Bar Louie

Staying the holidays in and figured I’d give it a try since I didn’t want to drive. And I’m quite surprised by the place. So many draft beer choices from classics to crafts. The bartender was cool dude. Good food reasonable prices good place for friends.

Room service was not a pleasant experience. Told the waitress that it would be charged to the room yet was told they weren’t able to do that. What?
I’ve been staying at HI locations for 35 years and that was a first.
Not that big a deal as I needed something from my car so just stopped by the restaurant and paid the tab. 25 minutes later my Blt wedge salad showed up without the chicken that I paid an extra $ 5.25 to add.
The waiter was long gone by the time I took the plastic wrap off and made this discovery. Immediately placed a call, using the same phone button, went right to voice mail. Calmly explained their error but never got a call back. Last time I stay at the Holiday Inn North Shore Chicago.

First let me start by saying that I ate in the restaurant three times before writing a review and can definitely say that the food is mediocre at best. Once was in the restaurant and twice as room service. First off, the food is very overpriced even without the $ 3 service fee and 15% gratuity added for room service. One meal was a breakfast burrito which tasted like old eggs, cool cheese and other items in a cold flour tortilla and wrapped up. It’s huge, yes, but should be much hotter and have some better sauce than the obviously jarred tomato-​y, mild salsa. I ended up opening up the burrito and just eating the better parts. Second meal was an appetizer, the pot stickers. Again, very obviously a frozen food that had been poorly cooked in the pan, so the edges of the pot stickers that should have been cooked until the dough was soft and done, then crisped in the pan, was instead as if it had been thrown into the pan to cook from frozen, making the edges hard. Also, the serving size for cost was just outrageous. Tonight was my last attempt at their food while a hotel guest. I tried the Louie burger. Common sense would say, as their namesake burger, it should have been something special, but it was far from that. The $ 11 burger was NOT freshly shaped, rather a pre-​packaged burger that had absolutely no seasoning. The advertised toppings were provolone, giardiniera and grilled onions, but it also had thick dill pickles, thickly sliced tomato and lettuce, which was not what I expected or wanted. I removed those then tried the burger. Despite the addition of salt and pepper to taste, the burger was still tasteless, the onions no where near grilled but only slightly translucent and mushy rather than nicely caramelized. The giardiniera was dry and more chewy than the olive oil varieties that I have eaten and had no real heat and the cheese just goopy. I didn’t make it a third of the way through the burger before I took it out of the cold bun, added more salt and pepper and tried to eat the rest. It was a very disappointing meal and I was also upset that I specifically asked about the accompanying french fries and asked if they were «natural cut» with the skin (which I don’t like) and was told they were «regular American type fries like McDonalds», yet got the natural cut fries. Definitely will not eat at Bar Louie’s again. Between being overpriced, tasteless, and the employees having no idea how to cook, I’ll just order delivery next time that I am at the hotel. A quick, final note about the atmosphere of the place. Bar Louie’s is a BAR, emphasis mine, loud, packed, and annoying to try to even to get. Its customers are even more annoying to someone like myself who has been a hotel guest often. Avoid unless you have absolutely no other option for a meal.

Walked in hour and 30 minutes before they closed and they pretty much kicked us out. The man there said we have time to order just one drink and walked away with a really bad attitude so we walked out. Never coming back!

This is a relatively new, decorative and pleasant. A great place to sit outdoors if it’s well under 80 degrees. The food is typical American, reasonably priced and the dishes are pretty tasty; of course, we ordered from the appetizer menu.

Not impressed with the quality of service. A colleague and I went in on a not so busy day and turns out the waitress ignored us for straight 25 mins after serving us beers in spite of several hollers at her. Eventually we called for the manager who seemed reasonable enough and took in our order for food not to be seen for another hour. Food served was good, no complaints there. But the attention span of the staff seems lesser than that of a gold fish!

Been here several times, every time I would say it was just alright. The service is good at taking care of your needs but they give off a bad vibe, very forced fake vibe. Came here for the $ 1 burgers on Tuesday’s, which you also have to buy a drink for. Got the turkey burger, which was pretty good and I have also tried the regular burger. Pretty good deal if you order more than one burger.

Good burgers, with a pretty good selection of sides, sandwiches, etc. I’d recommend them for food for sure. As for the beers — considering this is a bar in a hotel, the selection is AMAZING. They try to keep everything local, so don’t be surprised if you see some new and exciting options you’ve never heard of before!

Not impressed.
Ordered room service so I could keep working on this work trip.
Food comes and there is no itemized ticket. Isn’t that kind of standard for business travelers?
Next, 18% gratuity added automatically. while I normally wouldn’t mind this, here is the problem. IN THE HOTEL ROOM, the menu says 15% will be added. I work for a very prudent and frugal non profit and they will not allow a reimbursement for 18%. Because the room menu said 15% would be added, I gave the guy an extra $ 3. Then found out they put 18% on the ticket. Shady practice.
Last thing, probably the worse. I got ONE fork to eat with and it was dirty! Ugh… Should I make the guy come back a third time (remember he had to run and get me an itemized receipt). Nope, Tots turned into sloppy finger food instead.
Food was so-​so. I have had better at Applebees or Chili’s.
Not impressed.

Ordered take out grilled chicken sandwich for my husband — I specifically asked if the sandwich was a ‘decent size’ (meaning «man sized») so that my husband would have enough to eat for dinner. Arrived to pick up food and sandwich was super teeny tiny and sliced avocado was brown. Girl who took my order on the phone was nice, but that didn’t make up for the subpar size of the sandwich — probably won’t be back anytime soon

I’ve been to Bar Louie in Mishawaka, IN so I’m familiar with the chain.
Great service, nice waitress, very nice overall.
I recommend the Breakfast Tacos!

I’ve been to bar Louie before and my last experience at a different location was good but this time not so much.
My friend and I both wanted a martini. I always get the effen good on the rocks because I know I like it and I’m pretty picky. It was delicious as usual. My friend was asking the bartender about the diva martini and asked whether or not she liked it and how sweet it is. The bartender admitted to us she had never tried it and she could make it if my friend didn’t like it she would make her something else. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves when I go to a restaurant and the server or bartender is not familiar with what they’re selling. It took her awhile to make the drinks also and the diva martini was pretty sugary.
We got the spinach and artichoke dip as an app and it was decent nothing special. We then shared the buffalo chicken flatbread. I asked the bartender whether or not it was spicy and she said it had a kick (I hate spicy food). It came out, I tried it and it was extremely spicy for my taste. If it hadn’t been so hot I would’ve really liked it. I’m sure it was another thing the bartender had never tried. She also did not know what types of tequila they carried or prices of drinks.
All in all I think they need to train their staff better on items they are selling. I won’t be back to this location.

Bar Louie? It’s convenient if you’re staying on business long term (like myself) but after 2 months of spending money there (daily) I got to see more drama than I cared to deal with.
Bar management stands around while the bartenders apologize for running out of wine selections and struggles with a lack of glasses, silverware and plates. Complain about the service and they just say they’re busy and walk away rudely. Order the meatball appetizer that you cannot drive a knife through and they’ll just take it off the bill and walk away.
Basically nobody that works there cares about service, quality of food or basic guest protocol. They will serve warm wine because they had to run to the back and take it out of a box but never bother to chill it for you. Ask them for «what is actually chilled?» and you’ll regret the response, remember that you’re the enemy and not a guest. Don’t bring it up, anything at all, or they will snap at you and walk away.
Finally one day, after 2 months, I met a friend there (who isn’t a hotel guest). The bartender gave her several free drinks «on him». After a while I finally said what about me? He rudely grabbed an empty bottle and placed it in front of me, then stormed away without a word.
For some reason they become complacent with long term guests and begin to view them as «peers» rather than «guests» and the tactless service becomes worse. I complained about this episode because it was over the top and the next evening he called me into the corner of the bar, away from cameras, and completely yelled at me with his finger in my face. He proceeded to hand me a check with 9 drinks on it claiming I requested shots for the entire bar! Fraudulent revenge from this bartender, borderline criminal behavior.
You almost have to laugh at the audacity of an idiot like this who’s afraid of losing his job and yet behaves more outrageously rude and unprofessional than the day before! Bizarre
So another 6 weeks to go and they won’t get a single penny out of me. I was spending more in that bar than my room charge so I hope they miss the tips. There is plenty of competition nearby who have better food and prices, great service as well.
It’s a shame that Holiday Inn would risk their reputation by allowing this poorly managed bar with subpar food and rude service continue down this path. Most of the new employees are friendly and about 2 of the others. If you’re lucky enough to have this rare experience then you’ll enjoy watching a game in the dismal darkness of this hole in the wall. Be sure to order only deep fried food to make sure it’s fresh, well «fresh frozen». Everything else gets sent back, I’ve seen countless plates get dumped (untouched) while the bartenders ridicule the guests behind their back for returning it. Scary enough not to eat there!
Breakfast is stellar, and their only redemption.
The buffet is fresh, hollandaise delicious and morning service is very friendly!
UPDATE: now the bar manager says I’m not allowed in there anymore. They can’t even own up to their mistakes, horrible place.
Entered the restaurant last night and they said I could sit there but they refused to serve me. They had security sit next to me. All this from a Unilocal review about poor service? They need a lawsuit slapped on their unprofessional, irrational behavior.
Freedom of speech no longer exists in the U.S.

Im at regular at Bar Louie Skokie. I especially like going for the UFC fights and service is good good is good and they have plenty of tv’s! But today by far was the worst. Went there to check out the UFC fight and the hawks game, yea it was busy for the hawks game but once that ended me and my friends table was 1 out of 3 tables in the back room. Our server checked on us maybe 1 every 30 mins we had to go to the bar and get our own drinks. And to put the cherry on top some one pulled the fire alarm! We asked to speak to the manager some big guy with a beard and he was like oh we were busy and walked away! Horrible Leadership there! This is my last time going there! They lost a loyal customer!

Mediocre at best. So we were in town figured to save time we would check out Bar Louie. My food arrived cold not tepid but absolutely cold including the fries. Great just how I like my chicken cold with a side of cold french fries… I would have complained to the waitress except we never saw her again, she wasn’t even the one who brought us the food out. But I digress on top of the cold food it wasn’t even that good. It tasted off like something you throw in a microwave. Honestly, I regret the money we had to pay for our meal here that night. I personally know I would have been happier with some apps at a local bar. at least that would have been warm.

Been here a couple times, most recently on $ 1 burger Tuesday’s which was also happy hour (3 – 7) I think with ½ off apps. The burgers are not bad but expect to pay for every topping. They got good variety of beers. The place looks amazing, nice big TVs, modern clean, great service. It just lacks a atmosphere, lacks that something special, it’s just simply a very nice hotel bar.

Hubby and I came in for $ 1 burger night and had a really nice evening. This Bar Louie location is in Skokie’s really nice Holiday Inn (nicer than most) and it’s a great place to go if you’re looking for a sports bar or a casual meal.
The décor is really nice and the restaurant is a good size. We sat in front of one of the flat screens, so hubby was happy!
The burgers are $ 1 but you do pay extra for cheese, vegetables and other toppings, and sauces. These all range between 25 and 75 cents so while it seems like they’re nickel and diming you, your total burger will still cost less than burgers at most other places and about the same as fast food places, but much better! And they’re huge! I would have taken a picture if I had remembered but it was so delicious that I was focused on my food! I was only able to eat ½ and I only had a few fries because I didn’t want to feel stuffed. A basket of fries or tater tots is $ 4.50, but one is more than enough for two people. I’m glad we ordered one to share.
On Tuesdays they have $ 3.50 or $ 5 draft beers (the $ 5 glass is quite large). They also have select appetizers at ½ price until 7:00. We had two orders of the boneless wings, which come with several different sauce options. We chose the Szechuan, which had just the right amount of sweet, and the Buffalo which had a good kick. Those come with carrots and celery and your choice of Bleu cheese or ranch.
Music was blasting and while it wasn’t our cup of tea, it was tolerable. Our server was courteous and attentive, and we had no complaints at all. We were too full for dessert this time, but we really like this place and will be back.

Been to about many Bar Louie’s in the Chicago area and this is one of my favorites. Is located inside of a hotel and is very spacious. It was a lot more organized compare to the other Bar Louie’s I been to. They have happy hours/​specials everyday (all Bar Louie’s do).
You must try the boneless wings with En Fuego suace.

Parking is sometimes difficult. You might need to park in the back, which might not be the safest for women walkin alone.
It’s all about the $ 1 burgers on Tuesdays. You’ll get nickel and dimed for everything else though; condiments, cheese, toppings, fries, etc. their specialty burgers are also available on discount for $ 3.50
A myriad of drinks and concoctions with TVs and a cool vibe. It’s clean. Service is okaaaay… It gets the job done, for sure. But I think Tuesdays are typically the only days I frequent Bar Louie. Btw… The chocolate cake was amazing. Super rich and sinful.

My friends and I came specifically for Bar Louie’s Tuesday night happy hour special which is $ 1 burgers with the purchase of a drink from 5pm until closing.
PROS
1)$ 1 burger — enough said
2)Strong drinks — I ordered an Old Fashioned and I couldn’t finish it since it was almost straight whiskey.blechhh. I wanted to try something new since I’m more of a beer or mojito type… never again! haha
3)Nice, relaxed atmosphere and we never felt rushed to leave
CONS
1)Poor service — our waitress was EXTREMELY slow, never refilled our waters unless we asked, and checked on us only a couple times throughout our meal
2)$ 1 burger consists of just the burger, each additional topping costs extra
This is a decent place to have happy hour with friends/​coworkers but I would probably check out the Mount Prospect Location next time and hopefully they’ll have better service.