Hackney’s

I’m over it Hackney’s. Chicago icon or not — I’m done.
There’s a difference between ambiance and never dropping another flipping dime into your establishment. Hackney’s would still be hackney’s with the wood paneling and fireplaces, but with updated carpet, tables, chairs, glasses, sinks, bar, bathroom facilities, and smell. This place is in DESPERATE need of general repair and updating. It quite literally seems like they haven’t sunk a dime in updating this place in over 50 years. It’s disgusting. Not quaint. Let’s be real.
The menu, is barely even a menu anymore. You can basically get an entrée of the day, a bowl of soup, and a burger. There’s not much more on the menu. Oh and the onion-​brick, which is of course their claim to fame. But that menu has shrunk like my jeans in the wash, boo. And their burger is no longer anything special. Wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve resorted to using your basic choice ground beef… because i assure you the burgers were NOT special. I can think of 5 other places off the top of my, some of them nearly fast-​food (Five Guys, Tom & Eddies) who have better burgers.
So what reason do these things give me to come back? None. Bread was good. I’m not comin back for bread. Service, well, our 2^nd waitress was good. But the 1^st one was a super-​cranky middle-​aged (I’m being nice) woman who clearly wanted to do anything OTHER than wait on us. Clearly annoyed (by the audible «humpf») as we told her we’d need a minute before we’d be ready to order, and then she disappeared for ten minutes. So we flagged down another waitress, who much to our happiness was a pure delight! Younger, red-​headed gal. Super sweet and very good at her job. And i feel bad for her because apparently they split tips. Sucks for her since clearly Waitress #1 isn’t too stoked about her job.
Here’s how we wound up there… so it’d been probably around ten years since the last time i’d come here. It was my son’s Birthday. I’d been asking him for days where he wanted to go, and he never decided. On the day of, he knew he wanted a Burger so I sent him a short list of places we could go. He chose Hackney’s. We walked in, and there were probably only about 4 – 5 seated tables. The place was empty. And those that were here were nearly all over the age of 70.
Bottom line? It’s sad. It’s sad and disrespectful. Apparently they just want to continue to rake in money based off their reputation, while seating you in a smelly old room with tables and carpet that appears older than I am. What they fail to recognize is that their reputation is long gone.
Sayonara Hackney’s. It’s been swell. Although not so much.

I’m giving two stars soley for the waiters and waitresses that have nothing to do with how sad this food is. They did a great job and we’re attentive. Good job wait staff you’re the only thing good about this experience.
It looks like the 1970s threw up all over this restaurant which I could probably look the other way about if the food was good enough, however it wasn’t. I feel personally insulted by this food because whoever is putting it out doesn’t give a single sh*t about it nor what it tastes like. I got the inside out burger thinking I would get a nice juicy burger with cheese and bacon in the middle, but what I got was a dry, flavorless, overkneaded ball of meat that had been so overcooked that the cheese that was in the center of the burger was cooked out of the meat entirely. The other people in my party ordered their burgers medium-​rare and consistently got straight up rare burgers with raw centers. Entirely raw ground beef is great for playing Russian Roulette with food poisoning.
There is zero reason why an established restaurant that specializes in burgers is putting out this disgusting excuse for food. This is not at all worth 13 – 16 bucks a burger. I would not eat this food for free.

This place has the old school feel with the old arm chaors at the tables. Love it. The food oh the food. I love the onion brick. And the burgers are great. The service is just fine and doesnt lack anything. I love going with my family here when im around

Over all we like Hackneys however Friday
Evening New Year’s Day we had an early
Dinner. We placed our order around 4:45
And it took till six till we received our
Dinner the excuse was he forgot to put
The order in.
Not a good way to start the New Year

Yikes.
Literally the only thing this place has going for it is that you can get Green River to drink.
Least flavorful burgers. Greasy, no seasoning.
Very depressing, surreal, 1970’s semi-​Bavarian atmosphere is enough to truly make one say «wtf».

If I could give this place Zero stars I would. I came here for a late dinner with a group of ten friends. It was late Saturday, 930 – 10 pm and the place was empty pretty much. Should have been our first sign. My friends remembered how awesome this place was when they were kids, it was NOT awesome. Out of ten water glasses on the table, 8 were dirty. Mine had a lipstick print on it. When I put it to the side the waitress made a comment that they were old looking not dirty. I said it had lipstick on it. She said nothing. Just took it away. My friend ordered a beer and the outside of the pint glass was literally nothing but grease. Upon further inspection we noticed crust inside the glass as well. She asked for another beer and the waitress simply took it away and said nothing. No apology no nothing. Three of us ordered burgers medium and we all received them raw and bleeding. The waitress made no comment when we asked her about them. She didn’t care at all. The coleslaw was spoiled, at least the mayo that was in it was. My friends plate that her burger came on was filthy.
Our waitress was seriously irritated that we were even at the restaurant. We weren’t at all rude or loud or irritating. We are all adults and were pleasant and kind. She was thoroughly irritated we asked her to split the checks and huffed and puffed when we asked her to. When she took our plates away they had piles of food and she didn’t inquire as to why we didn’t eat our meals. She told the manager we complained and he looked at us and walked away.
We experienced the worst customer service. I will NEVER return. Stay away.

Went to hackneys for the first time tonight with hub & 2 kids. Wow, enter the 1970’s zone! I think this place needs a serious remodel, it is totally stuck in another era. The carpet is Gross, plastic water carafe was cracked, some of the place was in disrepair.
On the good side the wait staff was competent and very nice, attentive, smiles all around. Food, meh. Nothing great. Hub & kids had burgers said they were ok. Buffalo wings may have been frozen food from Costco. I would go again if I was stuck in a blizzard on the road right next to Hackneys, otherwise, I’d rather stay home.

Dark, but roomy. Expected same good food like in glenview but it was not to be. Two people Ordered a four ounce burger and it was served as an 8 ounce literally sliced in half! Instead of each getting fries on their individual plate one small plate was delivered and we were told to «share.» Definitely not the value of what we were charged. Won’t go back.

We read the reviews and almost didn’t go to a restaurant we’ve enjoyed in the past. Contrary to the reviews, we found the food to be as enjoyable as we remembered. The onion loaf was great as were the burgers. Don’t give up on this place.

Wow what a great experience. My boyfriend and I enjoyed the delicious fried onions, and we also had burgers, fries, and coleslaw. The burger was cooked perfectly and the prices were very reasonable. The atmosphere was great inside and out. We actually were seated in their porch area and the view of the lake was beautiful. The inside was very old school, as if you were back In time, which was very comforting and cool to see. My grandparents had actually taken me here when I was little, and I am glad the atmosphere hasn’t changed much. Only wish our waitress was a bit more attentive but we were the only ones on the porch.

Living off a 30yr + old reputation. Nothing has changed including the bland food and ancient décor. Service is hit or miss as well.

I’ve been going to all the Hackney’s since childhood. I was saddened when the Wheeling location shut down. Still, I live fairly close to the one in Lake Zurich. I decided to place a take out order today on the way home.
The workers were nice, so that is not my issue. My issue is the disappointed shock I received when I got home and unpacked my order. I ordered a hamburger, medium-​rare (and it was close to medium-​rare, and I did travel a ways to get home, and meat does continue cooking off the grill, so this is not my complaint either). My shock came when I went to put my burger together (I’d asked for everything on the side so the bread wouldn’t get soggy). These burgers used to cover the size of the bread, but this burger was HALF the size of the bread. Even one year ago this burger was bigger. I understand that the cost of things increases over time, but to cut a burger size in HALF, and still have the nerve to charge TWELVE dollars for it???
I also ordered a quarter onion loaf. Again, very dismayed at what I received. The onion loaf USED to be COATED with a crispy batter, but what I got was a pile of soggy onions with barely any coating at all. This cost me $ 4.45. Hackney’s used to be known for these WONDERFUL onion loaves, but something is obviously off.
The icing on the cake, so to speak, was the equally soggy fries. They should have been crisp, but they were soggy, and floppy.
I don’t care about the old décor. I love that about Hackney’s. What I don’t love is being charged a near fortune for a burger, fries, and onion loaf and receive what I listed above.
All in all, this experience was a complete let down, and I have lost my love for Hackney’s. It is highly doubtful I will be back.

Just don’t. I’ve eaten at other Hackney’s for years (mostly Glenview, but I’ve been to their Printer’s Row location and used to like the Wheeling location for work outings) so I was expecting much more from the LZ location. The service was great, but the food was disappointing. We split the french fried onions, which were decent enough.
But the burgers… if your business is based on your award winning burgers, it’d be helpful to have people who know how to cook burgers working for you. I ordered mine medium-​well and it was raw in the middle. They cut the burgers open prior to serving (which is kind of annoying, honestly), presumably, to make sure they’re cooked to order, so no idea how no one noticed mine was red and totally under-​cooked. My husband’s, while cooked properly, was nothing special. Very disappointing for a nearly $ 50 meal.

Overrated. The two stars is for the good service.
First of all, the place mats were old. They still listed the specials that they had on St. Patrick’s day. The cover of the menu still listed the closed Wheeling location.
Now for the food. We haven’t had an onion loaf for a
we ordered one to share with the rest of the table. Man, was it greasy. My wife and I both had the
Inside-​Out Burger. It had no flavor and probably was unseasoned. There was no cheese, and not that much bacon on the inside. It must have leaked out during cooking if much was there to begin with, The cheese that was on top, by the way it melted, looked like one of those plastic processed cheeses.
The only real highlight were the desserts. We had the Snickers Pie and Butterscotch Sundae. The Snickers pie was to die for. And to think, I drove 18 miles down the construction on Rand Road to get there.

Hackney’s has good food. Great service. Get the fries with the creamy garlic dressing to dunk them in you won’t be disappointed. The leprechaun pie is seasonal but really delicious. We had a young waitress who was very attentive.

Hackney’s hasn’t changed. At all. It’s the only place left where you can order a ridiculously rare burger without first signing a legal document assuming liability.
The food is the same, the service the same and the building the same. As far as I know, all of these have been the same since this location opened in 1969 — previously it was Poppe’s Alpine House, by the way. The only difference I can tell from when I was a kid is that smoking is no longer allowed.
To some that’s a turnoff, but for someone who only eats there once every year or two, it’s a nice nostalgic meal. The burger is a good solid burger — always cooked on the more rare side of what you ask for. Even a medium burger will have a juice-​soaked bun. Seriously, who else does that?
The onion loaf is still a tasty, unique appetizer that you only rarely see anywhere else. If you have no other reason to try Hackney’s, stop in to have that and a beer.
Service is as good as I remember. Friendly, and they seem to always staff Hackney’s with just the right amount of people to make you wait just a minute or two longer than you might expect. That can be annoying but, again, it hasn’t changed.
I erred on the high side for nostalgia, though I agree with other reviewers — the building could use some renovation. The «Poppe’s Alpine House» ambiance is great but maybe just tear out all of the furniture, redo the floors, ceilings (there are water stains) and walls. An updated Hackney’s building with a slightly updated menu (of course, keep the classics) could bring in new customers.
Anyway, I started off saying that Hackney’s hasn’t changed — I’ll add that what’s changed about Hackney’s is everything around it. There are 100 restaurants within 5 miles of Hackney’s when there used to be about 10. All the sit-​down restaurants have tablecloths, and those that don’t, don’t have full table service.
And we’ve changed. We expect a good burger to be on ciabatta with gruyère, not an egg roll with american. Tastes change, and through it all, Hackney’s stays exactly the same.
But if Hackney’s throwback food and ambiance doesn’t sound good, don’t worry, every chain restaurant imaginable is conveniently a few miles down Rand in Deer Park. Those places will happily serve you focus-​tested delicious ground beef goodness that’s cheaper and more modern than Hackney’s… and if you ask, they can leave it a little pink in the middle.

Food was not good and the place kind of smelled moldy.
They got two stars cause our waitress was nice

Looking for a case study in heart disease, or an ethnographic study of overweight suburbanites? Whether you come for the space, which looks like a Bavarian hunting lodge that hasn’t been renovated since the end of the Great War, the supposedly famous burgers, which are up to $ 15 apiece and made from the finest industrially produced Angus, or the «bread,» which is fortified by the finest in hydrogenated, genetically-​modified vegetable oils and featuring the freshest not only mono but also diglycerides, Hackney’s will not disappoint.
One silver lining was that I often have self-​esteem issues thinking I could stand to lose ten or fifteen pounds, and I was pleased to be at least twenty to fifty pounds lighter than many of the folks seated at adjacent tables, who were also twenty to fifty years older than me. Try a «brick» of the crisp, thin onion rings, dripping in soybean oil that helped make the place famous and that we devoured faster than you can say «vascular occlusion.»
NB: I’m not one to demand on every sandwich micro-​arugula grown by a well-​educated bearded man who rides a fixed-​gear bike, but I’d prefer something a little bit more imaginative than a thin slice of iceberg. Maybe a slice of red onion to add some vitamin C, at least? Relish? If the prices had been halved, I really might have given this place five stars. But you can’t in good conscience charge $ 15 for a burger on Sara Lee bread that comes par-​baked off the back of a Sysco truck. Apparently they do.

This is one of those places that was an «icon» for you as a kid. You have tremendous memories of going there with your family, or for a friend’s birthday party, etc.
What you tend to forget is that as a kid you were a lot less discriminating about the quality of the food, the service, or the location.
We had moved away from the Chicago area for a couple of years. When we moved back, it was not long before I had a hankering to bring my kids to Hackney’s and relive those childhood memories.
What a let down. The food was awful, the service indifferent, and the décor was right out of a medieval dungeon. The place hasn’t been updated since the 1970s, and I don’t think the floor has been cleaned since then either. It seemed that every step I took my foot was coming up «sticky» from some long-​spilled drink.
The place was so gross that we almost turned around and left. After experiencing the food and the service, I really wish we had.

Rolled into here today, last visit was, er… maybe thirty years ago. On the shores of suburban Lake Zurich (Chicago) and adjacent to the hoity-​toity burb I used to live in, Hackney’s is a local «mini-​chain» of casual dining. Bar and banquet facility, too.
Their story is they have been selling beers and burgers since prohibition.
They are supposed to be so ‘famous’ for their burgers, they’ll even ship them to you to enjoy at home.
The menu contains a half dozen burgers, maybe as many sandwiches, a few salads and entrees. It’s a little spendy, with the top burger tipping fifteen bucks.
Started with their onion rings (straws) which come in three difference sizes, full order, half, or quarter. The quarter size serving (pictured below) was about four bucks. These are some tasty rings straws.
I went with the Inside Out Burger, Hackney’s version of the Minneapolis invention of the Jucy Lucy (sic). The Hackney version has cheddar AND bacon inside. Comes with fries and salad, but there are other sides you can substitute for no additional charge.
The burger was good enough, prepared medium rare, the bacon flavor was very evident, the cheese content not as prevalent as other versions. The meat had a great flavor and a nice little char going. I really liked the slaw, which was diced in tiny bits. Fries were A-​OK as well. One burger, ¼ order rings, coffee, bloody mary, $ 25 not including tip.