Tommy Nevins Pub

We have been coming here for a long time and are never disappointed. Its a good reliable pub with great atmosphere, good food and good service. They have an adequate selection of beers on tap and its also a great place to watch a game. The seating outside is great (weather permitting). Try the French onion soup. Its the best I have seen in Evanston. Also good burgers and the club sandwich is very good.

Went to Nevins as a post-​dinner Friday night with some friends. It’s spacious and has great seating for large parties. Our waitress was nice and brought us our drinks right away. They carded some of our group after serving us and carried on with service, but several of us weren’t carded. Shortly after, a bouncer interrupted our game of pool to single me out and card me, making it a little more obnoxious than necessary. After staring at it and scanning it, everything was fine but the entire party was put off by the unnecessary rudeness. I’m totally cool with carding, especially in Evanston near NU, but being rude and singling someone out after they’ve been served and after half of the group has been carded didn’t seem like the appropriate approach and left us feeling a little uncomfortable. My friend left and returned at one point and was carded four times on the way to our table. The uptight security honestly seems a bit superfluous. But we had a few drinks, the lemon drops were great, played some pool and darts, and had a great time. It’s a nice place to go and you know there won’t be obnoxious under age kids there, but you might get hounded like you are one either way. So, it’s worth it if you don’t mind the tight ID-​ing.

This seems a sweet place. We were there getting a couple of drinks having some food n chilling out during Sunday evening. There are two pool tables one in inside bar (which might not always be open) and they have DART boards as well. The service is pretty prompt and friendly.

Great for large and small parties. Very cozy. Semi-​traditional Irish-​American food and good beer/​bar. Good for games or dinner. Good price point and location. Street parking with meters, fair price too.

I should’ve trusted Unilocalers, who gave this place mediocre marks for service, but I figured the food was probably OK. I should have just kept on driving.
The service was barely enthusiastic, inattentive and slow. The waiter finally brought a carafe of water but didn’t pour it, didn’t seem to know much about the beer list (at a pub!), and looked like the guy who got stuck taking orders.
At an Irish pub, I figured the fish and chips would be good, and the server said they were. But the rubbery filet pulled right out of the bland, spongy beer batter, and it was not flaky at all. I tried to choke down a couple bites but just wanted it gone. For $ 12.99, I expected something a lot better.
A couple bright spots: the fries were good, and the couple bites I had of my companion’s shepherd’s pie were decent.
It’s not the worst place I have eaten, and probably fine for beers and hanging out, but if I was hungry I’d keep walking.

This place is the best in the neighborhood. Super cozy to be there, friendly people and good service. Sit by the fireplace with some bomb food and great craft beer, then go into the next room and play pool and darts. Definitely coming back often!

I am decidedly on the edge of 1 star, but I will leave it at 2 for a few reasons. 1– I had a cold beer. 2– the outdoor patio has provided me a nice place to sit in the past. But generally. I am not a fan of this place at all after a recent experience. I wish I could have my time refunded.
The first snowy Saturday afternoon of the year, we stop in for a few drinks, lunch, and to enjoy a Saturday-​afternoon-​funday. We order, pretzels, a seasonal beer, a water, and place our order for food. The pretzels are okay at best. But greasy, very greasy. We wait for our sliders and burger. We continue to wait, I order a second beer thinking it must be right up. We continue to wait. Now our server fully engaged in her phone at the back of the place hasnt noticed my beer is empty and my lovely date has had an empty water glass for about 15 minutes. I comically say, I am going to start my stopwatch on the iphone and see how long it takes her. Well, when it hit 15 more minutes, now probably waiting 40 minutes in total for food I get fed up. I stand up, walk out to the car and grab a $ 20. I figure it covers my 2 beers and the app. Who cares if the food is cooked and goes to waste, I am going to pay and leave. Waitress doesn’t come back. I leave a $ 20 on the table and leave. Wish I would have had a $ 10.
Walking out, our server saw us. She looked rushed at the back window to finish a text. Our food… well it was sitting under the warming bar. Who knows how long it had been there.
We went somewhere else and loved our lunch.

Horrible service! The restaurant was nearly empty at 1:00 pm on a Saturday, and after an hour we still had not received our food. We threw down a $ 20 and abruptly left. Absolutely ridiculous.

Tommy Nevins pub has been the hangout place of sorts for us for quite some time. The service is good and the food is decent. Beers are cheap (at least most are). They have special offers most days of the week — 6 $ pitchers and 3 $ beers make it a popular place for college students. The outdoor seating is good as well.

Service horrendously bad, server not at all knowledgeable on the menu, either to answer questions on it or to make sure we got what we ordered. Server also very slow, eventually apologetic, then still went missing w an almost empty dining room. Kitchen seemed disorganized — my dish came lacking one of items described in the menu and after asking the server for it twice she went missing. Again. Food cold, mediocre. I won’t go back and would not recommend. There are so many really great places to go around here. Check took forever to get, then the server disappeared again. We ended up taking our check to the bar to pay and never saw the server again. I would give no stars. Unremarkable food and really poor service. Also very run down. I can see how this place might have been good years ago but I don’t know how they stay in business.
Update 10÷18÷15: I messaged the restaurant per their response early last week and have gotten no response.
Update 11÷14÷15: I received a call from one of the corporate managers, apologizing for my experience. She said she would follow up and wanted to send me a gift card. At first I said thanks, but no thanks, as I probably just wouldn’t go back — as I said above, there are just too many really great places to go around here. Eventually we agreed I would take the giftcard in case I opted to give it a try again. She took my address, but the card never came. She did ask me if I would update the review if she sent it, but I didn’t get the sense the card was conditioned on an updated review. Sheesh!

Lots to choose from!
This pub has quite a few beers on tap, including a number of local ales, and a large selection of appealing pub food. Build-​your-​own burger with choice of protein, customizable mac&cheese, etc. I had an excellent Reuben, and my wife had the pub salad, which was quite nice. My son had a burger.
Years ago I would have given this place four stars, but in the age of gastro-​pubs, that seems too high. However, I thoroughly enjoyed my meal (and a couple of beers). If I lived nearby, like my son, I’d be a regular and everyone would know my name. (Norm!)(80’s TV reference)

Returning to Neville’s after having moved away for several years was definitely a major disappointment. The fabulous chicken noodle soup, once a strong draw for me, was no longer offered.
The server was insufficiently familiar with the menu, not knowing if the salmon was wild or farmed and unaware that horseradish sauce came with the corned beef and cabbage as specified on the menu. Her inattention to detail and inattentiveness detracted significantly from making this a pleasant experience, including much difficulty in obtaining the check.
The taste of neither the salmon nor the corned beef was impressive.
The ambiance was marred by very dirty windows, scuffed and scratched vinyl chair covers, and a lack of sun screens to keep sun off tables and customers.
All in all, this was a most disappointing dining experience.
Repeated requests to obtain horseradish to our server and two others were required before pure horseradish was delivered after about ten minutes. In addition to the pure horseradish being too strong for the dish (menu reflected this by specifying sauce), the delay resulted in the meal being cold.

Local Traditional Irish Pub. Nice draft selection/​local beers… Friendly service and good food. I’d go to Tommy Nevin’s anytime over the local chain BWW or something of the sort. If I were a student at Northwestern I am sure I would be a regular here.

I love Tommy Nevin’s. The only reason I can’t give a «WOO HOO» rating, is because sometimes the servers are unattentive. Nice, but sometimes unattentive. That is a big pet peeve of mine. It’s good that you’re nice, but I don’t like having to track or wave down my server for another drink. However, in their defense it does get busy. Especially, on Saturdays and Sundays when it’s a nice spring/​summer day and the patio is full. Regardless of that, I shouldn’t have to wave you down for service!
Anyways, what I love about Tommy Nevin’s is their good food, and awesome drink menu/​specials. I love the cheese balls! The cheese balls are DUH-​LISH! Everything else I have had off the menu at Tommy Nevin’s has always been delicious as well. I also have to recommend the Rueben sandwich. Best Rueben I have had. They have a very good beer selection as well, all the IPA’s an IPA drinker could ever want. As mentioned above about the outdoor patio, it gets really busy when the weather is great. If you are going there with a group, and plan on sitting at the patio, I would suggest getting there early to conjure up enough chairs and tables, because they go quickly!
Aside from the mediocre, «meh» kind of service I sometimes encounter, I will always be a frequent visitor to Tommy Nevin’s for the great food, drinks, and relaxing atmosphere!

Love their drink specials! Highly recommend the angry balls– shot of fireball dropped into a glass of angry orchard, tastes just like apple pie! When I came last Saturday the special was $ 4 shots, including o-​bombs which are my fave! I’m so used to bars charging extra for red bull when there is a special, so I was pleasantly surprised that the bartender didn’t ask for extra. The bartenders are quite friendly and serve you quickly. The bar itself is spacious in the back room, with tons of TV’s to watch whatever game your heart desires. My only complaint is that it is SO hot in the back room! I know winter is coming, but please turn down the heater!
I have not tried the food so I cannot comment on that.

Stopped by here for a a few drinks when I was in town for a family function. No real complaints. The staff was very friendly and helpful and made some good recommendations. I didn’t try the food so I can’t comment on that. The ambiance was fine, there were some pool tables in the back. It had a little bit of a college bar feel although not too busy when we were there (it was the weekend before Thanksgiving so maybe a lot of the Northwestern kids were out of town?)
Overall, a fine place to grab a drink and hang out if you are in the Evanston area and looking for a chill place to drink with friends/​family.

Angry Orchard on tap? 5 stars, so great, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Closing down most sections by midnight and appearing closed from the outside, not so great.
I get it was on a weekday that I went to this place for an impromptu going away gathering, but it was kind of lame.
Darts and Pool in the back area are nice, but I think those areas should stay open later.

Overall: For a pub, Nevin’s doesn’t disappoint. Good beer, good food, good times.
The good: The menu is actually pretty varied and large, and they brew their own beer (which was pretty good). They also have a lot of selections to choose from. Plenty of TVs and typical pub atmosphere with the cheesy Guinness decorations.
The bad: Not much. It’s just a bar.
Atmosphere: ⁷⁄₁₀
Service: ⁸⁄₁₀
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀

I’m back with another 4-​star review, so clearly this place is quite consistent (I would bump this up to 4.5 if I could). We went there last night for a work committee happy hour, and we had the backroom reserved. Our bartender was awesome (I didn’t catch his name, but he had an awesome [Irish?] accent), and happily answered all our questions. I had two of their Nevins beers — the wheat ale and the «YOLO» pilsner. Both were quite tasty. I never knew they had their own beer company, so I’ll definitely make a mental note to try the other varieties the next time I’m there.
We also had a buffet-​style setup of appetizers, and omg their soft pretzels are so freaking fantastic I am still craving the. The cheese sauce was also awesome — it wasn’t all gloppy and bright fake yellow like you get at some places. It was a more natural-​looking color, and much less goop… just deliciousness. I also had some mozarella sticks near the end of our event, and while they were cool by that point (my own fault for not going for them earlier), they were still good enough that I ate 3 – 4 of them.

I am convinced that the patio this place has is it’s saving grace. It is a beautiful place to sit outside with a group of 3 – 10.
The service is miserable here. You regularly don’t see your server for an eternity, and then when you do and you put in an order for a drink, you remain drink less for another eternity. Case in point: today, I waited 30 mins for a draft beer. And it was at the 24^th min that the server came back around and said «Ok, what did I forget?»
At that point, we did what I recommend you always do here: order everything you want all at once. We ordered three drinks and five food items. One drinker finally got so tired he went directly to the bar. Good thing, because his drink wasn’t even on the tray when the server returned with the other two drinks.
Food came much more quickly, but for some reason one of the five items was not included. Turns out, it was delivered to another table on accident. My friend was given a very brief and casual apology and told it would be just another five mins. So now it’s 45 mins and only drinks and first round of appetizers. Not to mention, one of the bus boys was holding that item when the rest were delivered by him and another staffer, and he was shooed away by the server. So the SERVER sent it to another table.
Pretty pissed all around. I work near here so I think my friends will keep wanting to go for the patio, but now I know to keep my expectations super low. Especially on non-​Friday weekdays. I’ve been burned enough times here.