I went here one evening because it was the only thing open and I craved a burger. It was my first time, the guy on staff working there was nice and we talked as he made my food and I even left him a tip. I skimmed the bag to make sure my food was all there but when I finally got to my boyfriends house, hollyhell was I mad!
Onion rings burnt! One piece of bacon on BACON Burger, put mustard on my polish when I only asked for ketchup, and some fries were still frozen.
I wanted my tip back, food tasted so bad we had to go get Mexican in humbult park, which no restaurant there has disappoint me yet.
Though they are building an Al's beef by Jewel, I cant wait!
The duck sausage sounded like a great choice sad to say it was pretty dry as well as the bun it was placed on. They need to step up there food quality!
Service seemed to be lacking. Staff seemed to be a bit amateur and there is a stripper pole? How interesting a stripper pole in a sausage stand?
I would say there are many other places close by that have much better sausage. It might not be "duck" but it will taste much better!
I saw the Yelp reviews and saw they were pretty low, but I still patronized Heat anyway. Their wild game sausages (elk, pheasant, duck) intrigued me. Went for a quick, laid-back dinner. It was pretty bad. We didn't finish our food and we ended up getting a full refund. Yeah, that's how bad it was.
First, we ordered two sausages (elk/pear and duck/orange) and a Cali burger. When we got our order, we only got one sausage and the burger. We reminded them of our missing sausage, which they quickly cooked up. However, before we got our last item, we began eating our other items only to find them all to be severely undercooked. Pink and squishy. Not even passing for rare...just pretty much uncooked. Upon eating more than we probably should have, we told the manager that everything was vastly undercooked. He apologized and offered to cook us up some more food, but we declined. We were kind of skeezed out at that point. He then said he'd give us 50% back. Really? You're still going to make us pay for half of our barely cooked half eaten food?
Then the owner came up to our table, apologized profusely and said he'd refund all of our dinner. So that's something. He blamed the cooks as being inexperienced and brand new. Ok, maybe so, but from what I've read on here, it sounds like the cooks are always pretty bad and you can't always use their newness for an excuse. The owner gave us his card and said that next time we come, we can get our meal 50% off, because he wants to "make it right." I get that, and it's a good philosophy to have. But frankly, I don't see myself coming back, even for a discounted meal.
My boyfriend has a significant amount of experience working in restaurant kitchens, so he knows it's not *that* difficult to cook up a sausage so that it won't cause gastro-intestical distress. My boyfriend also suggested to the owner that he go into the kitchen to see what's going on. Sounds logical. Things aren't going well, somebody needs to step up and demonstrate leadership qualities.
So this place was a bummer. The rest of the night my boyfriend and I worried if we'd be able to make it to work the next day of if we'd be on the bathroom floor in the fetal position. Sixteen hours since eating there and I can say my gastro-intestinal track is in ship-shape. But I'd rather not take the risk again.
This place is located downstairs below Flash Taco. First door when walking from the Blue Line - Damen Stop.
This place is awesome. It has some unique exotic cuisine such as Elk and Pear Sausage, and Truffle Fries, as well as a spicy Caliente Burger. They also have some more classic American cuisine, such as Chicago-style Hot Dogs, Chile Cheese Dogs, and Bacon Cheeseburgers. There was only one guy working in the place when I was there. He was very nice and polite, but was busy and I had to wait a little bit to order . I got my food in 3 minutes after I ordered and it was still hot when I got home a half hour later. My only complaint was that they were all out of onion rings when I was there.
Was that 3am veggie dog + fries a good idea?
No. No it was not...
This place is weird, and kind of gross. Â It's really gross at 3am. Â
Flashbacks from the weekend:
- a sense of chaos and disorder and uncleanliness
- scuffle with two customers who wanted to sit at/take my table
- (homeless?) woman walks behind counter, grabs mop and proceeds to mop the soaking-wet-from-snow floors - wtf?
- people breaking out in dance while in line, waiting to order
- orders taking a long time..... Â
- realizing the veggie dog was a mistake WHILE eating it
I've been here twice and ordered sausages (boar and duck) each time. Â The sausages, while solid and tasty, really can't compare to a place like Hot Doug's. Â Truffle fries just seemed like regular fries, but I'm not complaining as they were crispy and hot. Â I will gripe about not getting napkins though. Â I'm also not a fan of eating in basement spaces nor waiting 10-15 minutes for sausage (I guess it's good to know that it was cooked to order), but for an inexpensive, meaty late night bite Heat certainly suffices.
Review Source:What a poor excuse for a hot dog joint. Â This is Chicago. There's hot dog places everywhere and this is all you got! Â Menu is way overpriced for the garbage they sling here. Â Got a chicago style dog and the garden on top was old and wilted and gross. Â Hot dogs also tasted like they'd been around for days. AWFUL!
Review Source:This is a great place to go if you want to try some kind of meat out of the ordinary. The name however they need to change there name. My boyfriend and I are "heat" seekers, we love spicy food and were excited to see a place called Heat reading the menu was a let down. Â However, we were hunger so we looked at the menu. I'm glad we did. The burgers and juicy and flavorful, and the hotdogs are very unique. My boyfriend and I were here During the 4th of July weekend and were the only two people in the place besides the owners family. I would certainly go back, just because the food that they offer is different.
Review Source:this place is probably only good for some late night drunk food. Â From trying there disappointing cheesy char dog, which sounded awesome, I knew the rest couldn't be so good either. My friend had gotten the Chicago style which was like half right.. it didn't have the right relish, celery salt, pickle or the right bun. The place was nice looking, and the service and speed of food arrival was reasonable. Â The 1 star goes to the music, since I heard arcade fire and pixies while I was there :). But yeah, that was it, ill skip it completely next time
Review Source:I've only been once but would not go back. My chili cheese dog was fairly bland and unexciting. The bun completely fell apart with the weight of the hot dog and chili. The fries tasted like they had been sitting out for a while and were fairly limp. There were no napkins. The fountain soda machine was out of order as well as their debit/credit payment option.
I wanted to like it but I didn't find any redeeming qualities. They did everything wrong.
I should start off by saying that if I could give them ZERO stars, I would.
I ordered a cheddar char dog with everything (grilled onions), a regular hot dog with everything (grilled onions), and cheese fries.
When I got home, I had two regular hot dogs, on old buns, one with mustard, one without, both with 3 soggy pickle CHIPS, big round slices of onion, no tomato, no relish, no grilled onions, and no peppers. Â
The cheese fries were the worst I've ever had. Â The fries tasted as if they had been made the night before and had warm cheese poured over them that was also tasteless.
To top it all off, I was overcharged $3.
I will NEVER return and I suggest you save yourself from an awful meal and walk down the street to George's Hot Dogs.
At 12:00 noon on Saturday 10/22/11 we were looking for a quick place to feed out hungry toddler and ourselves. The sign said Gourmet Burgers.
We went downstairs and were the only ones in the place. Â All the other local restaurants were packed. Â That should have been the first clue to RUN away. Â We ordered 2 Cheeseburgers and a Chili Cheesedog.
I paid. Â Then I saw the grill cook take 2 PRECOOKED burgers out of a pan of water. Â This is Gourmet? Â I asked when they were cooked, I was told 5 minutes ago. Â BS! Â The order took 15 minutes to prepare. Â I don't even think the grill was fully fired up. Â The first burger ordered medium was served screaming rare. Â The fries were greasy. The cheese was CHEEZ with a "Z". Â The burger was tasteless. Â Worst Burger I have had in long time. Â The Hot Dog was barely charred after being initially boiled.
We threw away most of our food. Â I Will NEVER head back and left feeling VIOLATED.
Nas.Tee. The sweet potato fries were limp and greasy. The dog I ordered didn't have the right ingredients on it. The goopy sauces on top actually made me feel sorry for the little hot dog drowning inside. I tried to order a fountain drink and they were out. I wasn't about to pay two bucks for a bottled soda.
The employee informed me that she would charge me after the food was done cooking. After bagging the food, she told me to have a nice day and started to turn around. I asked her what I owed her and she just said "oh yeah." Maybe she knew that it wasn't worth the money they charge. Wish I would have read the Yelp reviews before I went. There is no reason anyone should ever go here.
Diddy would probably slap a B for attaching his name to such an atrocity.
Today I witnessed the death of a legend before its time.
I walked downstairs to the site of my favorite sausage party, and there it was: A sign reading "Under New Management. Everybody gets 10% off."
uh-oh.
So I walked up to the counter, and the guy who took my order couldn't articulate the word "Bavarian."
uh-oh.
I get my food and leave. I get home and eat it. Here's a short list of what was wrong with it:
- skins in my shallots
- tasteless unseasoned, overcooked sausage
- No truffle fries. Only regular fries. Is that why I got 10% off?
- Fries were all stuck together... Like in a glob. They had been pre-fried and re-fried to order. They had been salted approximately 20 times.
I loved this place. I was mayor on Foursquare for a brief stint. At this rate, their doors will be closed by the end of the year. So sad.
This place is GREAT!!! Â A great change from the dump "Underdog" that was there before. Â I don't go late night, as it and FlashTaco above it get filled with drunk hipsters, but the food is worth it otherwise. Â Fries can be soggy at times, but the fresh stuffed wild game sausages are stellar!
Review Source:I've been to Heat twice and I really wanted to like it...but, unfortunately, that ended up being two too many times.
Both times I went, they were OUT of hotdogs. TWO TIMES and OUT OF HOTDOGS! For a place with a hotdog on the sign this is completely unacceptable- you don't see taco places running out of tacos or ice cream parlors running out of ice cream.
The employees were messing around behind the counter, and completely ignoring me and the one other guy in line. On top of that, the food took about 20 minutes to make.
I got my order to go, a turkey burger- it was all that was available. It was overcooked but still pretty tasty (hence the extra star).
Heat has potential but my visits there were frustrating to say the least so I won't be going back.
Save yourself the trouble and hit up the street hotdog stands- those guys know service and definitely won't be running out of hotdogs in your late night hotdog-time-of-need.
Nightmarish. Not even talking about the lack of ventilation. I mean, I'd been to Underdog, so whatever, who cares. No, what I'm talking about is:
a) The whole aesthetic: seriously some of the least-appetizing graphic design I've ever seen, all in a scatological color scheme.
b) There was only one guy working there, and he seemed really confused. Needless to say, watching him work the grill did not inspire confidence.
c) I ordered a burger, medium rare, with Chipotle Mayo (which was the simplest burger on the menu for some reason?). The burger I received was cooked way past medium (which, whatever, that happens) and completely dry. The lettuce and tomato were also in really sad shape. Worst burger I've ever had (that I didn't make myself).
d) The fries are not just bad, but shockingly, jaw-droppingly bad. The combination of oiliness, flavorlessness and mushiness was nothing short of supernatural. I had no idea fries could be this bad. So I guess I learned something new.
All in all, though, I've been to lousy burger/dog joints before and I can't say I'm not impressed by the way this place leaves them all in the dust with its perfect storm of pure garbage. Dang.
I was fairly excited to see a wild game sausage stand open up remotely close to my house but after the first visit I'm sorry to report that the spirit of Underdog still lives on.
No matter how much faux-truffle herbs you sprinkle on fries, they will remain borderline inedible when they are as soggy and oily as an al dente pasta dish. This was one of the few times I wished that idiot-proof processed fries were used instead of the fresh cut variety.
The 4oz sausage has about an inch on either side of it when compared to the bun. I received not 1 but 2 incorrect toppings. Grilled onions are not roasted shallots. Roasted red peppers are VERY not oven dried tomatoes.
Now for the (questionable) finances portion of the review: How is an 8oz bottled diet Coke $0.50 more expensive than a 12oz canned Coca Cola? Maybe I should have saved the bottle since it has some intrinsic value I couldn't comprehend.
Had some dinner with a friend here on the way home last night. Ordered the pheasant and cognac sausage, side of truffle fries that comes with the gourmet sausages, and a drink. It came out to just under $10. The price seemed kind of high, but I figured that it might be worth a shot if I were to be eating a gourmet sausage.
My order came out, and I embarked on one of the most notable failures of a meal that I've ever had at a hot dog stand. If you're like me, you may think, "Hey, it's a hot dog joint. How bad can it be?" I assure you, it was terrible and a poor value for the price given the bad quality of the food. The basement restaurant being as hot as a dungeon didn't help either.
The pheasant and cognac sausage was absolutely tiny. It covered only 2/3 of the standard sized hot dog bun. The tomato compote topping was flavorless, just like the sausage. I had to hose the whole mess with mustard just to get any taste. This is NOT a gourmet sausage by any stretch of the imagination.
I am a big fan of hand cut fries, and was excited to try their hand-cut truffle fries. This excitement was totally unwarranted. The cook failed to fry the fries long enough, so they had a raw potato texture. The truffle coating was a flop too. It looked more like an oily mess with some dried green herbs mixed in - no truffle flavor, no herb flavor, just added greasyness.
If Yelp would allow us to give out zero stars, I'd give this place that rating. I recommend that you avoid this place at all costs if you consider yourself to be a hot dog aficionado or just want a solid dog. I suggest going to any of the numerous neighborhood hot dog joints found in the city, Hot Doug's, or hell - even Costco's food court for their $1.50 dog - for a much better experience.
Hey, owners of Heat, are you reading these reviews???
CHANGE YOUR FRIES!!!!!!!
Look, the fries here are so bad, they are inedible. They taste like plain chunks of baked potato. They bring down the entire menu because all entrees come with them, and they were so bad that it would make me mad to see them on my plate again. It is not that hard to make unremarkable fries, which would have at least warranted this place 3 stars. But these are remarkably bad.
As far as sausages, the bf and I split the wild boar and the bacon-wraped char dog. The wild boar didn't do much for us, I guess I could see people liking it, though. The bacon wrapped dog was actually fantastic, and if they sold it ala carte, MAYBE I'd go back some time. But they don't. And as I may have mentioned, I refuse to pay money for those awful fries ever again.
I liked:
-My duck and orange sausage with carmelized onions.
-My husband's rabbit sausage also with caramelized onions.
-The fact they had unsweetened green iced tea.
-The fact it was cheap(er) than some of the other places around the area.
-The fact that no one was there when I went, around 6:30p on a Wed.
I did not like:
-The place itself. It's an improvement of when it was Underdog though, so props to the new owners. It's still a basement with no A/C though.
-The wait for the food. Â It was kinda long. Like 15 min to get our food and we were the only ones there.
-The fries. Â They were garbage. Hand cut but greasy as hell and did not taste remotely truffley.
Would I come back? Probably. The dogs were good, but I'd prob try the burgers next.
Hahahahahahha.....okay...okay. Oh man, my sides hurt. Let me regain my composure.
WHAT is going on behind your counter? Is there a carbon monoxide leak back there? I had to place my very simple order "Bacon Char Dog" 3 times before it registered.
I paid. "Is that all for you?" She asked. What the hell???? I just paid you...and you gave me change, then I walked away. Why are you asking me this? Clearly you are trying trick me into thinking I'm high.
Ten minutes passed.
The wrong order was handed to me. Not even close.
5 minutes passed, the correct  hot dog was given to me. My friend's order was issued in the same fashion several minutes later. He ordered sweet potato fries, however. I'm sure it's the first time it has ever happened.  Â
Either this is an elaborate and hilarious social experiment, or this place needs better ventilation.
Top line: A huge disappointment. Â In an area rife with yuppies, hipsters, the summer bums, and enough foot traffic to stop a Chinese tank, Heat has gone with a half-assed attempt in hopes that the drunk will ultimately make it downstairs and keep them afloat. Â
The food: just okay.  The hot dog looks like it came off the rack at Tulip down the street - HUGE.  The chili and cheese were run of the mill and could've come from a bag/can.  I tried the wild boar and it was about 4" and had no flavor.  They top it with sautéed shallots and roasted tomatoes which were gross and ended up in my trash.  Some spicy mustard or a sriracha-mayo would've been better.  Or, hell, a fresh tomato.
The experience: I first arrived at 11am and let in by one of the employees only to find out upon going downstairs that the joint opened at 1130. Â Strike 1.
I was the only one there at 1130 - shock - yet the pre-prepared dogs took nearly 20 minutes. Â Strike 2.
While I was waiting, another gentleman came in and ordered the Polish. Â Since the cook/owner?/dude in charge was on the phone during the prep of my order, he didn't get the order until after my order was out the window. Â For that gentleman, his food was going to take another 20 AND his soda was not right. Â Strike 3.
The...uh...girls that work there are slightly dim. Â This is made even worse by the employees from Flash Taco coming downstairs flirting with them and exchanging PDAs all while I was waiting for my food and while the dude in charge was on the phone. Â Oh, and the gentleman was sitting and sipping on the soda that was wrong. Â Strike 4.
Bottom line: This place could be better with a better staff and MANAGEMENT because right now, it blows.
For the price, simply amazing tasting food. Features quick gourmet eats (burgers, sausages, hot dogs) rarely found elsewhere in the city. Take a look at their menu and you'll see its not traditional sausages, burgers, and dogs. They have such items like elk sausage, salmon burger, char dogs to name a few. Â
I had the boar's sausage which was very tasty with truffle fries which are amazing. I will definitely return to this spot.
The old Underdog has gotten a much needed change. Heat has one of the tastiest sausages I have ever had. I got the elk and pear sausage which came with roasted red peppers.
Yet I only gave it 3 stars and should have been 3 1/2 because of the fries. They come free with all of the burgers and sausages yet  were underdone. They are fresh cut and once they are perfected the truffle oil and rosemary will complement them well.
With a couple of more weeks under their belt this place will be very tasty, cant wait for one of these sausages after a night on the town
Very nice people to open the recent addition to Bucktown/Wicker Park in the former spot occupied by Underdogg's. Menu has "wild game sausages, gourmet dogs, burgers and interesting sides" according to the flyer. All sausages, dogs and burgers come with fries standard, much like most other dog joints in the city, which has always been an odd one to me.
The place is in a basement, so it's not really fair to discuss the interior. It's refinished and they went with a flame/fire theme for the table tops and menu board. The real big kick here is going to be the game sausages I think and the wild board did not disappoint. Very "Hot Doug's"-esque, but definitely doing their own thing and I liked my meal a lot. The "you get them even if you don't want them" fries were actually really bad surprisingly as they were doused in oil and rosemary and very soggy. I'm sure that won't last long though since they really seemed excited about first impressions and keeping people happy.
I'll be going back for more wild boar and also to try out the burgers.
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