Nacho Mama’s

Are you kidding? The service was so bad! Am I The invisible man? Also the tacos were bland with a good beach scene! Whoever is in charge need to find sensible management for this place. Half the clientele is LGBT. Bad service to this crowd is not a good idea.

Always a great thing when I find a café/​restaurant/​bar right off the beach or lake. Super cute Mexican style place with delicious $ 2 tacos (on Tuesdays) and a satisfying piña colada (creamy, foamy, fresh.) Very colorful patio where you can sit, or walk right up to the counter & order concession-​stand style. I like that they offer vegetarian chorizo seitan, although I’m not a vegetarian. I tried one of those tacos & a steak taco; both were pretty good. Not a huge selection on the menu, but hey, it’s off the beach so can’t complain. I’d definitely return & try a margarita, especially since I love the beach it sits on.

This place is right on the beach with an amazing view if the water and great place for tacos and nachos. Small menu but totally hits the spot for so many levels! Wow! They had the best seitan tacos I have ever had! I’m usually very picky when it comes to tacos and meat substitutes and this place was awesome! They have a take out window of you want to eat and run and a great patio. No indoor seating, so it’s only good in the summer. (The only downside).

If you like going to an outdoor café without being served any food or alcohol, then this is the place for you!
We should have taken the bad reviews here more seriously. Once we sat down, the wait staff completely ignored us for 20 minutes. We finally got someone to come to our table, but he quickly informed us that they were out of tortilla chips so no nachos were being served. It was 1:30pm on a Tuesday, how are they out of chips? The name of the place is NACHO mama’s. How can they not have nachos?! I can’t imagine what happens on weekends.
We left and went up to Waterfront Café. We had drinks and food within 10 minutes. I realize they are under the same ownership, but Waterfront Café is so much better managed.

I really wanted to like this place. The stand and patio itself is very cute and the view is fantastic. Immediately I thought, what a great place to spend an afternoon munching and drinking. Unfortunately two things prevented this from happening, the service and food. I’m not a food service person however I think food and service are pretty important in the food service business. I could be wrong. I ordered their Nachos Grande with chicken which is a gigantic mountain (good thing) of sour cream guacamole, jalapenos, shredded cheese and some yellow substance that looked like melted cheeze wiz (bad thing). The yellow substance cheese facsimile was really a drawback because the establishments seems to want to be an authentic Tex-​Mexican joint but this was as authentic as a food court at the Mall of America. The chips were super salty to the point of being almost inedible. I just basically gave up on the whole cheeze wiz Frankenstein mess. I also ordered one of their Vodka Lemonades which I will concede was refreshing but light on the vodka and it was $ 8. Even after I gave up on the nachos I wanted to hang out and get some more drinks. Our server disappeared for a long while and when we tried to ask another server we were told they couldn’t take our order for some unexplained reason and they would send our server over to us. Well about another 15 minutes went by and she was nowhere in sight. At this point another customer asked another server for a beer and for no apparent or explicable reason couldn’t help him either. please know the place was not packed there were several tables empty. Once I saw this I knew the best thing to do was to get out of dodge and not aggravate myself. It’s a great location and a great idea but they need to hire experienced servers and have a better system on how to cover for another server when they are busy. I guess if I was just hanging out on the beach all day and I was completely blacked out drunk, the food and service here would seem awesome to me.

It has happened three times that I have gone for food and they are either not ready to serve or not serving food for some reason or another. I live right by the beach and it convenient to go here, but I never get to eat when I do. Don’t go out of your way. They probably won’t have food ready anyway.

I want to give you five stars, Nacho Mama. I want to be a regular. I want to give you so much money.
But you are never open when you are supposed to be.
Yesterday we walked up to the familiar sight of the window closing and asked why they were closing early and were told «we ran out of beef and chicken.» Well, we didn’t want beef or chicken, we wanted drinks and vegan nachos and the dude shrugged and said sorry. There were about 12 people on the patio drinking, so it’s not like it was dead. The movies in the park night for Ostermann Beach was starting in less than an hour and it is Pride weekend.
You ran out of food on a Friday? So you’re just going to what, not open for the rest of Pride weekend? I guess selling alcohol isn’t worth your time either eh?
So disappointing. I don’t know why this place is closing early all the time. I don’t know why they lie about the reason why. I just know that if I want to have nachos and drinks on the beach, I just keep walking up to Granville because that café seems to be able to be open on a regular basis.

I love this place, and I love that it opened in my neighborhood. A great assortment of cocktails, drinks and food ON THE BEACH, in a casual, friendly atmosphere? Yes, please.
The Sangria is a real value. $ 24 for a pitcher, and separate cups of ice. That’s a lot of Sangria for two, and bonus — it is delicious as well. Didn’t try any of the other cocktail options, but the prices are right in line with most any bar in the area.
The name of the place is cute, so the food is — duh, Nachos! Several types of Nachos and a pretty simple menu overall. This is the beach, though, you don’t need more than snack-​type things — nachos, hot dogs and such. Had the Nachos Grande with Steak — and it was great, easily enough for two to share.
The food ordering area is separate so you can take the food to the beach to enjoy, or eat at the patio, where alcohol is available via a bar in the back. No booze on the beach, kittens, you have to enjoy it here. Table service, or serve yourself.
Plenty of rest rooms, and even an outdoor shower on the south side of the building — typical Chicago Park District beach amenities, which are great.
Oh, and DOG FRIENDLY, for well behaved pooches. This earns five stars, my undying love, and/​or continued patronage, or all three. Located just north of Foster Dog Beach, you can tire out the pooch with a romp there, and then come here for a cocktail and watch pretty people on the beach! There’s your summer Saturday afternoon planned, dog owner, you’re welcome.
The staff is wonderful, friendly and great. Of course, it’s Hollywood Beach, where everyone is welcome. Great experience overall, I hope to be a regular at this joint all summer, every summer.

Unfortunately the slow and unrepentant service will likely lead to the demise of this relatively new and welcomed addition to Chicago’s waterfront.
It’s concept of creative beach-​inspired food served with a vibrant array of adult beverages is a mix that is perfect for its location.
An added bonus is the lack of kid-​friendly options, which keeps the annoying parents and their rotten brats looking elsewhere.

I love this place; I’m there about every weekend! The wine is great, Sherrie the bartender is awesome and the coconut shrimp are to die for. The atmosphere is super chill. It’s a neighborhood-​like bar in bathing suits. I usually grab some shrimp, a few glasses of wine and head to the beach for some sun. Hollywood Beach itself is a party… you can’t ask for a cleaner, more fun beach hangout.

I was so excited about this place when I saw that they had seitan burritos and tacos. And the seitan burritos and tacos there are awesome and huge. But, there are several things about this place are not awesome.
1) People are not joking when they say this place is slow. We were the only people at the restaurant when we went, no line, no one on the patio. It took 20 minutes to get our burritos.
2) The super irregular hours. Maybe it’s just because it’s late in the season, but I’ve gone there three times this week to try to get a taco and it’s been closed at times their website says they’re open. Either don’t post hours on your website or be open when you say you are.

My wife and I usually grab a bite first thing we arrive at Osterman Beach.
The food is… well, just… acceptable. Not great, but not bad. (In terms of the price to quality-​of-​food ratio, though, it’s disgusting.) Be prepared for very greasy stuff, too.
I saw a review commenting on the slow service. I certainly noticed it. My wife says that on weekdays the service is nice and zippy, but it’s VERY slow on weekends; they have a different crew. So on a weekend, make sure you can sacrifice about an hour if you want to get some food. Nachos are quite mediocre. Hot dogs are what you’d expect from a beach cafeteria. I’m afraid to try anything else on the menu.
Seems that this beach food place has an identity crisis and changes themes every couple of years. One thing that doesn’t seem to make sense that is pretty consistent throughout the changes: they offer whacky combination-​flavor lemonades, but not good, reliable, STANDARD lemonade. Come on, people!

After visiting Kathy Ostermann beach multiple times I finally took the time to stop at Nacho Mama’s for lunch. yes! I wanted tacos and a cocktail; it was kind’ve a pain to have to order and pay separately. Staff at both counters were friendly and efficient, definitely glad I got there before the line got long though.
I got an awesome table closest to the beach all to myself and I dove into my chicken tacos and margarita. The tacos were better than I expected; chicken was moist, toppings were fresh and flavorful. You get to pick your toppings at the counter. My margarita was pretty average, nothing special but it got the job done. I saw someone at another table with a mountain of nachos… which I will be getting next time since they are open til 10pm! Awesome.

I’m being generous and giving this place 3 stars because the cashier from Australia is so darn cute. The food is ok, and it’s a lot more convenient than taking the time to pack a picnic. But, holy cow, can you spell S L O W? This is the slowest «fast food» place on earth. Owners take note, and please, please go to the Portillo’s School of Fast Food Assembly. I mean waiting a half hour for a seitan taco, having them ask you what you want on it, and then putting on different toppings all together is a bit frustrating. I love this beach and this place is a really nice addition, but please speed up the service so we can actually spend the day at the beach and not in line.

Although it’s a little smaller than the Montrose Beach patio, the atmosphere is really fun and it’s decorated like a little oasis from the urban norm. We could almost believe we were in Cancun.
Fun and efficient bartenders with accurate pours.
Drinks were a little expensive, but to be expected in a beach bar… and probably stronger than at Oak St or North Ave Beaches.