Kendalls Food and Spirits

Kendall’s Food and Spirits is now known as Lincoln Avenue Social

$ 15 deal. All you can eat buffet (I’m a vegetarian… Thank goodness for all the veggie pizza options)… Sarah, our waitress, has kept my drink full all night. Great time watching the game. Good atmosphere… Great prices… Even better service. I’ll be back for sure.

I had scheduled a party here for last weekend and had a terrible experience. I should have taken the sign when the party coordinator, Matt, did not get back to me after several messages, that this place was poorly run and would not have good customer service. Instead I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. I planned my party a few weeks in advance and checked with Matt to see that they would be playing a certain fight that night. Once he assured me they would be airing the fight, he sent over a contract and let me know I could scan it back or sign the day of. On the day of, I went to Kendall’s only to be told since I did not sign the contract they would not be holding the party. Conveniently, this Matt person was nowhere to be found. As I spent 15 minutes digging through my e-​mail to show them he indicated I could sign day of, they let me know they were not actually airing the fight they claimed they were. Needless to say the entire party left and went elsewhere, and none of us plan on returning. Not sure what is so difficult about correctly conveying information but apparently the people at this bar no one has even heard of struggle with this as much as they do with properly running a business. Stay away, plenty of other bars in the area that are actually established and coordinated enough to deal with customers, next time I will be going to State Bar a few blocks away.

Gotta love a place with good strong drinks, decent food and really fun bar tenders! Kendall especially was AWESOME! She was really sweet and made everyone feel welcome and above all poured really good drinks!
This place is definitely a really fun hang out and they have killer drink deals. They also show the UFC fights!

I don’t get it because Kelsey’s has a pretty good rating and Kendall’s not so much. They are the same bar, just not connected. Same specials, same menus, same environment.

I don’t know how to feel about Kendall’s. Kinda in a class of its own. Often play Girls Gone Wild on the big screens… makes it a bit uncomfortable for some people. I don’t mind so much… But why do they play it, I guess is what I ask myself. The softball league from Ox Park keeps this place busy on Sundays. A giant college party most of the time, from my experiences. 20 person flip-​cup games and maybe some quarters in the back. I’ve always enjoyed myself. Moderation is key.

It’s a bar for youngins and/​or those still trying to relive their youth. Unfortunately, I fell into the latter when I stumbled in here on St. Paddy’s day. That is my one day of the year where I celebrate like I’m a 21 year old Irish gal — don’t judge me.
Anywho, it was fun. It’s not a place where I would find myself normally nor a place where I would seek out — but it was fun. And I’m not opposed to stopping in should I ever be in the neighborhood or something.

I worked with Matt (manager) to setup Northwestern game watch parties at Kendalls and I can’t tell you how accommodating they are. Their staff is wonderful and bent over backwards for anything that we needed. They made sure that our fans felt comfortable and had great specials. I also thought they had a fairly decent menu. I know that tater tots aren’t a gourmet food, but they have some of the best that I’ve had. I should try to go here more, but I have always had a great time.

This is THE place for Bengals fans in Chicago! Great atmosphere, Bengals games on WITH SOUND, and a brunch that includes Skyline Chili. Also had drink specials like 22 oz. domestic drafts for $ 4 and $ 3 domestic bottles on Sunday.
I was so excited to find this place, with its giant Who-​Dey banner outside, and I will be returning many a Sunday.

On Thursdays bottles of beer are $ 1. Its true. This sounded like an excellent idea on Thursday night, however, as I write this review on Friday morning I am beginning to rethink that.
Super crowded, there were some game on the TVs, and unless its the Bears I’m not watching. Service was pretty friendly, a lot of people were eating. There are a lot of bars on this strip on Lincoln so I liked that. We stayed at Kendall’s last night though and had a pretty good time. My buddies played pool all night and I was presently surprised by the music selection. Kind of sounded like what you would hear at a club-​ish but it wasn’t over mixed and not overly loud either.
Can’t vouch for the weekend but it had a pretty friendly vibe, based on the other reviews I might pass on the food but next time I feel like ignoring the fact that I get up at 5:30 am everyday for work, I’ll probs be back here.

Unilocal says I’m a regular here, so I guess I should review it. The only reason I’m a «regular» is because my boyfriend’s softball team comes here after their games every Wednesday night.
Wednesdays are fun! $ 2 pints and $ 7.50 pizzas to go along with an interesting and unique form of team trivia called Brackets. It’s basically like a NCAA bracket, but you pick the best beers or cartoon characters or video games. Popular vote wins. The people who get the most points in every round win gift certificates to local businesses. Oh, and ties are broken by flip cup. Sweet.
Bottom line: Kendall’s is great on a weeknight, but avoid it on the weekends unless you like dudebros knocking back Jaegerbombs.

Went here to watch the NU v. Rice game. Now I understand Rice has some stupid exclusive tv/​recording situation, and that the problem with the feed was on their end… that said, if you have a bar FULL of people there to watch/​listen to the game, why do you keep putting on top 40 pop lists!!! Just play the game on the radio. Hell, the entire bar was chanting radio at one point, but they still didn’t get it.
$ 8 pitchers of piss beer-​which I guess is tolerable, but I hope I never go back to this place again… we gotta get some better bars Northwestern fans.

If you come here for a sporting event, get here two hours beforehand.
If you are coming here to eat, God bless you. I suggest you load up on grub elsewhere then come.
This place is supercrowded, and if you look up sausagefest on Wikipedia this is the only bar photographed on the page.
Lots of testosterone, bathrooms that were no different than your fraternity house, and beer specials that would make any 22 year old mess his pants.
I can’t give it a one star, because they are obviously doing something right, I am bitter that I no longer have the time in my life to arrive somewhere two hours early just to get a table, and I’m not 22, but it is important that you know what you are in store for once you show up.
If you miss the frat days of old and raising hell with your brothers, you can re-​live it all in a night at Kendalls. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more like Chapter as opposed to the actual parties. You need women for those.
This is where the Jersey Shore guys would go if JWoww and Snookie annoyed them to no end and they just wanted guy time for a couple hours.
To quote Desmond from Lost, see you in another lifetime Brother. Aw heck, who am I kidding. I’ll be back for Money Mayweather’s beatdown of Pacquiao.

Good job Kendalls! You got the finely shredded cheese!
I had a waaaay better experience when I came in for the playoff game (too bad there was only one before the Bengals LOST).
Great deal on buckets, and hung out with some really cool people. See you next season!

Went on a Friday night. As others have commented, for $ 10, you can unlimited cheap beer and eats (bad pizza, chips/​salsa, wings). I had a good time b/​c of my company, but it wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea. (But then again, I don’t go out to massive bars like this too often.) Very noisy, spotty service (waitresses running around b/​w multiple tables which is easily conducive to forgetfulness), and too crowded perhaps. Go here if you’re looking to bump shoulders with people and get your cheap drinking on.
Meh

Came here Thursday with my friend, it was $ 1 bottled beers… awesome! No food specials, but with $ 1 beer special, that was A-​OK with me! Three years ago my roommates and I moved to Chicago w/​out jobs and the Friday night happy hour $ 10 all you can drink and eat special made our weeks! We came all the time, it was a cheap way to get our dinner and drink on for the night! I haven’t been for that in months, but hope to do it sometime again soon! If you want a table, you do have to go early and the food line is always long… but for $ 10, it’s still a great deal!

A buddy and I were wandering down Lincoln Ave on Friday evening, deciding between a couple nearby restaurants, when he saw an old friend of his in Kendalls. Hey, $ 10 for unlimited food+beer sounded great, and no need for any decision-​making on restaurants. Good deal, right???
Now I guess I should have expected as much, but «unlimited» wings+pizza means a few trays of questionable-​looking food that gets refilled once every 45 minutes or so, and you have to participate in a sort of primal stampede to get there before it disappears. But most people at the bar, myself included, are probably in their mid-​20s and haven’t gotten rid of that whole college mentality that turns you into pigs at the trough whenever there’s free food around. It’s really no big deal, and even a little bit of fun, as long as you know what you’re getting into.
I’m not going to fault a bar like this too much for poor ambiance or crappy food. What bothered me was that my friend and I ordered three separate types of non-​bud/​miller/​coors beers and every single one tasted awful (he described them as having a «bath tub water» taste, for lack of a better term I’d agree). I don’t know what could have caused three separate kegs to spoil, but I have never had beer that tasted this awful. When I am turning down beer at 7pm on a Friday, something is horribly, horribly wrong.
Now granted, the crappy American lagers didn’t taste any worse than normal, but I can’t see myself ever coming back to a bar where I have to choose between getting drunk on Budweiser and getting drunk on bath water…

Went to Kendalls for the UFC fight with some friends. Standard bar fare, including chicken fingers with an excellent honey mustard, at decent prices for the area.
Service was a bit lacking, but that may have been from the sheer number of fired up DUDES in the place. I’ll go for UFC again, but that’s about it.

As evidenced by some of my other reviews, I love blacking out at college bars. I have always had a fine time at the Kendalls Friday all you can drink deal, though it gets crowded and its sometimes difficult to get your waitress’ attention, but you get what you pay for. Generally speaking, I would give the place four stars.
However, after last night, I will not go back. We rolled in about halfway through the Cubs game to enjoy $ 2 PBRs and $ 6 pizza. The place was pretty empty – us, maybe three tables, and a Kendalls-​sponsored volleyball team. The three of us sat down at the bar and ordered a round of beers. We asked to open a tab, and one of my friends handed over his debit card, but said that we would pay cash at the end.
The bartender, from the beginning, was just overflowing with attitude. I get it – you work at a bar that is a stone’s throw away from DePaul and you always have to deal with annoying college kids. But hey, it’s the summer, most of those kids are back at home in Buffalo Grove, and it’s a quiet Wednesday night. Every time one of our beers was nearly empty, she would just stand in front of us, rolling her eyes and asking «did you want another one?» as though moving her hand six inches upward to pour a glass of delicious PBR was the most trying task ever.
I have no problem admitting when I am being high maintenance or a pain in the ass. The three of us were nothing but easy, friendly, and did nothing to provoke any attitude.
After a second round, we ordered a pepperoni pizza. It came quickly, but the pizza tasted like absolute crap and I ended up vomiting later in the night (unfortunately I didn’t have enough beers to blame it on that). Maybe it was the pizza, maybe it wasn’t…I’m not sayin, I’m just sayin.
One of the volleyball players came up to the bartender and asked about free pitchers for their team. I guess his understanding was that sponsorship included free pitchers. The bartender callously explained that he needed to present coupons in order to get pitchers, but that she could do one free round of shots. I thought this was a nice gesture, until I heard her say «Shots or nothing» in a tone of voice that should be reserved only for telling off the guy who just stabbed your mother.
So after a third round and a Cubs loss, we decided to call it a night. We asked the bartender for our check, which was like $ 30. Sweet, right? At least the cheap bill was. Again, plenty of attitude upon the delivery of the check and our payment thereof. Finally two of us called her out on it, and her response was, «I have worked here for four years – it’s a habit.» Whaaaat?! I guess what we learned last night is that working behind the bar at Kendalls for four years turns you into a raging bitch.
It’s a shame… they have pretty good wings.

When payday is yet forthcoming at the end of the week and we want to get a drink and some chow earlier in the week, we’ll occasionally go to Kendall’s after work. I think it’s Wednesday when they have $ 5 large thin crust pizzas with 1 topping. Can’t beat that, and while it’s not Pat’s or Gino’s, it’s a-​ok for bar pizza. I think the only other items I’ve had here are wings and tater tots. Not bad, and I haven’t heard any of my friends complain about what they’ve tried here, just that it’s average bar fare like on Kincade’s and Kelsey’s mirrored menus.
Now for the atmosphere…
I didn’t go to DePaul, so I have only experienced the post-​10pm Douchebag Scene on Lincoln Avenue a handful of times. We all know that other people can ruin your experience of a restaurant or bar because of how self-​unaware they are and the way they conduct themselves in public. I am by no means referring only college students of Lincoln Park. I like to drink as much as the next guy, probably more, but for God’s sake, contain yourself and put the porcupine hair and shower shoes away!
Bottom line is that Kendall’s is a solid bar to hit up after work with a few friends, but if you’re into going out late-​night, like Grand Central, avoid Kendall’s at all costs.
I admit that I’m far from perfect and am a kid at heart, but I don’t think I’ve seen more grown men and women act so immaturely in public. It’s kind of like people on Bourbon Street who think that just because New Orleans is known for its «revelry» that it’s okay to act like a douchebag.
My soapbox just caved in… I must stop now!