John Barleycorn

Your Halloween bar crawl ruined our day. You have too few bartenders. They treated us like shit coming in telling us we went through the «wrong door» a few feet from the «right» one but both were open. You ran out of food, the drinks were $ 10 each for a well vodka water. We’ll never come again to this bar.

Tried going there tonight after a trolley crawl. I was told I wasn’t allowed in because I’m not wearing a button down dress shirt. It’s cold and I’m wearing a J Crew Sweater and down jacket… 20 of us left and ended up going elsewhere. When the bouncer said I wasn’t allowed in I asked why. He actually touched me on my collar and said because you’re not wearing a dress shirt. Plenty of other places to spend your money down here. John Barlycorn is not one of them. Used to be the place to go… Not anymore. I at least got denied into a bar sober so cross that off my bucket list!

Rachel was our bartender, whom was very friendly, energetic and entertaining. She made us some awesome drinks and shots, She’s very knowledgable. The venue was pretty crowded with a lot of peeps mingling and dancing. food was great, along with the music too. Highly recommend this place.

Food came out terrible. Never got my bowl of chili I ordered and the original order came out wrong.
There’s about 12 people in here so it validates that this place sucks and vindicates the fact that orders should come out correctly.

I have been here a few times and its a cool spot! I love the fact that they have a roof top/​sky line upstairs. They have good drinks and nice apps. A good chill spot to hang.

The atmosphere here is super cute! Great service and fun with my co-​workers. The menu is pretty full of choices. Great place after work or a night out

Their Buffalo Chicken Salad is the BEST salad I’ve had in a long time. And I’m not a fan of salads. The chicken can be grilled or breaded. I prefer breaded. I’m sure it’s not healthy but it’s sooooo delish & very filling.
Pear martini is also good.
This is a spacious, classy sports bar. I go during the work-​week at lunch hours so it’s more on the quiet side around 2pm, which I enjoy. For now I’ll give it gets 5 stars because I’d like to try more than just the salads & visit during a game but the reviews for the evening crowd scare me!

We had he chicken sandwich and a burger, food was great and so was the service! Very nice place to watch sports or just enjoy a happy hour…

This wouldn’t be my recommendation choice for food in the river north area. We ordered the Cobb salad, harvest salad, buffalo chicken salad, and nachos. The food was decent– nothing special. I also didn’t like how the nachos were nothing but cheese and beans with a few jalapeños sprinkled on top.
However, if you want to grab drinks in river north or go clubbing, this is a great place that a lot of young crowds come to for drinks. There is also a club (Tunnel) upstairs that is really fun.
The service was friendly and accommodating for a bar area. The waitress got all of our picky orders right and even took the nachos off the bill because they had come after the food. Overall, come here for drinks and a good time– save your money and eat elsewhere beforehand.

The reviews for this place are all over the board. Some love it, and some hate it. It appears most of the poor reviews are for the nightlife. My review is for the daytime restaurant crowd.
I was here on a pleasant, Friday afternoon. The front of this place was opened up, giving it a pleasant open-​air feel. The wait staff was all young, and attractive. Not the fastest service, but very friendly and professional.
There were three in our party, we all had different variations of their burger. All three were excellent. They have a decent beer selection as well.
We really enjoyed this place.

This place is literally right next door to where I work and every time I walk past it to go home I get a little jealous of all the people there during happy hour sitting in their outdoor seating area. It just looks like everyone is always having fun. So I decided to check it out! It was as fun as it always looks.
I didn’t order food, so my review is going to be based more on service than anything else. One thing that a lot of restaurants can’t seem to figure out, is balancing their outdoor seating with the service. I’ve been to places before where I think they pretty much forget that you are out there. No Barleycorn. The waitress was around every time we needed something. She was pretty friendly too and while you could tell she was swamped she didn’t ever let it show, which I think helps keep that atmosphere that people there enjoy.
My friends all got wine and they said that it was a «generous pour» so if you are a wine fan there you go, you get your moneys worth.

I took a group of friends to go see Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals and even though they had a private event, when the doors opened to the public, everyone from the guys at the door, our server to the bathroom attendant were class acts! We had a little bit of an issue getting some people to sit down in front of us and the manager came over and resolved the issue! I prefer the regular menu from the game day menu, but there are some times you have to compromise!

I came here on my first night in Chicago, to watch the Blackhawks in game 5 of he Stanley Cup.
The atmosphere here is great if you have a group who are interested in watching the game. Large tables and screens on every wall allow you to indulge in a sports bar style experience, while the décor provides a slightly higher class aspect.
Unfortunately severe weather interrupted the tv signal right before the start of the game, but this was fixed once the weather cleared up.
I came and ate alone, so I sat at the bar. The service was a little slow at first as the bartenders appeared to be confused as to which one was serving me. I ordered a bud light draft, which came with the disappointing taste of dirty lines. After which I switched to bottles. They must’ve been aware of this as the two following bottles I had were removed from my tab without explanation.
I also ordered a burger and fries, which was well put together and came with a considerable amount of food on the plate– something I enjoy seeing at a sports bar.
I gave this place 3 stars because of the lower quality service at the bar, and the fact that as such a large venue, it was a little mismanaged, with the bar staff unaware of how to fix the TV issue, and being a large venue with open doors while there was a storm outside made it rather cold inside.

Food is okay, service is poor, and atmosphere really depends on your personality (very loud, bro-​y sports bar). I personally won’t be going again.
Having been three different times, the music has always been loud enough that I have to shout to talk to anyone else. After asking to move to the ‘quiet’ section, we got relocated to the back in direct line of a speaker (needless to say it wasn’t quiet). For the food, the burgers are pretty solid half pound. Both the Hickory and Southwest burgers are a good size with good flavoring combos. One of three times the bottom bun was a bit soggy though. Can also make your own burger, albeit slightly more expensive. Skip the pepper fries, nothing special there and salty. Even the regular fries aren’t good, too oily, and the JB sauce is a bland aioli. Instead get the side salad with vinaigrette dressing, large portion and tasty. BBQ Pork sliders have some nice smokey sauce on them, but the meat is hit or miss with the amount of fat in them. The 49ers French Toast was delicious and had fresh fruit on top. The staff were all young and attractive, but they, like the figurehead on a ship, are mostly ornamental. Instead the kitchen staff (which seemed to be all Hispanic) were actually helpful, served our food, got anything we asked for. There must have been a miscommunication, and our food was prepped but then sat there for 5 minutes before the kitchen staff brought it to us. We saw our Waitress twice, taking the order and the check, seems they forgot about us or that they serve food.

I am literally copying and pasting my review from Moe’s Cantina next door almost to the word, because they attract the same clueless, tasteless clientele and offer the same bad service:
Good Lord, what a sore to the neighborhood. Like much of the rest of River North, this place attracts tasteless, clueless, douchebags looking to pick up drunk, loose women. Luckily the hood offers so many different establishments that there are better options mere blocks away.
At least Barleycorn has a good tap selection. It’s a shame their bartenders know nothing about beer and the price of their beer is a dollar or two more than even neighborhood staples such as Bull n Bear or Public House.
Douchy bouncers with a chip on their shoulders. Check. Bad, disinterested, and slow bartenders who don’t smile. Check. Recent college grad douchebros who want to start fights. Check. Recent college grad ladies content drinking watered down vodka sodas bought by aforementioned douchebro. Check. Not my cup of tea.
They should airlift this place, along with Moe’s and Social 25, to Wrigleyville, connect it to the other Moe’s and Barleycorn, and just sprawl a giant neon sign across the top that says «DOUCHELAND.» Schaumburg bros would proceed to salivate and frequent that establishment, in turn staying away from RN.

It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but was here last night for the fight (with a group of friends invited to the private Tecate party upstairs). Now I remember why we don’t come here often… mostly 20 something’s, watered down drinks, and older dudes creeping on the 20 something girls wearing next to nothing.

I was stunned! In a good way.
I came here for a Local Tourist Chef’s Table. I was mostly coming for their craft cocktails but the food was impressive.
I started with a Manhattan. It took like 15 mins to get but that’s because they made it from scratch with fine ingredients. Delicious. I also got to try some sips from their other old timey cocktails and they were all wonderful. I’d definitely come back just for that!
Since I was driving I stuck to just one cocktail and sipped on a cabernet throughout dinner. It was also lovely.
Unfortunately most of the dishes were meaty. They had some Reuben egg rolls that people loved. What I was most crazy about was the tuna tartar. The meat eaters agree! It was so fresh with just a little avocado. Then they had some sliders which were just ok by the others. And loaded fries with chorizo. Like Mexican poutine. I had reg fries which were delicious.
I came in with low expectations thinking it was going to be bland, greasy, bar food served with beer. I’m coming back for craft cocktails and that tuna tartar.

Ok, so this places gets 2 starts because of the size of the place and how nice it is. Plenty of TVs and lots of selections, but that is where it ends. Had 2 different bartenders serve me. The 1^st one was ok, it was the end of their shift and you can tell. The 2^nd was more concerned with their phone and drinking their redbull when I was 3 bar stools away with $ 20 and an empty glass sitting on the bar. Took about 20 mins to get a drink.
So go to pay my bill and having 2 beers and a shot cost me $ 25. Thats pretty expensive when I can get the same thing next door for about $ 15. I mean who charges $ 7 for a Stella draft beer. Revolution Wit is not work $ 8. I was actually going to consider this place for one of our future happy hours, but after seeing the prices no way.

I’m severely disappointed in this place. My friend wanted to celebrate her 21^st birthday at Barleycorn. Everyone else is inside and she’s in line waiting until midnight. Only to find out she can’t get in.
In order to get in, she has to be 21 AND one day old.
Seriously. What?
All 10 – 15 of us just left and went to the club instead.

Not as great as it was when it first opened– If you want brunch, or game day food, suggest another place. Everything tastes frozen, and there is no flavor. The deals aren’t as great either. For game watching-it’s fine if you are sticking to beer. They got large screen tv’s everywhere and the service is okay.
For nightlife– overly crowded but fun. They play good music, and you have to try to get upstairs for all of that.