. Western (Lexington) North Carolina is, depending on your perspective, vinegar-based with a touch of tomato or equally tomato-and-vinegar based. South Carolina is a confluence of all three traditions, of which the mustard-based is the most well-known (because it’s the oddball out.)
All are very good, in my opinion.
Neither. I don’t remember seeing anything that wasn’t tomato based. There *might *have been a vinegar-based sauce, but I can’t remember.
According to their menu (I’ve never been), they have a sauce called “City Gold,” which is mustard-based, apparently.
Try the balsamic chicken or the meatloaf sandwich.
ETA: Nevermind, that would be Cap City Diner.
Let me put it to you this way – I’ve eaten at probably a half-dozen places in my current locale, Dallas-Fort Worth, and City Barbecue beats all of their best efforts combined. By a lot. It’s frickin’ delicious.
(Even weirder, the best Indian food I’ve ever had was in Columbus. Not New York, not DC, not London – Columbus, OH.)
I like it but it’s expensive.
Our local shop got, ermm… raked over the coals, in a recent review by the local paper. It didn’t bash the BBQ perse, more like cold sides and a lack of ambience, they said the ribs were “fatty”, not sure how to parse that? Never been there, and this review makes me skeptical.
Yup, I’m near Columbus and been fortunate enough to have City BBQ quite a few times. It’s probably the best chain bbq I’ve had. It blows Hoggy’s out of the water, that’s for sure. And I don’t dislike Hoggy’s.