Village Tavern and Grill

Nachos are huge. I always get a half order. Chicken Finger salad is fantastic. Always try something new and never disappointed

It pains me to write this review, because VTG is one of our favorite places to eat and we have come here regularly, but their service has been on a steady decline as of late.
This is the second time in as many months we walked out (30 minutes ago) before even being seated because parties that came in after us were seated before us.
This time a party of three were seated shortly after arriving after us. When I mentioned that we were there before them, I was told that the table sat six. Okay. But then they sat a party of two that had just arrived and then a party of four.
By this time we had been waiting 20 minutes, even though we were told the wait would be only 10 minutes.
Same thing happened last month when we wanted an early dinner (4:30) on a Saturday. The recent times we have eaten during the week, we haven’t received the attention and service we’ve come to expect from VTG. It’s too bad because the food is good.

On a Wednesday night, there was a 20-​minute wait.
«But this is the SUBURBS,» I moaned.
This isn’t Schaumburg, Geneva, or some other upscale downtown suburban spot. But Village Tavern is a local favorite, and the secret’s out. I met some friends here who live nearby, and they were not surprised by the wait at all. 20 minutes was bearable, but I’m still shocked that this casual Carol Stream spot had a wait at all.
Yes, it was worth it. The Chicken Tenders are massive, but looking around the restaurant, supersize me portions are the norm at Village Tavern. I only ate two chicken tenders and had a lot leftover for lunch the next day. If you’re a fan of Chili’s chicken crispers, these taste exactly the same.
The rest of the menu has a little bit of everything — burgers, pork chops, salads, soups, sandwiches, there’s even a fish fry. It’s all top notch comfort/​diner food.
The interior isn’t anything special, but it is a comfortable environment for families, to watch a game, and it was fine to grab dinner and catch up with friends. The service was OK, we tried to order drinks but they never came. Our food came up pretty fast and by then we were fine with the missing drinks. This is one busy restaurant and, aside from the missing drinks, the waitress we had was pretty attentive and split up our checks without us asking.
Probably one of the best options in Carol Stream!

For the longest time, I avoided this place because the name just makes it sound like it won’t be kid-​friendly. I was wrong.
We’ve went on Saturday for lunch and although there were a lot of people, the space is pretty roomy and there were plenty of places to eat. I haven’t checked out the bar area, but it looks roomy as well.
I tried the fish and chips platter and wow, it was pretty hefty. Huge pieces of fish in a beer batter of some sort. Delicious and very filling. I couldn’t finish the plate which doesn’t happen often, unfortunately. It was still good the next day with a little nuke.
I also tried the shrimp diablo. Nice big pieces of shrimp in a fairly mild/​medium sauce. It was pretty yummy.
They have a little kids menu with some crayons. There is a connect the dots and some other kid activities. Plenty of tv’s, although certain seats don’t have the greatest viewing angles. The servers and staff are all very nice from what I’ve seen. Both times I’ve went, we brought in our stroller, and everyone was very accommodating.
This has turned into a nice family lunch spot for us. I’m glad I checked it out, you should too!

My boyfriend suggested this place so my coworkers decided to try this place for our weekly lunch. We were seated right away and our waitress was very prompt. I got an order of their world famous chicken fingers. You get 6 HUGE chicken fingers. I could only finish half of it. I thought the food was great and for the environment, it was a great trip away from work.

Literally just had the worst service ever in my life. If I could do zero stars I would. Our server didn’t even check on us (which we had to ask another server to get her) until 15 minutes after our food and was so rude and impatient. And she was serving on two waitresses too. Manhattan’s is better across the street. The mashed potatoes are embarrassingly out of a box and my sliders tasted like gross White Castle sliders.

Delicious food. Their chicken fingers are particularly tasty, cooked and battered to perfection. Great family and comfortable atmosphere. My 3 year old and 1 year old girls love going here for lunch. The bathrooms are nice and easily accessible. The staff is is pretty friendly. However, I did ask for a side of BBQ sauce and was charged 75 cents for it. Not a big deal but it would have been nice if the waitress had mentioned it when I asked. It’s always been packed when we went, which I always view as a good sign.

I have been here a few times. The menu is pretty big, and the chicken fingers are outstanding! Not to mention, the ranch dressing is perfect. It’s a good atmosphere (always crowded when I have been there.) Lots of tvs — good place to watch sports.
Definitely a good spot that we will visit when we go to the suburbs.

Yes more chicken talk… great chicken fingers, thats a given… service hit or miss… have had more good meals than bad. Buy let me tell ya, if your «jonesin“for comfort food, go and get the pot roast with mashed potatoes, that should take care of the craving for awhile.

We’ve been going to The Village Tavern for several years and we can consistently count on excellent service and exceptionally good food! Our favorites are the loaded nachos, Ruben with fries, chili, fried fish and more… It’s all good!

Come for the food
Stay for the eye candy…
Seriously, the fish fry and chicken fingers are to die for. Service can be sketchy even when slow, and it has been for years. They still can’t make a decent hush puppy, it’s always under or over cooked. Still a great value.

After moving away a year ago I still dream about the chicken fingers (and sauce) at Village Tavern and Grill– they win for best chicken fingers!

If you like the finer things in life then definitely come here & try the fried shrimp with their honey mustard sauce.
The restaurant is located in Carol Stream, IL & looks cool from the outside. It is a nice brick building & doesn’t look like some hobo shanty. The restaurant is pretty big & has has a lot of comfortable seating. My friend & I came here & he ordered the chicken fingers & I ordered the fried shrimp with a side of honey mustard.
The server was very friendly & kept checking on our table to see if we needed anything. The food was awesome as well. The fried shrimp was piping hot just the way I like it & it was seasoned good. It wasn’t bland or dry it was just right. The honey mustard was also phenomenal. I have rarely tasted a honey mustard better than the one that they have here. The restaurant was very busy when we went in for lunch but it was still nice & clean.
Overall the prices here are pretty good & so is the service. The food was awesome & I would definitely come here again if I was in the area.

Terrible service, inexperienced cooks and extremely loud TVs.
Went there tonight for the first time, as it is near my husband’s business. We were seated immediately (GOOD). Our waitress recommended the burgers, so I ordered a cheeseburger cooked well-​done. My husband ordered the pork chop meal. Our food was served in a timely fashion (GOOD). I only ate half the burger – it was charred crispy on the outside and rare, under-​cooked on the inside (BAD); served on a fluffy sesame seed bun that immediately fell apart into many pieces as soon as the burger was picked up (BAD); and they serve the burger dry, no mayo, no mustard, no ketchup, nothing (BAD). The fries were blah – what you get at a cheapo hot dog stand. My husband enjoyed his pork chop and au gratin potatoes (GOOD), but the carrots were very mushy, over-​cooked and tasted the same as canned candied yams from Thanksgiving (BAD).
In the meantime, our waitress only came by once (BAD), right after our food was served, before I even noticed how raw my burger was. After that, she forgot about us (BAD), never came back to re-​fill our soda (THE WORST!!!) until after we had completely finished our meal and were sitting there awkwardly waiting for the bill. Once we got the bill, we had to sit there awkwardly again for another 15 minutes, waiting for the waitress to process our payment.
Terrible service and cooks that failed the How To Cook Burgers 101 class. Will NOT go to Village Tavern again.

I consider myself a connoisseur of chicken fingers. That’s pretty much all I would get whenever my parents would take us out to a restaurant. I could tell you which place had the best breading, which place had the stringiest meat, and whose honey mustard sauce was the most disgusting. So trust me when I say that Village Tavern has some of the best chicken fingers that I’ve ever had in my life.
For $ 10 you get a platter of huge pieces of chicken breast, coated in a fluffy batter and fried to a golden brown. I often asked for my chicken well done, so I could get my crunch on. The fingers come with a side of their famous honey mustard, which is good. But not great.
I’ll tell you what: these always gave me a wicked case of heartburn after I ate them and more than once almost triggered a gallbladder attack. #worthit
Please put a plate of these on my Dia de los Muertos ofrenda.

This is the review for the Chicken Fingers ! And boy. those juicy succulent battered babies were so delicious!
They were quick for a carry out order (~15 mins) and is located not even 2mins from my home, so yes — I’m a happy girl!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
70% of the current 170 reviews talk about chicken… and I will too!
I was in the area for an event and got out kind of late. Being that this was only two blocks up the street from where I was. I figure I’ll try it out. Came in after 10 pm. Notice the all you can eat fish fry. I hadn’t ate at all that day. So my attention when I ordered the fish was to put them out of business.
Fish comes with a salad or soup. I asked for the Caesar salad. Was told it was an extra $ 1 (call it being cheap but was a little irked by this) Salad was kind of big but I guess with all you can eat pushing something out this size is to slow a few people down. I ate about half my salad before the fish came out. LARGE size portions so much I had to take one fillet home and didn’t even ask for a 2^nd round. (hit’s imaginary table in defeat) So kudos to them. Due to not being that satisfied I decided to check out the Unilocal and notice the mention of chicken tenders in all the reviews so got an order to go.
Service was nice and fast overall. So no complaints there.
Food wise I didn’t care for it. The battered breading for both the fish and chicken were okay, but both items had the same problem to me. The meat part was to chunky. I wouldn’t say tasteless just didn’t have a great taste that made me want to order it again. I had to keep dipping my fish in the tartar sauce. (I usually just eat the fish without) Not to be mean but Gortons frozen beer battered fish had better flavor to me. I didn’t try the chicken right away. So having to reheat them the next day they became soggy. Due the large chunk size I ended up putting in the microwave probably a few seconds longer than normal to make sure they were hot all the way through but might have dried them out. (it’s white meat so it was already dry) I will say I would love to try out the nachos something I also didn’t know they were famous for until after.

Updating my review and giving them one more star. They aren’t quite a 5 star place and this is only beacause the service was not good again.
My bf and I went in for a late dinner. I ordered the London broil with mashed potatoes and he got the shrimp. My meal was very good, the meat was tender, the sauce very flavorful and it was the perfect portion. My bf could not stop saying how great his shrimp were. I also ordered the dreamsicle martini which was delicious. I really like this place, if only the servers were nicer and more attentive.

We’ve lived in Carol Stream for almost ten years now, and hadn’t stopped in this mini-​chain until recently. As it turns out, it’s a good, local alternative to Chili’s or the now-​gone Applebees.
I had the lobster roll, which was the special for the month. There’s some mention about the owners of Village Tavern and Grill being from Boston in the restaurant, and so I sort of imagine the recipe is from that part of the country. It was more creamy than lobster-​y, if that makes any sense.
My wife had a chicken sandwich, which I vaguely remember being good, and we shared potato skins. These were quite large and very greasy, but a good deal.
Overall Village Tavern and Grill a solid place to go for neighborhood-​friendly bar food.

Village Tavern is just okay in my book. I was first introduced as a tween; then I spent a couple of nights a week here in my mid twenties, and enjoyed the food on all of my visits. I just recently visited after a long hiatus and I can see that not much has changed about VTG. It’s still dark, crowded, and smells of old grease.
I tried the new Nacho Burger (cooked medium). Much like the rest of their menu items, this burger was dripping with so much grease, it caused the bottom half of the pretzel bun to fall apart. So I had to go the fork and knife route. I will say it was a tasty burger and cooked to my liking, but eating it with utensils was a bit of a turn off.
The Chicken Fingers are alright, I’m not a huge fan. I’ve enjoyed the Chicken Diablo, many of the soups, BLT, hotdog (yes a hotdog), wraps, fajitas, etc. Pretty much everything except fish, ribs, or bbq. There’s a little something for everyone, and it’s all good stuff if you have an iron stomach and a short ride back to your destination.
My favorite? Honestly a full order of the nachos, with ALL of the meats, and all of the fixin’s. It can be expensive with all of the additional meat add-​ons, but trust me it’s the only way to go.
Maybe I’m spoiled from growing up in the area, but VTG is just an average spot with average food. It can be a fun place to come, have drinks and watch a sports game if you’re bored with B-​Dubs. It’s worth a try if you’re in the area.