Savor Scout › Food guides › Ribs
How to find good ribs
Good barbecue ribs pull cleanly from the bone with a gentle tug, leaving a bite mark. Meat that falls off the bone has been overcooked or boiled — and boiled ribs are the most common shortcut in the business.
What separates a good one from a bad one
- Smoked, not boiled — A smoky crust and pink smoke ring. Boiled ribs are soft and bland.
- Bite through, clean bone — Tender enough to bite cleanly, firm enough to hold on the bone.
- A crust from rub — Memphis dry rub, Kansas City sauce, St. Louis cut. The style should be deliberate.
- Sauce on the side — Good ribs don't need sauce to taste of something.
- Spare ribs and baby backs — Spares are fattier and more flavourful; baby backs leaner and tender.
What to order
- Spare ribs — St. Louis cut.
- Memphis dry ribs — If available.
- Half rack — For one.
- Beans and slaw — Classic sides.
- Beef ribs — Huge and rich, in Texas.
Where to find Ribs
Ribs is mostly found at barbecue joints, so that is where to look. Open listings put 19,343 of them across the US, and these are the cities and campuses with the most.
Cities with the most
Chicago, IL 153 San Antonio, TX 146 Houston, TX 131 Dallas, TX 121 Austin, TX 121 Las Vegas, NV 112 New York, NY 109 Los Angeles, CA 96
Campuses with the most within a mile
FIT 28 New School University 27 The Graduate Center 26 Baruch 25 NYU 23 City Colleges of Chicago-Harold Washington College 20
A few to start with
- Smoque BBQ — Chicago, IL
125 S Clark St, Chicago - Pinkerton's Barbecue — San Antonio, TX
107 W Houston St, San Antonio - Otto’s — Houston, TX
500 Dallas St Ste T24, Houston - Brisket Rules — Dallas, TX
211 S Akard St, Dallas - Blue Ribbon Barbecue — Austin, TX
120 E 4th St, Austin - The D Grill — Las Vegas, NV
301 Fremont St, Las Vegas
Counts are listings in Overture Maps open data (September 2026), counted by the town in each address. Independent places only in the examples above, and they are a starting point rather than a ranking.
How Savor Scout looks for it
The search reads for smoked, dry rub, St. Louis and Memphis, and treats reviewers describing ribs as boiled or mushy as a strong negative.
Looking in a particular city?
Each of these opens Savor Scout with the location already set, so you can say what you want and it searches from there. It covers 1,000 US cities in total — these are simply the largest.
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Houston, TX
- Philadelphia, PA
- Phoenix, AZ
- San Antonio, TX
- San Diego, CA
- Dallas, TX
- San Jose, CA
- Austin, TX
- Indianapolis, IN
- Jacksonville, FL
- San Francisco, CA
- Columbus, OH
- Charlotte, NC
- Fort Worth, TX
- Detroit, MI
- El Paso, TX
- Memphis, TN
- Seattle, WA
- Denver, CO
- Washington, DC
- Boston, MA
- Nashville, TN
- Baltimore, MD
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Louisville, KY
- Portland, OR
- Las Vegas, NV
- Milwaukee, WI
- Albuquerque, NM
- Tucson, AZ
- Fresno, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Long Beach, CA
- Kansas City, MO
- Mesa, AZ
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Atlanta, GA
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Omaha, NE
- Raleigh, NC
- Miami, FL
- Oakland, CA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Tulsa, OK
- Cleveland, OH
- Wichita, KS
- Arlington, TX
- New Orleans, LA
- Bakersfield, CA
- Tampa, FL
- Honolulu, HI
- Aurora, CO
- Anaheim, CA
- Santa Ana, CA
- St. Louis, MO
- Riverside, CA
- Corpus Christi, TX
Related food guides
barbecue, Brisket, Pulled pork