Black Duck Tavern & Grille

The atmosphere here was nice, very chill. The bartenders didn’t seem all that friendly tho, and the waitress wasn’t very conscious about eating gluten free. I had to have my meal remade because they didn’t realize the caramelized onions were breaded. All in all, a decent place, but not worth calling a «favorite chicago spot» by any means.

I work in the neighborhood and am always on the prowl for a good lunch spot or place to grab a drink after work. There aren’t a whole lot of options so it was nice to find a place that had good food and prices and could get me in and out in my lunch hour.
The food is always great. I’ve tried most of the sandwiches and a couple burgers by now and they’re always solid. There’s always something a little interesting about the plates like an unexpected ingredient or atypical side. It’s nice to get mashed potatoes (that are delicious) instead of fries or see a cheesesteak that you could pair with a glass of wine. I have noticed that the wait on some of the items is a little long (especially since every time I go it is empty). The ticket times don’t bother me since the bartenders are friendly and easy to talk to which passes the time while waiting.
The service is all over the place. Though a lot of the staff is inexperienced most of the employees I’ve met are nice. Sometimes the floor does clear out in the middle of the day and I’ll linger for a while with nobody to greet me and server sitting at the bar with a beer. I don’t think I’ve ever once seen a manager on the floor so I’m not surprised that the service is a little inconsistent.
I think Bianca is the bartender that I usually have– she’s amazing! Always enthusiastic and helpful.

Just moved to the area and this was the first restaurant I tried. The atmosphere, ambiance, and décor are all nice and subtle. Definitely set a nice mood for the date I was on. The service was very pleasant and attentive. I ended up going with their $ 50 dinner for 2 which included a bottle of wine. We had the salmon and the ribeye. Both dishes I thought were fantastic. All in all, I left here very satisfied and slightly buzzed, for only $ 50!
Would highly recommend and I will most certainly be back.

They had a veggie burger here which is a good option for vegetarians! And they could also do the fajita wrap vegetarian but it was too soggy, I guess no meat to hold it together. Service was painfully slow, although the manager was apologetic. All in all, because we were watching a show at the Steppenwolf, this worked out as an option, but not somewhere I’d otherwise make plans to visit. It’s a totally fine neighborhood restaurant for a casual bite when you have lots of time.

I’ve been to the Black Duck a few times before just to grab a couple drinks, and like the cozy interior. When my dad came into town last weekend, I decided to come here for dinner with him since it was later on a Friday and this place is close to my apartment.
We got a great seat by the front window at one of the high top tables. Our waitress was sweet and attentive without being overly so. They had a great special going on (not sure if it was one-​time, weekly, daily?) for $ 50 for two people that included a bottle of wine, two salads, two entrees, and a side. My dad and I ended up getting all of the same items — house salad, filet mignon with fried onions, and mashed potatoes — all of which were delicious. We splurged and got the brownie dessert which was also yummy. With all of that food and the bottle of wine, the total was only in the low $ 60’s.
This was probably my favorite meal of the weekend with my Dad and the restaurant wasn’t too loud so we could actually have a real conversation. I hope I can find out when they have this deal again and come back to take advantage of it!

I would never have known about this place if it were not for the Alinea crew. We basically closed the place down and got to hanging out with the front of house folks. Turns out one of the Alinea guys got to take him to Alinea and bring his mom for Mother’s Day. So we tagged along as noisemakers, chanting, Devin! Devin! Devin! being honorary FOH Alineacs™ for a short time. Shots and cheers all around.

Went here on New Year’s Eve because a friend of a friend knows the owners. They rented out the whole place & threw this party. There were just enough people to fill the place, but not so much to the point that you had to squeeze between people to move around.
Very cozy, warm place. Cute décor. Kinda preppy with the boat stuff on the walls, but I liked it. There is a basement with seating & another bar. Washrooms are only in the basement. Our tickets included unlimited drinks til 1:00 and a food buffet, but if that was the food they normally serve, I was not impressed at all. The food went very quickly and although they brought more out, you had to wait awhile until the next batch came out. Food tasted cheap & got cold quick. I wasn’t expecting gourmet hors d’ oeuvres, but mozzarella sticks, fries & quesadillas did not fit the scene, especially with everyone dressed so nicely. Crowd was mostly 20 something year olds, but then again this was a private event and I think it’s just because the two brothers who know the owners happened to be in that age range. I would really like to go back on a regular night. Hopefully the floor won’t be flooded with spilled drinks like the night when I was there. Also wish there was a coat room or at least coat hooks because we had to hide our coats on the ground behind chairs.

Really liked this place, especially during this time of the year when it’s a gorgeous warm night. The patio was open and our service was awesome, in fact the owner allowed the patrons to stay out past the 11 oclock cutoff, which I thought was really cool and accommodating. The tavern always has terrific enticing daily drink and appetizer specials, which makes it a great way to try menu items u normally don’t go for. Happened to be there on half price appetizer night, so we got to make a meal out of apps, which is one of my favorite things to do. The grilled calamari was amazing! I am obsessed with it! In fact, everything we had was really good! The actual entrees seemed a little weak in concept, but for being a tavern, the food is well above standard pub fare. I will certainly be back and look forward to trying their pretty extensive martini list.

Nice bar but icky restaurant. I agree with the reviewer who said they need to decide on being a bar or a restaurant. Music too loud for a restaurant, service good, atmosphere nice, except for music. Pricey for what you get.
My grilled calamari was doused with dried oregano and was truly awful… my companions were embarrassed and didn’t want me to send it back. so I honored their wishes. Fine bar, awful restaurant.

Last weekend I hosted a 40^th birthday party at the Black Duck and had an excellent experience. Before deciding on the Black Duck as the party venue, I did a lot of research on available private party rooms in Lincoln Park; this was the only one I was thoroughly impressed with. The most important factors to me were first, I wanted a bar/​restaurant that was not geared towards an extremely young crowd and second, I wanted a room that was very separate from the rest of the bar (Black Duck’s private room is downstairs).
Not only did we like the venue and the bar/​food packages, but the ultimate deciding factor was Dan, the owner. Absolutely anything we wanted or asked for, he made it happen with an easy going attitude. Dan was present all night making sure everything went smoothly and we were completely satisfied. One of our guests even had some mobility issues and he personally stood by the door to help him into the building. He was a genuinely nice guy and a pleasure to work with. We would certainly chose to host a party at Black Duck again and without hesitation.

I literally hang out in this area on a daily basis but based on my experience at Black Duck, you can’t even pay me to step foot in here again.
The space is cute and quaint. I’ll give it that much. I came on the day the Miami Heat won the championship last summer. Yes, I’m a Heat fan living in Chicago. I understand it can be problematic but there’s no reason I should’ve been treated horribly by the staff. This isn’t even a sports bar and the Bulls weren’t even playing, so there was really no reason (even in a drunken stupor) for the staff to be as ridiculously rude as they were. I walked in, happy and ready to spend a ridiculous amount of $ on drinks when the waitress states that my kind isn’t welcome. Yeah, I was wearing a Heat jersey but really? Is that necessary?! I thought, ‘woman, you work on tips, are you out of your mind?’ Being Hispanic, I could also take this in a derogatory way but I took the higher road and hoped it was just a joke. After almost 30 minutes of being there (waiting on someone else), she apologized and offerred to give me a drink for free. I accepted but vowed to never come in again. It’s really childish and just plain dumb to make someone upset over sports, especially when they can contribute a lot of $ to you. Screw you,
Black Duck. Don’t care to get to know you.

First off, aesthetically speaking, the restaurant is way too dark and the music too loud. I spent the majority of my evening practically yelling across the 3 feet between my seat and my friends. A word of advice? This is not a club, please turn the music down.
The food was… okay and seriously over priced. My friend’s fish entrée could easily have been mistaken for lower end diner food. Definitely nothing special.
Service? Non-​existent. Our waitress came, took our order, dropped off our food, and disappeared. When informed we didn’t have a show to catch at the theater, the wait for our food lengthened. We were at Black Duck for nearly 2 hours and most of it was spent waiting for food. I ordered a wrap and my friend breaded fish, there really isn’t a reason for that long of a wait.
She also gave me the wrong drink and attempted to rectify the problem by dashing over and grabbing the drink out of my hand as I was drinking it.
A friend had a
gift card for Black Duck which couldn’t be used toward specials and has to be used on two entrees. My friend ordered two entrees for herself (because I couldn’t justify paying $ 20 for pork chops and a side) and we split the check. However, we also found out that I couldn’t have the $ 7 martini special because we were sitting at the same table. We did complain and I did get the discounted price but not before the owner came over to «explain things» to us.
Overall, I won’t be returning. The service is bad, the food is bland, and the atmosphere not my scene. There are definitely places in Chicago with better food and service that deserve my patronage.

We went here for a work holiday party, the package was $ 35 all you can drink +3 different appetizers. The all you can drink package included top shelf liquor and shots! The food was good too! We had the party room downstairs. The only downfall was there was no DJ so we had to hook up our Iphones to some little ihome thing to play music. Otherwise, we had a great time. The staff was friendly, we had a great bar tender. If you want to rent out a party room, this is the place to do it!

Not fond of this place. I don’t think the music fits the atmosphere very well. They should play something a little less pop, and turn the bass down.
I felt like the staff wasn’t very friendly at all, nor were they very prompt. If I owned this place, I wouldn’t be all that happy with the way my staff was treating the customers.
The food: decent. The chicken sandwich I got was pretty good, the pasta side was very bland.
Going back? If I am desperate for a carryout order.

I’ve eaten here a few times (and I probably will eat there again because of sheer proximity) but it’s very underwhelming. I haven’t eaten the whole menu, but everything I have ordered in the past has left me wanting more.
I’ve eaten outside here in the summer and prefer the street noise from a reasonably busy corner to the bizarre rap music they choose to play during dinner time. I have never found dining inside to be enjoyable — it’s normally too loud and it’s always too dark. The dark wood inside would be better suited if they had a bunch of microbrews on tap, but it’s just an average restaurant that turns into an average bar at night.
I think they’d be better off trying to find a niche, rather than cater to the mediocre.

Black Duck needs to decide whether they want to be a tavern or a grille. The two just don’t seem to mix very well here, at least not at the same time. I went there several years ago for a meal, and while I recall that the food was solid, my date and I were dismayed at how noisy it got as the bar area started to fill up with a Saturday drinking night crowd. Same story last night, only I was part of the Saturday night drinking crowd. I felt sorry for the quartet of patrons attempting to dine as our large, boisterous group stood centimeters away from their table. The music during this time was definitely set at bar level, implying which way the establishment wants to lean.
So I guess that I would recommend dining early if that is the reason for your visit to Black Duck. Otherwise it is a perfectly serviceable neighborhood bar, without too douchebaggy a crowd considering the area.
Another drawback is that these guys are far behind the times in their beer selection. Six drafts, comprised of Guinness, Fat Tire, Stella Artois, and the like do not cut it in this town any more. On a positive note, they serve a 22-​ounce bottle of Crispin Honey Crisp cider for $ 9, which seems like a good price considering that draft beers are 6 or 7 dollars.
One other thing that I can say about this place is that they have one of the handsomest exteriors of any establishment in Chicago. I love that gold lettering on black paint.

Quality: I had their Black Duck-​tini because it was part of their $ 7 martini Thursdays. It was okay, definitely had better martinis. A bit on the bitter end, not sure if I enjoyed the blueberries as much as I hoped for.
Venue: Very chill date-​like atmosphere. The ambience is dark.
Amenities: A few TV’s by the bar, plenty of seating and couches!
Accessibility: RIght by the North/​Clybourn station
Nearby: Steppenwolf Theater
Tip: This used to be a rum smuggling company during the prohibition era. Very cool.
Will I come back? I think so.

Went into Black Duck Tavern last night and scooped up a seat next to the window and a bottle of Melbec. This night is starting off pretty great…
We started off with grilled calamari. I think I should have read the menu because when I took my first bite, I started to tear up. Holy crap, it’s spicy! I’m all for spice, *when I see it coming*. I’m sure it’s totally my fault because I didn’t read ½ of the menu when ordering.
So on to my delicious entrée, Portobello Chicken! Yup, a huge chicken breast with a portobello mushroom on top, with swiss cheese on top of that. Seriously, these are 3 of my favorite things and Black Duck put them together in one entrée. Ahhh you guys are good! Accompanied with my awesome threesome was sauteed veggies. Wow, you can actually make vegetables taste THAT good? I love my greens more then most but holy crap you guys really amped them up for me. I was also able to try the pork chops and they were really good. The sauce was delicious. I think it was a honey and bbq sauce mixture (I could be WAY off here though).
I so badly wanted to try one of the desserts but if I ate another bite I would have popped. I did read that the key lime pie is to die for.
Kiersten was our server and she was perfect! :)
p. s. Single Ladies, apparently it’s Ladies Night on Thursdays. So, while I was there a whole gaggle of men looking like they just walked out of the movie Boiler Room popped in. Just sayin’. Ya know, if that’s your thing.

It’s Lincoln Park, so it’s impossible to find reasonable parking on Halsted or the plethora of adjoining permit-​only side streets. Take the train down.
The outside makes it look like a trendy gastropub, but the inside must have been decorated by Dracula’s hunting buddy. The dining area was elegantly kitted out in hunting swag and kept twilight dark with a single guttering candle to see the food by, which doesn’t mesh well with the ultra-​dark wood interior that seems to eat all ambient natural lighting like a black hole.
The entrees were lacking in flavor and at times, just confusing.
— The BBQ chicken had little to nothing involve BBQ on or around it, but did have a whole lot of bacon and cheese.
— The vegetables on the side were nicely seasoned but a little burnt.
— The rack of lamb was cooked. Seriously. That begins and ends the applicable commentary on the lamb. It was cooked. Which I guess counts as a positive.
— The garlic mashed potatoes… weren’t. They were the consistency of those gamey reconstituted powdered instant potatoes we all tried at least once during our younger years, and there was nothing garlicky about them. No buttery taste, no garlic, they barely tasted like potatoes. White mush is accurate. At least they were served in two matching semi-​circles so I could have fun putting olives in the middle and pretending they were breasts.
The bar looked impressive (also dark wood) and the waitstaff were energetic and entertaining as they danced in place to kill time while waiting for our food to come up.
Honestly, I would come back here to drink or watch a Bulls game. But I doubt I’ll come back for food again.

I have never been very impressed by Black Duck and only end up here when friends or co-​workers want to take advantage of the specials ($ 3 drafts on Mondays, $ 5 martinis on Thursdays, etc.).
Drinks are okay to good. They have a decent selection and have several specials throughout the week. Generally, it is best to stick with drinks and not worry about ordering food, something that I have learned the hard way.
Food is forgettably average. The tend to overcook everything. Any chicken and seafood that I have ordered has been terribly overcooked, dry, and tasteless. The burger seems to be one of the better food options on the menu, but the kitchen likes to cook it to the temperature they want, instead of what you order. I have ended up with way too many well done burgers. I will say that the mashed potato and the vegetables that are side dish options are pretty tasty, but, alas, they are not enough to save the meals that I have had here.
Service tends to be inconsistent. On my most recent visit the server was wonderful. She was friendly and prompt, and she checked in with us repeatedly without being a nuisance. I was impressed that even though she didn’t write anything down she got everyone’s food and drink orders correct. This was a welcome change from another visit, where the server was rude and lethargic and made mistakes on the table’s orders and on the bill.

Should I find myself going to a show at the Steppenwolf, I’d totally stop back in and give their food a try… from the sound of my girl Carol K’s review, I’d probably enjoy the food.
This review is strictly for the drinks and service, which, may be a little biased since I had just come from a fabulous dinner with the most glorious cocktails I’ve ever had across the street at Boka. I got the berry martini and though it was $ 4 less than my cocktail at Boka, it wasn’t half as good. They do have some $ 4 import bottle specials that the boys ordered, though and their sign out front boasted a free taco with any tab and we saw no taco, nor were offered any taco… and I could have maybe gone for a taco. The service was fine, I think our server sensed that we were only coming in for a nightcap and altered her service to our needs. I liked the lighting and thought the center couch was a nice touch and that the bar overall was nicely decorated.
I think I’ll make it a point to get theater tix in the near future so I can have an excuse to stop by Black Duck again.