The Monarch

I love their wings! Some of the best in the city! Great brunch, mimosas are a lot of orange juice which is fine just got a little sweet after a while. We told them and they gave us more champagne which was very nice! You can get a free pretzel by checking in and it was awesome! I will be back for the wings very soon and hopefully take my pup as it was dog friendly in the back.

Wandered in when Louie’s Pub was closed for a private party, and it was the best discovery! Patio is a hidden gem. Fries are great, great rose list, and excellent service. Cocktail list is a bit strange, but could be good.

Food was great
The tuna was a pleasant surprise… The fried green chicken sandwich was excellent
Nice wine selection for a pub on north
The dripping candles were cool

Can’t believe I have yet to review The Monarch since being the featured recommendation on Chicago’s Best! Anyway, this is a seriously underrated pub in Wicker Park doing some really great things with food! A constantly rotational menu shows me they truly care about the product they present day in and day out.
Brunch: excellent. Cheap, bottomless mimosa deal — highly recommend starting there. In terms of food, their chilaquiles stack up with any of Chicago’s brunch heavyweights, yet don’t get the acclaim they do. Bully! The duck confit tostada and fried green tomato sandwich are also creative and tasty. I haven’t tried the sweet stuff, but they master the savory brunch.
Dinner: equally excellent. Have I mentioned that these guys have one of the most underrated menus in Wicker Park, maybe even in all of Chicago? They also serve the fried green tomato sandwich for dinner as well, but the star of the show is the pork shoulder stew. One of the best renditions of pork shoulder I’ve ever had, but it’s only available seasonally.
Drinks: solid beer selection and they always have specials. Pretty basic, but does the trick.
I also really love that they have giant jenga on the outdoor patio. This kept us entertained for hours the other night! Also, they always seem to have some sort of deal, promotion, or special going on, be it with Groupon, the Infatuation, Tocayo beer, or Spring Rewards.
My only gripes are their odd hours and slightly uneven service. I have walked by a few times wanting to stop in, only to find that they are closed! Still, minimal gripes compared to a lot of positives. I’ll be back.

Underrated spot in wicker park. Went for brunch with a few friends a week ago and it was awesome! Great specials, the service was wonderful and the food was good. Ill definitely be back.

We randomly found this place on open table. So glad we did! The chicken sandwich and tostadas are amazing! The staff was so friendly and kind! I cannot wait to go back and try the brunch!

My first visit to Monarch was for Saturday brunch. I wasn’t sure what to think as we were seated immediately upon entering. It’s rare to find a great brunch spot doesn’t have a wait of some sort. Wait or not wait, I’m thankful to share that this place did not disappoint.
For openers, they have bottomless mimosas from 10am-​4pm. And these are NOT the mimosas made with «too much frozen orange juice». The orange juice to champagne ratio was on par with some of the best I’ve had. And even nicer, the orange juice seemed to be freshly squeezed. Needless to say, I had my fair share (ok, maybe mine and few others fair share) of these.
On to the food. As a starter I shared the Sweet Spiced Pretzel (which happened to be a complimentary Unilocal check-​in offer). The pretzel was very tasty and the Golden Raisin Cream Cheese that came with it took it over the top. I could have consumed a few more of these but decided it best to have something more nutritional. For my entrée I went with the 3 egg omelet. If you’re a fan of chorizo, this is the omelet for you as it was loaded with it. While the omelet was delicious, it did not compare to the Fried Green Tomato sandwich. That sandwich was amazing, super flavorful and it came with some very tasty fries. It will definitely by my entrée of choice on my next visit.
They make good use of the space they have with both booth and bar seating. There is a patio out back that seems like it would be perfect for either brunch or drinks; weather permitting of course. The staff at Monarch was all that and more. Our server was really cool and did an excellent job of keeping both our water glasses and mimosa glasses filled. They never sat empty until near the end when we informed our server we were finished.
Monarch is definitely on my Chicagoland brunch list and it should be on yours. I look forward to many return visits.

My boyfriend and I bought a groupon and were really excited because the food looked really good. When we walked in, the staff was staring and looked confused – but asked us if we had reservations. It wasn’t busy, and we did have a reservation so she told us which tables we could take. After we sat down, we waited a good 10 minutes for a waitress to come. No such luck. After 20 minutes we decided to leave because that’s absolutely ridiculous to say the least. The bartender was looking at us – because again, it wasn’t busy… and didn’t say anything to the waitstaff that was standing nearby. I was excited but they fell short. I can’t even understand how/​why that would happen!

Great atmosphere laid back n chill with awesome service… And let me not forget the bottomless Mimosas…

I love The Monarch. I am here at least once a week as my boyfriend lives nearby. Colin, the owner, really goes above and beyond to make sure we are taken care of. This service is consistent across the board not only for myself as a regular, but to newcomers as well. We have brought in so many of our friends for brunch or a night out and everyone has loved it. The candlelit ambiance, great staff, amazing food– this will always be my favorite bar in Chicago.

Very nice place to go to on St. Patrick’s Day at night, good music, good vibes and some damn good, fish and chips.

I will return. Got a Groupon for four. Food was good and drinks wear assume. I loved my waitress, she keeps bringing us drinks even after we paid the bill. Bottomless mimosas no lie

Sunday brunch with bottomless mimosas! Yes, you read that right bottomless. And trust me we tried to reach the bottom several times.
My girlfriends and I had a reservation for noon. The place is small so not many tables and our reserved table was still being used by another group who were done eating but clearly still trying to reach the bottom of their mimosas! No worries, the owner had us sit at the bar and brought over mimosas for us while we waited on the group to leave.
As far as food goes we all ended up getting the burger which was large and quite filling. Or maybe it was all the mimosas I drank that filled me up. Who knows things got kinda fuzzy by the end.
While we dined the owner kept our mimosas full. They weren’t particularly busy the day we were there so we ended up staying, chatting and drinking for a couple of hours.

Cool vibe, expensive food and always disappointing but the bartenders are always cool and the music videos are great.

We came here for brunch on a Sunday with a Groupon. The food was good, nothing memorable but not bad. The service left much to be desired. I’d come back for drinks Bc they have good drink specials but I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to come here for the food.

These guys are cool as hell. I love the atmosphere and decorations. They have a draft beer selection worth checking out. The menu as minimalist (which is a good thing), and the food is adequate. Can’t complain. They are never as loud and packed as the other hot spots in Wicker Park.

My wife and I placed an order for delivery. We called again ~1 hour later to check on the status of our food. 15 minutes later the restaurant owner was personally at our door with the food.
It turns out that our order had been lost somewhere in a third party delivery service. The owner had our entire order re-​prepared so it wouldn’t be cold then personally delivered the food so he could apologize for wait. Thats pretty great service and dedication to customer satisfaction.
And not to leave out the food, it was delicious. We had the diner burger with fries and the bistro steak with potatoes. Both meals were fantastic.

By far my favorite Sunday brunch spot in Chicago! Been here a few times and I am never ever disappointed!
Came in yesterday, Sunday for brunch and bottomless mimosas. YES. BOTTOMLESS. From 10am-​4pm. Holy hell! Amazing!
A few friends and I came in about noon, no wait. Fast attentive service, we got seated immediately and got our drinks quick too. Place is cozy and chill. I ordered the chilaquiles con huevo, delicious. They were made with chorizo. YUM! my buddy ordered the egg sandwich, devoured it. Matt ordered the breakfast burger. Looks scrumptious too! Great experience. The server kept our glasses full and interacted with us and joked around. Awesome staff!
We will definitely we returning!

My partner and I came here with a Groupon for brunch. After we were promptly seated, we waited for a half an hour before someone took our order and then another half an hour before the food came out. It wasn’t particularly crowded, but evidently, as our apologetic waitress explained to us, they happened to be short-​staffed. Thankfully we weren’t in a hurry to be anywhere.
The Groupon included an entrée for each of us and also choice of a bloody mary or a mimosa. I selected the tostadas, and my partner ordered the chilaquiles. Our bloody marys were somewhat strange — though briny at first, they seemed to have an inordinate amount of pepper in them, and overall turned my stomach. By the time our food came out to us, it was cold and seemed to have been sitting under a heating lamp for some time. The quality of the food was solid, but nothing special — the pork in my tostadas was tasty but probably would have been better if it had been served warm.
Overall, the entire experience was underwhelming. I’m thankful we had a Groupon, because I would have been twice as disappointed if we’d paid full price for our meal.

My boyfriend and I bought the brunch Groupon for an entrée and mimosa. The mimosa’s are made with J Roget. the cheapest champagne you can possibly buy (less than $ 4/​bottle). 1 makes my stomach turn, but I didn’t want to be a brat so I drank it anyways. The champagne flutes were super cute though!
There are barely any choices for brunch items. However, my boyfriend got the french toast and I decided on the breakfast sandwich. My boyfriend’s french toast was disgusting! It was dry and served with a giant glob of butter (we thought was whipped cream) and no syrup. He couldn’t even finish it.
My breakfast sandwich came out with fries instead of hash browns that it mentioned on the menu. Who wants french fries instead of homemade hash browns, not me! And I took one bite of my bacon, cheese, and egg sandwich to find no egg on my sandwich. The waitress came back and was like «ohh I thought it was missing». Um why wouldn’t you take it right back to get fixed? She came back with my sandwich with this egg that literally was a cracked egg in a pan fried really quick.
I was super sad that it was so bad. I came here a year ago on a Tuesday for half price mussels and champagne and it was AMAZING. Not sure if they are under new management, but I won’t be coming back for brunch to say the least.

The sweet PRETZEL! That is all, that is it!!! Trust me, go for this and you’ll love yourself for days! Then, maybe stay for the unlimited mimosas/​Bloody Mary’s or partake in the Cuban breakfast sandwich. The Monarch is a quaint Wicker Park bar with really good service, but, it’s just nothing to gloat about. Except that pretzel; If you check in with Unilocal,you can get this ooey gooey piece of goodness for free! Oh yeah, we had a GroupMe that was definitely worth its weight! Get one if you can.

The Monarch is a night time gem. My friend and I grabbed a few cocktails and were very pleased by the service. There was never a moment of waiting several minutes for cocktail orders or water refills. We were most surprised by the contrast of the bar and restroom area décor.
The entire bar seating and eating area are designed similar to a trendy eatery but it was the trappings of the restroom with butterfly fixtures that took us for a fun visual loop. The restroom ceiling has an army of butterflies hanging from above and there are additional ones delicately placed near the sink and counter top area. There is a giant sized neon pink butterfly painted on the wall as well.
The TV’s play the latest and most popular music videos which is great because it keeps the ambiance fresh, live and fun. I remember ordering 3 rounds of cocktails for my friend and I; paying between $ 30 – 40 which wasn’t bad at all.