My reservation to try Underdogg despite living in the neighborhood for years now mainly stemmed from a general hatred of their upstairs time share Flash Taco. That establishment's "vegetarian" menu is beyond a joke with its lard filled refried beans and fish tacos - and since they're essentially the same establishment split in two, I think it's fair to throw a jab or two in there about them.
Onto Underdogg, Melissa M and I came in here one night after a show at the Bottle mainly out of curiousity as we had heard moderately good things about their veggie dog. The dog, while grilled on a separate burner than the rest (a consideration which is truly appreciated) is unfortunately shriveled and small, barely there amidst the abundance of dragged through the garden toppings outfitting it in traditional Chicago regalia. The french fries are typical frozen bag fare - pretty hard to botch up.
The three stars are generous given this place's atmosphere and I'm mainly giving them because they atleast offer a legit vegan option that can be found super late at night during the off chance I'm too lazy to go home and throw a veggie dog into the frying pan myself. It's decent.
No longer called Underdogg, it's called "Under"-something or other. But does it really matter? You know what you're getting yourself into. We stopped in here after midnight to fill our bellies quickly and cheaply, so we could power on. And Underdogg accomplishes that.
The space is barebones with two Vizio flat screens (to class up the joint, haha). Fries come w/every dog purchase and they were made right then, super hot, and not half bad, actually.
And now the Underdog Theme Song, just because:
<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D7XRil07h5uE&s=3f5134becbb295509fea9d9b842549ee59e0307e28f1ad2639058bb8cc2a3377" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/w…</a>
It's just a guilty pleasure. Makes great drunk food or junk food.
I stopped by a couple of weeks ago and the fries were so greasy they were dripping out of the bottom of the bag by the time we got home.
So yeah, yuck-- but what you pay for is what you get. The bad foreign music videos, unsynced to whatever is playing on the radio make for a pretty hilarious combination.
The fact that I couldn't Yelp this place for the longest time because I kept searching for a hot dog place called 'Hell's Kitchen" with a cook that resembled Tommy Lee is hysterical.
The fact that everyone on Yelp hates it, and I thought my food was crazy delicious makes me feel a little...indifferent.
After waaaayy too many vodka cranberry's at Rehab one random Monday night all I remember was arguing with two of my friends in front of Flash Taco (I recall shouting "There's no way were eating there! You're seriously better off at Taco Bell!") and somehow leading them down the steps to Underdogg, seeing the flames on the wall and feeling unbearably hot on the way down and telling them were eating in "Hell's Kitchen" tonight.
I guess it did take a little long...because I got in trouble with our DD for "disappearing for over half an hour"....but you know what?!? BEST DRUNKEN CHEESBURGER EVER. Legit.
lol. Feel free to ignore this review.
our first mistake was coming here sober.
second mistake was assuming that, at 12:15 pm on a Sunday, our order wouldn't take 25 freakin minutes to complete. Â Really?
third mistake was not double-checking the order. Â I was in a rush to get the eff out of there, and turns out they forgot our pop, which we had paid for,
food was inedible. Â ended up giving our cheese fries to the dog.
even by pickup joint standards, this place is gross and depressing. Â Finally, they had a fountain soda machine, but it it was broken. Â Booooo.
Just gross.
Got a bacon char-dog. The bacon was pretty much just old rendered fat. The dog itself was not charred. I guess I'll give the fries a try now..
Gross.
This place has to be bad if I'm throwing away half a hot dog and most of my fries when I'm drunk. I should have known to stay away when I was the only person in the joint, and the next-door neighboor F**** T*** was packed.
2.5 stars is fair. Really, it's my own fault. I knew what I was getting myself into. The reviews don't lie. Don't do it. But, like Jesse James at a tattooed ho convention, I couldn't control myself. Thus, two stars because it's not fair to blame Underdogg for my stupidity. As I descended the stairs into (self-described), hades, I noticed fire on the walls, fire on the grease pit and fire in the low-budget, Channel 19 reggaeton videos playing on the side. Again, my fault. A smarter man would have given two fingers and been out. I stayed. And ordered food.
One turkey (hahahaha) hot dog combo and piece of grilled pizza served by Disinterested & Surly later, I began to wonder where I erred in life. I mean, really? Willingly DESCENDING into a HOT BASEMENT surrounded by FIRE. Ugh. Nope. Never. I should have learned my lesson in Sunday school. Thankfully, I think the penance I later served that night ("it burns!! It.burns!! Filthy hobbitses."), drained (if you will) the sin right out of me.
I am a changed man -- with a slightly charred *******.
This is the kind of place where most people don't actually want to go, but will go anyway. It's the kind of place you love to hate...and for that I give it two stars. One for the hate. One for the love.
Open 24 hours. Convenient location. Cheap(ish) food. Bizarre experience.
I came here on a weeknight after having gone out for a few drinks with a friend. After said drinks, we of course realized we wanted to eat despite the fact that we weren't actually terribly hungry. I know better than to ignore my stomach.
Underdog is the Americana version of Flash Taco's tex-fart-mex. Only it's in a basement. And smells funny (funnier?). I got some Chicago style hot dogs, which of course were good because you'd have to be a woodland creature to not construct a decent Chicago style hot dog. My friend got fries and chicken wings, the latter being prepared in an absolutely bizarre fashion. The drumsticks and wings were still in connected, along with the nearly inedible tips. And while it appeared that the wings were dipped in some sort of sauce, all I could taste was extremely fried chicken skin. I think they just dropped the entire things into boiling oil and served them to us. This is why when people normally make friend chicken they bread it. Because they don't want it to taste like Satan's laundry. These wings are strong contenders for the nastiest wings I've ever consumed.
The dudes working there at the time looked like they'd be equally (if not more) comfortable working at a campus smoke shop. Not judging, just observing. The flat screen TVs bumping music videos (a la Flash Taco) were there as well. This was probably the most entertaining element of the night because the videos went from hip-hop videos to some gangsta Reggaeton that strangely featured rap artists like R Kelly and Lil Jon. And of course I happened to come here with my sassy Latina friend who upon hearing the start of every song would scream, "Awww, this is my soooooonngg" and unconsciously start gyrating in her seat to the music, occasionally standing up to dance. I thought that maybe the wings had been laced with acid, but realized this is better than any acid trip imaginable.
In summary:
Food: Not good.
Experience: Probably pretty memorable.
Only under extreme desperation should you ever eat here. Â And by desperation, I mean inebriation; and to be honest, there are plenty of superior places to further that end. Â This is the kind of place where you sit down to eat, open up your brown bag of hot dog delights expectantly only to realize that you are sitting next to a GIANT pile of trash (literal trash).
I ordered a hot dog and cheese fries. Â Underdogg is the only place where I have pushed away a tray of cheese fries. Â The cheese sauce was more pale than your typical cheese dipping sauce, lacked that bright orange hue, and had a general "clumpiness" about it. Â Even in my inebriated state, I knew not to ingest this. Â But it was interesting to see something new happening with cheese in its most artificial state!
The hot dog was passable--if anything order your hot dog to go and enjoy it whilst stumbling home.
Ordered delivery from underdogg in a desperate attempt to get a snack after not eating most of the day. Only underdogg and Flash Taco were open, so we went with something pretty simple and straight forward: a vanilla shake, slice of cheese pizza, and fries for me and a chocolate shake and cheddar fries for my girlfriend. Easy to make, hard to screw up, tasty at 4am. Or not.
When they got here, they informed us that they were out of chocolate shakes, so had just brought an extra vanilla. Okay, that's kinda lame, they could have called to see if we wanted it, but whatever. The fries were soggy and my girlfriend's cheese fries have an unidentifiable mass on them. It isn't traditional "cheese sauce" in that awesome, crappy sort of way and it isn't real cheddar either. I'm confused.
So, okay, fries suck. But it's pizza time. Hey. Wait. What's that? There are stray bits of pepperoni on my cheese slice. Not cool. Upon further inspection I realize that what I have in front of me is a pepperoni pizza that's had the pepperoni picked off, complete with round indentations and bits of pepperoni stuck to my pizza. If I were an omnivore, that would be offensive but not horrendous. Since I'm a vegetarian and ordered this from the SPECIFICALLY LABELED "Veggie Corner" section of their menu, I expect it to be vegetarian friendly.
So my pizza is a loss, too. But I have a shake! Until about halfway through I find some nasty, vaguely chunky crap with a gelatinous texture in my shake. Not cool, underdogg. Not cool. Also, I cannot SWEAR, but it looked like roach legs were sitting on top of my cup lid.
In short (or not...) SCREW THIS PLACE. The food is nasty as hell, everything was cold and crappy, and I feel like shit. YAY!!!
What's so bad about this place? I think it's an essential part of the Wicker Park crotch. The bright, underground interior blasts loud electronic music, and the cool dudes behind the counter could easily be confused for DJ's rather than hot dog cooks.
It basically encapsulates Wicker Park on a Saturday night. Â I am really not sure why this place was empty while Flash Taco above had a line out the door.
The Chicago-style veggie dog was tasty and the fries were hot. Â Did not experience illness afterwards, as others seem to have. Â Must be careful not to confuse correlation with causation, as many seem to dine here only when filled with stomachache-inducing amounts of alcohol. I was personally rather impressed with this place.
The Chicago style veggie dog was amazing, as were the fries. Â While veggie burgers are a dime a dozen in this city, there is a terrible lack of veggie hot dogs, which, most of my veggie friends agree, are way more tasty and easier to eat. Â
Anyway, I was a bit inebriated and it was about 2:30am, so I don't remember all the details, but there was one glaring error: the guy gave us turkey dogs and I didn't realize until I bit into it. Â Not cool. Â But he was nice and gave me the veggie one right away. Â I'll go back soon and maybe update the review, but for now, 3 stars is the maximum I can give to a place which tricks me into eating meat.
Ok ok ok ok ok ok ok, I know, I'm being way too generous.
However:
1. Not many fast food places offer turkey burgers
2. Not many places offer a turkey burger and fries for under $5
3. This place is convenient
4. Turkey burger was suprisingly delicious (in a fast food way)
5. I didn't even order the turkey burger (ah aha hhahahahah). I ordered the turkey dog and they messed up my order.
So if you're craving burger late night in the Wicker area and you don't eat red meat (like me), take a peak under flash taco to find delicious turkey burger.
How has this placed survived?
Small dog, no snap to the skin, and going at 6:00, they said they ran out of hot dogs... how can you run out of hot dogs when your whole staple of food is hot dogs? Â Good grief...
35 minutes later, they found some hot dogs and we got our order to go. Â Horrible.
FInal insult to injury? Â $3+ dollars for a friggin hot dog? Â Talk about making a killing... along with no credit card unless you get $10 worth. Â Crazy.
My theory? Â This place survives cuz it's open at night when the drunkies come out of the local bars and people just need to fulfill that craving. Â If you're sober, never come here.
One mini mantra I tend to live by, natural foods should taste better than processed. Well, Underdogg has violated this concept. The cheddar fries were absolutely disgusting. There was a blob of congealed yellow nasty on top of limp, greasy french fries. Basically I was looking at a paper basket filled with gag-inducing slop.
Ironically, their nacho cheese fries were not as terrible. I wouldn't suggest eating them unless its one of your only options, but they were still better than the cheddar fries.
Listen, I would NEVER eat here. Â But, last night my friend picked up a reuben for me from Earwax and a hot dog and cheese fries (ew) for himself from Underdog and headed over to my apartment. Â
When the container to the cheese fries flung open on my table, blobs of orange mess blooped out onto my table slowly and threateningly. Â I felt like it was encroaching on my kitchen like the plague...sure to kill any and all in it's path. Â It seemed almost...alive.
What happened next is by far the most disturbing part of the story. Â I tasted it. Â Don't ask me why because I don't know why! Â OK?! Â I just did and I can't take it back! Â But, oh if I could turn back the hands of time...if I could do it all over again...
It was THE MOST DISGUSTING thing I have ever tasted, chewed, OR spit out. Â The "cheese" was grainy, like the second ingredient may be sand OR maybe it's made from concentrate derived from old dead bodies ground up. Â That would explain the taste also. Â Or more likely...an unknown filler/chemical. Â
Please, please...
Do not EVER eat here, I beg you. Â I am TRYING TO SAVE YOU.
Do yourself a favor and AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE.
I'm not kidding. Â Just don't even think about going. Â You will curse yourself for it.
It is dirty, dingy, it stinks, and they will probably get your order wrong.
I ate there last night, because I hadn't eaten dinner and after a few hours of drinking I HAD to eat something, anything. Â
I ordered the cheddar fries. Â Now, their menu lists "cheddar fries" and "cheese fries." Â I deliberately ordered cheddar, because I do not like nacho cheese. Â Not only did I receive cheese, or shall I say "cheez" fries, but they were god awful. Â The fries themselves were undercooked and soggy (dudes, kick up the temp of that fryer by about 50 degrees) and the cheez was the worst "dairy" I have had the misfortune of consuming. Â It had a powdery consistency. Â I think they made it from off-brand mac & cheese powdered cheese packets and the water that runs off as they hose down the sidewalk each morning.
2 stars for proximity to my house. Â And the fact that the hot dog I ate went down.
Beyond that, the dog came on a stale bun, and the "meat" itself didn't really taste all that fresh. Â The fries were mealey, and semi-warm when I received them. Â
I am going to avoid Underdogg in the future for sure. Â Blech
Damn good Chicago style dogs made even better when you've had a few pops. I always get them from the guy with the cart and walk home with them. I've only been inside once. About what I'd expect.
We've all had Chicago style hot dogs, but I love em. They don't really vary that much from place to place I guess. I would put them up against a dog from Superdawg and the Wiener Circle.
This place is so horribly ran it should get shut down by the city. Â Seriously, it disgust me that a place this poor in service could operate for profits. Â The only thing they have going for them is that cheese goo stuff they throw on anything you ask them to (maybe, remember you are always taking a chance ordering here on getting what you actually asked for). Â They absolutely just do not care, and I personally find nothing else more appalling about a place. Â If someone want a hot dog late night give me a call. Â I will personally go get you something else just to ensure that this place does not succeed another day. Â
Seriously....down with underdog!
With the TRAGIC closing of "Demon Dogs" over on Fullterton (F U CTA), I've been hard-pressed to find a hot dog stand that's any good north of 18th street, I was skeptical to try Underdog's.
Walking in, I kind of felt like I was in a log cabin... You go underneath Flash Taco to get there... And it's the type of place you can go and order food from then turn around and be surprised that they have seating there for you.
I had the maxwell polish and a regular hot dog, and I have to say the quality was fairly good. It's still not Demon Dogs (Single tear forming in my eyes), but I think it'll help me still think Chicago is great. If only it was a little cheaper.
Underdog is ok. If you're yearning for a hot dog and are close by I'd say pop in.
I once ordered mini corn dogs from here and they were still frozen in the middle. Once I tracked down someone who worked there (they tend to walk away from the counter sometimes.....) they were really nice about replacing it. Everything else I've had here has been fine. Oh, except for the fries. If you can even call them "fries."
FYI - If it's hot out I suggest bringing your food home to eat it. They only have a ceiling fan and it gets ridiculously hot in the restaurant.
The fries are mealy and freezerburnt, the hot dogs taste like wet chickens, the char dogs take forever and come out looking like those shriveled giant seed pods that fall out of trees in autumn. Â And the entire downstairs smells like sewers.
The upstairs Flash Taco portion is good for people-watching and fun music, but little else. Â No matter when you go or what you order from the upstairs, you will have digestive problems later. Â Also, if you ask for "no spicy" you get super spicy and if you ask for "no cheese" you get a bucket of cottage cheese without the cottage, dumped on your food. Â
However, Underdog is prime location for post-bar food, so I imagine that is what contributes to its popularity.
Forget what you heard...Underdog is CLUTCH!!! Â for some reason everything in Wicker Park/Bucktown area closes at 10pm. Â But the mighty Underdog is all ways there for you. Â
Fries are straight up crack..and a Turkey burger doesn't make you feel all the way bad for eating there.
They need to have desserts though for the munchies
My experience at this place last night was so ridiculous it inspired me to sign up on Yelp and make this my first review. In days past, some friends of mine regarded this place as a late night favorite for after-the-bars greasy grub. I think those days are over.
Sure, sure, when getting food so late at night/early in the morning some things are to be expected: poor service, disappointing food, a generally unpleasant atmosphere, etc. etc. But I draw the line when a hot dog place (or any restaurant for that matter) has trash piled on almost every table, a pool of vomit on the floor greeting you as you approach the counter, and amazingly, doesn't include all of the ingredients in your Chicago-style dog. (My friend had to order a pickle spear on the side as an extra. Interesting.) As for that mess left in front of the counter by some prior patron, when it was brought to the attention of the staff and a suggestion was made that perhaps someone should clean it up, they replied, "yeah, we know. That's not our job."
So, to summarize, I'd find somewhere else to go when you have that late night craving for some cheap and greasy eats. Luckily, there's always Santullo's.
Pretty good food - from what I remember. Â The Char, Cheddar polish and chilli cheese fries hit the spot last night - and allowed me to wake up sans hangover this morning. Â Okay, this afternoon. Â
On a side note - this is the most disgusting bathroom I've been in for quite some time. Â If you can - hold it. Â You will not be sorry.
I have been an advocate for underdog for quite some time now, but I must say there is NOTHING more disappointing than your excitement being crushed from electric blue relish. Â
Now I dig the dogs there MUCH better than swank frank and the price is right, but PLEASE just don't give me blue relish. I think what is most disturbing about this is that there is nothing that would naturally make the relish blue... so why this strange color phenom? who knows.
late night it will be super packed, but the line moves quickly as with the conversation. Â I wouldn't recommend it to someone who has a low tolerance for drunk people.
give this underdog a chance- just ask for no relish.
I don't know how I missed this place but I finally tried Underdog this weekend. Â A serious two thumbs up for great hot dogs, decent burgers, and excellent hand-cut FRESH fries. Â Service is really good and they actually listen to you when you give instructions about what you want and don't want on your stuff.
More than anything, you can't beat the price--$2 for a hot dog and fries, together! Â Why the hell anyone would go to Swank Frank when they could come here for better food at half the price is beyond me.
What a hole in the wall. I thought that Taco place above Underdogg was a bit dirty, and boy was I in for a surprise. Looks like the place hasn't been cleaned since the Grunge Years. I guess it's combating gentrification, just in its own particular way. No yuppie would take a shit in that bathroom, for sure :)
Nevertheless! Good, not great, dogs, and the fries are not too bad either. At least they use authentic ingredients, something hard to find these days. Â Never had anything else but dogs here, so in pretty partial. Yet, Underdogg is cool with me since it is silent combatant against gentrification.
It's true that I probably should have known better than to order pizza from a hot dog stand at 1am. It's also true that they should have known better than to serve it AND have the audacity to charge money for it.
One of my favorite things to say about pizza is that "even bad pizza is good." Underdogg has made me question everything I've ever believed. Is the earth still round? Is the grass always greener on the other side? Did Kristin really shoot JR?
The cart that they set up just outside of Flash is 5 stars all on it's own. When you come out of The Taven, SubT, The Note, or any of the bars in that area, the cart-pizza or cart-hot dogs are sublime.
The restaurant itself, though...Flash Taco's downstairs neighbor...could use a little work. The hot dogs are very good, and the pizza is great. Other menu items are simply 'ok'.
Warning about the cheese fries: I was there on Saturday night and they ran out of fry-cheese and used melted American cheese (or SOMETHING to that effect). These fries were awful. As hungry as I was, I could only tolerate a few before pushing the fries away. So before you order their cheese fries, ASK what kind of cheese they have. The answer may save your life...or rather, your stomach.
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