Al’s Beef

Saw the owners — who are «not» Italian… The Italian beef was bland and so were the hot peppers. They changed the Bread! The Bread used to be good now it is Awful! Not going back — Ever! Buona Beef is waaaay better than this place! Yes I have been going to Al’s Beef for many years and at various locations before including the original location downtown.

My favorite place to get Italian beef.

Best Beef ever! Plus Nancy’s pizza on top of that. I’m stuffed because I over ate. I love the loaded fries also.

I’ve been to this location a few times as it is also close to my office. However this place comes in a distant third to Buona and Portillos kills them both.
The service isn’t very friendly and I understand when super busy it can be difficult dealing with so many demanding hungry people.
However, this sandwich lacks flavor and mix that with service and you have two stars. Their dogs are actually pretty good but still run a distant second to Portillo’s.

Love the beef and they have different sizes depending on how hungry you are. Service is good and food great.

1. Don’t advertise coupons if you give people a hard time about them. Honestly for a $ 45.00 food order, just give the $ 6.00 difference and have great customer service. Don’t get upset with the customer and mess up the order. Seriously!!!
And the small beef that I received was somewhat dry. Very disappointing. I had been going there often throughout the years. Service has declined tremendously!!!

Got a beef which was horrible got a small pizza deep dish took for ever n a turky rape served cold n not so tasty upseting came from Wisconsin cause I loved this place but not makin that trip again

Stopped by here for lunch. The Italian Beef was pretty good but I much prefer Portillo’s. The service was not overly friendly either. But the food was good and it was nice to have a sandwich here.

I stopped in around 3pm. No other customers inside the restaurant but I needed an Italian beef fix. I got a regular with spicy peppers, fries and a drink for about $ 11. The beef is good as usual and I like their pepper relish. The beef was seasoned pretty good and there was (to me) the right mix of wet and non-​wet bread. The fries were just cooked so everything came out hot and made for a nice meal. Some of the low reviews for this place are based on delivery of an Italian beef. I can’t ever say that’s a good idea. If you can’t dig into an IB sandwich just after its made, you’re going to have bad experience. I’ve always preferred Al’s over Portillos and this Al’s along with Mario’s on Harlem Ave and Jonnie’s in Elmwood Park are my go-​to places.

I used to love ordering from this location. They have great burgers and hot dogs, friendly service and awesome prices. But the last two times I ordered for delivery, the person taking the order did not ask nor confirm the location to be delivered to and thus, my orders were being delivered to the wrong place.
Word of advice to the owners, train the employees a bit more on how to verify orders and info before they hang up, it’ll save a lot of headaches and confusion for both your patrons & your poor delivery driver, who is always very kind, apologetic and wonderful, despite the circumstances. :-)

I LOVE Al’s Beef. Get whatever size you like and add extra meat for a real taste treat. Fries are perfection. Place is quite noisy.

Ok, first, I know, it’s called Al’s BEEF. BUT, if I ate italian beef sandwiches all the time, I would look like Jared before he started eating sliced meats wrapped in yoga mats. SO, I have to eat healthy sometimes. Al’s has a great chopped salad, usually, and I was in the area, so I came here.
I ordered ahead on GrubHub, because it’s Al’s Beef at lunch time during the week; I would never get in and out of there during my lunch hour if I didn’t order ahead. I got there, and there were a few tables with people at them, and a couple people in line. I waited. I got the the counter, and the guy was a little rude… well, maybe just indifferent, he didn’t seem to care about, well, anything. When I signed for the food, he turned around, to get my salad (mind you a salad should be made with cold crisp vegetables, and that’s how you expect to eat it). My salad was just sitting on the counter, and considering I ordered a half hour prior and judging by the temperature of my food, it had been sitting there the whole time…
I got back to my desk, to eat my salad, and I open the lid, and there is this white, thin piece of meat sitting on top of all my salad stuff, there was a little fake black pepper that comes out of cardboard tubes on it, but otherwise, not appetizing… The dressing was good. I would be pleasantly surprised if the salad ingredients didn’t come from a bag.
Needless to say, I shant be returning to this particular store; no people at lunch time is not a good sign, especially in an area with so many businesses around. Oh yeah, and the food wasn’t great. Al’s Beef has the best italian beef, and their fries are the absolute best, but stick to those items, and if possible, go to the store on Taylor St. or Ontario. If you want a chopped salad, hit up Portillo’s.

SKIP!!!
— The place has flies and screeching overhead fans.
— It took 15 mins for a beef and fries (most places take 5 mins). No one else was in the place, 5 people working.
— Beef was about 4 inches, without much flavor, dry (even though it was dipped).
— Fries were mostly raw.
— Only had 3 working pop dispensers [out of 8], none of them good.
— Price for drink, beef, and fries = $ 11

This place wasn’t as good as the one downtown. I flew in to Ohare for work and headed right to Als to get a italian beef and was disappointed. Willing to try again but I remember the downtown place being so much better.

Meh. Thats how I would describe this place. The burger I had was a frozen flat patty you could get at any average cafeteria. The fries looked fresh cut but I think they are frozen. They were also barely done. The beef a colleague had looked gross and the side of peppers he got looked equally gross and off color. This is no Portillo’s, where you can get a real beef or burger.

If you want one of the better beefs in the Chicagoland area, come here! Most places including portillos give you small amounts of beef, this place gave a huge amount!
Fries were hand cut from the potato slicer and they also offer free refills.
The seasoning is real good, although not as much as the original Al’s on Taylor street.

I was traveling to Chicago and was so happy to try Al’s Beef after seeing it on the food channel. I was taken back when I arrived because I did not realize it is a fast food restaurant. Ok that is not going to stop me from getting my sandwich… I ordered the beef sandwich with the works including spicy and dipped. I am so glad I did because the meat was so dry that I needed the extra sauces to be able to eat it. If Beef is in the name of your restaurant you need to have good beef. I would also mention the staff was not overly friendly. They were rude but I have been greeted better at the DMV. I will retry Al’s next time I am in town but not this location.

What a horrible experience with Al’s Beef.
I recently ordered through Grubhub, an Italian beef sandwich and an order of cheese fries, sauce on the side.
2 hours and fifteen minutes later, after contacting both Grubhub and the restaurant directly, I received a cold, gelatinous sandwich, and soggy fries smothered in cheese.
Let’s back up a bit, shall we? Grubhub quoted me an hour for these two items. I feel like an hour is pretty standard for Grubhub. After an hour fifteen, I started a chat with Grubhub. They told me that the restaurant was really backed up, so it would be another fifteen minutes. So, I waited. Still no food. So, I contacted Grubhub again. They told me the restaurant told them the driver just left. So, I waited.
The third time my food didn’t show up, I called Al’s Beef directly (about 15 minutes later) and was told by a snotty hostess that the driver was «just walking out the door» with my order.
I immediately contacted Grubhub for a refund, which was declined. Refunds through Grubhub are given at the restaurant’s discretion. They did, however, offer me 10% off a future order. Yeah, right.
The driver asked me upon her arrival if I knew of anyone that was hiring delivery drivers. That was after she called me 3 times because she couldn’t find my home. She looked disheveled, and like she was in need of a shower. I get that delivery drivers don’t have to be pristine in their line of work, but let’s talk about how the appearance of the person bringing your food affects your appetite.
So, now we’re back to the food has arrived, the order is wrong, and is inedible. So, I throw it away and contact Grubhub, AGAIN. What are we at, 5, 6 times now? Once again, Grubhub refuses a refund, and tells me if I want any chance of getting one, the restaurant will send the driver back to pick up the food that was wrong and horrible. I was so fed up at this point that I just gave up. It was already after 9pm, I had placed the order around 6. I was not going to 1) dig through my garbage for the food and 2) wait 2 more hours for the driver to come back again.
Just watch out for Al’s Beef.

This review only speaks to the Al’s Beef portion of the restaurant. We didn’t try Nancy’s Pizza.
My husband ordered a beef sandwich, I had a buffalo chicken wrap, and we shared the nacho fries.
My husband went to pick it up and when he got home, he commented that the place was dead. Not a single other person there when he went in. I took it as a bad sign.
The beef sandwich was just OK. No real complaints, but nothing spectacular either. I didn’t care for my wrap. It was just grilled chicken with a little bit of buffalo wing sauce and a bit of crumbled bleu cheese. There was way more tortilla than meat. I felt like i could make a better sandwich at home.
As for the fries, well, we thought the cheese would be melted shredded cheese. Nope. As my husband arrived he saw the cook squirting, yes, squirting, the cheese onto the fries. Needless to say, my stomach hurt later.
With a great place like Spuntino’s nearby, I don’t think we’ll give Al’s another chance.

The fries were terrible in my opinion. There was no flavor and it just all clumped together. If it’s going to be a big ball of grease, I need for it to be seasoned at least. Ordered the combo (beef and sausage dipped) and while the sausage was good, I didn’t care for the beef. It just lacked flavor. The hot peppers were also not hot.