Avenue Ale House

I’ve been here several times before and have had great service and the food is decent. Tonight we went and everything was wrong the moment we walked in. We walk in and approach the hostess stand. There are two women in front of us chatting with the hostess for several minutes. She then takes them over to a table without even acknowledging our presence and doesn’t come back. A server eventually comes over and we ask if we can sit up stairs on the roof top. We head up and stop at the hostess stand no one is at the hostess stand. A busboy comes over and seats us with food menus (no drink menus). We look over the menus. Mean time about 5 minutes have passed and then a few more. We haven’t been greeted by a server yet. I’m getting upset. I’ve been a server before. You are supposed to greet a table within two minutes of being sat. Finally our server comes over and asks us what we would like to drink. I ask for drink menu which we get. We order two beers one cocktail and a ginger ale. It literally takes 10 minutes for her to get back with our drinks. Our friends risotto and scallops was luke warm and bland which isn’t necessarily the servers fault I didn’t even see anyone who appeared to be a manager. Probably won’t be back. Service is everything.

The atmosphere was very nice, however, after waiting 2 hours for our food and then it coming cold! We walked out! Have never done that in my lifetime. The manager had nothing intelligent to say and the waiter was cool enough to out right tell us to leave and he would not blame us! Something was quite wrong in the kitchen!

I recently stopped in after a long day at work to enjoy a drink and some food. My server Ian was very friendly and did a great job of helping me decide what to order. My salad was on point and came in a neat dish. I also love trying their rotating draft/​local beers.

This is a great lunch spot! I’ve been here a few times with no complaints. In my most recent visit, Emilie (our waitress) took great care of us. Their burgers, salads, and sandwiches are delicious. We also enjoyed the sorbet trio and chocolate cake. If you’re in Oak Park, stop by here for good food and drinks!

I have never been so disrespected IN MY LIFE! I made a reservation to have dinner with my family to celebrate (as we have been doing for years) and had the furthest from a pleasant experience this time around. Not only did the waiter pour 4 16oz glasses of ICE COLD WATER on my head, down my back, all over me, in my purse and all over my belongings. The waiter didn’t even attempt an apologize to me or any of the 7 guests in my dinner party but the manager didn’t even have the decency to come over to the table. After 15 minutes of (attempting) to dry myself off in the bathroom and my brother having to go find a manager, they offered me a free bill for myself as a resolution. There was absolutely NO way I would have given a single dollar of my money to them at this point. It had nothing to do with the waiters mistake, it happens and I am not the wicked witch of the west so I wasn’t going to melt. But there was no concern, no coaching, no urgency to resolve or even apologize. After all the years I’ve been going to the Ale House and after spending days looking forward to celebrating there’s, this is the most embarrassing thing I have EVER been through and the worst customer service I have received ANYWHERE! Truly disappointed.

The fruit flies are disgusting! Seriously… we go months not coming here because the service is so slow and the bartenders are seriously the worse. We are here tonight with some friends and family and all of us are swatting the flies. Gross!
This place could be so great if there was some solid management and the fruit flies were eradicated. It should be no surprise that your place is empty most of the time. Figure it out Avenue Ale House!

This place used to rock now it sucks. The staff is so slow and no one knows what they’re doing.

Been going there for years, hit or miss. Last time chintzy on the fried calamari, not many pieces & burnt. Chicken burnt in the Cajun salad & 3 small pieces of bacon & avocado. But,
our waiter was very nice though. Because it’s local I will continue to go there & hope for the best.

This hurts to say, but I think I’m done with Avenue Ale House. The staff remain generally lovely, if not particularly experienced or polished. The convenience of their location is undeniable. The rooftop deck in summers is one of the best places to be in Oak Park.
But the food is really failing badly and now I’ve got real concerns about cleanliness.
Every time I go, I try to find something that actually tastes good, not just passable, but I keep coming back to the same conclusion — the food is just really ordinary. Burgers are cooked fine enough, but the breads seem a little mealy or stale. The sides are just ordinary. You don’t get credit for waffle fries.
But, I’ll bet that part of my problem with the food is my perception that the place just isn’t clean. Every time we’ve been there for a year now — this is surely 8 – 10 visits — we are waving off fruit flies.
Every time we go — the kids really like to go there, for some reason — I swear it’s the last time I’m going. And then I end up back there when we can’t make a decision on an alternative.
Beers on the rooftop during a ballgame? Perfect. Beers at the bar during a hockey game? Awesome. Food? No.

Oh AVE Ale House! You are like a love hate relationship for me that I always come back to ;)
They get 5 stars for tasty food selection AND beer selection. Plenty of seating to pick from PLUS a rooftop deck (only open summers!)
They lose one star for spotty service. It’s really a crap shoot of who you get.
I love their open bar area so if you just want a drink and watch some sports, SUPER easy to do.
I would recommend almost anything in the menu and parking is free after 6pm!

It could be that the restaurant was low on staff the Friday night we visited, but the service was inexcusable. We waited almost 15 minutes before she took our beverage order, and any subsequent request required at least two reminders before they were delivered.
The food was mediocre, and the drink selection was not impressive.
I would only return to sit at the bar during a game. That *might* be fun.

This time I tried the food — california wrap — I asked for it with ranch on the side, no citrus dressing and add cheese. The sprouts tasted old, and it was layered terribly, like you only get chicken if you ate from the left side of the wrap. Waffle fries, again, were the stand out. My friend had a panini which was just regular bread barely toasted and not at all panini like. Meh. Nice server tho!
Don’t eat, just drink!

Loved the rooftop! Atmosphere was great.
Very friendly staff.
Interesting drinks and of very good taste.
We didn’t have any food but drinks. I will definitely come again to try their food. It seems they have a big selection of very interesting things.
My Jalapeño-​rita and coco-​rita where very very good!

Horrible services !
Waitress was rude. Running talking to co workers by the time she got to our table the kitchen was closed. Could not even ordered food.
The manager was polite about explaining the situation, but horrible customer service from waitress and front (greeting) service.

Being that I live around the corner, I’ve been to this place at least 10 times since moving to the area least year, and I have patiently waited to write a review in the hopes I could justify giving them a 4 star rating, but unfortunately, I just can’t.
First the pros:
It has a good atmosphere and is fairly spacious. It’s a good place to take kids or meet up with a large group. They have a pretty nice rootftop which has nice ambiance (but no views). They have a decent beer selection and they make good smoked gouda mac and cheese and surprisingly good pasta dishes.
Now for the cons:
For a pub-​grub place, they don’t make very good pub grub. They don’t have buffalo wings, and the wings they do have aren’t very good. Their burgers, while not bad, are incredibly average. Nothing to get excited about, which is a good description of their broader menu as a whole. I’ve had their ribs a couple of times, and once they were slightly above average, and the other time they were almost burnt to a crisp. Sad really. So the food, which is the most important thing about a place, is very very mediocre and underwhelming (even for pubgrub).
I’ve never had any major service issues, but I’ve witnessed some people who have. The staff seems pretty amateurish at times, and it seems like they have a lot of turnover. Also, for a place that serves very average food, I always do a double-​take at my bill when it arrives, as eating at Ale House apparently always is one of the most expensive places I dine at. And considering it’s probably not in my Top 25 restaurants, but it’s easily in the Top 10 price-​wise is disconcerting.
So, although it’s nice to have a place like this around the corner from my house, I can’t justify eating here more than once a month tops. Truth be told I eat here for convenience, as it’s definitely not a place you should go out of your way to visit.
Hopefully they revamp their menu and/​or management in the coming years, as this place has a lot of potential. Until then, all it really has going for it is the ambiance, and a couple of decent pasta dishes. I’m continue to pop in sparingly, and hopefully it will improve over time.

Ugh. When we first moved to the area about 10 years ago, we would come here on a regular basis but then they changed the menu and stopped offering what I liked, so it’s been a while since we’ve been back — probably a good 4 years.
Recent experience tells me I haven’t been missing anything! Food was mediocre, service was TERRIBLE, my drink was watered-​down and plain AWFUL. After waiting 30 minutes (!) for a quesadilla and a flatbread, we finally flagged down the waitress to ask where the food was, since a quesadilla shouldn’t take a half an hour. «Well, you ordered the pizza, too.» Um, no. Not a deep dish, stuffed pizza — a flatbread, which takes all of 7 minutes under the broiler. And how about starting that with an «I’m sorry» instead?
Will not be back. Not even in another 4 years. ;)

Good spot for groups– the menu has a lot to choose from, so everyone should be able to find something they like! My family has been going here for the past 5 years or so and we all have our go-​to standards that we love. The food is roughly average bar food with two major exceptions:
1) the French Onion Soup is TO DIE FOR. Get it, even if you have a huge burger coming… you won’t regret it!
2) The Avenue Chopped Salad is so so good. I would honestly like to have that citrus dressing on every salad I eat for the rest of my life. Order extra and take it home– I’m telling you, it’s insane.
Service is hit or miss. The waiters have a lot of tables to manage. The ambience is pretty good but it can get really loud when there are games on the big screen in the back. I would say in general if you are looking to go out for a nice dinner and conversation, this is not the spot. But if you have a group who wants to have some yummy American bar food and a few drinks, it’s definitely a good choice!

First time at this place. Our waitress did a great job to bad I can’t say the same about the food. Ordered a BLT and received a club sandwich. Fries were super cold. Had to send my food back. It took forever for my new sandwich to be brought out. By the time it came out the rest of my party was already done eating. Also ordered a brownie sundae. When it was brought out it had a long hair on it. Very grossed out! Expected the manager Adam to make it right which he didn’t. I wouldn’t recommend this place.

I really have tried to like this neighborhood bar/​restaurant. It’s easy to take family here and also have a happy hour w/​coworkers. Over the years I had a couple of really bad meals; however, the last visit left me really disgusted.
When I told the waiter I didn’t like my wine, he really showed me his attitude. He never took it back, and he left me waiting for a long time for other options. When he finally showed up, I selected something different. He still didn’t take my «old» glass. Instead moved it closer to me, together with the new glass.
He also had some attitude issues with my friend about her beer.
To our group’s shock, he charged me for two glasses.
I have never been treated like that. The waiters arrogance was really unbearable.
I told my group it’s time to move to Kinder hook tap across the street.
Neither my family or my friends will be back. Sadly.

I haven’t lived in oak park in over 10 years, but my parents still do. Anyways, it was my dad’s birthday today so I took him here for lunch. The place was not crowded at all as it was only around 1pm on a Tuesday. My parents have probably eaten EVERYWHERE in oak park so far after living in the area for 25+ years now.
My dad had some kinda burger on rye bread. I don’t like rye bread, but his burger looked good. He also had sweet potato fries which looked good. But then again, I’m not a big fan of sweet potato fries.
I had a pulled pork sandwhich. It was OK, but I thought there was too much sauce and the sauce was a little too sweet. I did like that it came on a pretzel roll tho however. I had waffle fries which were good and we both had french onion soup.
The soup was my favorite part of the meal. I had been craving french onion soup for quite some time now, and seeing it on the menu meant I HAD to have it. Very very good soup.
They certainly had a lot of drinks, and I would have liked to have tried one, but it was too early for me to drink. Especially since I planned on exercising later in the day.
Overall a good experience. The service was was very good since it wasn’t crowded at all.