Bar Louie

Super snowy day makes for empty restaurants, which should make for quick and easy service.

Not at Bar Louie!

Co-worker and I decided to brave the elements today, well after the lunch rush, and stopped at BL. We sat down and waited....and waited and waited and waited. There were three waitresses on staff and not one of them gave us more than a cursory glance.

After about 7 minutes (more than my normal five of expected greeting and less than ten on being fully waited on), we put on our coats and headed to Harry Carey's (where we were promptly greeted and waited on.

It's sad when our corporate discount can't even get us to give them our money!

I will start this review by saying that we usually love Bar Louie, specifically the one in Newport, Kentucky. So when my fiance and I needed a quick drink and appetizer on a Saturday afternoon to fuel some shopping, we thought we'd try this this new location in River North, which is just a few blocks from our apartment.

What a terrible idea.

This was our 2nd time in this location, and I'm sorry to say that both times the service was extremely poor. The first time, our waitress disappeared and after 30 min we ended up leaving cash on the table for our drinks.

The most recent visit we found that not only was the service poor, but the food quality stunk, leaving me to call into question the food safety practices.

Quick rundown of our issues:

- There was not a server to be seen at 2 pm Saturday afternoon. The rather apathetic bartender had to leave the bar and serve us at high-top tables.  It was pretty empty so this wasn't an issue, but you'd think he could have used his free time to clean the glasses (see below).

-  I ordered a draft beer with a lime, and it was served in a dirty glass with a lime wedge that had to have been cut the day before or earlier. IT was dry and had no juice. Eww.

- We ordered chicken nachos, which is our go-to item at other Bar Louie's, and usually delivers pretty good taste. This version had brown and wilting cilantro, day-old cooked chicken that had hardened into plastic, and jalapeno slices with dried and curled up edges. I seriously doubt any part of this meal was prepped or cooked the day we were there.

Overall, it was clear that none of the food we were served was fresh, and the cleanliness and lack of fresh food made me overall disgusted.  The service was bad, and I'd say John Taffer could teach them a few things.

We won't be back to this Bar Louie, and when our friends come to town and stay in the area, we'll make sure they avoid it too.

I love this place. This is situated right across the street from my office and have gone there on mulitiple occasions with co-workers after work for happy hour. The appetizers are great offering a wide range of choices and drinks are super good too. I get a discount with my office building and the staff there are always very accomodating on my bill when I tell them. Other raters should could them some slack, being NYE, get over it. They are probably not the only ones that ran out of juice that night!