I went to Zellas this past Saturday with a group of friends for their champagne brunch. Â Several hours, and a large check later, one of the members of our party was kicked out. Â Not seeing what happened, I asked the door guy who had just escorted my friend out what had happened. Â First he ignored me, and then he told me to "shut up and go away."
Upset by the way I was spoken to, I went up to the other two guys working the door and asked for his name. Â When I did so, he told them not to tell me as I was "just being annoying." Â At that point, I asked to speak to the manager and all three told me he was not there and there was no one in charge I could talk to. Â Then they proceeded to taunt me by saying "are you crying?? Â You look like you're going to cry."
Determined to speak to the manager, I went back to our table and asked the guy clearing our drinks if I could speak to his manager.  He started to go get the manager; however, the original door guy who told me to shutup had followed me over to the table and was now telling this guy not to get the manager for me.  Finally, I went to our waitress (now the 6th person I've asked to speak to the manager) who  told me to wait behind a curtain and she would get him.
When the manager finally did come ( the original door guy had followed me to this point) he half-heartedly "heard me out;" however, the entire time I knew I was being pegged as nothing more than a drunk girl. Â Half way through saying what I had to say, the whole time the door guy denying everything, I asked the manager if he was just going to side with his employee anyway and he said yes. Â Knowing I was getting nowhere, I asked if the manager had a card and he said "yes, but I'm not getting it for you." Â He did tell me his name was Brian B. but that was all I got before he had me escorted out. Â
I have never been treated this poorly by the staff of an establishment, not to mention one dependant on customer service. Â Cleary it has no value here, and I will most definitely not be going back.
Let me just say this is one of the great establishments in the city of Chicago. Have been going there for probably 4 years and can honestly never remember a night that wasn't a great time. Really would like to go back again soon, and really wanted to see if anyone reading this is selling NYE 2013 tickets for any reason. If so, please reply at your earliest.
Review Source:No stars.
I tried to call several times to speak to a person named "Marvin". Â I did not leave a message because what I wanted to inquire about warranted an actual conversation. Â I called several times. Â Once on their main number and 3 times asking for this person Marvin - there was a few minutes in between the first and the second call the the second and last were right after the other. Â The third time he picked up, did not even say hello and said, "Can you leave a message instead of calling over and over again?" - I mean seriously, there could have been another way to explain how busy you are Mr. Big Shot!
Oh and by the way Marvin, you just gave three different individuals in our company three different set of information regarding a party/drink package in less than a week. Â They all asked about the same number of people. Â So, either you're trying to rip us off, you just don't listen, or you don't know what your own place of work really offers. Â Either way I don't think this place deserves any of our business and we'll definitely make sure that this reaches the different companies and clients we have so they wont be subjected to the this unnecessary rudeness.
Thanks, but no thanks.
I
I have only been here once on a saturday night... so maybe it was just 1 bad experience, however in short this place could be good except for the staff is rude. The door man was extremely rude, the guy bartender was rude, impolite, and overcharged me (which he did correct once I brought it to their attention). The only person we encountered who wasn't rude was the female bartender who was very slow.
Review Source:HANDS DOWN MY MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL SPOT!!!!!!
Two words.....HALF PRICE.
Not certin foods, not certin drinks EVERYTHING.
I've caught MNF games up here and I've enjoyed myself everytime. The outside seating area is ideal for groups weather permitting(heatlamps available), enough tvs so ain't a bad seat indoors or outside. Plus they are open to hosting events or live music(Defly. Going to throw a party here when it warms). The food is made to order so it takes time but well worth the wait. The mini sliders? AWSOME, had the serloin med. Quasdillas? FILLING, with all the extras. Burgers? HUGE, you built your own burger & you can get overly creative(over the top) and its all for 5$. ONLY cons are the parking( managable) & the small crowd don't know why ppl ain't packing this place servers are freindly & attentive but hey no worries the gang & I will be back in the building on the 19th for BEARS v 49ers so mo for US!!!!
Full Disclosure: both times we've been there.. it was for a ND gamewatch. YES WE BOTH ARE ND GRADS. We understand it's a bar... but the bar food sucks. Eat before you get there for a gamewatch. The bar probably banks on the customers being drunk before eating... but we love food despite being slightly tipsy. WE KNOW.
LOCATION
Not convenient. No cabs anywhere to be seen.
AMBIENCE
dark. nice patio area. It's an ND bar... must I say more? VERY young crowd aka recent graduates, says one of us. The other one is a recent grad so......
FOOD
First time we went to Zella's was for the $25 unlimited beers and breakfast thing...
Beers offered were all the lites.. standard college beers.
Steak and eggs: overcooked steak.. rubbery. so so rubbery when he asked for it medium rare. Jonny's comment on the steak? Just ask for it raw. Maybe then it'll be perfect. He also says the best part was the POWDERED EGGS. HOW SAD. WHO USES POWDERED EGGS IN THIS DAY AND AGE??
Crab cakes eggs benedict: The poached eggs were completely cooked. UGH. Crab cakes were dry.. barely any crab. Potatoes..... dry.. obviously just reheated as the day went on.
Second time we went was for a night game...
We both got turkey burgers with pretzel buns... the whole thing was so dry.
They were not good. Fries were oily and not crispy. TATER TOTS WERE YUMMY. that is all.
This place was awful. Â The music was random and too loud, but my biggest complaint was that they lost my ID AND Credit Card. Â They insisted that I give them both to open a tab, and then they lost it. Â I couldn't believe that they would insist on taking my drivers license and not having a fail-proof system of storing it. Â They didn't charge me for my drinks, but I feel like that's a given. Â They found the it the next day and I had to go and pick it up. Â Thant really sucked.
Review Source:The reviews are so divided here! I volunteer at PAWS right next door, so I've walked by this place countless times before. I always thought it was a wine bar from the name. PAWS held an event here the other night and it was great! It's actually kind of a nice sports bar, with TVs everywhere. Fireplace and couches. Huge space with many high-tops. We samples tons of their food -- quesadillas, chips and guac, pulled pork sammys, goat cheese & spinach flatbread, don richi flatbread, spinach dip.... The winners were the chips and guac, the pulled pork, the don richi. Everything was quite good though, I was impressed. The servers were on top of their game too, refilling drinks and clearing plates all throughout the night.
Review Source:I've been to Zella a few times before this weekend and always had a good time, especially when a dance party breaks out late at night. However, I wouldn't have chosen it as a go-to before yesterday. OMG I have been missing out on their brunch. For $25 from 10:30-3 you get an entree, unlimited bloody marys, mimosas, and coors lights on their sunny patio next to the outdoor TV. Â Perfect for a Sunday Funday.
My friends and I got there early but the staff were kind enough to let us in before they opened and start serving us drinks before the deal even started. Special thanks to our awesome server Sarah!
I am sorry to say but the service here is awful. We tried to be understanding but nearly everything went wrong. Server did not know Anything about the beer selection, her attitude and follow up was poor. At one point we had two new people show up at our table and she came by to drop our food but never asked them if they needed anything. Food was very slow to arrive and I saw two customers plus myself have to track down someone to pay our bill.
Review Source:Went here the other day for brunch per the suggestion of a friend. HORRIBLE! Our service was extremely slow (you gotta have servers on top of their game for a brunch crowd!) and our server was extremely ditzy and we had to track her down on several occasions.
My boyfriend's hamburger was grey and had hair on it, my friend's boyfriend's burger was still frozen and my friend's turkey burger was overcooked. I got a breakfast burrito, which I thought was impossible to mess up. The eggs were under cooked and it was soggy. Blah!
The one great thing was the $25 bottomless mimosa and food deal, if only they stepped up their food quality a notch. We were told if we wrote a good review on Yelp that we'd get free shots. The shots were so bad and sugary, and the whole deal just seemed a bit forced, anyhow. Bribing patrons to get better reviews?
The patio is great, the mimosas were great, the service was terrible, the food was terrible, the music they played was terrible. I doubt I'll be back. Sorry to be too honest, Zella.
I always drive by this place and finally made it a point to stop by for brunch this past Sunday. The brunch menu was slightly on the limited size, but the bottomless mimosas, bloody-mary, and beer for $25 make it an excellent deal - lots of young people seemed to enjoy themselves, some were even playing cards on the patio. The patio was nice and well-set with a bar, so one gets their next mimosa at hand pretty much as soon as he/she is ready for it.  I was not blown away by the food: The buffalo chicken wrap was very dry and my husband's burger was not much better. The french fries were sprinkled with cinnamon, which was a first for me and I was surprised at how much they enhanced the taste of the fries. All-in-all  it was an OK experience.
Review Source:This review isn't based on the bar itself, but by the service my friends and I had last night.
We're fortunate enough to live in a city where there is no shortage of watering holes to satisfy our thirst for something fermented. You go to one bar/lounge/tavern/brewery/whatever and you kind of have been to them all. That being said, what really stands out, to me, Â is excellent service. Our server last night was Alex and she was genuinely the best. She was prompt, sweet, funny, and accommodating. It's simple things like that make me want to go back to Zella.
Its been quite a few years since I've been here and it seems like nothing has changed. My excuse for coming here was that a friend decided to have a going away party and she liked this place.
They still have the huge dope ass patio in the back with its own bar. They still serve the drinks out there in plastic cups so you drunken dochebags can't break glasses when getting drunk. They still have cute waitresses that wear tiny summertime shorts and they still have huge ass bouncers that has jokes. Staff is still pretty cool for the most part and they let me take my drink from outside to mingle inside. My group couldn't take the heat on a 90 degree day. I really think it was cool that they let me keep my tab outside even though I moved inside assume places are real funny style about that.
I usually forget this place exits as it is in a part of LP that I try to avoid, butI always like to have an excuse to stop in.
Most people have been to Zella to have a drink at one point or another, but Sunday was my first experience eating their brunch. The outdoor patio is awesome, although probably not the best place for us to sit when in 95+ degree weather. Zella offers $25 for bottomless mimosas, bloody mary, coors light or miller light which is by far the best part of the meal. The brunch menu has 8 or so options that are all $11 including crab cake benedict, breakfast burrito with chorizo, ham and cheese omelet, veggie omelet, salmon/bagel/lox, BLTE....etc. Our group tried 6 of the 8 options.
Crab cake benedict was terrible, breakfast burrito was terrible, ham and cheese omelet was terrible, veggie omelet was terrible, salmon/bagel/lox was terrible....the only thing anyone at our table liked was the BLTE. Good thing we had enough bottomless mimosas to help us forget about our super disappointing brunch.
As most others have commented, Zella's is great for brunch on Sundays or day-drinking. They offer a $25 brunch package that includes a meal and bottomless mimosas, bloody marys, coors light or miller light. Wow. The food isn't anything special but it is decent and who really cares when everyone is really only there to drink anyways? Will definitely be back again one weekend this summer, the patio is one of the best to sit at in the city.
Review Source:Went here for Sunday brunch with some girl friends. Had a really great time ( the company was really amazing! But I'm trying not to let that affect my review). As all have said, $25 for bottomless mimosas, bloody mary, coors light or miller light. I asked, and they said you could mix and match, also Bloody Mary is made with their house vodka.
Service was nice, on the spot but not over-bearing. We went around 11 am and the place was barely half full, which was nice as we got our choice of tables. Most are under a big tree, providing good shade, but there are some in the sun - which would not have been comfortable for this past hot Sunday.
Their brunch menu is not online. They only have about 8 items, including crab cake benedict, breakfast burrito with chorizo, veggie omelet... and now I can't remember the rest since that's all our table ordered. Each comes with choice of fruit or potatoes. Food was pretty decent, not out of this world, but good. Fruit was pretty fresh, benedict had garlic spinach and crab cakes were decent. We also ordered tator tots for fun, they brought out a huge plate - those were very yummy.
All in all, if I were in the area and in the mood to drink on a Sunday, I would hit this place up again. As others said too, music was good/fun old stuff - and great volume for brunch.
When it comes to beer gardens this one is the gold standard in Chicago. It is spacious, shady, has its own bar and huge outdoor TVs.
You can watch the Bears on a gorgeous Indian Summer day on this patio while enjoying an amazing brunch special. The food is good, the staff is friendly and attentive, and it's just a great relaxed beer garden by day, hip, happening scene by night.
They do show a few too many Sox games for a North Side bar, but other than that I love it.
Came here last night for my friends (28th) bday party. She had called them earlier in the week and again that day but the two mindless bouncers  at the door told us "y'all still gots to wait in line". Granted the bar was EMPTY (Friday night) and there were 20 hopeless souls waiting in line.
Anyway, my friend (bday girl) asked to speak to the mgr and the bouncers said "no- wait in line." They then commented to each other "these mother fuckers will probably just stay for one drink anyways... Who gives a fuck"
I don't mind waiting in line (even if the place is empty) but when you're told to come, you will be welcomed, tables will be reserved, there won't be a line and 20 people get off a trolley to begin their night only to have two uninformed thugs at the door disrespecting the entire group for no reason, I draw the line.
Won't be back, this place is a train wreck.
I'm pretty sure this bar has most of my money. I'm here nearly every weekend. The staff is incredibly outgoing & knowledgable. I've yet to have a waitress I didn't like here. The food is incredibly good for a bar setting. I recommend the BBQ Pork Quesadilla (just trust me on this one) & the Buffalo Chicken Wrap.
Their patio is by far the best in the city. It's so big so there's not a struggle to find a spot and it's so open that you don't feel like you're stuck in an alley like a lot of other beer gardens. My favorite is coming here for brunch on Saturdays & Sunday. I'm sorry but anywhere that offers all you can drink Mimosas, Bloody Mary's, & beers PLUS food is my kind of heaven.
Zella, you may continue to take all my money.
Zella is one of my favorite summer spots!! Been coming for the last three years. Cheap drinks and great food, and an awesome patio for the summer. Â Service is quick and friendly :)
They just started Sunday live music at 3 pm with drink specials, which is amazing and definitely entices you to stay after the $25 bottomless brunch of mimosas or bloody marys (way better deal and food than Duffy's or most places in Chicago).
Good music, good bar, and is a great spot to hit before summer festivals!
Great place. Â The patio is the place to be in the summer. Â The brunches are absolutely epic. Â I recommed having your next party on the patio here. Â You won't regret it.
Every time I have been here the service has been above and beyond. Â Amazing food, ambience, staff, music and drinks. Â What more could you ask for?
I went on a Wednesday, and it was fairly empty except for a group of my friends celebrating a birthday and another group at the bar.
The decor looks inviting. Inside there's exposed wood beams and a brick fireplace. Outside theres a massive beer garden with its own bar.
The atmosphere was really chill. Heard it gets busy on the weekends. Look forward to coming back sometime for brunch.
Sad to see trivia wed. gone but Live music thursdays is quickly becoming a tradition. Â They have a great grilled cheese with tomato and bacon, tots or fries...you choose. the quesadillas and sliders are also tasty. The patio is amazing. Â weekend nights get pretty packed but if you want to drink and dance, this is a great spot. Â the brunches are legendary and i see alot of chicago bears and hawks stopping by to mingle with the hot chicks. open 5pm until late. Â I always bring cash and tip the bartenders, seems to help move things along.
Review Source:Went to Zella for brunch on Sunday. Â Overall a good experience.
They a $25 brunch on Saturday and Sundays. Â That includes any entree item (lunch or breakfast) and bottomless bloody marys, mimosas, and coors light/ bud light bottles. Â I must say for a deal spanning 1030-3 its quite a treat.
When we first arrived they were setup with about 8 tables which really gave it a spacious look. Â As time progressed the restaurant filled and the staff brought up more and more tables. Â By the time 2pm rolled around the place was rocking with people. Â The crowd surely cleared out after 3pm when the drink special ended.
3 of us ordered the steak and eggs from the breakfast menu. Â The steak was cooked to each of our specifications and the homestyle potatoes were pretty tasty. Â Our other friend ordered the crab cake benedict, which he strongly suggested it was better than our new local breakfast spot Jam n Honey.
We look forward to future drinking and eating at Zellas for brunch.
Short story: Awesome Service. Great Patio. Huge Rats.
I was very confused by Zellas. I walked in and the place was empty. I mean totally empty void of tables and chairs (well one row of tables along the walls). It was a wide open space.
With nothing in the way we found the patio and thought it was pretty awesome.
Our group sat down, our server came over promptly and asked us what we needed. Our server was great, she was always around and checked in on us just enough.
She also checked in on us when we all started screaming and standing on our chairs.
Ladies and gentlemen, they have rats. I mean serious rats, probably the largest rats I have ever seen and they are "friendly" as in they don't mind running through your legs or along the back ledge of the bench that surrounds the patio. People actually had rats running on the backs of the bench they were sitting on. The rats are playful, they frolic.....two of them chasing each other around. If they were bunnies, it would have been adorable. Sadly, it was not bunnies but huge rats that are apparently well fed. I guess Zellas has been trying to get rid of them, but if you were serving people food would you want rats running all over the tables? I would try harder maybe putting lids on outdoor trashes etc. Also, the doors to the inside of the bar are wide open which looks nice but doesn't really prevent rats from running inside and clearly these rats are not afraid of people.
Our server was really embarrassed, I felt and still do feel bad for her. They bought us drinks etc. Which was nice of them and we all appreciated it.
But, rats?! Really? Running through people's legs and around the chairs? So Gross.
I came here on a tuesday for a birthday party. Â The place was EMPTY. Â I am not sure if this is a positive or a negative given that I usually like to hang out amongst a reasonable but not overbearing crowd of people but probably not the type of people who fill this place up on the weekend.
Regardless, the bar itself is a pretty decent place. Â Nice indoor setup, and a beautiful back garden patio area with a ton of space. Â It was really too bad when all the girls I was with started shrieking at the monstrous RATS running back and forth across the patio.
Our waitress (who was super nice) said they have 'tried everything' to get rid of the rats but nothing works. Â Well... try harder. Â I can guarantee the health inspector won't be as understanding. Â For me, rats seem more like something you should have to deal with if you live in the third world. Â This is not really acceptable here. Â Get your act together and try again.
Zella gets 4 stars from me only because of the nice staff and the amazing beer garden. I've been here a few times for various birthday parties and always fall in love with the huge beer garden. I haven't had the opportunity to eat dinner here so once I do that that might change the rating for the better or not.
I highly recommend Zella's if your looking for a new hang out with a nice beer garden for the summer. However note that its kind of difficult to get to with public transportation. You might need to cab it or have a designated driver.
PS My Friend just had his surprise engagement party there last night. Congrats Deepak and Raschele.
Mondays are half price food & drinks. Â It's probably also the only night worth going. Â Drinks were a little weak but that could have been a function of the price. Â Food is not amazing but it was a steal at half price. Â I split a personal pizza with a friend and I recommend sticking with sandwiches and fries. Â One of my friends ordered the turkey club which was sizable and filled with delicious bacon and avocado. Â He opted for tater tots instead of fries which was an excellent choice. Unfortunately, they ran out of tater tots when I tried to get another order, so I got an order of fries instead. Â They were only $2 and it was platter sized! Â They were pretty good, but their idea of "seasoned fries" and "seasoned tater tots" means that they cover everything with Lawry's seasoning salt which gets to be a little much after awhile.
Service is decent. Â The atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable. Â I loved sitting outside on a warm summer night, but I was annoyed that the patio closes at 10:30pm on Mondays. Â We would have stayed longer and ordered more drinks if we could!
Every time someone says they're going to Zella and I start moaning, they always counter my complaints with "But they have a great beer garden!"
SO WHAT?
Lots of bars have good beer gardens and don't suck this hard. Â Having a nice beer garden does not excuse you from having to provide decent service. Â Having a nice beer garden does not compensate for the stench coming out of this place or the stream of domestic beer running across the floor. Â Having a nice beer garden means nothing when the rest of your bar is a piece of shit.
I'd been continuously ditching a friend for about three weeks, so I took some responsibility and went out with her last night to Zella.
Mmmm...first of all let me talk about the difficulty of getting a cab FROM Zella to go home. Â It sucks donkey balls!
As for the place itself...hmm doorman is cute and has dimples, but the bar is wholly forgettable and the clientele is definitely of the drunken Chad and Trixie type. Â I was hoping for something the slightest bit loungy but this is what happens when you say "YES" without thorough Googling. (dumbdumbdumb...still kicking myself for this) Â Very reminiscent of 2001-at-The-Riv-in-East-Lansing-fratboy-with-Âexpensive-drinks-and-crapass-music.
I say go for it if you want to have Bud Light dumped on your capris. Â I don't even drink domestic beer! Â If I'm going to reek like it, at least have the nerve to dump Stella Artois on me!
Ugh. Â I'm obviously disgusted.
I came here sometimes in my very early 20's. Â It was Skee-to-the eve for sure. Â Couches, fireplaces, cheesy dudes with one-liners. Â No thanks.
At the mature age of 27, I decided I have grown up enough to give Zella another go. Â However, there were conditions: it could not be a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. Â Also, it HAD to be nice enough to sit in the beer garden because if my fuzzy, alcohol pickled brain serves me correctly, the Zella's Beer Garden inched it up beyond unbearable.
Fade to last Sunday afternoon. Â Beautiful out, right? Â My two male companions and I decided to pass up Flounder's (a VERY hard feat) and check out Zella. . . Here's the skinny:
Beer Garden: Â Wonderful. Â Clean and has an actual garden-like look.
Service: Â Flighty and inconsistent. Â There were about 5 tables in all and it took forever to get our bill
Food: Sub-par. Â Flounders' food is better. Â The wings were too fried, the quesedillas bland and the salsa was watery.
Drinks: Â NO BLOODY MARY MIX on SUNDAY?!?! Â THE HORROR! Â Walk to the Sleven for the love of Pete. Â I asked for a mimosa but it came in a regular cocktail glass and had WAY too much OJ.
Verdict? Â Eh. Â LOVE that beer garden but everything else left me very pretty unsatisfied.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we were walking around trying to find a great place to eat. I see Zella and Im immediately attracted to the name...We walk inside and the entire place is empty questioning if the place is even open. Indeed it is, maybe I should of took notice of the place being empty to the quality of this place. Well anyhow, I take a seat in the beer garden with my friends and we begin to order our food. The waitress seems normal at first...but I guess she thought she could get away with being a poor server because she was pretty....Well we barely got any notice from her, with the place being totally empty, you'd think otherwise...
The bloody mary's were nothing out of the ordinary. The salsa and chips were blah! The salsa was more like tomato juice or red water...The portebello burger was decent but the bread turned super soggy and got really messy to eat...
I wouldn't go back or recommend this place to anyone. Horrible service, food was mediocre..nothing special.
One star for the beer garden and for the super quick bartender. Â This place is a joke where a bunch of tools happen to go trying to get laid but realizing that due to their SPS* and lack of actual talent at speaking, they are just rude. Â There are better bars out there. Â Trust me. Â
Case #1: Guy walks up to my 2 friends and I and asked if we were Sox or Cub fans. Â I said Sox. Â He looked at me and said that he would rather shave his crotch than be a Sox fan. Â Hmmm, how is that going to get you in anyone's pants?
Case #2: Guy spills his drink on my friend and walks away. Â No apologizing, no nothing.
*Small Penis Syndrome
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