Illinois Bar & Grill

Tucked into a corner of Midway Airport, this hole in the wall place is a good spot to grab a burger and a beer before your flight. There’s about 3 tables inside, several seats at the bar, and a pickup window. Menu is basic bar food — burgers, wings, fries. Plan for about 30 minutes for food, cooked fresh to order, though nothing fancy or craft.

Pretty great burger for the airport. Got the bacon burger. It was huge. Also got the shrimp basket and zucchini sticks which were ok. Skip the fries. They were cold. Service was a little abrubt and confusing that you have to go to the window even when you are seated.

They have beer at a reasonable price. Nothing wrong with that, especially for an airport. It’s a bit cramped so we just enjoyed our brews from the foodcourt.

Food was excellent!!! Waitress who took our order at the counter was very rude. Then when you received your food, your ketchup packets and such was right on top of your food so the girl took ones money, stuck her hand in the condiments then put it right on your food over and over… kind of gross!

For the early flyers, there’s no better place at the MDW to grab a couple cold beverages and a mega omelet before the flight out. This place is the quintessential greasy spoon diner, complete with Sam Adams, Goose Island, Heineken, and of course your staple Miller and Coors yield. Don’t patronize with some out of the ordinary expectation… it’s an airport diner! Enjoy a five-​egg, Pilsen Omelette, crammed with Chorizo, Old El Paso, and heaps of shredded Cheddar Cheese easily satisfying the appetite of two (or my seemingly insatiable tape worm). Top it off with Pam© laced hash browns and white toast… my friend, your all set for the emergency bathroom run while the seatbelt lights are on! Beer and wine only, bar seating with a few small tables, and service only to be expected of a waitress waking up at 4 in tha morn. 9 times out of 10, we’re grabbing chow and Heineken’s at the Illinois Bar before Viva Lost Wages.

This place was very busy and the burgers looked great from the window. I sat at the bar right by the kitchen. The omelet station was not an ice, right next to the trashcans, with condiment bins on top, not the most sanitary set up. My burger was good, the wine was old and had to be disposed of. It was the one mini bottle off of the shelf since they were out. The service was friendly and efficient for a rush.

Never again. It’s an airport, quick service needed. Waited 45 min for a breakfast sandwich. Bartender/​server eating food in front of us rather than take order. 2 guys in back, only slowest one cooking. 4 crew members quoted 30 min wait, walked out. Pilot left without his food. Had to take ours to go. Hire some damn staff and service your patrons.

Try and get this value at any other airport! Huge Denver omelet with home fries and Texas toast and a big Draft beer for under $ 20 made fresh to order. Quit your bitching you worthless twats!!! It’s the airport!!! They have to deal with people like you all day so Maybe it was just you and not them.

Huge Burger!
I ordered a small bacon cheeseburger (note — it is 1/​3lb) with a side of fries. I quickly knew it was going to be huge when the burger was on it’s own plate.
Everything was great.

RUN RUN RUN from this place!!!
I walked in, sat down and was nicely greeted by my server with…“I’m going to give you great service”…being on the road all the time I learned a long time ago, this statement is a SURE sign of trouble.
Boy, was I right.
I ordered a burger with home fries.
Burger arrived with no home fries AND I SWEAR, every time I needed something I had to get up and go to the counter.
Ok…I’m eating my burger only to discover a 3inch long black hair in my burger.
AGAIN, had to go to the counter and ask to pay… when my server finally came over with the check, I (very) politely showed her the hair on my plate and that I was sick to my stomach about it.
NO apology whatsoever from her or anyone working/​managing the place and NO OFFER to take it off my bill…
DISGUSTING!!!

No stars would be appropriate for this review. What is it with airport food? Airports either have no standards, or they do so much business due to a given captive audience of trapped hungry passengers, that they don’t have to do anything to attract customers. However, at this particular airport, Midway in Chicago, there is the dreaded food court, so at the very least the competition should stir up some level of pride and standards to meet. Not so with this establishment.
I walked up to the lighted menu sign posted on the outside of the restaurant wall and noted three things: the ¹⁄₃ pound baby burger was $ 5.59, there was a Caesar salad offering, and at the bottom it said «Warning: this is not a fast food restaurant. All food is cooked fresh when you order. Relax and have a drink». I started visualizing a hand tossed Caesar in a large bowl, freshly dressed, scooped onto a plate for my enjoyment. This image in my head made it difficult to choose between the baby burger, and the Caesar. I decided on the burger to save a few bucks. I went to the counter to place my order. I asked for the baby burger with a lettuce wrap. First I noticed that the laminated menu at the counter showed the baby burger’s price at $ 5.99, 40 cents higher than the prominently displayed lit menu in a case on the wall. When I mentioned this, the comment back was dismissive. «The price went up». The proper way to handle THEIR MUSTAKE would be to honor the posted lower price. But this clerk wasn’t interested in offering proper customer service as was demonstrated again (more obnoxiously) later… I was told that the lettuce was shredded and it costs an extra 25 cents. Preposterous! No bun! Just a few leaves of lettuce instead! Made no sense and coupled with the price ignorance, this ticked me off. I didn’t want shredded lettuce. Hoping to salvage the situation of getting fed satisfactorily, I switched back to my vision of a fresh Caesar. Nope, not today. The clerk goes to the back and grabs for me a plastic box with shredded lettuce, shredded Parmesan and HORRORS! a pack of Newmans Own Caesar dressing. Yikes. The sight of this processed refrigerated excuse for a Ceasar salad was a complete and utter turn off. I couldn’t help myself – I had to mention that they boast freshly cooked… and here is where the mannerless clerk interrupted me with this snark – «do you want your Ceasar freshly cooked»? She should be fired for that comment! I hope this gets back to her. I left in a huff. The story does have a decent ending though. I got passable good at Pegasus. Next review…
So many lies, so little nice things to say about this place.

Bad review for not opening at 500am on Friday July 7^th 2015.
I always fly out of midway and get a Denver omelet, today I couldn’t as they didn’t open and I waited from 0445 to 0535, after I was so hungry I went to pot bellies. I recommend not coming here if you want to have breakfast because they don’t open on time.
Eat steak and egged or Dunk’n donuts for breakfast before coming here. I know I will, lost me as a customer for life.

The health department should shut this place down. Sat down to grab a quick bite before my flight and noticed the following:
Garbage overflowing the cans onto the floor
Disgustingly dirty tables, chairs, walls, floor, pictures, etc.
The cook and waitress handling raw meat and garbage and then handling the food — major YUCK!
Run away!
Got up and did just that…

Always stop here before my flights on SouthWest. Great breakfast food and not overly priced like many items are in an airport!
This place can be very busy. One of the only bars. So be prepared to stand in that window line for 15 – 20 minutes sometimes!
I always get a mimosa!

I don’t often rate a restaurant at 1 star, but this place is pretty crummy. The food is mediocre at best, fries are pretty expensive, the staff is not friendly at all, and it took over half an hour to get our food. Just a burger and chicken sandwich. If I come through Chicago Midway again, I will definitely avoid Illinois Bar & Grill.

Run away as fast as you can. If this is what Chicago has to offer in fish and fries, real fish everywhere have nothing to fear. I know decent food at airports is hard to find but $ 20 for frozen fish refried, the saddest fries and a cook– new airport low

Love this place… Frequent traveller, frequent diner. Sometimes I think I fly out of midway just to eat here for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! I love me some egg white ham and chess omelette with a side of bacon in the morning or a bacon swiss burger for lunch/​dinner. Bring your appetite as both of these are huge! Great portion, great price, and they have BEER too! Bluemoon on tap, one of my favs. As for service, I’ve seen the best of the best and the worst of the worst, as I’m a regulate here. Just like everyone, people have good days and bad. I always approach with a smile and although I may have to wait a little, my patience with their «busy times» always ends in a happy tummy.

Recommended to me by a Chicago police officer here at MDW (he chose it over the Harry Caray spot in Concourse B). Good, messy burger (tons of grilled onions & two huge pieces of bacon), crisp zucchini fries, and fast/​friendly service. Burger was on point.
«Best Burger in Illinois» (as claimed on their menus)? No idea, since this is the ONLY burger I’ve ever had in IL, but it was damn tasty. Best of all, I get to put it on my expense report since I’m traveling on business.
And they’re just a few steps away from Reilly’s Daughter Irish Pub. I’ll have to get a shot of Tullamore DEW on my next layover. Sláinte!
Check out the Illinois Bar & Grill the next time you have a flight out of Midway. The Rockman has spoken.

On a not so busy day today, it took over 10 minutes for anyone to make eye contact with the three people standing at the «Order Here» window. Unfortunately even after the eye contact by the cook, not one of the three employees behind the bar /​counter came over to take orders.
Two of the three people in line to order left after 10 minutes of being ignored, myself being one of them.
Won’t be back.

The first thing we noticed of this small restaurant/​bar was the sign saying this is NOT fast food… everything is cooked fresh. And oh my, that’s exactly what Husband got… a GIANT perfectly-​cooked tasty burger with five thick perfectly-​cooked pieces of bacon on it. Husband is a mid-​west guy who can recognize good-​quality beef and he was happy as can be with this.
Our Server was a gal who had worked there for many years and we thoroughly enjoyed her. Not expensive for the quality and quantity either. What a great airport find!