Di’s Den

This has become my neighborhood bar. When I am in a hang out at the bar mood, I will drive into the city from the western burbs just to hang out at Di’s. Very friendly group of regulars and the bartender on Saturday nights can not be matched.

Amazing prices, excellent service and a spectacular atmosphere. As a first-​timer, I was treated like a regular and everyone was great. We’ll definitely be back.

The bartender is really cool. MGD bottles $ 2.75. The place is clean. What more you need to know?

I love a good dive and Di’s Den is about as good dive as you’ll ever see. Cheap drinks, good drinks, great atmosphere, great staff, free everything! Well… you know… not everything. But want to play pool? Not a penny! How about some darts? Nope, they won’t take your money. Need some chips to go with your suds? Head to the table that has them sitting out with salsa & indulge for no extra fee. Jukebox music? Oh yea, it can happen… for free. They let you hook up your phone if you like and play away. Um… that’s a dream.
Hanging out at Di’s Den feels like hanging at a friend’s basement — super chilled and taken care of — just the kind of environment I’m into. There was no shortage of space. It was busy but not packed to the brims and for that it shoots straight to my list of favorite weekend spots.
The bartender here was amazing. He had my back and made delicious drinks. Plus his semi-​Irish accent thing he had going on… Oooooohhhh…if I wasn’t a spoken for lady, I would have been straight swooning.
Thanks to my lovely friend Sandra for introducing me to such an amazing bar. I’ve spread the word to many since going — proclaiming my love of Di’s Den.

This is the second time in a month I’ve been shushed or gotten strange looks for being loud with a group in a bar. Is a quiet bar some new trend I’m unaware of?
I came to Di’s Den for a UYE (unofficial Unilocal event) organized by my Unilocal pal Sandy. I wasn’t expecting much from this dive bar, but I would definitely say it’s more of a comfortable neighborhood bar than a «dive.» It’s clean, unpretentious, and the bartenders are friendly.
One thing I dread about Friday nights at any bar is the potential for a lack of seating. Di’s has plenty of tables, and we were never bumping into other people even though it was quite busy for a dart tournament.
Di’s isn’t just a local watering hole. There’s a pool table, a TON of dart boards, and a juke box that even lets you play music from your phone.
The crowd is older — no young clubhead types or skank-​a-​sauruses on the prowl anywhere in sight.
Well drinks were $ 4 – 5 each, there’s a full bar, and of course, beer.

I went to the UYE here last night so now Unilocal tells me my next review awaits and I’m happy to oblige.
This is a neighborhood place. Its a bar with a separate dart room. The dart activities were in full swing. The local crowd is a little older.
Again, just another notch in my quest to visit every bar in the city. But how our group was treated by the management, bartender and locals makes this a five star place.
Also, some trivia from Dan: Portage Park is named for the «portage» that existed along Irving Park. People used to transport their canoes across land from Lake Michigan to the Des Plaines River and onward to New Orleans. Lets see, LSD to Cumberland — thats eight miles. They didn’t have Di’s Den back then to stop for a drink. I think I would have not fared well as an explorer or pioneer.

For a dive bar, this is as good as it gets.
There are two bars; one has a pool table, juke box, and a couple of video games. The other one has several dart boards (sorry I didn’t count them) and a dozen tables and chairs. It’s fun to watch the leagues play darts while you drink and talk.
There are bathrooms on each side and both are immaculate. As a matter of fact, the entire place is spotless.
They do have other events besides league night. So check out the website. Di told us that they were having a chili cook off soon. By the way, Di is awesome.

This is the best dart bar in Chicago. It’s not my favorite dart bar, but it is the unequivocal best. Countless boards, each with an oche built into the floor, scoring machines next to every board, always an abundance of pens and towels, and a Friday night blind-​draw where you’ll find the best shooters in the city.
There is no bar in Chicago that has invested more money or effort into darts than Di’s, and it shows.

Cheap booze, friendly fast service and DARTS! An entire ROOM DEVOTED to steel tip DARTS (which, IMO, are the only «REAL» darts on earth… take that you pansy-​plastic-​tip tossing wussies!).
Even the regulars were super-​cool.

This place… This damn place! Is freaking awesome!
10 Dart boards people. 10! and they have individual halogen lights so it’s very easy to see. You can’t do «take aways?» because you got GED? No worries! They even have computerized scoring machine for the dummies! (I was little inebriated so I used it) It makes the game go lot smoother and faster. It’s same as bowling. If you ain’t drinking, you ain’t having fun.
It was Friday night when a friend and I visited this place, and it’s when they have some kind of dart tournament and the pot was over a grand! I’m not much of a player so I just shot some before everyone got there and just drank my $ 3 16oz coors light. Oh yeah, how cheap is that?
You don’t like darts? No worries, this bar has another room! One for darts and booze, the other one is just for booze! Good stuff!
If you play darts, you definitely have to come by this place. I think this place is holy grail of darts in Chicago, I heard the old timers talking about different places they used to shoot. A lot of regulars here, all the ones I’ve talked to are very cool and pleasant to talk to. Average age is probably around 40 – 50. Some are older, and they are one bad ass dart players. Owners are awesome, she came by and talked to us for few minutes and cracking jokes. Even gave me some tips to be a better darts player!
I will be moving to southern IL soon so I won’t be able to frequent this place but damn man! Check this place out!
THE HOLY GRAIL OF DARTS IN CHICAGO! CHEAP BOOZE! NICE PEOPLE!

WhayT I like about this bar is the size and how the bar is divided into two sections. So you can’t see the drunk skunk on the other side as there is a wall partition and just a little area for the bartender to go back and forth. The bar is divided into two rooms and the second room is like a big dart arena. I have not seen any bar yet that devot so much of its space to the sport of throwing a dart. The televsion screens could get an update and the beer was cheap.

This bar is one of the best in Chicago.
Great service
Good prices
Plenty of dart boards
Oh and all the regulars are friendly!!!
Hats off to Lady Di

Made a quick pre-​cinema stop here to kill some time. Big space. Real clean. Bottles and cans of beer only — no tap. Friendly. The juke had an odd mix of metal and those Stars-​and-​Stripes songs about the troops: Suburban and Western. Peeps at the bar knew the lyrics and sang along. Felt like I had been dropped somewhere in Kentucky. Felt a bit like a tea party. And not the Alice in Wonderland one. No Mad Hatter. No Rabbit. But it sure does look like dart central-​one entire wall for your flinging pleasure.

My husband threw in the dart league and would occasionally have an away game here. I used to accompany him because I myself like to throw darts and am friends with all the guys on the team. Also, watching the guys play is interesting and I think it strengthens my dart strategy.
However, I stopped accompanying him when he would go to Di’s because the drinks are just terrible. They measure the shots and then charge what we think are expensive prices for a bar in Portage Park.
Unless you’re a darter that doesn’t mind paying Lakeview prices for drinks, it’s really not that great.

I have had a hankering to play some competitive darts since I moved from Atlanta. After looking around on the internet, Di’s Den seemed like a good bet. They have a blind draw tournament every Friday night that apparently gets pretty good attnedance. There were probably 30 people there last Friday and I was told that was a relatively low turn out. The tournament was well run. My rustiness was apparent! Most importantly, I met some nice folks that loved to play darts. Since I also have that love for the «sport», I fit in nicely. I wish it were a little bit closer to my place. But, beggers can’t be choosers. The beer was pretty cheap, the place was clean, and the staff friendly and prompt. I’ll be back next time I get the itch to play!

A bicameral establishment, with two rooms, one devoted to catering and dart tournaments, and the other, being where the «regulars» hang out, more catered to a local tavern feel.
Di and her establishment has been the prominent steel-​tip dart bar in Chicago for quite a few years, and has hosted quite a few tournaments with their 13 available dart boards. Blind draw tournaments are a staple there on Fridays, plus plenty of dart league teams play out of this mecca of Chicago darts. One pool table, but it’s free! Good folks, fast bartenders, Golden Tee, etc. Very low on the creepy old man/​frat boy ratio — just regular people. While the west half of the bar is devoted to darts, one certainly does not need to be a dart player to feel accepted here. Tell ‘em Sheriff Lobo sent ya!