SideDoor

Server was AWESOME. She really knew her stuff, and her BEERS… The food was excellent, and a great environment. Would go back here anytime!

I grew up in Los Angeles in the 1960s, so I have fond memories of the original Lawry’s and CC Browns Ice Cream Parlor. But I’m rarely in the mood for a complete prime rib dinner, so I was interested in trying the Side Door, since it is essentially the bar for Lawry’s Chicago.
Side Door bills themselves as a gastropub, but to me that implies more eclectic and gourmet food than you’ll find here. This is basically bar food, with an emphasis on hamburgers, sandwiches, and some large salads.
Of course, the most popular item – and the one I tried – is the prime rib sandwich. It was served on the kind of roll you’d get with a French Dip, and with the same au jus, so it was essentially a Prime Rib French Dip, and a good one at that. The prime rib was perfectly medium rare, very tender, and expertly trimmed.
Since the sandwich contains 7 ounces of prime rib it seems a far better deal than their meat plates, which cost the same but contain a mere 4 ounces of meat.
I also tried the curried cauliflower which was good, if a bit dry.
There’s a substantial selection of beers with an emphasis on stouts – a list after my own heart!
The space is divided into two rooms, one a bit too brightly lit, where the meat is prepared, and the other with the typical bar TVs.
Service was extremely gracious and attentive.

Where do I start? I love eating in this old mansion and Lawry’s Prime Rib (which is connected) also gets five stars. SideDoor is laid back and casual but still has a gorgeous ambiance. The prime rib Italian beef sandwich was literally one of the best Italian beef sandwiches I have ever had. The prime rib sandwich was also great and garlic fries are a must. Next time I am going to try one of the meat boards. This is definitely the place to go for a laid back great experience in a pretty fancy place…

Can’t say anything about the food but this place has the best beer selection off North Michigan Avenue. Watch for specials, like the time I came in after a Goose Island dinner and they had three different BCBS variants leftover on tap. Score!

Sidedoor is a quiet bar, just off Rush and Ontario, adjacent to Lawry’s Steakhouse. While I visited on a weeknight, the place never got busy with only a few patrons trickling in as others trickled out. I ordered the blend off the white wine menu and enjoyed it. I doubt that I would return here of my own volition, and would much rather direct others to far better alternatives in the vicinity.

Across from our hotel, the Marriott AC hotel, made it very convenient. Convenience is not a reason we pick restaurants but in this case, it was a good pick. Greeted when we came in the front door. Waitress was soon at our table and was very helpful as this was our first time here. The Side Bar is part of Lawry’s so expect excellent prime rib. I had the prime rib sandwich was excellent. Marie had the Curry Cauliflower. Highly recommend.

Perfect! I just had there mansion burger .O.M.G.
Delicious, but be sure your hungry if you order it.
Sat at the bar as I was dinning alone, very friendly staff. The 3 cheese Mac n cheese with Apple wood smoked bacon and tomato is first rate!
Do it

My hubby first stopped in solo as I lay at nearby Northwestern recovering from surgery. He fell madly in love with the hard to find IPS Maine Beer Co «Another One» on tap and dragged me back after a follow up appt. the Maine beer was no longer on tap but we stayed for lunch. Prime rib sandwich was nice but ordered medium rare and came out very rare. Salads were nicely done and the little bar eating was great with cool posh booths! Very nice place to grab lunch and a drink. Note-​this is the bar of Lawrys restaurant.

It’s good, but you better be ready to food coma after.
Kind of like Lawry’s younger brother, SideDoor offers a cheaper alternative (though be warned, it’s not That much cheaper once you order a few plates…) to the steakhouse. The entrance and interior is kind of dark and gloomy, and screams PUB!
We ordered the Roger’s sandwich, the mac and cheese and brussel sprouts. All were equally greasy and hearty. Nothing was spectacular, but still good.
The drinks selection is definitely nothing to brag about. Would I be back? Probably in a year or so when I can’t figure out what else to eat. but anytime soon? I don’t know that my arteries would like that.

Well at least the décor is great! Was excited to pop in and try their food and cocktails. Well We never got past the cocktails. We sat and waited for 15 minutes before anyone approached us for a drink order. Placed our drink order (a glass of wine and a Sapphire and tonic) which took 10 minutes to get. Then never saw our server again. We wanted to order food. We wanted to order more drinks. Never got the opportunity. Customer service is not their priority. Oh and there were about 10 people in the bar. So it is not like it was packed.
We were completely disappointed. Go there for the décor, but don’t bother to order anything. No one seems to care.

Really a fan of this place. Prices are good, food quality is amazing, and portions are decent.
I especially think the wedge salad is a great deal! It has 4 fist-​sized lettuce halves loaded with bacon and cheese to be comfortably shared among 4 people.
For the meats the carver’s trio is a great deal and we just ordered two to try every meat they had on the menu. The hanger steak is my favorite and whatever they marinate that stuff in is simply amazing! The prime ribs were so soft they melted in my mouth…
Do check your bill tho. We caught two errors in ours and apparently they just switched to a new system and glitches like this happen often. Not a good sign.

Food 5-​stars. Salty, creamy heaven. Not sure I’ve had a pastrami sandwich that was so good. As good as Dillmans.
Atmosphere 4-​stars. Kitchen-​meets-​cool-​kids-​hunting-​lodge vibe with a literal tortoise shell, tile floor, dark wood, mini-​antler theme thing going on. During dinner it was half-​full and music was low enough there were times it felt too quiet, like others were listening in.
Service 2.5-stars. Inattentive, long waits and poor timing. This was for beers, waiting for order, etc.
You’ll see this same theme on most other reviews I’ve now noticed. That’s why Unilocal is great. Tells it like it is.
Well curated draft beer selection was $ 10 – 11 for 12-​oz pour, so that’s high even for the city. Definitely River North pricing.

The concept of this restaurant is great, tasty all American food with some flair (in the back of a nice steak house) at prices that don’t carry the responsibility of the pomp and circumstance in the main dining room.
For everything that the food was (it was seriously pretty good), the service was the opposite. I don’t mind that all of the dishes came out at different times because that fits with the concept but after 45 minutes of everyone else having eaten my wife’s entrée had still not come out, to the waiters apology he admitted he forgot it. While taking orders he tried to be impressive and not write anything down… And clearly it wasn’t a winning strategy. To make matters worse when he went to fill a glass of water, he shattered another glass and little shards went everywhere. He didn’t even offer to replace the desert or other drinks on that side of the table which could have had glass in them. This ended our eating and drinking portion of the meal prematurely.
The icing on the cake was when we heard an employee at the bar saying to a co worker very loudly– «man I only got $ 100 in tips tonight, this sucks»… Overall a pretty good restaurant that needs some serious staff training.

I stopped by here on my lunch and grabbed the roast beef sandwich. It was good to go, but I think it would’ve been better dining in. The meat was tender and tasty. Even after walking back, the meat was not dried out.
If definitely go back next time I’m in Chicago.

When a visit to the purple pig was thwarted because of being closed for redecorating we ended up here.
Nice cozy gentlemen club atmosphere… think high back chairs and lots of suits.
We tried a couple local beers and decided on the housemade corned beef sandwich with a yummy rarebit and grainy mustard on a pretzel roll. Very tasty.
We also got the poutine with chorizo gravy. Talk about a seriously good lunch.
Prices were pretty fair for the area. Our server turned out to be a friend of our mayor back home in st. Pete so we had a great time speaking to him as well.
I’d come back on my next trip north.

SideDoor continues to wow me with its well-​appointed décor and excellent waitstaff — this time around we enjoyed the luscious deviled eggs, a fantastic Belgian quadruple at the recommendation of our server, fresh and crunchy rapini and asparagus, bacon-​rich Brussels sprouts, and two different prime rib sandwiches.

I will preface this review with the fact that we caught them on a bad day. Despite that, I have to review based on my experience and, unfortunately, it was a bad one. Typically, I would start with the pros, but because there were so few of them, I will begin with the cons.
CONS
–Limited Seating. We arrived a little bit before 1pm on Saturday with 11 people. It was clear that they did not have the space for us, but they moved some round barter tables together in an area outside of the dining room to accommodate. It was awkward, but I guess it worked.
–Long wait time for food. A few people straggled in late, but we did not wait for them to order. So then, how is it that the latecomers were served before us? All of our food came out a different times, so different, that I had to eat my meal before it got cold and I was done with my meal before my fiancé was even served.
–Incorrect orders. If the wait time wasn’t bad enough, when they finally started bringing out food, the wrong items were coming out. We had to send back at least 5 things. A few people got the right thing, but prepared wrong, but we had waited so long for the food, it wasn’t worth complaining to send it back just to wait another hour for their food.
–Where is my water??? It was bad enough I had to ask, it was worse that I had to ask for a water refill on the same empty glass four times.
–Where is my waiter??? We had 11 people at our table and we barely saw our waiter. We had more visits by more waiters and a manager by the end of our visit.
–Bagged salad. Need I say more?
PROS
–Had my food come out on time, my burger would have been really good. Unfortunately, it was cold so I didn’t enjoy it to the fullest.
–Because of our bad experience, they comped our meal and 2 rounds of drinks. However, they made us pay for our first round of drinks… at that point, why would you make us pay for anything?
BOTTOM LINE
I’ll never know if this dining experience was a fluke or the norm, because I’m never going back.

Had dinner in lounge area. The few tables in the booth area is quite nice and comfortable. You can watch tv or eavesdrop on conversations at the bar. It’s casual here, but if you like to dress up, go ahead. Anyway, their beer draught menu lists beer from light to dark with probably 4 IL brews and rest from California to Maine. Bottle list is a bit longer with more options for cider, sours and IIPAs. You can do flights of 4 for $ 16.
The menu is simple yet delicious. There’s definitely «bar» food like fish&chips, lettuce wraps, and wings, but if your appetite wants something more «elegant», go for the roasted meat boards. I’d recommend the braised pork belly — its crispy outer edges surrounding melt-​in-​your-​mouth fatty layers and moist meat covered in a sauce that’s full of umami goodness!!! I’m drooling just thinking about it even though I just had it like 5 min ago! I had the Lawry’s wedge and it was good too. 5 mini wedges with chopped egg whites, crumbled blue cheese and beef bacon.
I haven’t tried dessert, but I did save my last sample of a beer flight for last: «Not your father’s root beer», ABV 10.7! And they can make this into a root beer float!
If you want some quietness, come around 5 – 6, but it’ll start to pickup around 7. And this is a Saturday.

SideDoor was a wonderful meal to close out a fun weekend trip to Chicago. It was fantastic to escape the tourist crowds even though this place is located right next to the bustle of the Magnificent Mile. We went right before noon on a major holiday, and there was plenty of seating immediately available. We were a little bummed that the legendary meat board had been retired from the menu, but we quickly forgot once the delicious food came out.
Prime rib poutine: Great. The pickled veggies atop the plentiful meat and gravy added a lovely acidic kick to the all-​around solid appetizer.
Prime rib sandwich: Great. The bread was crispy, the meat was tender and plentiful, and the au jus and horseradish crème added wonderful flavor.
Sticky toffee pudding: Great. This warm, rich cake paired well with the cooling taste of crème anglaise.
The restaurant itself was beautifully decorated with copper tones, rich wood, and a tin ceiling. On top of that, service was extremely friendly; everyone was so warm and courteous that I thought I was back in Texas.

In the fantasy episode of Check, Please! that exists only in my dreams, I get to explain how I feel my pick has a certain gravitas, coming from the manager of one of the city’s best sandwich spots (I am the manager of Xoco.)
My favorite sandwich in Chicago is found here at Sidedoor: the prime rib sandwich. There’s nothing quite like the combo of prime rib, horseradish, softly-​toasted bread and jus! Today was one of my first outings since last fall, a picture perfect spring day in the sixties, blue skies, birds chirping.
Here it’s my day off, it’s early afternoon and I am already back home from an amazing lunch (prime rib sandwich, handmade Idaho potato chips, lemonade because I don’t drink although they have a fantastic craft beer and cocktail list, excellent service from Scott who talked about Game of Thrones, crème brûlée) with an extra prime rib sandwich to-​go in the fridge, kicked back in my chair by the breezy window, digesting delicious Lawry’s prime rib, my brow slightly moist from the meat sweats.