Sam & George’s

A niece neighborhood restaurant. Huge menu selection, know for their skillets. The food is good. The chicken wagon wheel soup is very flavorful. The spaghetti is really good, full of flavor too.

Solid place for breakfast.
It’s a popular spot for locals. You can sense the patron loyalty the moment you step through the doors. The friendly owners greet everyone, ask about family, and make each person feel welcome.
The breakfast portions are huge! I ordered the breakfast burrito and while delicious with the flavorful chorizo, it was too much to eat. Didn’t take much convincing for my husband to help finish it off though. The fruit plate looked colorful and refreshing (didn’t get it, but it looked good).
If you are looking for a family-​feel diner, this is the place!

Been here tons of times for breakfast and brunch. I’ve never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a table. Cute outdoor seating. The servers are all wonderful and make you feel super welcome.

The owners or management are always very pleasant and it’s always easy to get a seat here. This is basic diner food so that is the only reason for 3 stars. However it’s the best diner food in the surrounding area.

Great breakfast/​brunch spot. Food servings were huge, and everything fresh and delicious. Greasy, buttery kinda breakfast (don’t hope for healthy here!). Service was good — everyone was very nice. Will definitely go back for breakfast/​brunch, next time when I have a hangover and need greasy food!

Wanted to checkout a new breakfast place when in the city, so decided to head up to Lakeview and check out Sam & George’s. Great place and did not disappoint!
Went in on a Sunday morning and was sat right away. Had an old school feel to it, which was nice because we weren’t exactly looking for a modern place to go to (ex. Unilocal). If you are going there for breakfast, go for the skillets! They have an entire page of skillets available for whatever you are looking for. I ordered a chicken skillet which included hash browns, grilled chicken, swiss cheese and eggs on top. So good and couldn’t even finish it because the portions were so big!
Great value for the price and would visit again!

I love love LOVE this place! If you haven’t been, yet, you definitely should go. I come here all the time. The staff is so sweet and friendly! They always remember me and make me feel like family.
The food is delicious! I recommend the cheeseburger club or the biscuits and gravy if you’re unsure of what to get. It’s a little on the pricey side as far as diner food goes, but that is because the portions are HUGE. I go home with another meal each time I visit. You could probably share a dish with another person if you really wanted, but it’s so good you might not want to! They have really good coffee, too.
Overall, a great place to come with friends for any meal of the day! :)

We stumbled in after a nearby place quoted an hour wait. We waited maybe five minutes here! Great typical breakfast foods. You’ll find everything you could want and walk out full. We each had a skillet and were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed every last bite. Quick, friendly service too! Will definitely be back.

There’s a reason this place has been around for
Such a long time. Family owned, fast no nonsense service, and exceptional diner fare. Brunch is the best here, and seating at the bar is entertaining watching the 80s TV which is so refreshing that they have not replaced. This place is like being in a John Hughes movie. Chicago at its best. Places like this are rare these days and I hope they never close. +plus up tip. If you have a hangover, order a cup of chicken soup. You will be temporarily fixed up until your skillet arrives!

Waitress was super friendly! We felt so welcomed. Had the ham and cheese omelet and the matts son skillet. So great!

Owner was EXTREMELY rude to our group — made rude comments directly towards us. We thought he was joking at first until it became clear he was being serious. He also yelled at staff in front of customers. Definitely ruined the meal. Never going back to this place.

Sometimes I just want a no frills breakfast that reminds me of growing up in my small town in Southern Illinois. S&Gs hits the spot. This place is absolutely wonderful. Be prepared to be overwhelmed by the menu, there’s a lot to choose from. It should satisfy everyone’s needs!
*The skillets are wonderful as well as the chicken fried steak/​biscuits and gravy. The gravy is also homemade no box meals here!

Let me preface this review with I love diners and always tried to see the best in them but this place fell so short.
When you first arrive:
Sam & George’s gives the classic diner vibe with ample booths which is a plus. Sam & George’s is extremely spacious with tons of seating in the front and in the back room. No matter how busy the restaurant is you will not have to wait too long to be seated.
Service:
The waitress we had was very pleasant but one waitress was extremely overbearing and made my friend and I feel uncomfortable.
Food:
I ordered the avocado skillet which is essentially hash browns, avocado, eggs, toast, and four cheeses. After receiving my food I noticed that they gave me a ton of avocado which is typically a great thing but 70% of the avocado they gave me was brown. I decided to remove the brown avocado and place it on a separate place and a waitress that was nearby started questioning me as to why I didn’t eat it. She even tried to force brown avocado on my friend that I was with. She obviously wasn’t doing it out of malice but she couldn’t take the obvious hit that we wanted her to leave us alone.
Aside from the brown avocado the entire meal was cold and lacked so much flavor. I was both disappointed and impressed with the food. I was disappointed because everything I order was so basic and left little room to mess it up. I was equally impressed because they found a way to mess up a basic skillet and make me dislike my first diner.
Overall:
I wouldn’t recommend this place unless you are looking for cheap and mediocre food. Breakfast is the easiest meal to make but Sam & George’s has a unique way of making it seem so much more complicated.

Cute little diner that I wandered into after reusing to wait an hour at another brunch place. It was pretty busy, but after about 5 minutes my friend and I were seated. The menu is very extensive with a large variety — typical of a diner.
Got a vegetarian omelette with a side of potatoes that was pretty good! Portions were sizable — paid $ 15 including tax/​tip for a full plate (and full stomach)
It’s hard to mess up breakfast food, so the reason I’m giving this place 4 stars is due to the friendly/​quick service and large portions.
I’d come again — probably to try a skillet!

Solid breakfast, pretty standard diner food. Service is really fast and the people working there are really nice. Good option if you’re looking for a nice quick breakfast, but nothing particularly special.

This place is surprisingly close to where I live, so it’s a shock it took me this long to come here. We came here on a Friday morning, after an entire day of drinking the night before with a group of 6. My boyfriend picked the spot because he was curious in seeing their huge menu of skillet options. We both decided on the combo while our friends got an assortment of chicken fried steak, french toast, chicken tender skillets, biscuits and gravy, ham, and bacon from their rather very large menu. We ordered a ton of food and our waitress was very attentive and able to bring out all the food in a fairly quick amount of time. I thought the food was pretty good. It is your typical diner style huge filled plates that leaves you unable to get up from the table because you need to digest. It was also reasonably priced. And a pleasant surprise is that for a diner, they have a small outdoor seating area on the side of the restaurant.

Love S&Gs. Love Johnny and Franny. We prefer to sit at the bartop so we can enjoy the staff. The food is diner food with the family feel. Their skillets are a sure thing, there are over 20 options. Omelets are top notch, and their english muffins are great. We have only had breakfast in over 20 visits but based on that I’d certainly be willing to try lunch and dinner.
This place makes you feel like people are glad you’re there and want you to enjoy your experience. Johnny is there probably 6 days a week and makes the place. The kitchen staff also makes a mean homemade tomatillo salsa so if you like green salsa, make sure to ask for some.

I just came back from Sam & George’s to write my first Unilocal review ever. I’m channeling my inner Stefon when I say, «This place has… everything!»
Impeccable service, a friendly diner vibe, but without the greasy diner food. They made you feel like you were a guest in their house. And their menu says they were voted Best Skillet in Chicago… I believe it! I had the Panhandler Skillet which has steak, onions, green peppers and cheese. It was out-​of-​control delicious. I’ve been to other diner-​like restaurants such as Melrose (which to me is more like a Waffle House) but I absolutely loved Sam & George’s. You can get the skillet, and then take it home for another meal. They have healthy options and their ingredients are local and very fresh.
Everyone engaged with us… not just our waitress. And it seemed like they knew everyone who came in the door. I would highly recommend and I can’t wait to go back! It was most certainly one of the best breakfast experiences I have had in Chicago!

I’ve visited here twice now, once in June and now in July. The food is Ok to good, depending on what you order. The chopped steak is good. The soups are good. Salad, very nice. Breakfast was … meh but it was diner food. Certainly better than Ann Sather, another «popular» breakfast place in the area.
However … I have now found the worst example of customer service on the whole planet. I believe he’s the owner. He has white hair and a burry little moustache. During the 65 minutes I was there this week, he *continually* chastised his staff over minor matters. He was very rude to a customer about the doneness of a steak or something he ordered. He moped about the place and generally cast his negative voodoo vibes all over the restaurant. I could not believe how he addressed his staff … Very rude! This individual needs to retire or go away or something. He made me feel so uncomfortable that I left before I was finished eating. I had indigestion, not from the food, but from his shit-​ass attitude.

The bf and I recently took a trip to Chicago for my birthday. After a full, exhausting day of sightseeing, we had brunch reservations down on the river the following morning. But the night before, when we were about to go to sleep — completely exhausted from our 82 mile Chicago walking day — I turned to him and said, «How about we get 4 hours instead of 3 hours of sleep tonight, ditch the schfancy reservation, and walk around Lakeview until we find a place to eat breakfast at?»
And that’s how we happened upon an incredible breakfast at Sam & George’s. At this super duper laid back diner, they specialize in the friendliest, chattiest servers in the world, the freshest fresh-​squeezed orange juice in the Americas, and the most robust, incredible egg skillets to have ever graced my lips. It was a beautiful accident ending up at Sam & George’s, and the bf will probably still affirm that this was his favorite meal we had in Chicago.