McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon

Love this place. Good service, large beer selection, great price, fun casual crowd. I got their bullet whiskey special, and insisted my friend got the draft «Not your fathers root beer» because it’s normally $ 9 for a small glass on draft at World of Beer in Evanston but it was $ 6 for a larger pour here. Not your fathers root beer is delicious.

McFadden’s is the Ultimate college bar. The weird thing is that the prices don’t seem to match the college budget. Drinks are still quite pricey, and they are served to you in dinky little plastic cups! Shots are served the same way and they never pour a full shot. It was extremely disappointing how much they were skimping on the alcohol with their weak drinks.
The crowd here is extremely young, low twenties (if even!) Because of that they’re always playing a good assortment of dance hits, which I must admit makes for a pretty fun dance scene! Beware: they’re open until 4AM on the weekend, so this place gets WILD! It’s very normal to find girls dancing on the bar, and guys starting fights on the weekends.

the waiter is so impolite and is suspiciously discriminating me. i forgot to bring my id and i asked my friend to bring here. he disallowed me to wait inside even if i just stayed at the entry room. he expelled me out of the restaurant while it’s so cold outside. it’s the first time i come here and it quite disappoints me. finally mt friend brought me my id and i
entered. i kept polite all the time and couldn’t bear that inconsiderate and impolite waiter.
the photo of the impolite waiter:
I hope the manager of the restaurant can see this and tell him to be more friendly next time. thanks!

Great vibe awesome looking saloon on the inside great service j j who took my order was friendly and made me feel at home. The Mac and cheese was delicious. I will be back soon.

I remember coming here when it first opened. It was a cool gold coast irish sportsbar with good specials and staff. Now, almost ten years later, I think its a candidate for Bar Rescue.
Went one evening during the week and the place is a mess. Walked up and found someone who looked like they slept in their clothes loitering in the entry way. I thought wtf. Later found out that he was supposed to be the bouncer. They have a bouncer, in the early evening, when there’s about three people inside. Okkkkkkk.
Sat down and made a joke with the server that there must be alot of fights there, because three of the bars seven or so windows are cracked and broken. He laughed and said no there’s not. Ok, well why are almost half the windows broken? That’s not normal right?
Seems like alot of the staff are friends because that’s basically who all the other customers were — staff on their off-​shift just hangin out. They were all mocking a customer who must have just left, for asking for a beer that they don’t have. And none of them had ever heard of it. They’re all idiots.
They have good specials. I got a hamburger, and it was borderline bad. But the fries were amazing.
All the lights were on very bright for a bar like this, and there was no music. Instead they somehow got a college basketball game on from one of those no-​name east coast schools that no one cares about. And that’s what we all had to listen to. And apparently they can’t change it, because one guy asked and they wouldn’t change.
Someone went complete apeshit in the men’s bathroom. The stall doors were broken, someone ripped the mirror off the wall, and the paper towel dispenser, and the soap dispenser. And a bin of colognes and mints and other crap, presumably from the weekend, was sitting there.
I really think they want to be shut down. One of the bartenders was late for her shift and was loudly explaining/​bragging that it was because of all the diarrhea she was having. Gotta be kidding, I’m eating! Forget this place, I’m calling Jon Taffer right now.

This place is awesome! The happy hour rocks, and Ted is one of the best bartenders I’ve ever seen! A bartender myself for 20 years he has taught me a thing or two about keeping a smile on your face when your slammed outta your mind! Thank you Ted for making this stop worthwhile!

Went here for a friends happy hour. We were suppose to have half off food and drinks, which the hostess confirmed with us.
The bartender Nate, who smoked his e-​cigarette told my boyfriend to go «fuck himself» upon paying the bill. He charged us all full price.
Upon complaining about this situation we received gift cards from the party hostess who was very kind.
Refuse to go to this bar if Nate works…

Went there a few days ago late morning, the food was disgusting and the waitstaff was rude and condescending to my friends and myself. This is a place to avoid at all cost. Cold food and rude waitress does not make me want to spend my money here…

I had a great time here with a group of friends. We got some special discount because one of my buddies won a lucky draw. The music was good, crowd was good, overall a nice place to be. There was pretty good space but it was crowded on a saturday night.

This bar’s owner and staff display blatant homophobia and sexism.
I do not advise this bar if you have self respect.

I’d give this place zero stars if I could. My friends and I walked into this bar around 8:15 on a Saturday night. The place was pretty dead, which was fine. We were just looking to chat anyway. 2 of my friends went to the bar and my other friend and I went to the bathroom. They got their drinks and I waited to be served at the bar… And waited… And waited. The bartender walked past us four or five times and waited on everyone else. He even counted out his tips and never stopped by us. After 10 minutes of being completely ignored we walked away. I
We moved to a table and the waitress stopped by to clear the empty place. She passed by another four or five times, and again, didn’t ask if we needed anything.
t’s hard to spend money, when no one waits on you.
I won’t be back.

I’ve been going to McFadden’s for years. The place is always clean, the staff is always super friendly, and there’s always great prices on drinks.
When it’s nice out, they open up the patio and there’s more seating out there. There is a second bar in the back near a dance floor and more seating. It’s a great place to go to watch a game, or to kick back and have some wine outside.
I always make a point to go grab a drink or 50 when I go back to visit Chicago.

Do not EVER EVER GO HERE. I was sexually molested at this bar, and the guy who did it was allowed to stay because he was friends with the owner. It is never okay to touch a women inappropriately. The bouncer told me it was out of his hands. The man continued to stare at me all night and make me feel uncomfortable.
I used to go here all the time because the music is amazing. I will never return.

I visited McFadden’s bar literally 20 minutes ago and had the worst experience in terms of customer service compared to any bar in Chicago. The bouncers at this bar are not only aggressive but even resort to physical violence against their customers in a vain attempt to establish their authority. While most other people who experience this extremely disgusting attitude may not make the extra effort of posting a review of this establishment, I believe it to be my responsibility to warn future customers to avoid this bar at all costs. My personal experience at McFadden’s was a civil conversation with a bouncer that resulted in an unprovoked and grossly unjustified reaction where a bouncer physically assaulted me. The bouncer in question believed I was too intoxicated to enter this establishment (based on this review I am writing right after leaving you can judge the validity of that judgement). While I understand that bars and clubs may have their reasons for denying people entry into their establishment, the use of physical violence against paying customers is not only unethical, but is devoid of any form of rational reasoning.
I would give this establishment less than 1 star if Unilocal allowed me to do so, but I am only posting this review to protect other people from enduring the grossly disrespectful behavior of the staff of this bar.
After my altercation, not only did the bouncer in question immediately leave the scene (an obvious sign of guilt), but «management» staff who were not even present when the altercation took place appeared to deny any wrong doing on the part of their staff without any realistic evidence on which to base that assessment.
The staff of this enterprise are unruly, mismanagement and prone to violence.

Never ever again.
Went for a «Free Party» that I won in a raffle.
Nothing was free about it.
Everyone of my guests in my party was pretty wasted but the next day the charges on our credit cards were nothing but ridiculous.
–we had half off drinks and no food was added. When I called the next day to see how my amount was so high, nothing was able to be explained to me of why the charge.
Won’t be back.

I thought about giving McFadden’s two stars but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. This really was a terrible place and I can firmly say I will never come here again.
Several weeks ago, I tried to book a room at a bar for my 30^th birthday. Declan’s let me down (read that review separately) so someone pointed me in McFadden’s direction. I organized my evening with Megan, which was easy via email and phone. Megan was super responsive and helpful, so I had high hopes for this restaurant/​bar. I paid $ 100 to reserve their «VIP» room for a Saturday evening, which is pretty cheap considering most places wanted almost $ 1000 (including room reservation and consumption guarantees). I was psyched to get this place so cheap, especially considering I was basically allowed to let my partygoers do whatever they wanted.
I arranged to have a $ 30 wristband available that included draft beer, well drinks, wine and pop. Here’s where things start go get fishy. Via phone and email, I was promised our group would have a server and access to a full menu of food. Come the night of the event, there was only ONE waitress in the entire bar/​restaurant on a SATURDAY night with a Hawks game playing. You’d think that the bar would have prepared for a packed house since people were coming here for the game but they didn’t, which seems like poor planning. My $ 100 room fee could have paid for a dedicated server for 3 hours (at least) since they probably only make minimum wage anyway. There was also only ONE bartender for the entire bar, which made ordering drinks incredibly difficult. What is the point in paying for this wristband if you’re not even going to serve us drinks? Also, why is no one working here on a Saturday night when this place is presumably at its busiest?!
So now we’re here and we can’t really leave because I’ve already paid for this stupid room and the bartender explains it’s only DOMESTIC drafts so one of my guests can’t order a Heineken (even though that wasn’t explained ahead of time since the email just said ‘drafts’). All of the well drinks were the WEAKEST POURS ever (which other reviewers have complained about) and it took each person about 10 minutes to even get the bartender’s attention each time someone went up.
I was also promised a room that would «seat 20 comfortably» but when we went in there were literally only 12 seats for people. That’s it: two couches for three people and six other chairs at tables. We had 24 people in our group so… what the fuck? I asked the bartender if we could move tables and chairs into the room and he said yes but no employee here bothered to help us actually move anything.
Our server came in the room a total of FOUR times during our four hours in there (from 5:30 — 9:30). People ordered food that never came or took like over an hour to come out of the kitchen. One person in our party ordered a diet coke three times and never even got the drink. At all. I thought if we were paying to reserve a room and give you our business that you would actually care to serve us and make us feel comfortable instead of leaving us feeling shitty and complain-​y all night.
Megan came in that evening and I expressed my concerns to her and she bought the entire room a round of shots for our trouble, which is a bullshit move. I would have rather had a beer and/​or had some of my money refunded since the whole night was just shitty.
I can definitely say I will NEVER come here again and I advise those people looking to possibly throw a party here to run as far as you can and book it somewhere else. McFadden’s is not worth it, especially since this place turns in to the third circle of hell after 10 because it’s full of sorority bitches and drunk bros. If you’re over 24, you’re WAY too old to be here, which we learned the hard way.

Coming from a planned party
No staffing ! One bartender for the whole place. Party, major sports night, Saturday night it was ridiculous Sold 3 hour bracelets but unable to get drinks. Food, what’s that. Poor management !

I’ve only been here when me or my friends win one of their deals for friday/​saturday nights, it’s loud and can get packed, which i’m not a fan of, and it’s almost impossible to park near there, but the deals are good deals, and if that’s your kind of scene then you won’t be disappointed, a lot of people enjoy it, it’s just not necessarily my scene

This place is 100% a college bar. I have nothing good to say about this place so I will just start off with the bad things they do. They have so many colleve students at this bar that you cant move or go to the bathroom so you will need to hold it all night. There is always a fight that happens at the end of the night. Someone is always puking in the bathroom or outside and the place smells like puke. They have terrible customer service. Also in the summer they dont have air conditioning so you will sweat your ass off, even in the winter time because of the terrible ventalation.
I dont recommend this place to any of my friends and I avoid it at all cost.

I don’t hate it…
Wow! Um, how do I even review this experience? Does WOW work okay for all those good and bad wows in life? (World Of Wonders!)
So many pros and cons! Oh my my my!
Perhaps my weakest recent review being the only way to make it useful is «miss long winded» has no words for this!
I am in Chicago, not Indianapolis, and ended up on the Broadripple Avenue of Chicago. That’s epic! I know Chicago has much more to offer, but when you come from an area of college campus bars, downtown divey townie bars, and then a smaller city an hour south where you had some of your prime 21 – 25 year old days there on Broadripple Avenue (representing the «B-​Rip», holla holla!) bar crawling around… LMAO… This place isn’t so bad. Nothing like remembering those days when we too were probably the drunken entertainment for others. I don’t know how «fabulously entertaining» I was in my golden days, but this is totally entertaining for me today.
I think I’ll have another beer and enjoy people watching for sure!
…Look at what we have here! LMAO.
CHEERS!

If you are a fan of beer, consider yourself lucky if you are walking by this Irish themed pub on Wednesday. On Wednesday, they serve Miller draft beer for a $ 1.
McFadden is a New York bar & restaurant with a Chicago presence since 1977. This location is where the fast paced downtown environment of State Street merges with the laid back treelined residential environment of State Parkway. It is where the high rises blend in with historic architecture. It is where the local and visitor meet. And, It is where my family and I delayed an hour touring along State Parkway. The $ 1 Miller draft special sign gravitated us from the sidewalk into McFadden.
The McFadden that we enjoyed a couple Miller drafts on a Wednesday afternoon was the antithesis of the happening place that it supposedly is at night. This bar slash restaurant was quiet. It was us, a few locals, a personable bartender and Major League Baseball playing on one of the few TV’s over the elongated mahagony bar. The noise level was low while the quality of relaxation was high. We could easily hear our conversations and the baseball game. The personable bartender was on the 8 ball. The two Miller drafts I drank were from decent sized glasses. There is no catch to the special. My eyes weren’t always focused inside the bar. McFadden is open to State Parkway. The transition to the bar is a few steps off the sidewalk. During business hours air separates the sidewalk from the business. This setup increases the quality of the experience. It is healthy to see the sun. And watching people passing by on State Parkway, at times is equally as entertaining as the professional sports playing above on the TV. After spending an hour here, we’d be passing by State Parkway ourselves.
My pictures of McFadden:

I went there this past Sunday to watch the Blackhawks game as it is an «official» Blackhawks bar. I was with a group of about 10 and we pushed a few tables together. When we arrived at around 6 it wasn’t busy at all. However, it took at least 30 minutes for a waiter to stop over. We actually went to the bar twice to get our own pitchers before a waiter checked in with us.
We ordered some appetizers for the table and a few people in the group ordered their own food. We waited another 30 minutes for the appetizers to come out (nachos) and those who ordered their own food waited nearly an hour to get their meals. One person in the group actually never got his food at all!
Now on to the quality… the beer lines at this place are either FILTHY or the beer is old. Our pitchers of beer were flat and tasted funny. The beer wasn’t even cold. As for the food, I think rats probably find more appealing meals in dumpsters behind Taco Bell. The nachos tasted like they’d been made three days prior and reheated multiple times. I didn’t order my own meal however the food others ordered didn’t look terribly appetizing.
I will never step foot in this place again. It’s a waste of time and money.

Un super bar où aller traîner lorsque vous êtes dans la Gold Coast de Chicago, les bières sont bonnes, l’endroit est grand et le personnel est sympa. C’est un endroit convivial où j’ai aimé passer du temps à né rien faire :)