Its a decent place to watch the Hawks  play a Playoff game , Tuesdays  is  $1 beer night with $5 burgers/Fries / Slaw .  a pretty good deal  for what you get  , Beers are small cups though . the food was average for a bar of this type.
there are a lot of TV's  so viewing a game is not a problem ,, our Waitress  Madigan was very nice and attentive . I'l go back for more.
Thirsty Whale is mediocre. Â The staff of young girls are nice to look at but are absolutely terrible at service. Â If you are going to hire waitresses with no experience, at least train them on the basics...like looking for empty beer glasses on the tables to see when someone may need another one.
Service is so key that if it's bad the rest of dinning/drinking experience will be ruined.
The food here is good bar style offerings. Â I had the meatball sandwich which was good, and they have fresh cut fries, which I love.
The atmosphere seemed nice for a strip mall bar. Â Lots of TV's, I would assume it's a good place to watch a game.
I would say check thirsty whale out but make sure you stay on top of your waitress or she will probably forget you.
This packed was packed for the Blachkawks game when we went in. The host at the front door was very friendly and welcoming. We were seated relatively quickly for how full the place was.We had never been there before and weren't sure what to expect. Â Our server came over quickly and didn't notice we had a baby in a carrier. She never offered to get us a sling or a highchair. We had to keep the seat on a chair that barely fit the carrier all night long.
We ordered an appetizer of the Nachos. They were great! The kitchen manager brought them out and was very friendly. Our food overall was not bad. It was better than typical bar food.
The Blackhawks came on and this place really woke up. We were seated in front of one of the major projection screens. It kept losing signal,which was really annoying. Also, they sound the air  horn when the Hawks score, giving you the feeling of being at the game. However, it was really annoying when the sound went off for no reason when neither team scored.
Overall, it is nicer than your usual sports bar. I would not recommend it for families or kids under 10 due to the noise level and crowd. The food is pretty good.
If you're sitting at the bar, you're experience will be pretty decent or awful depending on who your bartender is. Â
This place is more of a college age-mid/late twenties crowd on Friday/Saturday nights. Â The food is average, aside from the nachos, which are AMAZING. Â Lots of bro's frequent this place as well ...
This place is awesome!! Â I've been here a few times and absolutely love the VIBE and not to mention, the bar staff is easy to look at too ~
Very well designed and laid out, good crowds that tend to have big time fun and usually a good band later in the night on weekends.
Love it, plan on going back a ton
It seems like kind of a nicer Buffalo Wild Wings, with a small stage for live music. Pretty much everything on the food menu looks good, but I ordered a southwestern chicken wrap and it seemed a little overpriced. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as "southwestern" as I was expecting, or either as big or have as many fries as it probably should have. Drink prices were decent.
Beyond that, my friends and I were here for a full 45 minutes before we were able to actually get a server's attention. It was like none of the staff by the stage (incidentally, right near the kitchen) paid any attention to us, even though we grabbed menus and were looking at them. They'd all walk the other direction or somehow not look at us. I couldn't believe it. That said, our server was nice and our food (when eventually ordered) didn't take long to come out, and even though I wasn't really sold on my wrap, it wasn't bad. My friend had the bacon cheeseburger and he said it was great.
We stayed because we were there to watch a friend's band. I'm doubt we would've stuck around otherwise since the service was so poor early on. I'm not saying I *wouldn't* go back, but another experience like this and then I will say so.
4 adults, 1 teenager and 2 kids.
I had the chicken wrap... it was good. The other adults had hamburgers and said they were just "alright". The teenager had the veggie burger. She didn't like it. The little kids had the chicken fingers... they ate the fries and brought the chicken fingers home (which are still in the fridge 3 days later... I'm guessing they didn't like them).
We ordered the nacho's for an appetizer... they were awesome!
The ranch dip is the best ranch dip in the area. Seriously, folks... damn good.
went back for a nightly session with an out of town buddy. the food is still pretty good. Attractive servers add to the experience. the joint was hopping on a Sat night and there was a fun band called the Party hardigans who got the place rockin' Â the crowd is mixed but there are a lot of desparate looking gals and some wanna be tough guys who seemed to be from Wonder Tucky LOL. Â a real pick up joint at night. not a bad venue but if they want to attract a better clientele they might want to discourage the redneck crowd.
Review Source:Nothing good about this place except the serve alcohol. Â They probably do this so that they can't you loopy enough to notice that the place is not a good one. Â The food is below average bar food that is usually served warm to cold. Â The wait is long and the bar is smack dap in the front do and so crowded that is can take 30 minutes to get a drink. Â Noise level is also to the extreme.
I have taken this place off the list of place I will even consider when deciding to go out.
We were on our way out of Chicago to Wisconsin for a weekend getaway. Â We wanted to try something different before leaving Illinois, and we found The Thirsty Whale. Â The place looked busy but not too crowded. Â With a party of four, we were seated in under 5 minutes, and had drinks 5 minutes after that. Â It seemed like we were in for a great dining experience...
Once we placed our order, that was the nearly the last time we saw any of the staff. Â After fifteen minutes we concluded that they must be very busy. Â After twenty minutes, the bus boys cleared our glasses, so we thought it might be an appropriate time to ask for our waitress. Â Five minutes later, she appeared, and she was very apologetic. Â That put us at ease for a short while, but five minutes after that, only half of our appetizers appear. Â At this point, we thought it might be appropriate to speak to the manager. Â (If you're keeping track, it took roughly 40 minutes to receive half of our appetizers.)
At this point, disappointment and frustration (and hunger) turn into comedy. Â A short stocky gentleman in a button down collar shirt starts hovering around our table. Â He never stops to talk to us, but he keeps passing our table. Â He then wanders over to the server station and starts to chastise our server, who becomes visibly upset.
Almost one hour later, our remaining order began to trickle in: Â Only, one order was served cold, and a similar order served piping hot. Â By that time, we had all lost our appetites, and just wanted to get out of that hell hole. Â Finally, in cowardly fashion, the gentleman in the collared shirt approaches us, but only after the food has been delivered. Â He introduces himself as the manager, Frank. Â When we try to conversationally describe our dissatisfaction, he actually blames his assistant manager for not helping us. Â As a final insult, when we tell Frank that we just want the bill so that we can leave, he offers us four complimentary lite beers. Â Up until that point in my life, I had never turned down a free beer.
The worst part: As we were leaving, we learned that Frank was not just the manager on duty, he is one of the owners. Â I think I finally understand my disappointment: Â If an owner doesn't care enough about his establishment to make things right, why should his employees and patrons care about his establishment?
Yelp requires the rating to be at least one star: Â This place does not even deserve that.
The service and dj sucks! I will never go back to a place with such slow service and a terrible DJ. The music is too loud with a dance floor with no one dancing on. This place has no pool table or darts so your force to drink weak drinks and listen to a crap DJ. I have never walked into a place before and been ignored waiting on the hostess to arrive. Â I recently went in there to watch the Blackhawks playoff game and stood waiting for someone to sit us. How does this place survive with such terrible customer service in ALGONQUIN?
Review Source:ugh! I am willing to cut a little slack when I can tell a place is busy and there is a long wait for food - but our waiting seemed a bit excessive. I personally ordered the "special" - jerk crusted tilapia. It tasted like - tilapia. No taste of jerk seasoning at all. When I mentioned this the waitress went to see if she could get some extra jerk seasoning and was told that it was just marinated in the jerk sauce, not meant to be spicy. huh? It's JERK! I love jerk and being disappointed in that dish was enough to ruin my night. Should have just gotten the bar food - nobody can really mess that up.
Review Source:Thirsty Whale never lets me down!! I have been here a bunch of times to celebrate birthdays, to watch a game, or even just to eat and I have always had an amazing experience. The waitresses are super friendly and are always checking on you to see if you need refills on your drink or anything else. This time I came on a wednesday night for a last minute dinner idea with a friend....I got to pick where we went and Thirsty Whale was the winner!! We walked in about 8:30pm so a little late for dinner but the place had a nice size crowd. They said we could pick any table to sit at and as soon as we sat down the waitress came right over to us to ask if we needed a drink. We ended up getting a pitcher of beer for 5 bucks, that was the special for wednesday. and we ordered mac and cheese bites to start off with. The mac and cheese bites are AWESOME!!! They came out hot and full of mac and cheese, they were not greasey like Ive had at other places. By the time we were done with those I had finally picked something to eat....I had a really hard time with this because the menu is SO big and everything is SO good!!! I ended up ordering the house burger, which was also on special for 5 bucks, and it came with fries. You can't beat the deal!! Our food was out in no time and everything was amazing. The burger is a good size(i had left overs) and the fries are crispy and still have the skin on them...the best kind. at about 10 pm they had a DJ come in and play music, no one was dancing but it was kinda nice to have great music to listen to while hanging out for a little bit.
I will continue to come to Thirsty Whale for there friendly staff and AMAZING food!!!
I have been here a few times (a couple of birthday parties, including my own) and they have always been great.
They are able to accommodate large parties very easily (just call ahead!!) and they are good for smaller parties, too!
My friends and I came here after my friend's play. Â We arrived at about 7:30 on a Wednesday night during a dual Bulls/Hawks game. Â The bar area was really crowded, but the other "dining" side was pretty sparse, so we were seated there. Â We really liked it, though, because it was more quiet, but you could still see the games on the million big screen TVs they have!
Our waitress was *really* patient with us (not extremely friendly, though) when we were waiting for two of our cohorts to arrive for about 20 minutes. Â
I ordered the Steak Burger (burger with A1 sauce, mushrooms, and carmelized onions). Â It was alright...I LOVE mushrooms, but these ones had a funky taste to them. Â I didn't really care for that, so I picked them off. Â The fries were good, and the ranch on my salad was DELICIOUS. Â And a very good portion for a "side" salad.
It was a good time had by all, and I will be back again!
This place is a never ending 1989 class reunion (like for every school in a 1000 mile radius).  This is where all the 40 year old ALG/LITH townie divorcés in sport coats go to pick up chicks.  Newsflash! You're 40 and you're divorced; nice try, but you haven't been hot $h!t for like 20 years. Â
Same goes for all of the women, but hitting on damaged goods is so darn easy.... and so damn fun! "Hello, I think you're pretty. Why yes, I would like to take you home." Â Best part: Â The old chick you banged last week won't be around the following weekend because her, "kids' dad had em last weekend."
Holiday crowd: Young college hot shits come home to rule the roost for a couple of days.
SERVICE: F minus. They are always under-staffed!!!!! They always over-crowd the place! They act like you're an a-hole for wanting to buy some drinks. Â Mmmmmmmm this 8 dollar beer is delicious in this piping hot beer mug.
Seriously, if this place is your first pick, then you deserve the horrible time you are guaranteed to have.
Menu ok. Kept flipping menu over hoping for something else to magically appear on the back. ;). Settled on Ceasar salad which was good. Drinks are good. Frank the owner has an eagle eye watch his staff and guest to ensure guests are happy. Quickly coming over to make sure everything is ok if he notices something being questioned. Needless to say nothing was wrong and he offered to buy us a drink. Classy!! Â Burgers here are good too. However I would like to see some better bands. Â Can really do without the heavy metal smashing pumpkins wanna bees. And the music really doesn't need to be that loud. Â Booths are comfortable. Wanna see the band? Get there early or plan to stand with the rest.
Review Source:Went there for the first time after driving past it on a daily basis and really wish I would have kept on driving. We had a party of about 20 people to celebrate 2 colleagues being promoted and they tried pushing tables together to accommodate all of us up against the window and into a corner. There weren't that many people there but we kept getting bumped in to and our server was nearly impossible to track down. You would think that she'd be with us a lot more considering we had 20 people and the bar excluding our group maybe had 12-15 people who were mainly sitting at the bar. The mixed drinks were really weak and it was clear they hadn't cleaned the lines when they changed kegs and switched brands so the beer was funky. The patrons all seemed to be in their early 20's and a few of them kept eyeballing my male friends who are quite large body builders and fighters as if they wanted to start problems. One short little guy kept bumping one of our friends trying to bait him in to a scuffle and it turned into a verbal exchange that was ended by a bouncer once one of us retrieved one from smoking outside. Not impressive at all and I feel badly we didn't go to a better place to celebrate.
Review Source:It's nice to finally have a decent bar in the area, and I've been here twice. Â Both times were good experiences, although I wish they'd add a little more selection to the wine list (admittedly this is not a wine kinda place, but still). Â The crowd varies, particularly if there's live music. Â I went on a night when there wasn't live music and it seemed like mostly 20 and 30 somethings, but then I went on a night when they hosted a country band and the crowd was much older.
Review Source:If I could, would give 3.5. Â A bit better than A-OK but not quite a 4 - however, a few tweaks and they could get there, or even to a 5.
Dropped by for late dinner on a Saturday night, 9:30. Standing room only - Â place was hopping, and food looked great. Â Unfortunately, hard to eat a sit-down meal, standing up. Â Not prepared for or dressed for hanging out in bar, but it looked fun - worth going back another time for beverage. Â Surprised by how many kids were there - suspect they were lingering from dinner, and on their way home shortly.
So - headed back Sunday lunch - and split a loaded fries (great!) and a salad. Â Â Salad was solid, but not fantastic.
Service was mediocre.  Asked if egg on the salad could be left off and was told "oh don't worry - it's all seperate, you can just remove what you don't want easily".  Apparantly the server has no concept of food allergies - cause it showed up with the crumbled egg touching the greens.  Not a big deal for me - allergy is thankfully mild - easily resolved by appropriate drugs  :-)  However, for someone with a more concerning allergy, this would have gone back to the kitchen.  Picked off the egg, ate the salad... which definately (on reflection) have been better with the egg.
Poor selection of beers - really limited, quite frankly to the standard fare you find in every other bar. Â Doesn't the name of it sound like a place that should have a great beer selection?!?! Â Will affect decisions around going back if just going for drinks.
Not large portions - you may wish to split appetizers/meals to keep it reasonable.
Â
Would I recommend: Definately yes for late night... yes, but less enthusiastically for dinner/lunch.
Would I return: Â It's within a mile of my house, in a area we go to regularly...and food's reliable - so yeah, we'll go back.
This place used to be the Red Star Bar before it changed to the Thirsty Whale recently. Yes there was a place in River Grove called the Thirsty Whale, my band played there back in the 80's but its long closed. There is a restaurant in Minocqua, WI called the Thirsty Whale also. Not a very original name but they went with it here in Algonquin. I went with a group for drinks only, cannot comment on the food. On a Friday night we were there and the placed got way over packed by about 10 PM. No room to hardly stand near the bar and little chance to get a seat anywhere. Yet they kept packing them in at the door using some very scary looking bouncers. We did get seats at the bar because we arrived a little early and were very lucky. Quite a young crowd there and it was an obvious meat market. They had decent beer on tap though and the bartenders did a good job keeping up. Tons of huge HD flat screens everywhere to watch sports. Overall, not really my kind of place. Doubt I will go here again.
Review Source:DRINKS ARE WEAK HERE. BYOB IF POSSIBLE because they're very skimpy with the booze. Other than that small fact, this place is a riot! First time I went, there were a total of 3 awesome fights!
First fight:
I'm standing outside in the cold sharing a smoke with some friends... I hear a BANG!!! on the glass of the outside door right next to me. BANG!!! again as a woman in heels kicks the door open as hard as she can. The doorman had her in a FULL NELSON! HAHA! He pushed her out the door and told her to get lost. "I'LL F*CKING KILL YOU!!!!!", screamed the extremely drunk woman as she stumbled away. At first I was shocked to see a man handling a woman like that, but I'm sure he was just doing his job...so on to...
Fight 2:
The hard-ass bouncer dude springs into action again! This time denying entry to a small Asian 'bro' because of a FAKE ID. So the little Asian bro actually tried pushing his way past the bouncer and into the bar. Well the doorman would have none of that, so he ESCORTED the asian bro out the door by his collar! Well I'll be damned if that Asian bro didn't have a huge posse' of other bros with him. They all started a tussel in the parking lot with the bouncer! So in like 0 degree weather, this bouncer is outside with only a t-shirt on fending off wave after wave of banzai charges for like a good 15 minutes! Finally the Asiatic bros retreated into their souped up Civics and made whiny high pitched engine revs off into the night.
Fight 3:
I totally missed this one since the Asian bro experience was just settling down and a crowd of us had gathered to watch outside. Then suddenly, before I could even make it back indoors, somebody got a bottle smashed over their head on the dance floor!!! What action!!
So overall--come drunk, come for the people watching, stay for the brawls!!
OK OK, so i went back, this time for a friend's birthday celebration. It is a lot better of a place if you go in thinking bar/club, and not restaurant.
That being said, the waitstaff still needs some help in the service department. It was a lot faster to go up to the bar and get a drink than to wait for the waitress to come by the table.
Decent music being played along with their videos playing on one of the many TVs throughout. Around about 11pm on Friday night a DJ started to spin (or play mp3s or whatever DJs nowadays do). Standard club music in my opinion. Then there was the Go-Go dancers, 2 scantily clad ladies dancing by themselves on a raised box. I admit they were attractive, but wore knee-high ultra fuzzy boots. Maybe in these troubled times, boots made from the fur of the abominable snowman are sexy, but I just don't see it.
Anyway, I digress. The point of this review update is to say; the Thirsty Whale is a great place to go for a decent nightlife bar/club. Don't expect the greatest of service or gourmet food, and you won't be let down.
p.s. If you get a chance to see a guy nicknamed "The Storm" dance, consider yourself lucky!
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