All-you-can-eat Asian barbecue to open this month in former Rack House in Arlington Heights

A much-anticipated Asian barbecue restaurant is finally set to open this month inside the former Rack House Kitchen and Tavern on the south side of Arlington Heights.

MAAX Asian BBQ & Hot Pots, 222 E. Algonquin Road, will serve all-you-can-eat tableside barbecue and bowls of broth with pork, beef, chicken, seafood and vegetables.

“This concept is all-you-can-eat, but not buffet … sometimes (that’s) cold and looks really old and bad,” said owner/manager Gavin Ma. “(But) we give you the freshest food. Most of the food you cook it on the table. You can see the freshness and the quality of the food.”

Ma was at a village board meeting Monday night to get a class A liquor license, which paves the way to his projected April 25 opening date.

Renovations have been underway inside the 10,000-square-foot restaurant space, left vacant since the closure of Rack House at the height of the pandemic in 2020. A “coming soon” banner advertising MAAX was installed above the front door in 2023.

Ma, who started working in the restaurant business in the kitchen at age 15, now runs Tomahawk BBQ Steakhouse in Lincolnshire. The eatery is a similar concept to what’s planned in Arlington Heights, where patrons will char raw meats on mini grills at their tables.

“The way we do it is welcoming families and friends together,” Ma said. “We want everyone hands on to cook, and then to enjoy it.”

Rack House, which opened in 2013, offered a menu of smokehouse items and a drink list that included whiskeys, bourbons and craft beers. It replaced a Boston Blackie’s that shut its doors in 2010. The property was also once home to a Home Run Inn pizzeria.

When the new restaurant opens, hours of operation will be 11 a.m. to midnight.