Bar Louie

Thursday night trivia at bar Louie south loop, it’s the best night off the week.
Have great snack foods and also good, hoppy beers on tap.

Terrible. From the service to the quality of the food, this place is a disaster. Do not waste your time or money.

Went with my brother for dinner and beers and wasn’t impressed, mostly because of the mediocre service. It seems like this restaurant used to be nice ten years ago but when the bathroom looks like it’s falling apart you may want to invest back in the business. Definitely not in line with other Bar Louies I’ve been.

I’ve been wanting to try Bar Louie for a while now. This location is in Dearborn Station, which is a beautiful building with lovely architecture. Inside, you can see some of the original structures, and they designed the bar to fit within that setting.
We came here for brunch, and our meals were pretty good. I chose the PB&J Cakes, which were a fun spin on two food staples — it’s essentially a hybrid between a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a stack of buttermilk pancakes. My husband went for the Eggs Bennies, and these were Eggs Benedict on fancy buns.
They have many cocktail options that looked fun, although we opted for only coffee this morning. Looks like they have great drink specials throughout the week, according to their signs, with half-​off martinis on Thursdays. They have many big screen TVs — great for watching big games with friends.
The staff was friendly and attentive, and the price was very affordable. Brunch for two with coffee was around $ 25 with tip. We will likely stop back by here for drinks in the future!

Went and ordered sesame ginger chicken lettuce wrap. Food wasn’t bad, prices were reasonable for the neighborhood, and fun atmosphere on a Sunday night for football.
Service however was terrible. The waiters spent more time talking to each other and talking about after work, than they cared about the customer.
Otherwise an okay experience. Not great, but not bad.

Pleasant! The large layout of the restaurant makes great for enjoying yourself or your party. The server we had was very friendly, and she helped my best friend and I select tasty appetizers, entrees, and drinks. I had their twist on the Moscow mule that included hints of orange?.. and I was very satisfied I ended up having 2, or 3?
Hint: Awesome place for a visitor of the town

This is a so-​so place. The server was okay, though it was a little busy. Ordered 2 Black and Blues, calamari, luigi sandwich and turkey burger for $ 56, expensive for pub food. Black and Blues was watered down (go to Kitty O’Sheas for the best version); should’ve just drank water. The calamari was tough and not worth it as half of the cone container it comes in is filled with lettuce. The burger was good. It didn’t come with fries, so ordered a side. The fries were delicious. My friend enjoyed the sandwich but only ate half; it was on the heavy side. The building itself is nice. I don’t think I’ll go back, plenty of other places nearby to try.

Service at this location has utterly declined. As a long-​time South Loop resident, we used to frequent Bar Louie for the location, food, and service. I would expect an acknowledgement and drinks within 5 minutes, we didn’t receive either within 10 minutes. When addressed, the reply, «I guess I’m your waiter.» We left and will not be back. Too many better food and service options in the area. Take some pride in your job.

I guess 2 stars is appropriate since I was going to write «meh» a lot in this review.
Food is meh. Brunch is meh. Service is meh (this place lends to my building theory about the deterioration of wait staff in Chicago over the last 3 – 4 years). Price for aforementioned is … wait for it … meh.
Location is great. Interior is great. But I don’t go to an establishment to get meh food and service inside a moderately better-​decorated establishment.
Definitely better choices in Printer’s Row. I won’t name names, but do some research and only come here if you’re desperate.

Food/​Drinks — Great deals and the food always comes out great. I usually am here for the $ 1 burger specials (which btw you need to order any kind of drink… soft or hard) and I finish that burger in 5 seconds its so good. The problem I find at a lot of restaurant bars is that the drinks are either too strong or too fruity. Bar Louie makes their drinks with the perfect mix, and I’m proud to sip my martini.
Service — I have honestly never had bad service. I always sit by the bar and the bar tenders are always informative, fast, and friendly. I would also like to note that I usually come here after 8 or 9 and the place is usually only about mid-​packed.
Atmosphere — The atmosphere isn’t anything to gawk about. It has the typical Bar Louie feel, but this one is a bit darker which puts me to sleep. I think the couches are unique but not enough to sell me over on this place. There are tv’s with sports and the restaurant is a bit cramped by the bar and the tables around the outside. In terms of music, the music is very soft and the restaurant tends to play the typical top 40/​hip-​hop/​rock selection you hear in restaurants.
Food/​Drinks — ²⁄₂
Service — ²⁄₂
Atmosphere — ⁰⁄₁

Consistently bad food and service. Just wasted $ 40+ on lunch for two. Again. My office is 50 feet away, so it’s tempting to keeping giving this place another chance. I won’t go into details about the poor quality etc. Just trust me. Today’s tipping point was the bartender (we sat at the bar for lunch, hoping for quicker service) kept rubbing his nose and then filling drinks. Waitress rubbed her eye consistently. Neither one washed hands. I am not a germophobe by any means, but give me a flipping freaking break. Just nauseating.
The two stars are for location, and the iced tea is decent.

We just order a burger with fries, The food was ok, The service not bad .
For 2 burgers and 2 cokes we paid $ 29.00
Honestly I thing it’s little bit expensive, but that’s ok .
I’m not sure if we back !

I live next door to this place. I have been here 3 times. The first time we spent 30 minutes waiting for our drinks to come and nobody wanted to take our dinner order. Walked out. Second time was dollar burger night. Food was inedible. Gave them one last try for dollar burger night and it was the worst burger I have ever had in my 30 years of weekly burgers. I paid a dollar, but in hindsight I would have paid 50 dollars to not have to suffer through the agony of such a horrible meal. I hope this place stops wasting valuable restaurant space in my neighborhood and retreats back to whatever hole Louie crapped it out of.

I debated on one or two stars, but the overwhelmingly bad service and non-​caring attitude of the bartenders and waitstaff pushed this to one star. You’ll feel like you’re in France as the waitresses ignore you. When you ask about why none of the cocktails have a price on the menu, the waitress gives a scoffing answer of «a lot of places don’t have prices. » I’m not going to pay money to be treated like this. One other annoying thing, for whatever strange reason, when I stream Pandora I swear that at least 50% of the ads are from Bar Louie. How much are they paying for advertising and radio time? Perhaps they should spend less on marketing and spend more to hire some friendly waitstaff.
And the food, it is edible, but never really impresses.

Really terrible service. Our group of 4 put in a food order and waited for over an hour to say anything. When we did, we were told that it was coming right out, but of course we waited another 20 – 30 minutes before we gave up.
Apparently it takes them over 75 minutes to put chips in a basket and to ration out dip. It was pretty clear the waiter never submitted the order in the first place and lied to us to cover up his mistake instead of owning up to it.

Decided to pop in for a quick lunch. The waitress that apparently wants to remain anonymous since she didn’t give her name was attentive but not overbearing.
The pasta was plentiful but salt would’ve made the dish much better. Not the best food I’ve had in Chicago but it wasn’t the worst either.

The one star is in honor of the fact that it is located rt off of the loop, but the service is always shabby. I’m constantly receiving a text to come and ck out their specials, but it’s not even worth my time. The $ 1 burger night is a sham because unless you only want bread, mystery meat and lettuce, then it’s not really $ 1. The burgers are horrible, IMO. Otherwise, if you go for the martini specials, then that my be your best bet.

I have had a beer at Bar Louie before and never found the need to review the place. I remember that I thought the beer selection was a little light and that when I did pick one out they did not have it. This time I decided to use Bar Louie as my time killer before Jazz Showcase instead of using Hackney’s every night. I must say, I would not normally choose a big chainy place, I just wanted some new scenery.
I nursed a Revolution Fistmas Draft for a while and finally decided on a Bacon and Fried Egg sandwich and I must say this was pretty good. It came on nicely toasted multi-​grain bread with cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo. I would never have thought to dress an egg sandwich with lettuce and tomato, but this was really good. It was just what I wanted.
I finished up with a Temperence Gatecrasher and managed to stretch it out until time to walk to Jazz Showcase. I was not hassled to move on or order more. While I usually am going to go to Kasey’s Tavern or Hackney’s, this was just fine. It just is never going to have the local bar feel of those places.

I enjoyed the space but not the $ 1 burgers. I’d rather spend time at the bar or just drinking rather than grabbing a few cheap burgers.
Our server was great and so were the fries. I assume the beef burgers are par-​cooked before service. They were over done with no seasoning at all. It was hard to get through eating one actually. A decent beer list with 20 ounces around 8 bucks. Not a bad deal.
I’d come back for the atmosphere and stay away from the food specials. Maybe the rest of the menu has something going for it. Not sure I’d venture back but if I do I know what to expect.

It’s a super neat, vintage building. It feels as if it should be a lot more formal than it is; the vaulted ceilings, frescoes, dark wood, and loft make it feel straight out of Boardwalk Empire. But it’s casual, youthful, and ebullient. Most of the tables are tall, but there are a few regular height tables along the wall. There’s a leather-​covered bench on one side with several small tables pushed up next to it. A huge bar is in the middle, orchestrating the vibe.
The food and drinks are fun, affordable, and fosters a sense of casual community. Everyone can afford something. We went on a Tuesday evening when they had $ 1 burgers. We could choose between veggie, chicken, turkey, and beef burgers. The burgers were plain, but we could add toppings such as cheese, bacon, and guacamole for an extra charge. We also bought French fries and tater tots each for $ 4.
The burgers were kind of dry and not well seasoned. I had avocado and bacon on my burger and still did not really like it. The avocado was in a single, large chunk that failed to make it into every bite. However, the fries and tater tots tasted delicious. They tasted exactly the same but had different textures.
The service was a bit too casual for my taste. It took a while to be noticed and directed to sit anywhere. Our server was nice enough but I was impatient between our interactions.