Mad River Bar & Grille

The trivia night is a good time. However, the service was less than stellar. Our waitress was extremely inattentive. It was very clear that she was more interested in her phone and the Hawks game than helping us. Our beers were only refilled once during the trivia game and our dirty plates when uncleared.

One of my favorite places to go to when I didn’t work on weekends. They have an amazing happy hour deal you can win, $ 15 for all you can drink from 7 – 10. It’s always crowded with great music. Sometimes too crowded but it’s still great!

I’ve been to Mad River a dozen times. I’m not the demographic and everyone has been more than accommodating. It’s been friendly, professional and downright awesome. The servers were on top of it despite the large crowds and never skipped a bit. I was really impressed with the staff. We started out in a booth and made our way to the bar. The quality of service continued. I can’t remember all of the names, but so nice to have an evening out with friendly people. Campbell, Cristina, Marisa, Hannah, et al. Great bar, great food. I stopped by on Saturday same amazing sexiness and service… Check it… not once, but like 11 times. Angie, Campbell, Ally (sic), Adrian and Pat provided an amazing night out. Sorry, Marlee our server was Super Bowl 50 worthy. Amazing is an understatement. Go Marlee. My date was so impressed. I got a second date. Thank u #madriver

Mad River denied me entrance on my 21^st birthday because my ID «looked fake.» Funnily enough, I have been to Mad River countless times underage, but they chose the first day that I was actually legally allowed inside to deny me. Despite repeated efforts to tell them that Iowa ID’s are flimsier than Illinois ID’s, they still refused to let me in. I asked if a manager was available to check my ID, and they refused to acknowledge my question. Needless to say, I plan to avoid Mad River and the misogynistic male bouncers with control issues

Came here to watch the Rose Bowl because every bar was full but we were able to get a big table for our group here. Every TV had the game on, the bar was packed with people there for the game. Seemed like it was going to be a good time. And the staff at Mad River would not put the sound on for the game. How can you be a sports bar, with (arguably) the biggest bowl game on every tv, and not want to play the sound? We all left before 2^nd Q to go across the street to a real sports bar.

I had an infuriating experience at Mad River.
To keep things as brief as possible, a friend of mine won one of the infamous All You Can Drink for $ 15 from 7−10PM specials. I was excited to try this bar out, as they’re a proud Michigan State bar that works to bring in a younger crowd with the allure of saving money all with using the $ 15 drink party special that my friend has inviting me to.
Well, after being carded at the front entrance and paying the standard $ 15 for a wrist band, we realized that we literally couldn’t get into the middle/​back section of the bar to get a drink. Literally. Hordes of peoples surrounded by another horde of people surrounded by YET anther horde of people prevented us from any opportunity of getting serviced by the busy staff. After trying to make our way through the crowd, it became apparent that this was an utter waste of our time. We literally COULDN’T get our money worth up at the bar because the cluster of people was enormous. Once we realized that getting drinks, let alone MOVING, was impossible, we went back to the host stand to see if we could get our $ 15 refunded. The host was really sweet and polite and definitely empathized with us, and said she was going to get a manager to ask.
We patiently waited 15 – 20 minutes in front for the manager, a woman about average height with blonde hair. The host explained to her that we had only been there for 5 minutes and hadn’t ordered anything, and that we wanted our money back since there was literally no possible way of getting a drink.
The entire basis of this one star review is on how the manager responded to us. Before the host even finished explaining our predicament, she turned to us, shook her head and kept on saying «No. No. No. No. Absolutely not» while shaking her head. We tried to speak with her further just ourselves, but she didn’t even bother listening to us or giving us the chance to speak; she just kept on saying «no». It would’ve been one thing if she had just even empathized with us and apologized that bar protocol is to not give refunds, but she chose to be completely rude and disrespectful.
Clearly customer service isn’t a priority at Mad River. But whatever, they don’t care. They don’t need to. They’ll just continue to make bank off of their joke of a $ 15-​all-​you-​can-​drink-​events.

Love this place! I frequent this bar Wednesday’s and weekends.
Wednesday’s– Awesome drink specials! $ 15 domestic beer buckets, $ 4 Jameson & Absolut. Usually not crowded but just enough to have a good time on a Wednesday night. The DJs are amazing. They play a variety of hip hop, house, and sometimes EDM. Good with music requests. Bartenders are great! They’re fun and do their best to make sure you’re taken care of. Management’s great, Edet’s the best!
Friday’s & Saturday’s — always packed. If you don’t don’t like packed dance floors, not for you. I happen to like packed dance floors. The crowd is great. Very friendly and love to dance. Mixed ethnicities. Mostly students from DePaul. Bartenders are always busy but they try to get to you. DJs are good but I feel like they play the same playlist every weekend. still good to dance to.
Ps. Their food is good as well. Parmesan fries! YUM!

I have been going to Mad River every week since I wrote my last review.
I totally understand now why we didn’t get our sides super quick, etc. trivia nights are crazy! But so much fun. The waitresses are great, the atmosphere is super welcoming, and the food is all really good.

So my last check in gave me the dutchess status, which I feel bad for acquiring. «Fly Eagles fly.» does not come out of my mouth (although I do know the words). BF is from Philly, Roxbourough to be exact. So yes this place is a must for his Eagles, his 1 – 3 Eagles I like to remind him. Great energy here from the Philly fans though. Stacey our waitress was one of the best we had here. In a busy place like this on a Sunday she checked on us regularly & made sure we were ok. The food is better, the fries are fresh. They don’t show any other games besides the E*A*G*L*E*S…EAGLES! Which blows when you want to keep up with your fantasy football. But you have to appreciate a place that «soars» with their home team.

This place is just awful. The only reason I ever go is because some of my friends are Eagles fans, and MR is the Eagles bar, and once I’m there, I can’t wait to leave. As an aside, I have been to bars for all different sports teams, and Eagles fans are among the more annoying. But I digress.
The only good thing about MR is all the light. You don’t feel like you’re in a dark cave. Other than that, this place is a bust. The servers are (and I’m trying not to be mean) a bunch of dum-​dums. They don’t try, they routinely get orders wrong, and their behavior seems to be predicated on the impression they are more attractive than they actually are which justifies them being bad at their job. I really don’t care how hot a server is if it takes 15 minutes to get a stinkin’ beer or if I have a coin-flip’s chance of actually getting what I ordered. The beer selection is below average. The food is below average. The arrangement and number of TV’s for a place this large that holds itself out as a sports bar is below average. And as bad as all of that is, MR becomes simply intolerable when the night comes and they try to be a quasi dance bar. It attracts a crowd that is a douche dance club version of the crowd that rolls in to Big City Tap late at night. Horrible. I really hope they find nuclear waste and 5,000 dead rats in the basement so they have to close the place down.

Have been a regular here for about 3 years. The REAL place to watch or beloved Birds. This year the waitresses have their shit together. Awesome customer service and decent food. Great improvement.

E-​A-​G-​L-​E-​S EAGLES!!! This bar is GREAT for Eagles fans!!! We went here for Monday Night Football when the Eagles played the Falcons and it was packed!!! I had no idea that I was going to need a reservation at a bar to watch the game. We got lucky and was able to find two seats in the back to watch the game. This bar has a TON of TVs so there is not a bad seat in the house. They had a ton of drink specials for the Eagles game. They also had $ 5 cheesesteaks and hoagies. I got a hoagie and loved it. The BF got a cheesesteak and said it was okay. We got the habanero wings as an app and they were decent. I was worried it would be too spicy, but it was perfect. This place filled up quickly!!! But our service was still pretty good. It sucks the Eagles lost, but this was a great bar.

I’ve been to Madriver many times and usually it is packed beyond belief. They have good group specials, $ 15 wristbands for unlimited wells and beer if you get enough people to commit. I like this place because it is your typical Friday/​Saturday night college bar. It’s packed and they have a large enough dance floor and the music is pumping. I’ve stayed here many times till close and it’s always a good time. Only downside is that the bathrooms are tiny so you spend half of your time waiting in line. I have never ordered food here, mostly because it is impossible to get a table.

Mad River has been around since 2006 and is one of the more frequented spots in the Lakeview area. The place is pretty spacious, as they have an outdoor patio, a few LCD TVs installed around the area, a dance floor, as well as private loft. Some friends and I came here for some drinks, and the place was pretty packed! They have daily specials, for burgers, drafts, and for apps. They place also hosts a lot of parties and events (Family Feud, Trivia Night, etc.), so you can check out their website for the dates. Parking is extremely limited on Sheffield, so your best bet is to take a cab.

Went here some time ago and it was an interesting but ok experience. The place is large and has a dancefloor which really starts getting crowded late night weekends. The guy at the front door seemed friendly and polite, my fellow patrons were mostly younger and many were dancing. Just not much to distinguish from other bars I suppose.
Later into the night a very drunk guy was escorted out by security staff. He appeared to be bleeding. Not sure what had happened but he was surely very drunk and this type of thing happens anywhere and everywhere. Security walked him out very slowly and they looked to be quite careful to make sure he wouldn’t fall again. I think they handled that well overall. It would be nice though if this incident didn’t happen but oh well.
3 stars for being ok, not great but it was what I had expected.

So I went to this place once and I loved it
After a second time I am just unbelievably angry at this establishment.
I was not let in because the two door guys don’t know what the heck they’re doing. Just because I’m from out of state and you didn’t like my ID, you think it’s fake?!
First of all I’m of age, I have a perfectly legal state issued ID. Second, you let in an underage kid literally right before me. These two guys stood there laughing at my ID thinking they looked cool and they just looked like idiots.
All I have to say is get your shit together Mad River, your doormen suck at their jobs and they’re a bunch of pricks.

Absolutely terrible service. Waited at the bar for 20 minutes while it wasn’t crowded (15 people max). I had to say, «excuse me, may j get a drink?» three times before I was acknowledged.
I then went to the table my friends & coworkers were sitting at to order food and we waited 30 min each time between being visited by our waiter. We ordered food. He never once asked us if we needed more drinks. Didn’t give our table enough place settings or napkins. Didn’t care. Little bougie ass Donald Trump, Jr. lookin’ boy wouldn’t even smile to save his life. RUDE.

Good specials, decent service, pretty good for Blackhawk games.
Came here since Kirkwoods was full, wasn’t too let down. They had good drink specials and half off apps, so we were able to get our fix in. The drink service was pretty slow, but we didn’t really care since we were expecting it. I got the boneless wings which were overcooked but still ended up being decent. Ranch was very runny/​liquidy which was odd.
Can’t say I would come here, but if it’s the closest place to you and you want to catch a game, can’t be too bad.

I came here last Thursday and it was decently crowded. There was an event going on to support homeless children, so that was probably why there were so many people. It was an ok place, but I liked that there were so many TVs. My friend and I had gotten there fairly early, so we were able to sit down and have a few drinks and talk. The drink specials were pretty cool though ($ 1 Tecate cans, $ 2 draughts, $ 4 call drinks with Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Jack Daniels, I think Beefeater Gin – might be wrong, and $ 5 bombs). We ended up having a few drinks here, but then they started karaōke and it got too loud to be able to talk. Our waitress was… alright. I mean like I said, it was decently busy, but at the same time it took forever to get drinks and our check. She was nice, but not very attentive.
Overall, I think this place deserves a 3.5 and I’d probably come back if I were in the area.

This is my first time coming here. Mad River hosts Spartan football games (Go Green!). It’s a large bar so you can breathe and get smushed. However it’s really loud. Good music plays but it’s way too loud. Could barely hear myself think and if you’re watching the game with a bunch of fans it’s even crazier.
I’m going to be honest: I’m not a drinker so the specials really don’t mean a lot to me. I don’t know the average prices of alcohol so I can’t judge if this place is expensive. However, the bar food prices are decent. The food is ok. But you can’t expect much from bar food. I’m just snacking during the game.
Overall, I had a good time but it could be because I was surrounded by a group of my fellow Spartans watching my favorite sport ;)