Saban’s Place

Excellent food. FRESH fish. Biggest piece of fish I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Recommend Walleye Cajun broiled. Fish and steak are a bit more pricey than I’m used to. Worth the extra $.
Don’t judge by atmosphere. If you want good food, this is the place.

I went and gave this a shot because a dear friend of mine and her husband raved about it for years.
Well, rave on… color me unimpressed.
The «salad bar» which is supposed to be grandiose resembled more of what you would expect if 7 – 11 had a salad bar. Slim pickings, and what you can pick, you likely are better dropping off in the quarry nearby, and not on your salad.
The lunch menu is a joke– it’s one side of a menu, that’s it. The soup is watery and overly spicy (I didn’t think cream of chicken was supposed to be).
Our waitress was more involved in talking to someone I deemed a regular because of her familiarity with him, and we had empty glasses that used to house iced tea. We were here a hour, and our glasses weren’t refilled at all. When Ms. Service did come by the table, she seemed far more concerned with giving our check. Did I mention we hadn’t asked for it? Did I mention we had our menus out and were checking out dessert options? Did I mention that we still had empty dishes on the table that hadn’t been picked up, although they had been there a good 20 minutes? All of these factored into my one star rating. She stunk worse than Corn Products on an overcast day. Also not present was friendliness. You felt more of an doorstop than a customer.
Food itself… the unspectacular salad bar. That, and the soup… did not allude to a happy dining experience.
The actual dish– which was swordfish– was awesome. That’s the only other reason it got a star. That swordfish was perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned. just perfect. I would definitely return for that, but it’s not on the menu all the time, so that’s a hit or miss situation. My friend had the Cajun walleye and was gushing for hours about how fabulous it is. It smelled fabulous, and they have great taste in food… so I am going to take his word for it.
Seafood– go and eat only the seafood and you’ll be okay. If you can get the server to come to your table more than once (to order and to deliver the dish) in a hour or more visit, you’ll be safe.
The décor, well, it’s cute. Just cute. but not my style at all. The outside reminded me of a fish and chips joint I used to frequent in Summit many years ago. It’s more of a hang-​out for the older set (I’m in my 40’s, as is my friend, so we felt like One Direction in this place). Everyone seems friendly, except your server. I love food and dining enough that if my server isn’t hands-​on and friendly, where you feel welcome instead of an imposition, I likely won’t return to that establishment. I may be persuaded if the seafood is boss and things change, as far as service and your appetizers leading up to the main event.
So– go for the seafood

I love this place, every year at Thanksgiving we fly from San Francisco to meet with friends on Wednesday night prior to Thanksgiving morning. They have the most incredible people at this place. The best part for me is the incredible pork chops. I wait all year long for this. This family owned business is amazing. I love the fact that everyone seems to know each other in this bar/​restaurant. I wish they had a Saban’s in SF.

One of the best places to get fresh seafood. Unfortunately it is located where Joliet rd closed down due the road collapsing into the quarry so business has
is definitely worth the trip. But the food is the best around. Full bar. Salad bar and great atmosphere.

I am quite surprised that everything we have ordered thus far, have all been pretty good. The NY Strip, Ribs, Fried Chicken, French Onion Soup and double-​baked potato.

Hmmmm… maybe we made the mistake of coming here for Saturday lunch instead of dinner? Only the sandwich /​salad side of the menu for lunch, so be aware. The «salad bar» is a joke — I could a better one, with better ingredients, together spending about $ 30 at Jewel. Service was beyond non-​attentive. Food was OK, not bad, but not particularly good either. Won’t be back.

Back for another visit. Saturday about 6:00. Pretty busy and it impacted the service level. For example, the server never asked us if we wanted soup or salad bar and we had to ask for the soup offerings. And with different people bringing out the food, I did not get my cottage fries extra crispy as ordered.
As for the food, we started with the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer. They definitely need to change the recipe. It was terrible. All spinach and little artichoke and yellow cheese all over it and served with bread and taco chips.
But the pasta fagioli soup was very good as was the salad bar. And all of our fish dishes were very, very good, which included sautéed walleye, fried perch and blackened red fish. All 7 or 8 out of 10.
We will go back but likely not during peak busy time on a Saturday night.

This place is so cute. By that I mean, I actually feel like I’m at someones grandmothers house for dinner.
We went with a group of 5 on a Sat. night. We were able to get a table with no problem.
The Walleye was not available that night. Dishes we ordered were: Swordfish (a special), Half slab of ribs, and a couple of grilled chicken dishes.
With the swordfish came with corn and basil and tomato. It was so tasty. The little old lady came up to us and told us that the cook bought the corn at a local farmers market. It melted in your mouth it was so good. The dish also came with rice. That was really flavorful as well. My grilled chicken sandwich was good. The fries were cooked perfectly and not over salted at all.
No one in our group ordered the pan fried or regular fried chicken. It did smell great, maybe I’ll give it a try next time.
I took off points for the salad bar. It was pretty small and didn’t really have a lot of options. They should have 2 salad bars, b/​c sometimes there’d be a line.
The cute old lady was so sweet. Really made us feel welcome.
I’ll be going back again.

My wife and her mom have been here before, so I said «let’s give it a try.» We were greeted by a woman who reminded me of my late Aunt Millie. She was pleasant, and sat us down immediately. A very friendly server came to our table and asked about beverages. Since my wife and I usually don’t order drinks («hard or soft») we had water, which I wanted to mention, was refilled almost immediately several times during our stay. I had the thick pork chops, and my wife had chicken primavera. We went to the salad bar and had the usual pickings of a nice selection of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, beans, cole slaw, several other relishes, plus a plethora of dressings. After our salad, we waited 35 – 40 minutes for our meals to be served. I thoroughly enjoyed the pork chops, and baked potato. I could barely eat one of the chops, as it was very filling. I especially enjoyed the au jus that came on the plate with the chops. My wife liked her chicken entre’ and we both took our leftovers home to enjoy later.
Yes, this place is very old, and reminds me of Uncle Al’s basement rec room, but it was very clean for its age. I did notice that my wife and I were probably the youngest people in the entire restaurant, except for one of the servers in his 20’s who could have been our sons’ age! There were several parties of 6 or more people, and I heard many of the people comment how much they enjoyed their meals.
We were so full that we couldn’t eat any dessert, which I’m told is prepared in their own bakery, with all scratch-​made ingredients, like the rest of the menu.
Yes, it’s in an obscure location, but once you find it, you’ll remember where it’s located for future dining adventures.

Many years ago I was brought here by my late father. We not only built the bar we ate here regularly. This is a fabulous old fashioned family owned supper club. They serve a good stiff drink, the food is fresh with good portions. The prime rib is excellent quality and I love the duck if they have it as a special. Even the baked potato is tasty and I love their carrots. The salad bar is fresh and had just enough goodies! I hope the next generation keeps it up as I hate chains with their prepackaged microwaved crap! We need more places like this!!!

A very good hidden place. Each time we have gone we have tried different entrees like the steak, or fish, or london broil. The food is always good. Even the carrots are good, we were told they cook them in butter and sugar.
The staff and service is friendly.
The décor is old charm.
Their location is on Joliet Road which is partially closed off, so the place is hard to find but deserves more traffic and customers.

The fact that this place is a dump doesn’t bother me. The fact that the chops I ordered were cooked on the grill, and NOT over a flame does. The wait staff was cool though, and service was o.k. Mashed potatoes were INSTANT, the vegies were GENERIC, AND OUT OF A CAN. The salad bar was a JOKE, with these little, tiny plates that I had to keep going back for refills. It’s like they are afraid that you will take them to the cleaners. The, «coke» was generic cola also. If you want a steak, or chops, DO NOT GO HERE, GO TO LOANSTAR which is a couple blocks West on the South side of 66.
Two FB friends of mine told me about this place, and have since been reprimanded!

I take my Grandma here for the walleye and have met my Dad here for drinks and dinner. Prime Rib= Yummy!
The first thing that anyone who comes here needs to expect is that it is no Wildfire!
It is what I call Old School at it’s best yet oldest. Throwback to say the least!
The comparison to Dell Rhea’s is perfect!
If you think the stars here on Unilocal mean 4 star Michelin dining you are sorely mistaken.
If you understand that it means quality food in a kitchy atmosphere that has been around FOREVER than you won’t be let down.

In October, my husband and I won a gift certificate for Saban’s Place at our church Halloween party. At least 3 people came up to me that night and told me we were going to love it, it’s their favorite place, yada yada. We put the gift certificate away and decided last week to go out and see a movie and grab some dinner.
First, the place is relatively hard to find, sort of. The gift certificate says they’re located in McCook. Unilocal says Hodgkins. Another online search said LaGrange. It basically lies at the tail end of Joliet Road/​Route 66, like other Unilocalers have said, so I guess you could say it belongs to any of those towns. It’s literally a 2 minute drive from the Quarry.
We arrived on a late Saturday night, around 9:30. The reviews talked about how busy the place would be, filled with regulars, etc. It was decidedly NOT busy. Our waitress did mention that they had an early crowd that evening, so I’ll take her at her word.
We ordered and got the salad bar with our entrees. Granted, it was later in the evening, but it was a sorry looking salad bar. The lettuce was wilted and sad looking, the cottage cheese was watery, and the radish roses had seen their peak hours come and go. It’s definitely old-​fashioned, for sure. I think it’s been a good 15 years since I was ANYWHERE with a salad bar.
The décor is out-​dated, a little kitschy. I felt like I was hanging out in Great Uncle Ted’s basement rec room. It suits the place and the regular crowd, I think. Definitely a call back to the end of Route 66, for sure.
I ordered the fried chicken, my husband had the filet. His steak was good. Huge, huge portions. My chicken was monstrous. There was no way I was going to finish that whole plate. Sadly, I never got the chance. When I cut into my chicken breast, I found it was very uncooked in the center. I hate to be «that person» in restaurants, but there was no way in hell I was going to eat, let alone pay for that plate.
Of the one piece of chicken I did eat (the leg), it was okay. Not terribly well-​seasoned, but not overdone and charred within an inch of its life, either. The skin was nice and crispy, like fried chicken should be.
When I showed our waitress my plate, she was horrified. She took it back into the kitchen and came out and asked if I wanted something else. I ordered a turkey club that ended up being pretty good. HUGE portions at this place, seriously. I barely finished a quarter of the sandwich.
Because of our lousy first visit (the waitress mentioned she hadn’t seen us there before and we told her it was our first visit, highly recommended by people at church, etc), we weren’t charged for the chicken or the club sandwich. With the gift certificate, our meal was practically free. I did appreciate our waitress’s attention to detail and that she immediately took charge of my uncooked chicken and took it back to the kitchen.
Hard to say if we’ll be back. I’d like to give it another shot, but I also don’t want to subject myself to another sad salad bar and underwhelming meal. Maybe if we’re in the area for the movies, but we won’t make it a point to visit this place just because.

Lived in area all my life. Never heard of the place until a month Or so ago.
If you like Del Rhea’s Chicken Basket, the fried chicken here is insanely great. Better than Del Rhea’s you betcha.
This is not gourmet dining. It’s a great salad bar, stiff drinks, and darn good food.
This place is hard to find. It’s east of East Ave on the ORIGINAL Joliet road all the way at the dead end. Tough to beat.

I have been going here regularly over the past 1 ½ and I can say a year ago it was good but it has been really going down hill recently and we will NOT be returning.
We had a reservation for 7pm and were seated fairly quick which is good. It took 15 minuted to order beverages and a half hour to put our dinner order in. First we noticed the menu went up $ 2 each entrée but that’s normal for the area and there prices for some items were still good. The salad bar was smaller which was sad because they had a great salad bar but they did not have 3 of the normal staples of a salad bar no potato salad, no coleslaw and no liver pâté so that was a disappointment. When ordering we were told they were out of double baked potato, pork chops, prime rib and fresh fish… How can you be out of all that so early in the weekend??? For being in around for so long you would think they would know how to order and prepare for the weekend crowd!!!
By this time we were aggravated and just wanted to get out of there so we ordered some thing we thought would be simple to get to our table. We ordered pork dumplings and sauerkraut and pepper steak both things we know are made in advance right? Well it took 1 hour before our food came out OMG The pepper steak was dry and tough to chew I have had better in a TV dinner. The pork dinner was good except the sauerkraut was cold.
So we got those boxed for the dogs and then my husband said please don’t order desert I can not take sitting here another hour for ice cream… and it took us another ½ hour repeatedly asking for the check so we could get the heck out of there. I would think the waitress would know we were ready to leave when we asked for boxes right?
It is sad to say all of the above because this used to be a favorite of ours but the last three times we ate there we had problems the best was a month ago they asked me for my napkin and took it off my lap when I was just finishing dinner… They said they needed it because they were running out… Hello were they going to wash it or shake it clean… makes me wonder but there is no way we will try this again 3 strikes you are out!!!

Definition of Saban’s Place:
* A welcoming setting to gather family, friends and to meet new friends
* It is a place to go «where everyone knows your name»
* It is a place where everyone –from the owners to the other patrons, make you feel you have been missed if you haven’t been there in a while, especially if they have not seen you on your normal night.
* The best juke box around (even has The Traveling Wilburys)
* It is a place where The Saban Family appreciate your patronage and thank you for coming
We have been going to Saban’s for many years –it is a hidden secret, a five star restaurant in our eyes. Everything from their prime rib, to the walleye (Cajun style is our favorite) to the beets at the salad bar is exceptional. You cannot beat their nightly specials, in quality, taste or value. You will get addicted to their home made carrots, sweet potatoes and their variety of desserts made by members of the Saban family. Last Friday I had for the first time their cream of mushroom soup, have been thinking about it ever since. I think once you stop by you will feel like you are part of the family, and so will the Saban Family.
The Myers

If you read my reviews, you know that I favor the old, quirky, out of the way places. There is something about originality and there is something about the non-​corporate joints that are still hanging in there. The food is only part of the story along with the atmosphere and a good bartender! Unlike some reviewers who visit an establishment once and feel qualified to review it based on some unrealized expectation, my wife and I eat here often and have never had a bad meal. In fact, we have had some pretty damn good meals. Anyway —
Saban’s Place is one of the surviving Route 66 supper clubs. If you are a fan of the Mother Road, that alone makes it worth a visit. It has suffered some from a lack of new business due to the closing of Joliet Road (route 66) over the McCook quarries some 10 or 15 years ago. But, it is still there. It is still crowded on the weekends too. Friday or Saturday, expect a wait. Word of mouth and reputation keeps it going. The parking lot is decent but on weekends it will be overfilled and expect to have to circle around or park across the street. There is a side entrance and a bar entrance — either one will get you to the right place. In fact, if there is room and you like conversation, you’re welcome to eat in the bar /​on the bar.
The restaurant sits at what is now the end of the road with the route 66 detour, up against an active stone quarry. Driving up to the place you experience something out of an old «B» movie —
«The JOINT at the END of the ROAD»
Saban’s is a real roadhouse with a small town, local hang out kind of feel. The patrons are indeed mostly regulars from the surrounding suburbs. Since the place can seat a couple of hundred people and it is filled on the weekends, there certainly are a lot of regulars. The bar gets crowded and the bartenders know how to make supper club drinks. Forget about the frozen margarita, but you might get a decent grasshopper. Ask.
The place is dark, the décor is dated — to say the least, but the food is very good. The kitchen is small, the cooking is home-​style. The menu is standard supper club fare. Bread on the table, home made soups, good sized sandwiches, steaks and chops, seafood, fish fried and broiled. The weekend prime rib is outstanding; the daily fish selections are very good to excellent — call ahead to check if lake perch is on the menu. Portions are generous. Like all good supper clubs, there is a salad bar (which is not particularly extensive in this case), but you have all the essentials to set yourself up for a good start to your meal. The daily specials are fresh and prepared to order. We think the food is consistent and good quality. The staff is personable and helpful. Last time we were here, the wife ordered the tilapia special and the cook came out to apologize that he was on his last tilapia fillet and he felt it may be too small. He therefore offered to add some fresh perch to the dish. She thankfully declined; when it was served, the tilapia was very good and sized right for her anyway.
If you feel you had a bad meal or a poor cut of meat, talk to Joe Saban. If you have a phobia about small towns, Wisconsin type supper clubs, people over 50, locals, or restaurants sitting on the edge of a quarry, stay home or visit the Applebees down the road and get your frozen margarita. Ditto if you are dragging the kids around looking for chicken strips and fries. There are kids among the regulars here, but they tend to be serious eaters who think the salad bar is cool.
If you take a weekend cruise exploring the Mother Road, if you like unique out of the way spots, if you want a decent meal and a decent drink during the week after work, this is your place. If you are trying to impress some new hottie on Saturday on a first date, or looking for a gastronomic event, go someplace else.
Solid 4 stars in my book for the uniqueness, the weekend prime rib and the lake perch.

This place is a train wreck. It was an old watering hole on the original route 66. It took a nose dive when the quarry busted the bridge and closed down Joliet road. Basically killing all their business. But that doesn’t explain why the sleeve of my shirt got stuck to the table. I had the chop. It was thick and over seasoned, but quite dry. Standard issue green beans out of a can. The old timers keep this place alive as the bar stools are named after them. I have no reason to go back.

Menu prices are good, but the menu is limited. Service can be hit or miss.
If you are in the area, stop by for the drinks and the salad bar.