I'll keep it simple so you don't have to waste your time reading this like we wasted our time eating here.
Service was terrible, waitress was nice enough but not very attentive. Might of been a different story if we were sitting at the bar ordering shots and buying her songs off of the jukebox like some of the other lovely patrons but this was not the case. Â
Atmosphere is....blah. How can you hang a sox pendent next to a cubs pendent being a true Chicago fan. Pick one.
Food was decent. We ordered a large stuffed pepperoni pizza which wasn't too bad. Little expensive and took a little while to get there but again was somewhat expected.
Long story short. Thank God for the free <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a> gift certificate or this would've been a waste of the afternoon. Just kidding. Lets be real. I would've never gone here if it weren't for that and would've settled for the filly b's next door.
Nearly a year after my first experience at this restaurant, I let my husband convince me to give it another try.
We went in tonight (Friday) at dinner time and were seated promptly at a booth after realizing there was no room at the bar. Our waitress throughout the meal was friendly, knowledgeable, and present without being bothersome.
I asked the waitress for the most popular sandwich on the menu because I didn't want pizza. She said it was the Philly so that is what I picked. My husband got a burger with chili and cheddar. We both ordered Devil's Ale as our beverages.
The Philly was surprisingly good. I had VERY low expectations based on my last experience at the restaurant, but it was quite good. I am, by no means, a Philly Sandwich connoisseur so take my opinion of the sandwich with a grain of salt. The steak fries were disappointing since they were soft and slightly soggy, but oh well.
The husband said the burger was decent. Nothing special, but not bad either. Both of our meals came with coleslaw and the Husband said he liked it a lot. Me, on the other hand, well, I thought it was too milky, but that is just my personal taste.
Will we back? Yes. However, there will never be pizzas on the menu for us from this place. That bad experience is still too fresh in our memory.
I'm glad I finally gave this place another shot! I was impressed by the new menu and our pizza. I appreciate the local draft selection, but I would like to see more variety. Although my wife loved her martini. As for the service, the bar was excellent!
I think there's a few things that can be improved (i.e. lighten things up a bit), but overall it's headed in a good direction.
Riding the "L" Train
By The Rue
I've been back here a few times,
Since my last review,
Amanda hasn't been working,
What ever should I do?
It's still a great place,
To drop in from time to time,
Say hi to Liz and Steve,
4th stool from the end is mine.
I noticed they lowered the price,
Of their pints and their drafts,
It wouldn't have mattered to me,
I really like this place's staff.
I still haven't eaten here,
Just had a few Coors Lights,
Thanks for using the same glass,
And preventing any fights.
During the ASU game,
You can get $2.50 beers,
I think it's the same for the NFL,
This is my very own Cheers.
Evanston!!
I hate to post a poor review as a big supporter for small business. But owners have to hear our complaints and take those suggestions into consideration. Veggie pizza is horrible.. You MUST use fresh ingredients. If you just want pepperoni the pizza is okay. My suggestion is you hire a real chef and quit cutting costs in the kitchen. Your investment will help. Had spagetti...good but needs more noodles. Not a fan of the wings sauce. Burgers are the average bar burger. If I was stopping in just to drink..the place is ok but not really family friendly. Better step up your game or Native will wipe out what business you have. Good luck.
Review Source:We have been there a short time after they opened and the food was horrible. We both ordered the Philly cheesesteak and the Italian beef. It had barely any meat on it at all and they didn't use the right type of meat. When we questioned this we were told by the owner that there was an error with their products they received. They should have been up front with that from the beginning. We thought we would give it a shot and order a pizza but when they told me the total was going to be $32.00 for a large and a small pizza I told them forget it. We can eat at Rosati's for less than that and the food is authentic Chicago at Rosati's. I don't think the owner has ever even been to Chicago or he would not be serving what he serves.
Review Source:I decided to give this place a try. I wasn't planning on it since I have not seen to many positive reviews. I did not have a menu in front of me and ordered one large cheese thin crust and one medium bacon and pineapple pizza. This came to $31.00. That was kind of my first problem with this place. The pizza is a little high priced especially if you have a large family to feed. Both pizzas were okay. The sauce was not that great. My kids did not like it. I would try their deep dish pizza but I don't feel like paying that much for it and being disappointed. It does seem to have a nice little sports bar though for the area. I would say it's worth trying once though. Who knows you may like it. As for me unless they offer a great deal I will never try this place again.
Review Source:I almost didn't write this review after seeing the other reviews but really decided I had to.
Like all the others I was excited to see a new place in the neighborhood and have tried it twice.
Both times I was there they were out of menu items. Â The second time their soda machine was not working either.
The service was horrible. Â Five minutes after our order was placed we were told they were out of chicken. Â Ok--my wife ordered the chicken wings as a replacement. Â They brought them out fifteen minutes before the other meals were brought out. Â When we pointed out this was a meal and not an appetizer the response we got was "the kitchen made them now so here you go". Â
The calamari and cheese bread we got was just bad. Â There was not enough calamari (less then I have ever gotten at any other restaurant and I order calamari whenever I can), it was overlooked, and it clearly came frozen out of a box or bag. Â
The pizza had awful sauce and too much oregano (I like oregano by the way). Â One time there I tried the stuffed pizza and the other time I tried the thin. Â I will not be eating either of them again.
In short, bad and inexperienced service as well as the sub par food mean I am once again waiting for the next new place to open up.
Stopped by here for lunch with the family to give this place a try. I'm from Chi-town myself, so when I saw the sign go up I had to make a pit stop here and check things out.
My first impression walking in the door completely mirrors the review that Rachel wrote. The all-black interior struck me immediately - it is very dark inside and kind of gloomy. Not really sure I understand what prompted them to go with this kind of decor - there is absolutely nothing colorful inside this place to give it any life. The bar portion of this pub actually looks very nice - but I also don't understand why the hookahs are sitting on the wall behind the bar. I could not figure out if they were going for a pub atmosphere or nightclub type vibe.
So, our order goes in: two kids pizzas, one mushroom swiss burger and a philly cheesesteak. Ten minutes into our order, our server comes back to inform us that the chef "just discovered" that they are out of mushrooms. Okay, so now the mushroom swiss burger is essentially a cheeseburger and my philly cheesesteak is, well.. something resembling a philly cheesesteak. 15-20 minutes later our food arrives.
The cheesesteak actually tasted pretty good. No, it wasn't the best one I have ever had, but it passed for standard bar fare. The kids pizzas also get good marks (I snuck a bite or two to sample them for myself). And now for the bad.
The menu says the burgers are made with fresh Angus ground beef, but the burger my wife ordered tasted like a preformed frozen patty. It was okay, Â but you could easily tell that they did not just make this patty to order. The steak fries looked great, but when we bit into them we quickly determined that they had not spent enough time in the fryer.
Our server Alex was top notch. He was friendly and did his best to take care of us, promptly refilling drinks and asking us if we needed anything while we ate.
There is wi-fi active in the building (my iphone detected it), but it appears to be locked down to pub employees only. We did find it interesting that a younger guy sitting in the corner booth spent the entire time we were there on his laptop surfing the web. Our server and some of the other employees approached him several times, so I'm assuming that this guy was the manager.
Overall, I'm disappointed. Whenever I see the words "Chicago", "Pizza" or "Pub", I expect to find Chicago-style hot dogs or italian beef sandwiches - none of which were on their menu. They did have an "italian/bbq sandwich", but it sounded like some kind of hybrid of what most Chicago food lovers order.
In a depressed economy, businesses being run like this will never survive. Someone should be ensuring that the food cooler is stocked and that the quality of the food is spot on. That someone should be the manager, but I got the distinct impression that whoever that is, they either aren't really focused or don't really care.
UPDATE: Similar to Becky M, I also received messages from fake posters Grace Y and Dakota C, defending the restaurant owner, the food and trying to explain the hookahs. I get it - they're cool and you smoke them on the patio. So what does that have to do with a Chicago-style restaurant? NOTHING. Oh, and please spare me the sob story about how hard  the owner is working at running three businesses. Anyone serious about running a joint like this takes this criticism constructively and uses it to improve their operation... not send out their attack drones after people that write unfavorable reviews.
I join Becky M - you lose a star on my review now, and I won't be back to give you a second chance.
I have a lot to say, but primarily, I want to say that the owner is young and his influence is felt all over this place. Our waitress, Amara, was friendly but very flaky and didn't seem to take my suggestions and concerns seriously. Also, I asked for cookies for my kids and got brownies.
I have been going to the neighborhood hair salon for a few months and saw the pub in development. I was excited to see it finally open and liked the patio area (although we did not sit there). Â My husband and I were extra excited to see a 40% off coupon at the salon when we stopped in to make an appointment.
When we walked into Chicago Pizza and Pub, I was immediately struck by the all-black interior. Now, I love black as much as the next girl, but I thought the whole place felt too nightclub-by to be a pizza joint. Especially because dance music was blaring the whole time. Most of the decor was bland Chicago sports stuff, and there were hookahs behind the bar, which seemed completely random to me. How do those fit into the theme? The decor just seemed kind of scatterbrained and inconsistent. The guy who sat us turned out to be the owner, and his affect was so-so. He wasn't very warm or charming. He said he didn't have any booster seats yet, which was a disappointment. They had high chairs but no boosters. Considering the restaurant opened a month or so late, you should be able to snag a couple booster seats.
I immediately went to the ladies room, which put a bad taste in my mouth because you couldn't tell where to go and there were double doors that swung in either direction, which was a complete accident waiting to happen. Thankfully I noticed a guy coming out so he didn't whack my daughter in the face with the door. I think the doors should be labeled "in" and "out" (b/c a lot of people are dumb and can't adhere to the 'stay to the right' principle) or kill the double doors all together.
Amara was cute and bubbly but it seemed like her first rodeo. We seemed to have to wait a little bit too long for the pizza bread we ordered as an appetizer. She didn't check in with us enough throughout the meal. She was a little too "buddy-ish" and not quite professional enough. I felt like she was treating me like a high school friend. Now, I agree I can have a very casual presence, but staff should maintain their professional demeanor.
We got 40% and free dessert, but otherwise I was let down. I don't think we would go back to pay full price. I'm sorry to say that, because I like the salon owner and her family, and  I realize the owner is her husband! I'm much happier with the way the salon is run. I think there's more attention to detail.
Oh, after glancing at the other reviews, I remembered that the waitresses seemed slammed and too busy, while there was a hostess that stood at the front and did practically nothing for the 45 minutes we were there. There were also a couple dudes hanging around by the drink station in the back who seemed to have too-little to do. The staffing was unfortunately uneven.