Fireside Restaurant

Staff was ok. Some rude old dude, probably an owner told us he was glad we were leaving. Went for drinks and food, even getting service took forever. Decided to go home and order in instead. Will never go back. Just terrible.

Confession time (dun dun dunnnn): I was a little wary of this as our dinner spot when my Dad suggested it based on the mixed Unilocal reviews, but honestly we had a great time and few things could have been made it more perfect.
We went on a weekday night and sat in the dining room near the fireplace. They were able to accommodate a group of us comfortably, no problem. Our waitress was wonderful! She was nice, thorough, patient, and attentive from the very start. Our food and drinks came out in no time at all.
The food was a mixed lot, and the only reason for 4 stars instead of 5. Let me be clear: we probably ordered half of their menu between all of us (exaggerating) and we’re talking about the difference between «not bad» and «outstanding», nothing worse than that at all. On one hand, I found their homemade fish and potato chips to be one of the best I’ve ever had… and I’ve partaken in my fair share of Friday night fish fries a la Wisconsin and Chicago in general. Their tartar sauce was wonderful. Hubby would have divorced me and married their chicken tenders right there on the spot if he could have. On the other, hubby’s turkey club was lackluster and my sister’s fries were soggy. The shrimp appetizer left a lot to be desired. The veggie side tasted like it came from a can… you get the idea.
So, I would absolutely be back, and I’d absolutely recommend you try it out; I would just be selective about what try. Best bets: fish and chips, rueben, roasted chicken, chicken tenders, and desserts!
Pro tip: wear your elastic pants. These folks don’t mess around with the portions!

Love the fireside! Best neighborhood bar in the area. Great service, great food, outstanding beer selection. I always have a great time here. Not to mention it’s a 4am bar, that doesn’t attract a typical 4am crowd if you know what I mean…

Wanted to try this for a long time and am I glad I did! It was such fun – the warm cozy fire warmed our outside while the great food warmed our insides. Perfect fried fish with homemade mashed potatoes and veggies for me and a huge burger and fries for my son, and a big helping of calamari for an appetizer. Our server was great, friendly and attentive. We’ll be back!

Great place to hang out! open late, friendly staff, great food, with a kitchen that stays open until 3am. But seriously, Sweet potato tater tots.

Fireside is the coziest restaurant I’ve ever been to. They literally mean fireside — they have a huge beautiful fireplace. It feels very warm and lodge-​like. It’s a fantastic spot to eat dinner in the winter, and when it’s nice out its just as wonderful with all their doors open. The dining and bar area are separate, so you don’t have to compromise if you really want a cozy fireplace table. Their food is great. A menu that has something for everyone. Super friendly staff. Overall I really dig this place, it’s a hidden treasure.

Eat at Fireside fairly regularly. Good neighborhood restaurant with a fairly extensive menu. Bar and restaurant are separated, so you can order from the full bar with your meal but you don’t get the noise and commotion that can come along with a busy bar. Good variety of beers on tap. Friendly servers that know how to cater to children. Lots of seating so never had to wait for a table. Only criticism is that the menu may be overly extensive which has lead to a perceived uneven experience on some of the items that my family has ordered. Never gotten anything inedible, but have had some things that I wouldn’t order again.

Not your typical late night bar. If you enjoy being around great people then you must give this place a visit. Absolutely awesome bar with an incredible staff and super good food. Beers on tap are always changing which is awesome and their kitchen is open late. Try the pizza and the sweet potato tots, you won’t be disappointed!

This place has been here forever. I can’t understand why! We ordered from «Specials!» Yuck!
My Ahi tuna was previously frozen and tasteless. The veggies were also tasteless. My husband ordered the double pork chops. Overly cooked and as tough as shoe leather. Waited an unreasonably length of time for such horrible food. $ 68.90 plus a tip for bad food ! Sorry, but true.

I owe this place a little more respect that I show it, showing up at 2am on its doorstep looking to get some after a night of drinking around town.
Fireside is a place you end up at. The thought has never crossed my mind to make this place the first stop of the night. WIth a kitchen open till 3am, a jukebox and a few dart boards — this is the kind of joint you end up at for 4^th meal. But everytime I eat here, every time I look at their beer list, I always wonder why I don’t come here more often.
Their beer list is solid and extensive. For fall, they have issued in an excellent transition in the menu to stouts, porters, red ales and the controversial pumpkin beers. The roasted chicken and cajun chicken pasta are fantastic, but their ain’t nothin wrong with their wings, pizza or tots either.

This review is more for the bar than the restaurant as I think I’ve only had one or two sit-​down meals in the 15+ years I’ve been going here.
I was a semi-​regular when I lived in the neighborhood. I still make my way here once in a while. They have a very good craft beer selection, friendly staff who treat their regulars well, and a nice chill vibe, especially for a 4am bar. Most other 4am bars in the city seem either dank and seedy, or they’re loud obnoxious dance-​club-​type places. Thankfully Fireside is neither of these. Sometimes it gets a little crowded on weekends when other bars have closed, but you’ll still almost always have elbow room.

I’ve noticed this cute little place a few times while driving by, decided to stop in with a friend for brunch. While the food and service weren’t absolutely terrible, it slightly reminded me of a small town café, where you excuse all the negatives because it’s the only place to go. Unfortunately for this restaurant, it’s located in a major city with a ton competition. I had the meat lovers breakfast skillet, my friend had a burger. The skillet was simply «ok», and my friend’s burger was about the same. I did get a cocktail and I want blown away, but it was ok.
My general consensus is that this place is… «It’s just Okay» or «meh» haha… And that would be fine if it didn’t have the downfall of being in a huge city, noted that’s culinary options. Will I go back? No, probably not.
I will say, the service was a little slow, but everyone was so nice and accommodating.

This place is great — sitting out front at night with tress in front of me feels like I’m not even in the city.
Fantastic beer section, great bartenders. I could sit in the bar out back or out front and enjoy the atmosphere.
In the evening it feels like a place where people get a beer and hang out, no rush to drink and leave.
All in all glad to have them in the area, worth the walk.

One of Chicago’s best local bar/​restaurants. The Cajun Meatloaf is awesome as are the Pork Chops. I love the Mashed Potatoes as well. In fact I’ve never had a meal I didn’t like here. The staff is always friendly and works very hard. Tonight, I’m trying the Lasagna for the first time. I’ve heard good things about it. In 25 plus visits, we’ve never been disappointed.

Wasn’t a horrible place. I went on two occasions:
The first time, it was a very late night at the bar side. It was filled with regulars who were overly drunk and crazy rowdy and annoying. Couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there that night. I like a local place, but the bartenders were just interested in hanging out with their drinking buddies and the regulars there could have kept it down just a tad, for the rest of us who still want to live life without any serious hearing problems. I’ll chalk it up to it being in the wee hours of the night and they had a few too many, but these guys are regulars and I’d rather not run into them again :)
On the second occasion, I went to the restaurant side during the day. It was quiet, cozy and the food was good and fairly priced. The table settings were great! The center pieces were little flower pots they were growing their herbs out of. I thought it was neat.

Do not eat here. My boyfriend and I have been here twice. The first time I ordered a steak sandwich and he ordered a ravioli dish. I picked the steak off the sandwich, and he forced himself to eat half of what tasted like microwaved chef-​boyardi.
Today we ordered pickup. 2 burgers, both of which were tasteless, soggy and undercooked. We didn’t eat them despite being starving.
Fireside gets 1 star for the random girl in spandex grooving in front of the jukebox to boys II men. Even that seemed tasteless, soggy and a little contaminated though.
It’s unfortunate that the space is so awesome, but the food and service are beyond repair. I’m convinced that this place is under new management since any review prior to 9 months ago or is either about a different restaurant or a paid advertisement.

Not sure where my review went of their horrible service for a party I hosted here… anyway, to summarize: they were unprepared, overpriced, and did not deliver what they said they could.

My friend the Broccoli Queen took me to Fireside in late January for my birthday treat. The restaurant was my choice. I knew it had a large menu, an inviting dining room with a fireplace, and its own parking lot adjacent to the restaurant. Although its menu is heavy on meat and I am a vegetarian, I knew I could find something to eat. Since the occasion was a celebration of my birthday, I also wanted to have a couple drinks with dinner, and I knew that Fireside had a full bar. It all seemed reasonable, and the Broccoli Queen was enthusiastic. She knew from past visits that she could get broccoli.
The parking lot is really convenient. If the lot is full, you’ll find plenty of free, nearby parking on Ravenswood.
The dining room was very pleasant. It was a cold night, of course. We arrived shortly before 6pm, when there weren’t a lot of other customers. We asked to sit near the fireplace, and we got a good table nearby.
The waitress gave me a drink special menu, and among all the specialty drinks, I saw that they had glugg. Perfect! That’s what I ordered. Oops! The waitress told me that they didn’t have glugg anymore. In fact, the restaurant hadn’t actually carried glugg for a couple months, along with another specialty drink. OK, I don’t get my fancy drink — first world problem, right? Still, why pass out a menu that’s incorrect, and has been for a couple months? And why didn’t the waitress tell me as she gave me the drink menu, we’re out of these two? That’s a big bad on the restaurant, and a little bad on the waitress. I ended up with some kind of hot cider drink. It was pretty good, but not good enough to get a second one. I went with a red wine which turned out to be only okay.
My friend ordered a pizza with broccoli. She was deliriously happy. I saw that there was a whole section on the menu for macaroni and cheese. You could get it plan, or you could get it with all sorts of additions. I ordered it with peas. I did get what I ordered, which is good. The taste, though. .. what a big nothing. I’ve seen lots of Unilocalers say things like, this food tasted like it came out of a box, and I’ve thought, oh, they’re exaggerating. When I tell you that this macaroni and cheese tasted like Kraft out of the box, I am not exaggerating. Big, big disappointment. I thought, wistfully, of the macaroni and cheese I get at Café Selmarie in Lincoln Square, and I wished we had gone there instead.
Bottom line:
Ambiance: 5 stars.
Parking: 5 stars
Alcohol: 2 stars
Food: 2 stars
Service: 3 stars

I had dinner this past week at Fireside with a friend and we sat in the bar. The place was much larger on the inside than I expected. I also didn’t expect the blue collar atmosphere that is Fireside.
The food was good, beer selection extensive and the feel was just comfortable and homey — I really liked it. I’d come back.

I recently dined at Fireside Restaurant on North Ravenswood. It sort of feels like two establishments in one. If you walk in the front entrance, there is a doorway on the right towards the «bar» area, with music and also a few tables for a slightly more casual dining experience. The doorway on the left leads to the main dining area, with a warm fireplace prominently featured on the side wall. If you sit near the fireplace (such as our party of three), you will definitely feel warm and toasty. There are interesting artworks on every wall for added visual appeal, so you feel like you’re in a cross between a ski lodge and art gallery.
The food menu is rather extensive, but the drinks menu seemed even more robust. I had previously visited Fireside’s bar during a beer trolley tour, and after having inspected the beer list thoroughly I know why Fireside was included in that tour. I must have perused longingly at the beer listings for ten minutes before selecting the Ommegang on tap. There is no complimentary bread basket here, and the menu states NO SPLITTING PLEASE.
We each ordered ribs for dinner, as that is one of the featured (and pricier) menu items. I ordered a full slab, with an enormous baked potato (comes with butter and a cup of sour cream) and mixed vegetables. The ribs were splashed with a slather of barbecue sauce across the slab. The ribs tasted fine, the meat was tender, though I admit the ribs are no comparison to the ribs I like at Smoque. I did have about four of the ribs to take home, and enjoyed them reheated the following evening. Should I pop by Fireside again, I’d like to try something else on the menu.
The service level was efficient during our meal. There is a small but free customer parking lot adjacent to the south wall of the restaurant.