Northdown Café and Taproom

Excellent beer selection and great food to boot! It’s rare that you’ll find a bar with so many vegetarian options and each dish I’ve tried has been great. The vibe is also great and the staff friendly. Don’t think about it, just go.

Absolutely stellar craft beer bar with great tap selections and a ridiculous amount of canned and bottled selections in the heavily-​stickered cooler. The guy working Friday afternoon was great, had solid recommendations, and held a conversation with us about Chicago, Milwaukee, music, and beer for the duration of our visit. He even shared a taster of a beer where they had just switched the tap. I had the standard burger with fries plus a cup of chili, while my friend attacked a delicious looking chili mac dish. Food was prepared quickly with care and attention and was washed down with several cold brews. The chili was delightful, with more of a tomato base than expected, making it a great accompaniment to the chilly spring afternoon. The burger was juicy and the brioche bun managed to hold up to the size of the handmade patty and toppings. I think North Northdown is a hidden gem and I’d absolutely stop in again!

Good service, and good vegan brunch!

Absolutely empty but because we had a baby, «house rules» was going to seat us in the back instead of next to the wanted window. No thank you.

Friendly bartender, delicious vegan breakfast sandwich, and excellent beer and cider list. I’ll definitely be back.

We went here for an early lunch on a week day when the place was pretty empty. The guy behind the bar was very amiable. Looking at the menu we were surprised to see Vegan options but we ended up going with the chicken sandwich and fries. The sandwich was very delicious but the real star was the fries. They were seasoned to perfection and the hot sauce was on point as well. The décor was very fun to look at and they were playing a movie on the TV above the bar. The place is a lot bigger than it looks, with arcade games and art for sale on the back walls. Would definitely return to try the Vegan options and eat those fries again!

Hands down my favorite place to drink beer in Chicago. So much so, I actually moved to Lakeview to be closer… well it was one of the reasons :) A great beer selection is important but for me, having nice people serving it weighs in just as heavily. Everyone there is super nice and it’s honestly the only place in Chicago that makes me feel like I am home in San Diego. The food is solid as well. I am really happy I made the decision to move closer. I take all my friends that visit from CA to Northdown!

A wonderful neighborhood bar. The servers/​bartenders are awesome friendly, the beer & specialty drink selections are great and the food is pretty tasty.

Northdown never lets me down! The burger is good, the beer great, and the service is even better. Whether I’m here to belly up for some cutting edge craft beers or their signature burger and some sweet potato fries with their cumin mayo, I always leave satisfied.
Hang out at the bar and you’ll get to talkin’ craft beers with passionate drinkers, and you might meet a local craft brewing celebrity! The fundraiser event Lions, Tigers & Beers was fun, and very popular. It’s definitely going on my annual calendar, and should be on yours, too. Northdown never lets me down!
When I believed in nothing I called your name
Trapped in a high-​dollar joint in some place I called your name
And though my days were slipping by
And nights so cruel I thought I’d die
She danced her little dance till it made me cry
She was shaking like this honey doing that
Never let me down
You never let me down
Never let me down
You never let me down
Thanks, David Bowie, and thanks, Northdown!

Every time I come here, I really want to like it because they have great vegan options for me on the menu. But it seems every time, the service gets worse and worse. Today we came in a little after 12 for Sunday brunch and there was only a couple people at the bar, and it took 15 minutes to get our drink situation taken care of. Then a large group came in and we were ignored for a good 20 minutes before I had to walk up to the bar and ask if she could come take our food order and let her know we had been waiting for a very long time. We got our food finally after having been there for an hour at this point, and the portions were tiny and the breakfast potatoes were not cooked all the way through. Large chunks of potato that were still practically crunchy raw.
Sadly this level of service has been a running theme every time we come to northdown. It’s fine if you sit at the bar and only order drinks, but don’t ever come here if you have anywhere else to be in the next 2 and a half hours, as there’s ever only one server working the entire front of the house, no matter how busy it is. I’m at least glad to be moving out of this neighborhood soon, as I’m not going to miss this place anymore.

Horrible food. The Cook was disheveled looking and I saw him picking his beard while plating. The prices are way to high for such low quality food and small portions
The bartender was rude and I believe he shorted my change. I will never return to this sorry excuse for a bar

Northdown has a great vibe, an excellent beer selection and a variety of vegan dishes. That said, none of the vegan food is any good.
We got the vegan pork frites ($ 12 for a full order) which were basically fries slathered in gooey sauce with some tofu on top. It was a soggy mess and not particularly tasty. Also, the fries were under-​cooked.
The vegan viper mac and cheese ($ 11) had a highly acidic, numbing taste. I could only take a few bites before giving up on it.
The vegan burger and vegan sausage are just Field Roast products slapped onto white flour buns. Neither tasty nor creative; this was literally food from the grocery store, heated up and served to me at a 100% markup.
While the food was underwhelming (at best), I did like the chill, pretension-​free vibe and friendly service. I also loved the beer selection.
If Northdown put more effort into its food, and made things from scratch (how about a home-​made seitan sandwich?) it would warrant a second visit. As it stands, I’d come here only for the drinks and ambiance.

We came in for lunch when it was less than ten degrees out. The place was warm and friendly. They had an amazing list of drinks and we recommend the bee nectar meade. For food, we ordered the bbq pork fries and macaroni and cheese. Everything’s fantastic. Highly recommend trying those with a group. The only thing preventing a five star review is the bar nut for five dollars. It’s a pack of airline nuts. I get it, it’s trendy and local and hip but they’re just nuts.

Coat hooks: yes, under the bar seating
Also, fries are nicely seasoned, but get a bit too greasy in that basket, food portions are normal sized but the plates are tiny.

Their food is such great comfort food !
Excellent beer selection also, the owner Tom came and hung out with us, we all had a wonderful time !
Highly recommend this place !

Hit up Northdown on New Years Day after many hours of watching football. This is not your typical Lakeview bar, not with its dark interior, silent movie playing on the TV and metal-​heavy soundtrack. It still feels exceptionally low key though which I appreciated.
They have an absolutely massive beer list, but I wasn’t in the mood after NYE the night before… We started with the pork fries which were really tasty and plenty big enough to share among 4 – 5 people. They come with a really good Gouda cheese sauce. For dinner I went with the 3 Floyds beer battered grilled cheese which was really good. The beer flavor is definitely present in the bread but not overpowering. Several people at my table got the Northdown burger and that looked really good too!
All the sandwiches come with a generous portion of fries. Pro-​tip: Save the extra Gouda sauce for your fries. You’ll thank me later. Service was solid, if not a bit slow but it didn’t really bother me. Our server was funny and very down to Earth.
Really solid place over in the west part of Lakeview. Would definitely come back!

******AVOID AT ALL COSTS. *******
Food was cold. Fries were cold. Drinks were warm. Service was roller coaster.
Sat down ordered a lemonade. It came and it tasted like the fakest lemon water I’ve ever tasted.
Ordered half size piled pork Frits — were really good! So it gave me hope for the entrée.
Ordered the «Chill-​i» dog. It was cold. The bun could have kept a door open on a windy spring day. Fries were cold. So sent them back… Receipt came… THEY CHARGED ME FOR THE FUCKING REPLACEMENT FRIES. WHAT THE FUCK.
When we asked to split the bill 3 ways the fucking waitress’s mood went from what I like to call «peppy punk» to snooty white bitch.
So over this place. Should really consider changing some things. And possibly getting a chef who can heat up the food they make.

Reviews like these are hard because the beer list was great, waitress was very nice, and I overall liked the place.
But the food… oh man.
Let me start this off by saying I’m not a vegan– I’m lactose intolerant. So if I have the right pills and think it’s worth the risk, I can enjoy the taste of real dairy. I still limit those times and have had some really great cashew cheese dishes, so for months I was looking forward to try Northdown’s vegan mac and cheese. Mac and cheese is the one thing I never risk eating because it’s just too much dairy.
I just… it was horrible. It had NO flavor. It was like watered-​down buttery noodles. There were chunks of cashews in the sauce. It also had very funky smell to it, as well as a taste I just couldn’t get out of my mouth. And to top it all off, it was $ 12. That is just way too much money for any mac and cheese with no toppings.
I read reviews of how great the sauce is, so it must have just been an off batch, or maybe it’s simply because I do occasionally have real dairy. But knowing I’ve had some really good cashew sauces elsewhere, I’m doubting it’s the latter.

I was here the other day with two friends and we ordered fries. Just fries. There were three of us, we ordered the small (er) size fries, they were delicious and incredibly plentiful. We sat for about an hour in the afternoon and chatted. It was great.

Don’t take children here. They’ll put you in the dark back room (even if you’re the only party in the restaurant) and mostly forget about you. I tried to share my experience (poor service, blah vegetarian food) with the manager via email at their request discreetly and never got a reply.
Restaurants: if you don’t want children in your establishment, just say as much when we walk in. It’s cool.

This place was pretty average. I got the beer battered grilled cheese, my roommate got the vegan burger made from hazelnuts and then we split the pork fries.
I was really craving a nice crunchy grilled cheese and heard really good things about this one. When I got it I was pretty disappointed to not have that crunch from a good grilled cheese. The beer batter made the bread kind of like French toast so between the tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. It was just mush. I like different textures. I would be curious to just try the regular grilled cheese but wouldn’t pay $ 10 for that. That’s a little overpriced.
My roommates burger was really interesting on the other hand. The hazelnut burger kind of tasted like falafel and had a great crunch to it. It was really good!
The pulled pork on the fries was just ok. kind of lacking that really good flavor that you usually get. Otherwise the fries were fine. nothing special.
This place was ok. Don’t know if I would come again.