Three Aces

This is one of my favorite places in little Italy! The bartenders are very kind and serve amazing drinks. During the summer the patio is the place to be. This place has a great ambiance an fun vibe. I’ve tried everything on the menu and I can’t say anything but good things. Love this place.

We live just a few blocks from this place and this is our go to place for drinks in the area. The selection is huge and the atmosphere is great for relaxed drinks with friends.
The burgers are huge and can be a bit much for me, but my boyfriend loves them. I love the pizza and the bar snacks.

This bar is a good option for drinks if you are in this area, but it isn’t a place I would necessarily go out of my way to go to. The bar tender was not the most approachable and the vibe in general just seemed a little too chill if you know what I mean? Not to say that a laid back place is bad, but just that there was a weird vibe where it felt like nothing was happening here yet there were people here drinking and eating? Just kind of strange.
But it is a pretty big bar with lots of space and they take reservations too, and it is clear that for this area there are not many options around, so the fact that this is a full bar with a decent selection of beer is good. I got a bloody mary since they said they make their own mix, but it tasted like mix from a bottle, so not sure that was really worth the price tag, but oh well. You live and you learn!

What can I say about this place. IMO, they’re trying a little too hard. The atmosphere is really nice, I’ll admit. And I did happen to go there on one of the most beautiful possible days of the year. The food, however, was a little «meh.
Ace Burger tasted fine, nothing to rave about. Quite possibly the thickest beef patty I’ve seen on a regular burger, but that doesn’t improve taste.
Breakfast Poutine was overloaded with gravy. Yummy, but you can’t eat more than like two fries without clogging every possible artery in your body. They load that sucker with everything: Fries, gravy, scallions, bacon, sausage, sunnyside up fried egg. I just gained 5 lbs. writing all that out.
Bread Pudding Dessert was as my co-​diner explained, «bottom of the barrel.» For a simple-​to-​make-​dessert, it was a miss. Dry, lacking flavor and drizzled with a plum sauce of some kind that added a level of sour to the whole dish that only made things worse.
Oh, and if you happen to sit outside, be prepared to share your meal with the local bees. Just saying. (To be frank, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the rapidly diminishing bee population in the world. I don’t mind doing my part and sharing a little grub with the buggers).
The staff is kind of awesome. There’s no denying that. I’d say, go for the staff. …And the drinks. Not the food. Really. Not the food.

Great food! It’s a fantastic place in a great neighborhood. I was coming back from doing a JitFit class at the Chicago School of Grappling down Racine and this place looked good.
Price– Not bad at all. We got 2 pizzas and a burger for about $ 40
Quality– Great. The short rib pizza is sooooo excellent
Quantity– Good portions of food
Atmosphere– Very low key, but casual. Loved the outdoor seating
Staff– Friendly and engaging. We were celebrating a birthday for my buddy’s 29^th and we asked the server how old she thought he was. She said «31» and my friend was upset… I loved it.
Get some short rib pizza

Two stars on Unilocal means «Meh, I’ve experienced better» and that would be accurate here. The décor is dark in Three Aces and the seating, both outdoor and indoor, is not too impressive. The food can be good, I enjoyed the «gourmet-​style» burger and fries. The short rib pizzetta was good as well. The sweet corn pizzetta was an unexciting, literally, corn on flatbread. The service was mediocre, our lady server was not too engaging. She seem inappropriately annoyed when I asked for water with no ice. Overall Three Aces could work harder to improve the diner experience.

I’ve written reviews for Three Aces before. I’m writing another one because this is, hands down, one of the best spots in Chicago. It really is. I come here at least twice, maybe four times, a month (maybe more depending) and I can honestly say the people who work here are the best! They treat you like family, every time. Today is my birthday and this is what I got from them (photo)…thank you Three Aces for being the coolest joint a little lady like me could ask for!

We happened upon Three Aces during the Festa Italiana for a brief repast. My friends had previously recommended Three Aces to other diners, so when we passed by it was easy to justify a drink. The combination bar and restaurant is somewhat iconic in the area with a young vibe and a nice outdoor porch.
Our order of some draughts and an Old Style can for me was filled slowly on a very packed Saturday night as expected. It is hard to evaluate a bar on their specialty drinks when the bar is hopping; just order some simple stuff and move quickly. The outdoor patio was crowded but much quieter. We settled on a bench watching drunk people play a very good game of bocce and chatted about our evening before heading out.
Three Aces fits the bill as a nice watering hole with plenty of good people and cold drinks. That combination has worked well for centuries and is probably responsible for a good number of Unilocalers being conceived! Enjoy your night at the Aces.

Should I ever end up on death row, the bolognese fries here would be part of my last meal. My fiancé, a friend, and I stopped in here during the Festa Italiana to take a break from the sun and find something other than a Peroni to drink. The 3 Aces stand on the street was serving up fest-​size portions of fries and pouring hot, meaty bolognese sauce onto them from what I can only assume was Strega Nona’s endless spaghetti pot, so we instantly decided on those as a bar appetizer.
It wasn’t very crowded during the afternoon, with everyone outside fest-​ing, so we sat at the bar, licked the bowl of bolognese fries clean (inside price was the same as outside, but more fries, suckerrrrrs), and enjoyed some cold drinks. I had two of the strawberry lavender lemonade (spiked with vodka), which was really refreshing and tasted dangerously absent of alcohol.
The best part, though, was that Three Aces was playing a DVD of the best of WWF wrestling; we were in the midst of 1993 – 1994 while I was there, and the group next to us also enjoyed cheering for The Macho Man, (SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM, O YEAA), catching a glimpse of the late Owen Hart (RIP!), and admiring the many fantastical mullets of early 90’s pro wrestling; (Best:see Shawn Michaels). PURE GLORY. Buzzing from nostalgia and vodka, we left Three Aces in good spirits, stopped immediately outside for a to-​go portion of bolognese fries from the festival booth, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. I’ll definitely be back to Three Aces in the future.

I know a lot of people are fans of the Duck Fat Chips, but the Bolognese Fries are seriourly ridiculous. A rich, meaty sauce over hand cut blanched fries. A meal unto itself.
Burgers are good as well, and two other appetizers, the baked olives and popcorn were great.
Good beer selection-​served a little warm in one instance-​and very laid back atmosphere.

I am starting off this review with one thing… I am addicted to those damn Duck Fat Chips. I don’t know what it is about them, but I love those things. In addition to decent bar snacks, the pizzas are pretty good but not your typical Chicago style but more on the skinny NY style. I greatly enjoy the pesto pizza but did not find the burger as amazing as everyone else has. Honestly, it was overcooked when I last ordered it but was hungry and did not care at that point.
Booze wise, this place has quite a bit of everything… and by everything I mean it’s more of a hippster type booze collection. Ie. No Jack Daniels but George Dickel instead. Lots of local brews which is always good and smaller microbrews as well. Service is decent but nothing that blows me away.

Bourbon bar, meet Italian, meet burger.
Great place for dining outside and drinking with friends.
Came on a Sunday for Father’s day. You could tell this place has a distinct south-​side feel to it as there were many White Sox fans fresh form the game that afternoon. Al fresco dining on an early summer day? Check. We were able to make reservations and were pleasantly surprised at the outdoor seating.
This restaurant had been on my list for quite a while — as I’ve been wanting to dive into one of their burgers for some time.
Without question this place was bar first. They have an extensive menu of whiskies and bourbon, not my forte so pass on that — my senses were teased with tantalizing key words on the menu like «short rib» and «lamb». I always seem to fall for these words despite the better of me saying that I need to just try what this place is known for…
Something I’ve never seen before… bolognese fries — hey I’ve gotta try that… this place is in little Italy…
So on to ordering — I had the short rib pizza and the lamb burger with a side of above said fries.
Impressions: Fries — crispy, as expected for fries. Sauce was good, I could definitely taste the carrot and the celery in it. Clearly it was cooked as if an Italian grandmother was chained up to the heavy pot of stewing sauce. My thought is that it could have used a little more spice and a sharpness. But good nonetheless. On to the burger… Medium rare as always– done right. However, I’m comparing all burgers now to my favorite lamb burger of all time, and this one just does not kick it… it was dried. Texture was rough and just resembled ground meat (I know… its a burger… but I’ve been spoiled by my past experience with the lamb burger). Short rib pizza was disappointing as the short rib was without flavor… I would not be surprised if it was just seared then boiled, then reheated as it cooked in the oven on the pizza. I thought the size of the pizzetta was acceptable — it would be filling. And I“m not a fan of feta cheese which was also on the pizza, but that’s my problem.
My fault for this experience as I clearly should have ordered their namesake the Three Aces burger. And I didn’t. Perhaps next time I’m around I should consider that option instead. However my measure stick for burgers is perhaps too high now for Three Aces to turn around.
I suggest go for the Three Aces and the fries with Bolognese sauce — its different and I think you’d appreciate it!
Not a kid friendly place (duh…its a bar).
Definitely come for the bocce ball and the outdoor seating.

Definitely one of my go-​to bars in Chicago (partially due to the proximity). Drinks are well crafted & the pool table is almost always open to play! It’s dimly lit, never too crowded and the bartenders are there to make what you wanna drink!
It’s also great for Saturday/​Sunday brunches when you’ve failed to make a reservation for other places or the wait is too long at Sweet Maples. The Benedict, Ace burger and Poutine are both unhealthy, yet delicious weekend morning pleasures! I’m still wary of the bolognese fries… Just not my thing, but my boyfriend is all about them

Let me start off by saying I did not have any food only drinks. Had some friends in town and we were looking for somewhere chill to grab a late night drink.
Three Aces has a cool store front with an inviting patio on the side of the building. The ambience is a cool laid back atmosphere, dimly lit with cool jams at a decent volume. The interior is mostly distressed wood looking tables and chairs with some random things about, like a pinball machine.
The drinks were ok, average pricing. The service was really slow. Only about 12 people in the entire store so I’m not sure what the issue was.
Overall it was a mostly forgetful experience but Unilocalers seem to approve and friends have told me the food is good.
I’m not going to recommend yet, but I will give the food a try and give it another go around.

I was in the neighborhood and in search of a restaurant for dinner. My friend’s been wanting to check this place out and since it had positive reviews, we decided to go. My friend and I shared a salad, burger and fries.
Drinks:
I asked my server what she suggested and she recommended the Lounge Lizard — George Dickel 12 whiskey, jasmine, apricot and fresh lime. I love whiskey and thought this drink was great — not too strong and really well balanced. I definitely recommend it for those who enjoy whiskey.
Food:
Spring Greens Salad — pea shoots, mint, radish, ricotta salata, lemon-​tarragon vinaigrette
I usually like ordering salads with ingredients that I don’t normally buy. This salad was really fresh and beautiful. I liked that it was different than other salads I’ve had before. The size was big enough to share with others.
Ace Burger — aged cheddar, trimmings, bacon jam, aioli, garlic
I wasn’t expecting to like this burger, but it was delicious! The meat was juicy and perfectly cooked. I really liked the bacon jam. It came with a pickle and fries. We added bolognese to the fries since it looked like their specialty. It was a little weird at first since I’m used to a bolognese sauce with pasta, but I liked it. It was like a fancy chili fries.
If I’m ever in the area again, I’d come back here for delicious food and drinks.

I’ve been a consistent customer of Three Aces since they opened and just reading some of the recent reviews with people complaining about not being able to wear «backwards baseball caps» or the TVs not showing Sports. To you I say this, get over it and grow up.
First, I was raised to remove my hat whenever going indoors, might seem old fashioned but whatever. The backward hat policy is not so much to deter a «certain type of black person» but to deter the College Jocks who order Heineken and don’t know when to stop drinking.
Which brings me to the second point, Three Aces is not a sports bar. Got it? It’s a Gastro Pub, there’s a difference. You go to a gastropub to order CRAFT BEER and CRAFT COCKTAILS, not Miller Lite brah.
I will say that in the beginning, the Ace Burger was excellent. I don’t know if something has changed, but for some reason I feel that it has gotten smaller. I still recommend Three Aces to any fellow Burger Afficionados but there have been lots of new places opening around Chicago that are just as good and maybe better, but that is to be expected. Three Aces opened when there was probably 1 or 2 go-​to places for great burgers, things have changed yet I still go consistently because I love the patio and the servers with tattoos are easy on the eyes.

This place was amazing. I walked in once and wasn’t feeling the menu so when I began to leave the owner made me try his pasta sauce for me to come back. It was alright but he was such a cool guy I came back for him.
I had the burgers with fries, and the cheese&smear sauce on top. My waist line may hate me but my mouth and tummy loved every bit of it! Also we tried all three specialty drinks and they are all very different but equally great and strong. Great late night bar. They do play the music to loud but the staff and food and just great.

Solid bar. Solid upscale bar food. Cool tunes. Oh and easy parking on Taylor St. What more could ya want? The beau and I decided to come here for dinner tonight knowing we could get a good drink, and delicious (better than) bar food. Three Aces’ vibe is very dark and stormy. It’s rock and roll, meets metal, meets foodie heaven.
We were seated promptly at the bar and were lucky to have come in when we did because the joint quickly started to fill up at about 7. Our server, albeit very hip and dressed in all black like Johnny Cash, was very friendly and eager to help us. Drinks were first, as always… me, A Little Crazy (Revolution).and the beau, a classic old fashioned. The beer list is quite robust and actually has, on average, three beers each from many local (and surrounding state) breweries. Getting back to my beer… my bf said he didn’t need to order ‘a little crazy’ because he gets that everyday with me. *sigh*not funny*
Anyhoo on to the food. We ordered the special of the night, which was a house made sausage pizza with giardiniera, mozz and sauce. I was a little skeptical because I’m not the biggest giard fan… but being the good gf I am, I said let’s order it because the beau is nuts over the stuff. Well, I’m sure glad we went with it because it was bomb! The sausage was awesome and you could tell definitely homemade. We also ordered the chicken thigh sausage which was served on a bed of polenta and other fanciness. This was equally as good! The polenta was so creamy and a good nod to farina back in the day… I may be dating myself here but it really brought me back.
In short, Three Aces offers a solid, quality product from their food and drinks to their cool ambiance. Not my first time here and most definitely won’t be my last :)

Gastropub or American tapas… I’d say the latter, mainly because a gastropub is defined as having «good» food and drink and since I can’t claim to having any good drink here, it’s got to be American tapas. (Okay so actually the definition is a place with great food and great beers. Great selection of beers at a good price they have. But decently poured cocktails… Not so much.)
So the other night, I’d decided to try their house infused Tito’s vodka with soda water. Three cocktails IN and nary a buzz to speak of, which, had there been one it could have elevated my taste sensations to new heights.
The menu is simple and if you’ve heard the good word or memorized the reviews with good detail, well, I’ll help you in the direction of flavor. Bringing some friends to share food with is a good way to taste it all.
And last, don’t skimp.
Musts:
Popcorn. Definitely.
Bolognese fries. Just good, hearty, loaded fries.
Arancini. Fried risotto balls, if you’ve had them before at an Italian restaurant, you’ll dig it but not a necessity.
Mushroom risotto. Tasty.
Short rib pizza. This was great the first time and even better the 2x with double dough! It’s a definite winner.
Definitely peruse reviews and figure out which dishes are best to get. Picking aimlessly had served fruitless for some.

Three Aces exceeded my expectations. The food was outstanding. Im not usually a Margherita pizza fan but here it tasted sooo fresh and flavorful. It comes on a circular wooden block and was quite thin. The sauce is jam packed with flavor with quite a basil kick.
Their Poutine, just look at the picture, the presentation is a work of art, especially at a gastropub. Fries, gravy, cheese curds and a fried egg (nice touch) how can you go wrong. I do not pretend to be a Poutine connoisseur but damn that tasted pretty good to me.
Three Aces has a beautiful and spacious outdoor patio, perfect for an early fall Friday afternoon. The only problem was the bees, they were all ovee. It looked like I had Tourettes Syndrom fighting off the bees. The staff basically said thats the way it is. Errrr!
Anywho it had outstanding food and a nice outdoor space minus the bees. ill be back for that pizza.