Globe Café & Bar

My friend and I had lunch here today and what a pleasant surprise it was! I haven’t been there in a while due to mediocre food, and horrible service, just as others have rated here. They have completely remodeled the place, and have a new staff also. I had a French dip beef that was cooked to perfection, not overdone and just past rare, and practically melted in my mouth, and the fries were perfectly hot and crispy too. My friend had a chopped salad that was huge! Very fresh ingredients, and she asked for a few modifications for it and they were totally happy to do it. Our waiter was stellar (sorry, I forgot his name), the host and runners were also very attentive. We also were given complimentary small bite apps (fried cheeses balls, yum) and a raspberry sherbet desert also. Very nice touch. I will be back for lunch now a lot, as I work right across the street (at NU) and will be raving to my office mates and all others how much the restaurant has improved!

During my 2 years in Evanston, I have become a bit of a regular at the Globe. Some friends and I do a reoccurring happy hour since it’s the closest spot to grab wine from Kellogg. We have our booth and even if a server is not assigned, they still let us sit there. We also enjoy how empty the place usually is around happy hour, giving us a nice sense of intimacy and homeyness. They offer a daily drink specials but a bottle of wine is still reasonably priced.
For food, the fish tacos are my favorite and a hefty portion. The burger and turkey sandwich are also pretty tasty, but the food is not too intricate. Be sure to request the pretzel rolls prior to your meal if they do not bring them. Sometimes they are not yet ready in the early evening and they may not bring them to the table.
Service can be a little slow, but they are apologetic and not motivated by poor intentions.

Breakfast buffet offerings are limited with the omelette station having only 5 offerings for mixing and that includes 2 cheeses. Service was slow to start but got better. Not sure the buffet is worth the price.

I stayed at the connected hotel (Hilton Orrington) for 12 weeks and frequented this restaurant over the duration of my stay. The main reason I kept going back was because the hotel offered free restaurant vouchers in exchange for staying. I can tell why it was free.
The first time we walked in, the «please wait to be seated» sign was set up, but it took 5 minutes for someone to acknowledge we were standing at the door. This was not a unique incidence, and we quickly got in the habit of ignoring the sign and just sitting down where we pleased. This might be excusable if the restaurant was packed, but there was maybe one other group of diners in the restaurant on any given night. Even at the end of the meal when we were clearly done, the wait staff would be behind the bar talking and we’d have to flag them down to get our check. Awful service.
On top of that, the food was bland and lacking flavor. The items appear to have potential, but the calamari was soggy, the filet was overcooked, and the red sauce was the very generic sauce you find at cafeterias. Over my duration, I tried 80% of the menu until I decided it wasn’t worth it — even free.

We had such a lovely dinner experience! The server was very attentive and friendly. As soon as he walked in, he showed us a booth. I was pleasantly surprised by the french fries; they go well with the chipotle aioli sauce. The bologense pasta was just all right. I don’t think the bread goes too well with the pasta.

Planned a private event here in the back bar section of Globe. The back room easily holds small group and big group events with plenty of comfortable sofas, plush chairs, high-​tops, and round tables. You walk through Hotel Orrington’s posh bar lounge and then the Globe restaurant to this private room. The room is enclosed by large windows facing the streets of downtown Evanston. This helped create an elegant ambience without being too stuffy. Overall, the event went fabulously due in large part to the professionalism of Jose, the hotel’s Outlet Manager. He provided a very reasonably priced but chic cocktail reception. I highly recommend planning an event here.

My experience was really crappy but since I didn’t get sick I feel like I can’t leave one star. So two stars for the staff not saying anything offensive and not getting food poisoning.
Walked in and was not greeted. By anyone. At all. Ever. After standing awkwardly by the front of the restaurant for at least 5 minutes, I ran after one of the few staff working and asked if we could have a seat. We could. Okay.
We grabbed ourselves some menus and took a seat. No one came by to offer us coffee or see if we needed anything. We were in a bit of a time crunch so I again walked up to an employee and asked if we could grab food from the (pathetic) buffet. I honestly just wanted some oatmeal at this point but was fearful of how long it would take to get the oatmeal from the kitchen — that is if we could ever manage to put in an order.
The oatmeal was fine. Nothing special but whatever, oatmeal is basically oatmeal. I walked up to the server station and poured myself some coffee (which was weak). I was never brought any milk although a staff member did see me trying to pour milk in my coffee and attempted to help me.
Breads and pastries were gross, and the fruit selection was pretty weak. The server only charged me for the oatmeal when I asked him if this was possible.
I won’t be back. Especially in a cute town like Evanston where there are way better options.

We came here on a Monday night. It was dead, which sometimes means a lazy waitstaff. But in this case they were very attentive. Started with delicious, hot rolls. I ordered the trout, which was a surprisingly thick cut – almost like a steak. It was good but not great. My wife was disappointed by the bread pudding she ordered for dessert. Overall, I would say the food was good, but there are better choices in Evanston at this price range.

Stopped in here for an early breakfast before a conference. Walked in just after they opened, and was seated immediately. Was quickly attended to by a very nice server, and ordered their eggs benedict. The hollandaise sauce on my benedict was so-​so, and tasted like it wasn’t made in-​house. Everything else was solid, otherwise. Prices actually weren’t that bad for a hotel restaurant.

Came here recently for weekday breakfast and felt like it was a solid, if not totally memorable, dining experience.
Surprisingly there were a decent number of patrons at 10am on a Thursday but we were seated in a booth pretty quickly. I ordered the French toast with strawberries and a side of bacon and N got a caprese omelette. I also ordered a latte.
The latte was a sub-​par latte that tasted like it came out of an industrial size insta-​latte machine. Not the best, no crema and I regretted it and its $ 4 price tag immediately. I’m sort of a coffee snob, though, so my standards are admittedly high. The french toast was good but not mind blowing. It was nicely brown though a little doughy for my taste. The strawberries were relatively freshly sliced, not canned /​frozen, which I really appreciated. The maple syrup did not taste like real syrup but was good, nonetheless. Bacon was cooked well and there were several strips.
N’s omelette looked pretty good — lots of tomatoes and basil and was a very generous portion for $ 10.
Service was really great, however, and the atmosphere is pleasant.

Held a baby shower here and did a full breakfast buffet for $ 17/​person. Selections included scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, breads, yogurts, etc. Food was very good for the buffet and the service was excellent and friendly. We were in a semi-​private space that was an alcove. Would definitely do an event here again!

Terrible. Hmmm, where to start? I grabbed a seat at the bar hoping for a quiet evening, a quick dinner and a glass of wine, to get some work done (I’m in the Windy City on business).
I ended up ordering the house salad with the steak adder ($ 7) and also added fries.
The salad came first and no steak. Unfortunately I was on the phone and couldn’t immediately question it. Once I dug into the salad I noticed the mixed greens were wilting, and some were completely black — I avoided eating them of course!
Then the full steak dinner came out — and at least with fries? Nope! With the standard potatoes.
My favorite part of the night: I notified the waiter that there had been a mistake, and his response? «Well, I put it on the ticket correctly…» Which translates into «it’s not my fault your order got screwed up.»
And to top off the night, they tried to bill me for the full meal, potatoes and everything.

My roommate and I came here because we had a coupon for BOGO sandwiches. From the moment we got there, the waitress was a bit standoffish but that was fine.
THE MAC AND CHEESE WAS SO GOOD. It deserves a solid four stars. It was baked and the crumbs on top were perfectly crispy and it had bits of bacon, tomato, and jalepenos – so delicious.
We both got burgers which were okay – I liked the toasted pretzel bun – but the rest of the burger was just okay. I definitely wouldn’t come again for the burger, but I’d come a hundred times for the mac and cheese.
ALSO there was a fruit fly… –_–

Breakfast is excellent. It was free as a gold honors member — always a perk! The omelets are good, but the breakfast buffet line is very solid. I have not eaten any other meal here except had the lava chocolate cake at night which was excellent. Service is ok — ask to be in Katie’s section!

I had already heard bad things about this place. I went to a lunch meeting here so the bill was taken care of by a colleague, so why not give it a try. Thank goodness I did not have to pay!
Not wanting to order something too complicated, I ordered a burger and asked that it have no cheese. When my order arrived, there was the cheese right on top of the patty. I let the person who brought the plate over know that I had asked for no cheese and he followed up by asking me to pick something else from the menu that would be fast like a salad. I quickly told the guy that I did not want to have anything else from the menu.
The waiter for our table finally came by and promised to have my order out soon. Too little too late, though.

Came for breakfast, got the lemon ricotta pancakes. They weren’t bad, except there were thick lemon rind shavings in the pancakes that were kind of tough to chew. It would have been better if they were actually zested and incorporated more into the batter. Pricewise for breakfast, not a terrible deal though. It’s also not nearly as crowded as Le Peep would be.

Went with a buddy over a late work lunch. We probably should have gone elsewhere.
We sat outside, which would have been better if the chairs weren’t so uncomfortable. I ordered a veggie wrap and my companion had a tuna steak sandwich. My wrap was best described as «blah» and my companion reported that the tuna steak was barely edible. I don’t even think he finished it. We also ordered a chips & guac appetizer and it was bland and unmemorable.
Service was also spotty. We ended up being late in returning to work because our server apparently forgot about us and didn’t check with us at all after we got our food. We had to go inside and ask for the check so we could get outta there. Thankfully it was Friday so it wasn’t a big deal to take a little longer for lunch.
Maybe they were just having a bad day or something, but I will look elsewhere for future Friday lunches.

If it weren’t for the dinner certificate that I wanted to redeem from
, I wouldn’t have come here. My friends and I waited for over 30 minutes for our food. The waitress didn’t serve bread until we asked for it. My roasted portabello steak was bland. The poor and slow service, along with the mediocre food, guarantees no second visits from me.

I came here a few weeks ago for a going away happy hour. On a Friday at 5pm, we had the back corner lounge to ourselves. Our server was great, never rushed us, was prompt with our drink orders, and was very personable. It was $ 5 martini night, so were throwing those back right and left. I had a Manhattan, which was pretty much entirely whiskey and was plenty for me. I tried a few of my friends’ French martinis and cosmos, which were also really good.
A few people ordered some appetizers — fried calamari and some sort of Greek cheese with pita bread. Both were pretty good.
I would definitely come back here. It was super chill, everyone who worked there was really nice and attentive, and they didn’t care that we were there nearly 4 hours. And they make their drinks pretty strong — it’s really a $ 10 martini for $ 5. Very happy that they don’t half-​ass it on the half-​priced night.

Excellent burgers. I think one of the best.
I had the blue cheese burger on a pretzel bun with sweet potato fries. That sound good right? IT IS THAT GOOD.
Raspberry Ice tea was also delicious.
The service was a little disorganized but it is a college town after all so I was not that put off by that.
Bottom line food is good, service is ok and the patio outside rocks!

This place is under rated. Its not the finest food I have ever had, but the food is fresh the servers are really nice and attentive and the cost is very reasonable. I also like it b/​c its incredibly kid friendly and kids eat free from 5:30−7 with the purchase of an adult entrée.
I wish I could give it 3.5 stars. Ignore negative reviews and check it out.
(Note this is for dinner only-​have not had breakfast or lunch here)