LOKaL

I have come to expect a lot of LOKal’s customer service because my experience at the Wicker park location has never been short of spectacular. I visit 2 – 3 times a week and spend a lot of my money with the amazing staff. Wonderful service and great people.
While planning brunch with a few friends, I imagined the Lincoln Park location would be something of the same. I was very surprised at how wrong I was.
Firstly, nonexistent table service. We watched the restaurant fill up behind us as we were one of the first 5 tables there. It took an hour to get a second round of mimosas, an hour and a half to place our orders, and nearly two hours for the food to hit our table. The table beside us, however, were seated, ordered, and had received their food all within 20 minutes. Their food landed before we even saw condiments. It blew my mind.
The hot sauce and ketchup we asked for never came, by the way.
Secondly, our server, Justin. I’ve never encountered anyone quite like this man. He visited our table a total of 3 times during this entire experience but was somehow surprised when we expressed our distaste on the way out. (His excuse. «It’s brunch. In Chicago. On a Sunday!») His flagrant ego is not enough to serve 15 tables simletanously, no matter how awesome this bro seems to think he is.
Apparently, he was also in charge. I find this hard to believe because he clearly has no clue how to run a restaurant that depends on customer service for a decent experience. It makes me so sad that people leave thinking he is LOKal. When we asked for an overhead contact, he gave us a fake number to someone’s line who had never heard of the resturant.
I will not be returning to this location, but I’ll soon be back in the arms of LOKal 1. Can’t wait to give them the tip that Justin did not receive!

I should have checked the reviews before coming to this restaurant. Like others have experienced here, the host is very hard to find and when we could find her, she could not give us an estimate of when we were to be seated — all this while we had a reservation! Forty minutes after our reservation time, we finally decided to leave. It seems this restaurant has extreme difficulty managing reservations. They’d be better off employing a no reservations policy if they intend to consistently not honor a reservation. A complete waste of time and did not represent Chicago well to my out of town friends.

Solid brunch place. They take reservations which you should make if you plan on coming after 12. It’s a trendy looking spot, with very trendy looking servers.
They have bottomless mimosas but they are watered down so in my opinion they weren’t worth the money. The coffee was decent. Not sure why, but I expected better.
The server was a little scattered. He was nice and all but we had to remind him to bring things.
I got the steak and eggs (medium/​lightly scrambled) with chimichurri. The eggs came scrambled hard which was a bummer and they were kind of cold. The steak was sizable and the cook wasn’t even, but it tasted good. The chimichurri didn’t have a lot of flavor, it tasted like they made a big batch at the beginning of the week and this was left over. It was also completely smooth which is strange because I prefer my chimichurri to be a little less liquified I like to see the herbs and the garlic.
All in all it was pretty mediocre. I’ve had worse, but I’ve had better.

Been looking forward to going here for awhile finally made it there on Sunday and it was such a bad experience overall. Made reservations but still had to wait 30mins to be seated. Finally got seated and it took 20 mins before someone even brought us a menu. Had to ask the host to send our sever several times. When our food came we didn’t even get silverware or napkins. Waited another 10 mins for silverware than waited 15 mins to just get water. Overall this place is a mess. Too little staff, mimosas were watery and food was just ok. Never again will we go there. Don’t waste your time there is so many better brunch spots in Chicago!

Everything we ordered was delicious. Went back for brunch and it was bomb. Happy to have this place in the neighborhood!

There was no sign of any host or employee in this restaurant that cared to check the front to see if there were guests waiting for a table. We even made a reservation. 45 minutes of sitting in front without a greeting. The host is the image of the restaurant; the first face to greet customers. The fact that we had to walk in back several times to try to get a hold of a freaking host to get us a table blew my mind. This isn’t hospitality, and this isn’t good service. Unfortunate because this is my third time here and I enjoyed my past experiences. Won’t be back until the management steps in and gets more involved.
—Edit: After we finally got seated Jordy provided us excellent service and reciprocated our waiting with a round of shots. Had to add a star for his great service specifically.

This place is great. Jordy & Justin our servers were awesome. Although this place gets crowded for brunch (reasonably so) the servers were still very attentive and sociable– Also, brunch deal is by far the best around.

Wasn’t greeted for 15 minutes. Bloody Mary was flavorless. Asked the server for no Leeks in my dish, he told me leek was a type of bacon (?). Dish was loaded with onions, I couldn’t eat it. Server didn’t even drop of check or run payment. Not worth the money.

So impressed! Much better than its North Ave Brother. Skillet, lox, Watercress/​mushroom/​bacon omelette were all wonderful. Big winner was the pulled pork po boy. Really awesome service as well. Highly recommend to anyone who loves an all you can drink brunch! It’s only $ 10 extra for unlimited bloodys and mimosas.

Yum! Loved all the food we ordered for brunch, and the prices were totally reasonable. Truly amazing service. The wait for six was 30 minutes, but that’s okay — it was Saturday midday.
Overall, one of the best spots in town for a nice brunch, dinner or intimate drink.

I came here for brunch with a friend! This was my second time at the place and let me tell you, it was great. I ordered the exact same dish (Duck Confit Benedict) and it tasted exactly as I remembered it ! Service and ambiance are top notch. Highly recommended !

All around great experience! Went here a couple weeks ago for a friend’s birthday brunch, there must have been over 20 of us. The food was great but what was really memorable was the staff. Super accommodating when more people showed and we had to pull chairs to fit everyone. And our server, Justin, is a saint for putting up with 20 champagne-​tipsy girls.

First and foremost you have no business taking reservations if you plan to completely disregard them. We waited for an hour and there was no hostess. We asked a waitress if she could help us and she literally said there was no hostess working this morning. Secondly, our waiter was clearly serving his friends at the table next to us and gave them our food and drinks. Thirdly, after we made a comment to the owner’s wife or girlfriend about the poor serviceand the chaos and disorganization, the husband berated us for complaining about our poor experience and then blamed the poor service on us for choosing to dine there. Is this a joke? I would pick zero stars if that was an option.

Food and service are both pretty good, but just be aware that if you get the mimosa carafe it is probably mostly tonic water instead of champagne to trick you into thinking its champagne. $ 9 is a good price but not if its a ripoff like that. Come for the food not the drinks.

I didn’t check Unilocal before going here, and I’m kind of sad that my review seems to be many patrons’ experience for a while now. I live in the neighborhood, and it’s very hard for restaurants to stick around, even restaurants with popular brands — Harold’s Chicken Shack and Smallbar had locations nearby and closed. I live practically next door to Lokal so I definitely want it to stick around, but the service… it has to improve.
I walked in with a friend, and I’m not sure if quarter to 2 is prime brunch time, but it was busy. We walked in and it didn’t look like we could seat ourselves and no one was at the host stand, so we waited for someone to come seat us. We were seated in the back room by the fireplace, and it was nice. The hostess took our drink order, and then we waited… and waited… and waited for anyone to come acknowledge our presence and give us our drinks. Finally the waiter came over with water and we inquired about the coffee, and he got that for us.
I ordered the duck confit benedict and my friend ordered the po’boy sandwich, and the food was really, really good. However, it was really hard to flag anyone down — I swear, all the wait staff look straight ahead, avoiding all eye contact. At one point, I finally grabbed a ketchup bottle from another table, because we had asked for some and were still waiting on it. It was empty, so we had to actively stare at the wait staff walking by, waiting for them to glance our way. I think I finally had to loudly say «excuse me» to get someone to come by so I could ask for more ketchup. It was a bit odd.
It also wasn’t like the wait staff were just sitting around not doing anything, but still, service was very slow. We walked in at quarter to 2 and we didn’t leave until a little after 4. Also, the restaurant really cleared out around 2:15/2:30. I get it being busy and that’s why the service might suffer, but that really didn’t seem to be the case here. When we were waiting for our check to be picked up, we were one table among 3 other tables still in the restaurant. I did see our waiter drag garbage through the dining room at one point, and I think that maybe the wait staff was trying to get the silverware done (putting all the clean silverware in clean napkins) ahead of time to try to get out of their on time when their shifts were done. That’s the only thing I can think of. But the service suffered because of it. At one point, I saw a guy at another table get a beer from the bar because our waiter hadn’t been back to their table in obviously a long time.
Also, the bathrooms were clean, but the women’s was out of soap. I thought about letting someone know, but it was hard enough to get anyone’s attention, I didn’t bother.
Food was top-​notch, really excellent… the service just needs to be worked on. Maybe better systems should be in place? There seemed to be enough wait staff, and the space isn’t huge, so hopefully that improves, I’d like for this place to stick around.

We came here for the bottomless mimosa/​bloody mary deal with a party of 15. Actually, we first went to the Wicker Park location. My friend had made a reservation over the phone over a week in advance. When we got there, we were told they don’t accept reservations (or at least don’t by phone) and we would have to wait an hour if not more. This was incredibly frustrating, as it was for a birthday and it was no where near a last minute reservation. They gave us another option of going to the Lincoln Park location since it’s bigger, so after an hour of arguing with the hostess, we headed over there. This location was almost empty on a Saturday morning, which should have been our first sign.
If you’re looking for a bottomless drink deal, this place is for you. I had the bloody mary which was really sweet. I personally prefer spicy but I can chalk that up to differences in tastes. Nothing half a bottle of tobasco didn’t fix. However, the food was less than stellar. I ordered the mushroom and spinach benedict with potatoes. The eggs had taken on that funky flavor like if you let food sit in the refrigerator too long. Honestly that ruined my appetite right there. The hollandaise was sparse and its like they dumped an entire bushel of unseasoned limp mushrooms onto the plate. My friends had the watercress omelette with mushrooms, goat cheese and jalapenos. The jalapenos were raw and plentiful, making the omelette incredibly spicy. They could only eat half before the rest took over. Not sure about what the rest of the table thought about their food since I left early.
I’ll give the one in Wicker Park a shot since its supposed to be a little better, but I definitely wasn’t a fan of this one at all.

After reading many reviews I was on the fence about visiting this restaurant but it was fantastic.
The food was on point. We ordered the egg white skillet and the biscuits and gravy. We also had a side of bacon and the calamari appetizer prepared extra crispy. Everything was delicious.
Our server was so attentive and understanding. I alter my meals often and she accommodated me accordingly.
We also ordered the bottomless bloodies and mimosas and were very satisfied.
I will return to Lokal again and potentially make it a regular brunch destination!

In response to the owner’s sparkling comment on my review:
Dear Artur W.,
I often times wonder if people find any merit in my reviews (seeing as how you can’t always believe what you read on the internet) and nowhere in your poorly written response did you deny your restaurant’s poor service and theft. So thank you for the validation of my review, I really appreciate it! Also, thank you for making me aware that the jewel on my belly is showing, it’s a constant struggle finding new ways to hide the fact I am a troll.
Best of luck to you!
Margaret the Troll

One of the best brunch values in the city. We’ve been for bottomless mimosas at the North Ave location and this one is even better – outdoor patio! Plenty of open seats inside though which was great because it was 93 degrees outside. We started with mimosas and bloody marys and they kept the drinks coming pretty steadily! I ordered the eggs white scramble with kale, mushrooms and tomatoes… Perfectly cooked and huge portion! I had a side salad also with fresh greens – their dressing is tasty! My boyfriend ordered the steak and eggs and we were surprised by the huge portion of steak! They didn’t skimp on the meat and the chimichurri sauce was a spicy touch. I would definitely come back here because you can’t beat $ 9 bottomless mimosas! And the service was great too!

So let’s start this off with the fact that I LOVE the original Lokal in Wicker park. My boyfriend and I go there all the time. There food is great and who doesn’t love a bottomless mimosa! So when we found out they opened a location by our apartment we were very excited. Unfortunately our first experience kinda sucked. It’s not nearly as busy as the original location and the service slacked. The waitress was a sweetheart but we waited about 25 mins for our check :/​I ordered the leek and bacon scramble. It came with a side salad and it had a few pieces of slimey lettuce which totally turned me off. Yuck! From now on we will go the the original location.