ESPN Zone

Decent. Not great.

CLOSED (as of June 9, 2010).
Too big, really, to be a true Chicago sports bar, the ‘Zone fast became mostly a tourist draw. Chicago World Sports hosted a «thank you» party here in Fall of 2007 for their staff and volunteers (me included) following the very successful AIBA World Championship Boxing meet held at the U of I campus. Upstairs, it was essentially an indoor amusement park (just games, no real rides) for the sports minded of any age, with lots of snack foods that would appeal to such a crowd. They had a cozy media lounge with comfy chairs and sofas to watch the games or a special presentation in too.
The very last event here was a viewing party for game five of the 2010 Stanley Cup championships, in which the Chicago Blackhawks were victorious over the Philadelphia Fliers.

The BBQ boneless wings are quite tasty, but their sandwiches did not stand out as being all that great. The service was decent at the bar & despite the fact that our bartender was super busy, he was great at offering beer suggestions or places to visit in the city.
The paraphenelia is pretty cool in this place — check out the rings on the way to the bathroom.

Like any other American sports bar/​restaurant… Didn’t strike me as unique, but we DID see Jerry Springer there! They even let us in the VIP room to take a pic with him: D

Terrible food! Over-​salted and dry buffalo chicken sandwich. Disgusting nacho «cheese» sauce on the incredibly salty nachos. Bad service. Bad meal.
Only reason it gets an extra star is because the game zone is pretty fun (though not cheap).
Don’t eat here! Go across the street to California Pizza Kitchen or even better, to Big Bowl.

SO I’m from KC. and Yes although the Chiefs are more like INDIANS. it’s sometimes necessary for me to check out their games. If you haven’t noticed, the Chiefs are Hardly shown here in Chitown. I guess they aren’t that popular!. well
my friend and I go here to see a game. The food is decent. Drinks are Decent but both are a little on the expensive side. It’s OK to splurge at times but this option of having to purchase something every 10 minutes if you sit inside of their ZONE! is INSANE!. After my friend Flirted with our server (THANK GOD!) We got a Huge Discount. i mean who can Eat and Drink THAT MUCH ???
the only part about this place that sucks is that Pay by the Minute Set Up. This method will Milk you Dry $$.

I was here back in 2004 and had probably the weirdest experience of my life.
I’m from NC and was not used to the cold and it was between Christmas and New Years. I had a bit of a cold, but didn’t think anything of it. My family was visiting for the weekend and we had been out walking around and decided to step in and go here because my little bro was 11 and he LOVES sports. The wait was ridiculous and it was one of those places where you had to leave your ID to get a buzzer.
So we were waiting around for a good 45 minutes and it was vacation so my mom ordered an amaretto sour during the wait. I was only 20 at the time but my mom slipped me a couple sips. The drink was fine, just a basic drink. After standing around for almost an hour I started to feel lightheaded and all of the sudden I just fainted! Only time in my life I’ve ever fainted, so quite a shock. The reason I’m putting this in here was because I fainted at the hostess stand. Not one of them flinched. When my mom asked for a chair, the hostess looked super confused. A patron actually got up and gave me his chair since the employees did nothing.
We ended up eating there mostly because I didn’t want to walk around after fainting. The food was fine and the prices ok also. The sports aspect is cool too. But, I don’t think I could ever go back after such a weird reaction from their staff. I know it’s not their fault I fainted, but they could have been nice and given me a chair!

Its funny how city centers have become major tourist destinations over the years. I remember a Times Square that was more Fremont Street than Epcot Center.
ESPN Zone in the loop is one of those sorts of places — a tourist trap in the middle of a real city, a place of reassuringly bland sameness when frazzled nerves overwhelmed by soaring architecture, maseratis jostling with buses, and the animated throngs of mag mile can escape to the comforting homogeneity so prevalent in Americas suburbs.
Its a brand extension of the real-​estate boom years. A grand tribute to suburban culture. As such, the overpriced food here lacks any quality to justify the price. The burgers taste cheaper than the 1 dollar special burgers you can get at your neighborhood bar on a monday. The buffalo chicken is identical to whats found in your freezer aisle, and the salads can be had for far less at Panera. I paid $ 5.75 for an Great Lakes Elliot Ness — 12oz. So I guess I can’t have a tasty beer for a reasonable price, either.
No, ESPN zone isn’t for Chicagoans. It might be for Napervillians (can I say that?) possibly Schaumburgers, more like you Rockfordillians… but really it’s for those from even farther afield. For all you messengers from Mclean Va, the bootheels from Buffalo, and those wandering souls from Walla Walla — bring your tired, your weary, your poor…

ESPN Zone is somewhere between «blah» and «alright». I think the experience one receives there just depends on why you’re going in the first place.
Naturally with the name ESPN Zone, you’d think this place would be good to watch sports? No, not at all. This place REALLY sucks as a sports bar. It has a couple tiny bars and TV’s are plastered around in a chaotic manner. The food is okay but pretty limited in selection.
EZ is really more of direct comparison to Dave and Buster’s or Gameworks. Unfortunately, its not a good as either place. The vast majority of games are way out of date and many of the games were not working at the time.
If you need to kill sometime, EZ is a decent place to go. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t go out of my way for this place.

Always over-​crowded and I don’t understand why. It’s a sports bar where kids get to run all over the place. Kids and bars are such a wrong combination.
There are tvs everywhere which is cool to watch a game. The noise level is fun for a sports fan, but since it’s impossible to get a table or even a spot at a bar, what’s the point?
The good is ok, the prices are high but it is near Michigan Street so that’s not really surprising.

Sports games… amazing! This is 10x better than any Dave and Busters for the fact that there are less ignorant loud teens, especially the certain ones who huddle around the basketball game.
This place has everything from a bar, to sports games on the tv and video games. Kinda expensive though. Thats the only downside.

Lame. The people that work in this insanely crowded madhouse are mean. «You can’t stand here.» «You need to move over there.» «Don’t go in there.» «Wait here.» They might as well throw a leash on you when you walk in.
Oh, and who ever is in charge of the TVs, they need to be paying attention. They show lame games. For example, Notre Dame was blowing someone out, but they kept that on 900 of the 1,000 screens in this place. Meanwhile, #3 USC was locked in mortal combat with unranked Washington, which ended up beating the Trojans. Wake up, man.
On the plus side, the nachos were good. And the Jr. bar-​back guy was cool while the Sr. boss guy was blowing me and my buddies off, «you guys should just go to the other bar, cause I’m too busy.» Oh, sorry, man.

ESPN Zone.
It’s Chucky Cheese with bigger nuts. There were kids running up and down the stairs, screaming and crying. The arcade games were louder than the baseball game on TV. It was dirty… like how a movie theatre looks at the end of the night.
The food ‘tasted’ fine — but my friend and I were sick all weekend. Actually, she didn’t even make it out of there without paying a visit to «Mr. Shattner».
Skip ESPN. If you are a tourist, unless you want to hang out in your bathroom at Embassy Suites all weekend stuck reading the ‘in room’ Chicago magazines, don’t eat at this shit hole.
No pun intended.

Good for groups and the games were a good time. It was someone’s office Christmas party that we were there for and the game cards were given out for free so I didn’t pay much attention to the cost. I think I went through a couple of $ 25 cards pretty easily in about an hour and a half. Beers are about $ 6 a bottle for domestics. Nice buffet they put out for the group.
It’s worth noting that you’ll need to send out unmistakable signals as to what your position is in line for some of the games. The parents are worse than the kids. There was an 8 or 9 y.o. kid there drawing crowds by the big basketball game at the very back who sank nearly all his shots rapid fire every time he stepped up to play.

The ESPN zone is both a store and a restaurant. It gets confusing so if you ever come here, the restaurant is on the lower level. I dont remember much of the experience except that they have a TON of televisions. My boyfriend wanted to watch a NASCAR race and our waiter kept telling us that he would change the channel but eventually never did. I cant really remember the reason… we went two summers ago and I havent been back since.

Psst. don’t say anything, but this place is actually my favorite Valentine’s Day destination.
While you all are dipping fondue and suffering through high heels and the exact same red dress as everyone else with everyone else, waiting for your man to buy you a lame in-​restaurant rose and settling in for a night of planned sexy time, I’m here:
pitching splitters, having a basketball shooting battle, going for a Hail Mary and skiing. This is what gyms should be all about! The place is usually empty, so I have a run of the place. $ 40 or $ 50 will buy hours of fun for two. And all of that exercise with your boo gets the blood all pumping and the cheeks all flushed — way more sexy than French food I can’t pronounce.
So I love this place, right? No. Actually I hate this place, too. And not just because of the whole Disneyfication of sports and everything else. I hate this place because it’s kind of an average to below average spot to watch sports.
See, I’m from California and I love sports, so I usually want to see the western conference of whichever league, game, sport or whathaveyou. But they have a specified and definite closing time. So multiple times I’ve tried to watch BIG GAMES here, like playoff games — and they don’t even show them. Even if it’s the biggest game of the season/​year, if it starts at 8 or 9 at night, they won’t even turn the game on because if it continues longer than their 11 pm closing time, they would have to turn it off (that’s what the manager there told me). So they just don’t play it at all. WTF kind of «sports» bar won’t play a pro basketball playoff game because they don’t want the game to go into overtime? And WTF kind of «sports» bar would close in the middle of an overtime playoff game? Again, for Chicago being this supposed sports town, that shit is all truly bizarre.
So I go there to play, but not so much to watch others play, UNFORTUNATELY. (Seriously ESPN Zone, fix that shit)
ps — the cheese fries are great.

Love this place!!!
I go here from time to time to have a great time, whether it be for drinks or to destroy someone in a game of air hockey or to shoot some hoops. The hot wings in this place is pretty good and the drinks are reasonably priced, considering the area. Pretty nice/​small bar areas upstairs and downstairs. Great selection of games and great place to bring kids or a date. they have a room upstairs over to the side, where you can view a big fight or one our major sports championship series/​games.
Again, I really love this place. I will issue a challenge to anyone who wants to step up to the plate against me in a game of air hockey! Any takers?

To paraphrase the immortal words of Chris Rock from «No Sex (In The Champagne Room)», just as «no one goes to Hooters for wings,» no one goes to ESPN Zone for food. For me to review this as a restaurant would be a bit unfair. No, this place should be reviewed for what it is — a somewhat family friendly orgy of an audio-​visual overload of all things sports.
For the average patron of ESPN Zone on a Sunday, sports are not a disraction, they are a way of life. These are the kind of people who will punch you in the face for calling any sport just a pastime. Football to them is a heroin that they withdraw from for the eight months that it isn’t played. And the only way to truly get their fix is to watch the game on what might be the largest television in Chicago (with smaller TVs and an endless fact ticker on every sport in the United States surrounding it like some puritanical Las Vegas sports book where gambling isn’t allowed).
The food is an afterthought. And the wait staff, knowing this, doesn’t bother to serve (aka interrupt the game) or move people out in the same way that you don’t ask the crack head blocking the stairs to the El to kindly move out of the way. It doesn’t end well.
This laissez faire movement of customers creates waits so huge that I was almost afraid to try to eat here between movies at the Chicago International Film Festival. I tried to eat here last Sunday but the place was so loaded by Viking fans (as well as the usual Bears contingent) that I gave up trying to get seated after 90 minutes. Since it was the Bears bye week this time around, I actually got in right away and the nachos that I ordered arrived in a few mintues. They arrived with chicken but to be fair I said, «no chicken» instead of just saying «nachos» and all the waitress could hear in the booming of the giant television set’s audio was «chicken.» They corrected this mistake right away.
Oh and there’s an arcade to burn calories at with all sorts of sports themed games. And still more televisions showing still more sports.
The amount of testaterone (and noise) in this place can be a bit overwhelming (for those of us less into sports). While it might be that the nachos were so loaded with fake cheese gave me lower belches after eating here, I think it might be a symptom of sports testaterone overdose.

Touristy.
If you can get in the main room with the jumbo TVs, this is a great place to watch a game. But if you’re banished to one of the lesser rooms, you’d be better off staying at home.
I took my brother there one Sunday and we wanted to watch the Lions game. We told the host this and they put us in a room with six televisions, none of them showing the Lions. Two of the TVs were showing women’s bowling (!). We asked the waiter to flip the channel and he said he couldn’t, because a baseball playoff game was starting on that channel later that day. Really? So it’s better to watch women’s bowling for three hours than the first three quarters of a decent NFL game?
The place does have a fun atmosphere, though. It’s nice to go upstairs and play around with the games, even if the prices are outrageous and you have to buy a stupid plastic card to play them.
The food is decent, if bland. But you’re not really going here for the cuisine, are you?

I had fun experience here for a private party this week. It was my first time there and I was expecting to be completely touristy which it is. The touristy nature of it didn’t distract from how much fun that I had there. The food at the event was decent at best, nothing to write home about and recommend to anyone and they served Bud Light, so no complaints here.
As part of the party, we got to play the games which ended up being a blast. I amazed my coworkers with my shooting skills while another coworker beat me at a weird, fun rifle game. Yes, ESPN Zone is a smaller D&B, but still fun. There were some games that I haven’t seen in years and had fun playing. I like any place that serves beer and has videogames.
Overall, the place is a big playground for sportswatchers, videogamers, and beer drinkers. I had a great experience and would go back for the games and beer, not the food.