Doc Ryan’s

Horrible parking situation, rude bouncers and wait staff, takes forever to get a drink (served in a plastic cup), over –priced and weak drinks, rowdy and obnoxious crowd, and last but not least… I was charged twice, two different amounts, for the same tab. Thanks, Doc Ryan’s.

This bar can eat my ass. I’ve been here twice and it was two times too many. The drinks are always either too weak or too strong. The DJ plays the same 5 songs all night, that’s probably why everyone’s always on the dance floor but they’re never actually dancing, just taking up space. And the service, quite frankly, sucks balls. It takes at least 10 min to get a bartender’s attention and then like another 10 to actually get your drink. I honestly hope I never have a friend ask to meet here again.

How dare you let this Forest Park landmark become so awful.
My main concern is the god-​awful food and service. 10 – 15 years ago Doc Ryan’s was the best Irish bar in Forest Park, but when I came back there at 6:30 Saturday night, before the Forest Park Zombie Pub Crawl, the middle-​aged bar tender completely ignored us. I point out her age simply to say that she was old enough to know better. This was not her first job. She knew what good service was, she just didn’t care. Instead, she spent most of her time chatting with her friends at the other end of the bar. After finally waving her down with a fistful of cash, she incorrectly poured a very lousy Guinness in a plain pint glass (a sin among Irish bar patrons). We then had to wait for a separate waitress to take our food order because the bartender could not be bothered with food orders. After dropping off the blandest tacos and saltiest burger at our spot, since there really isn’t anything really Irish on the tiny menu, the waitress disappeared too. So, there we were without napkins or silverware trying to scrape the sour cream & salsa onto the taco using the edge of the tortilla.
After leaving we met up with other local pub crawlers who shared similar stories of how great Doc Ryan’s used to be & how sad and pathetic it is now. Fortunately for Forest Park, there are far better Irish bars right up the street. I recommend Slainte, just up the block.

Its more of a high scale dive bar. The drinks are small and weak, beer is cheap. It turns into a little nightclub on the weekends at night. They have a nice patio in the back with tables and lamps etc, but you cant take your drinks outside.

The roof top is great but it really needs a better bar system. Very unorganized. Bartenders great just feel bad they have to keep running in and out to get good drinks. This could be a really great spot if they fixed that.

Food was good, especially the cheese curds. We sat on the roof which had a nice atmosphere. The service wasn’t great. We had to go to the bar to order our food and our drinks. Besides a server brining our food to our table, no one stopped by to check on anything or to even bring us our checks– for which we again had to go up to the bar.

Douche. Town.

I’ve gone to this bar several times, more so right when I turned 21 because that seems to be the kind of crowd in there most of the time. Now being 28 I won’t step back in. Not only does it get way too crowded but the music is just horribly loud on the weekends. The beer garden was decent with lots of tables and room for games. But what made me not step foot in there again was on one slow night with maybe three other people in the bar, I ordered either a jack and coke or Jameson and ginger ale (I don’t remember since it was near a year ago) but the bartender actually said to me that I don’t want to order that because she saw all the bottles of whatever I was ordering were WATERED DOWN! Even the ones in the back stock that shouldn’t even be opened yet. Whether they were or weren’t, the fact that the person working there had to advise against it was enough for me!

This place is ok for a Friday afternoon. I would like to come back whenever they’re suppose to be «happening». Definitely not happening at 3pm. This is fine, since I was here on a date and wanted to talk with my friend rather than screaming to try and hear each other. They had games on the TVs and lots of friendly faces waiting on tables and tending bar.
We ordered a few appetizers and they were your typical tasty barfood. I mean, you really can’t go wrong with nachos and chicken fingers.

I literally just got in the car and drove away from this place… I have to say that the experience was crappy. I normally check Unilocal before actually going to a new bar, but I was so excited to watch the Bulls vs Cavs tonight that I forgot. Welp… I should have because these ratings speak the truth.
I manage a facility in LP and we have a full service bar. I’m all about watching the pour and I often have to yell at my staff. However, I will never order another drink from this place. I watched him more about ¾ of an oz in my drink. He wasn’t too friendly or sociable…
To top it off, we ordered food !!! When my friend received his tacos, there was hair in it. We informed the bartender and he acted like it wasn’t a big deal. My friend was nice about it and just ordered something else. I wouldn’t have been so nice! The food was very mediocre seeing how they brought me a burger with absolutely nothing on it. And I had to ask for ketchup and silverware. All of this to say… There were only about 6 other people there at the time.
Don’t waste your time if you’re looking for good drinks and food. Definitely go elsewhere. **thumbs down**

Doc Ryan’s is your typical neighborhood bar. Good music, cheap drinks, people you know, and good times. There isn’t anything spectacular about the place but the people are nice. The bar staff are friendly although some of them make drinks better than others, which is to be expected. Once I find who makes the best drinks, I just stick with them for the rest of the evening. This is my go to place when I want to hear some pretty decent music and have a few drinks. I haven’t tried the food so I can’t comment on it.

As a long time customer and friend to some of the bartenders at Doc Ryan’s I’ve been bias for many years until about a week n a half ago. A high school girlfriend and I are planning a class 10 year reunion, naturally (at the time) I thought of Docs to host our event of 100 plus students and teachers. After a month of attempting to contact the «event planner» (who was out of the country with apparently no one to cover her… So I was told) I resorted to contacting a bartender friend for some help as we had to get planning underway. Red Flag. Finally (1 week later) we were contacted back, date was set, deposit paid and invitations sent to my entire class and all of our old teachers. We had plenty of responses, this was going to be great! Classmates and teachers were even flying in to come celebrate 10 years with us! We WERE so excited, until 5 weeks before our event we get a call from the «event planner» that Docs was no longer going to be able to accommodate our party. Why!!! Did they have a fire and need repairs!!! Did they not pass an inspection!!! Were they closing for good??? No. No. And No. All of those would have been better reasons than the one she gave. Doc Ryan’s had decided to host another party on the same night as ours obviously weeks after we had gotten our invites out. Another party I’m sure they believe to be bigger and better than the one we were planning. They offered us a mediocre option to change the date (which when you have people coming in from around the country is not an option). We were refunded our deposit and after they piss poor display of professionalism, we were MORE than happy to take our business across the street.
I am so disappointed and have finally seen what really bad business can do to sway a once avid fan of Doc Ryan’s. And its a shame because this place once was the place to be all days of the week… I understand now why so many loyal customers have left. Sorry guys I won’t be returning and I advise anyone looking to plan a party to head to one of the other gems along Madison Street.

Nowadays, I only go here for the Irish Parade. But the last 2 years have been a complete flop. This place gets too crowded and filthy. I should have wrote this review last month
I was upstairs Sat ³⁄₀₇ where the overwhelmed bartenders ran out of Jack Daniels. Hmm, interesting — before noon? An older female bartender told me to go downstairs. I said I’ll have something else since the 2 bars down there were packed. After disappearing for a while she returned so I asked «can I have a double shot of Malibu Rum on the rocks?» The bartender paused and goes «can’t you say please??» I laughed and said… Uh can I please have a drink…
She took care of another guy. Came back, poured my drink in a plastic cup (funny there’s never glasses and you get shots in plastic too, lolling!!!) she THEN poured Red Bull in it. Said oh shit, then proceeded to add pineapple to mask the Red Bull??? And said well here. She was completely flustered so I didn’t have her make another. (I ended up at the downstairs bar anyway…)
She charged me $ 10 for the wrong drink? I can’t stand the taste of energy drinks and carbonation makes me hiccup real bad. They didn’t have the whiskey I wanted up there anyway. I only took 1 sip of my awful drink –which must have been watered down since I tasted no alcohol and I’ve drank Malibu from the bottle before.
This was the first time in my entire life I took my tip off of the counter and walked away. I gave my drink to someone else. That person also complained their drink was watered down. Made by the same lady, but different alcohol.
The long lines to the disgusting tiny bathrooms were insane. The amount of wasted people yelling was out of control. And it was only 12PM… I usually bar hop, but I will definitely skip Doc Ryan’s next year for the parade. Also, the staff regulates when you can smoke outdoors/​upstairs or not. Rain; go inside! 10pm; go inside! Some weekdays; closed patio?! …alrighty then
I used to frequent this joint when I was 21 – 23 (& younger haha) and lived down the street. 2005−2010… I’m now 28 and probably too old to deal with this trash. Docs is turning into a dive /​shithole. I used to not mind the drunk college douche bags fighting and thugs causing problems. I’ve even been kicked out back in the day. Had a few Birthdays here, met some cool people, danced all night, and puked in the bathrooms.
But this place has actually gotten worse? The bouncers are a joke, majority of bartenders are ignorant, service usually sucks, specials are just ehh, food is mediocre, and plenty of their customers are total idiots
Also, this bar is dead during the weekdays. It doesn’t get busy until late on weekends.
Go somewhere else if you’re on Madison Street. There’s much better drinking establishments a few doors away.
I gave it ²⁄₅ stars instead of just one because when I was wasted and underage, I had a blast at Doc Ryan’s :P

They are ok. Crowd was good. Drinks were tasty.
Music was 50 50 play one good song next song was wtf lol. But its a great place.

It’s hard for me to rate this place as I’m not part of their target market. It’s a large, fairly dirty dive bar. I don’t frequent dive bars too often anymore. So, I’ll try and rate it based on a few observations I had.
I was there for a beer and a burger. The beer selection was OK — not huge but not small either. Ordered a Revolution Porter and looked at a menu. Appetizers are ½ price on Monday nights, but I didn’t really see anything I wanted so I focused on the burgers. Black and Blue looks good — burger with bleu cheese and some fried onion strips (not sure what was «black» about those).
Ok, it comes out… the bun dominated the dish — not that the burger was small, it was just on a really, really thick, dense bun. The bleu cheese and onions strips were present, but barely accounted for. And the burger came out medium rare as I had requested, but it was one of the blandest tasting burgers I’ve ever had.
Service was decent. So what do I give this place… two stars. Reason being that what stands out in my mind most is the boringist burger in Chicagoland — that just needs to be better.

Visiting from KC with a friend we wanted to go to a fun bar. This is one of the first ones that popped up.
Read some negative reviews but wanted to try it out anyway. Immediately we were disappointed by the bartender downstairs. He was so rude to us, but maybe this is Chicago personality?
We decided to stick around since we had drinks to finish, so we went upstairs to see what it was about. If it wasn’t for Timmy and the other bartender (tall with shaved head, can’t remember his name, wish I did) on the second floor we wouldn’t have stayed. Timmy setup bags for us to play and the other bartender was DJ’ing music from his phone with great music. They saved our opinion of this bar and managed to keep us there for a few more drinks. If we walked out after the first drink and didn’t go upstairs this would be a one star.
Previous reviews talked about quarter darts and a ping pong table, they are wrong. Neither exist. It’s normal priced darts and no ping pong table. other reviews called this a 20 something kind of bar. We didn’t get that vibe, but it was a slow night so maybe it is other nights?

I’m not a bar person but when I can get a seat at the bar with attentive bartenders AND good music… I’m a happy camper!
Being a married person, this wasn’t really our crowd but I enjoyed the energy of the people. Bartender was a little raw — a blunt drunk with business sense.
I was disappointed that we could not order food accept for pizza after 11pm but I suppose that is usual for bars at that time.
The read reviews that this bar had a lot of 20 something’s but I think it was a good mix of people. The rooftop bar was open and music was excellent so 3 stars it is!

I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo past frequenting a place like this, but we were there for a surprise party. it was nasty to watch old men picking up very young ladies in the bar area.
The party was held on the second floor, facilities are only located on the first floor. Drinks are served in plastic cups ~ seriously? When did that start?
Parking in Forest Park is a nightmare, and this strip of Madison is a happening place. Not my idea of a good time. Oh, and they allow smoking on the second level. For someone allergic to smoke, just not my night.

You could probably drop this bar into any college town in the Midwest and it would be right at home. It basically caters to the 20 somethings in the area looking for a night of over-​drinking on the weekends.
During the week it’s pretty dead, usually just locals grabbing a beer and a burger and watching the game on the TVs. They have pretty decent specials but the beer menu is pretty limited to your InBev/​Budweiser selections with a couple craft beers like Revolution thrown in. Food is okay, mostly your typical bar fair but their pizza is pretty decent.
Have to admit, I use to frequent this place when I was in my 20’s but as you get older this type of place gets tiresome. I still hit Docs on St. Patty’s day which is usually pretty entertaining.

Unilocal needs to make 0 stars an option.
I hate coming in here because it’s usually overflowing with douchebags & gross girls but it was a buddy’s birthday & this is where he wanted to go. I could tell the night would be off to a great start when my boyfriend & I bought the birthday boy an Irish Car Bomb.
The bartender serves us the Guinness first, in a TINY little plastic cup that’s halfway filled up. Then a tiny little plastic shot glass with the bailey’s & probably a drop of Jameson. The plastic shot glass floated (duh) & the price we paid for those for them to be in tiny plastic cups, worthless.
The night continued & the EXTREMELY overpriced terrible drinks did not improve. Weakest long island I’ve ever tasted, you could literally taste the ice tea mix.
Then my boyfriend went to the bar to grab another round. The bartender serves him & while he’s getting the drinks, a guy at the bar tries to start a fight with my boyfriend because he was served before the other guy. Boyfriend gets drinks & comes back to the table, then the bouncer (more like trained dog, but we’ll get to that later) walks up to our table, grabs my boyfriend by the arm & tells him he needs to leave & drags him out.
At this point I was already aggravated & done with being there, so I asked the bouncer why he just kicked him out, the one that walked away from & avoided a fight, & not the one that tried starting the fight in the first place. The bouncer tells me he does whatever the bartender tells him to do, & he said to kick him out. Must be a regular. So I go to ask the bartender why & he points at the bouncer before I can get a word out, then he proceeds to kick ME out. Now I’m pissed. I want to get my purse & gtfo but he won’t let me get it.
The bouncer calls me a b****, tells me to shut the f*** up, & starts PUSHING me out. I had to have my friend go in & get it.
One by one they kicked our ENTIRE group of 10 for simply asking why my boyfriend got kicked out & not the apparent regular that had tried to start the fight.
& THE BEST PART YOU ASK? Once I got my stuff & turned my back on the bouncer & walked out, he called me a CUM GUZZLING WHORE & told me to get the f*** out, once I was already out & had my back turned on him. How professional. How mature. At that point, I won’t lie, I tried to go back in to claw his roided bulging eyes out, but my friends held me back thankfully because at that point a cop that we had seen HANGING OUT, not doing something of importance but literally hanging out with a bouncer earlier that night, had came back in. I go to ask for help & talk to him & he SHOVES me away & says «I don’t care» & walks straight to the bouncer he was talking to earlier.
So unless you’re a regular, expect to get kicked out if a regular tries to fight you, & ladies, expect to be called cum guzzling whores from the roided out bouncer with apparent self esteem issues.
Side note: I just tried to email the owners with the email address from their website, got a mailer daemon notice, not surprised.