Uberstein

3.5 stars for Uberstine (aka, Hoffbrauhaus). Wandered in to Uberstein after dinner at the Southern, the placard of $ 5 beers had us! You can get 1/​3, ½, 1£ beers here. (But don’t bother with the ¹⁄₃ litre, as it’s a girly-​man beer! Very small.)
Were especially happy we could get a good variety of beers and I enjoyed the Great Lakes Christmas, which is a great fruity amber ale. Our bespecatcled waitress was quirky and cute, and totally on point. She brought us a bunch of Skittles to have with our beer, which is like, my dream!
Didn’t try the food here, but sat by the kitchen, and it seems like a bunch of fried food. There’s an outdoor patio for smokin’, and the place overall is very small, and not very German. Totally off the beaten path, Uberstein is good for a pop-​in for a beer with friends.

Yes! Uberstein is a guilty pleasure that never leaves me feeling guilty. I’ve been here many times after soccer games and the place is always a chill option for good brews. Plenty of beer selection, plenty of good food, and they even occasionally have a ‘mystery bucket’ where you can give em a buck or two and take your chances on grabbing one if the mystery beers from the ice slush within.

What an unexpected good time at Uberstein. Stopped in for a few pints after dinner at The Southern, and I’m so glad we did. Our server was adorable, hilarious, and attentive, and brought us skittles to accompany our beer. We should have asked her to drink with us. They have a good beer selection and local bottled craft beers were $ 3. That along with the 80’s music and videos playing made for a good time. My only complaint: we sat directly across from the kitchen (only seats available) and the smokey deep fried smell was suffocating. Our clothes and hair stink like deep fried everything.

Stumbled here late on a Saturday night after pizza and finishing the alcohol at the residence. I think my friends just wanted to take the German to a German bar haha.
Definitely not the authentic German experience, much more of a sports bar set up. My friends and I were the only ones engaged in actual conversation while everyone had veins exploding over the college football game on the tube.
I appreciated that the had a dunkel beer on tap (Even some decent Oktoberfest though it was out of season). I never had the food here, but the Jaeger on tap was a nice touch!
I had a great time with the staff, really tentative and my drink was never empty with the bar tender actively tending to us, which surprised me since on a busy Saturday night everyone is fighting for a drink.
The bathroom was clean which I am greatful for at any public washroom haha.

Jäger on tap is the only high compliment I have for this bar.
However, it got my friend sufficiently wasted so as to throw up clam chowder on the wall outside.
I also had sex in the bathrooms downstairs a few years ago.
3 STARS! I removed a star because of the sex.

I love this little spot. I never been to the one in Wrigleyville, but this one seems like it would be the best. The Beers are so delicious and you get so much at a very reasonable cost. I love having a giant pretzel with my drink or their hamburger which was very delicious. Great service, nice people, the stereo could use a little adjustment. If I hear the song «We are young» by fun one more time, I am going to snap!
If your looking to get tattoo work the shop across the street is a good place to go to. Tatu tattoo.

Had a hair appointment down the block and was 45 minutes early to Wicker Park/​Bucktown/​Where am I?!
Needed a quick beer. Saw The Southern and decided they wouldn’t know the meaning of «quick».
Saw the Uberstein chalkboard sign outside…”$ 5 craft bottles today”. SOLD!
Went in. Grabbed a bottle. Guy was short, sweet, to the point. I walked out much happier and off to my appt right on time! Menu looked decent too — perhaps I’ll try the Uberstein in my own ‘hood and get Das Boot o’ beer!

The excellent:
Hofbräu on tap, with five varieties available. Liter Mugs and Bierstiefeln are a fun addition. The staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and prompt.
The good:
The pretzels/​brats are decent. There is a very small patio, which is a fenced in no frills area with a few bench tables. It’s nice to drink a good German beer outdoors, with strangers/​friends.
The Bad (in my opinion)
The Indoor space is essentially a sports bar. There are blaring TV’s and bro’s shouting when someone scores a goal. There is even a TV outside. You cant get away from sports, bro. Maybe you’re «into that» though. With so few options for German beer on this end of the city, it would be lovely to have the option to avoid the game. If you are a smoker, you can not do so on the porch.
The summary: Not a German experience, but a sports bar where great beer is served.

Good neighborhood bar. They have good food specials and you can get some cheap stuff if you order right. If I was rating just the beer pretzel, I’d give 5 stars. Yum. But for $ 12 a beer, it’s not worth frequenting. They also tend to over serve, and as a neighbor, its super annoying to hear the chaos that comes with this place on any given night.

I’ve been to the uberstein in wrigleyville and hated it! But who doesn’t hate anything in wrigleyville? This place was so chill and relaxing, our bartender Kristen was super cool and attentive!
You definitely get a lot for your money here and the beer is great!
One less star for the goofy music (Justin bieber, etc…) and the women’s bathroom was questionable!

After we closed down Piece we stumbled down to Uberstein for more booze (long night).
Again we tried the brew on tap and it was fantastic — and again — like my review of Piece, I could not remember (at this point of the night) which brew it was. But I loved it.
Small crowd but very friendly. Bartender was from Michigan and I talked him up about Woodward avenue and so on — great service and we had a good time. When everything else shuts down I would head here — hell I would go there regardless.

It’s good. The beer is good. The food — well, $ 8.75 for a thuringer sausage with 1 ounce of sauerkraut and one ounce of «german potato salad» was a bit pricey. It’s one ounce because they’re served in one ounce containers.
I’ll go back for the beers — the food, not so much although the pretzel was tasty. They have decent specials too

If only this place was closer to my apartment…
The guy and I had driven past it on North Ave. many many times. He wanted to try it because he loves German food and I’m always up for a new thing. We’ve been back a couple times and the experience has always been consistent.
First the food. I’m not a huge German food person by any means (I actually got their more «traditional» fare – a buffalo chicken wrap) but the guy LOVES their food. In his words, it’s just how his German grandma used to make it. He hasn’t found anything there that he doesn’t like (he especially loved the teenie weenies and the veal sausage).
There’s a pretty awesome selection of German beer and you get a «liter or half liter». All I have to say about that is «holy crap».
Everytime we went, we had the same bartender who was friendly and pretty helpful. After a few of those «liters» during the Bears game, I’m almost certain our group was interesting to deal with and she kept smiling.
All in all, I’d definitely go back. It can be a bit of a hike to the other side of Wicker Park, but it’s totally worth it.

This location of Uberstein is smaller than the wrigley one, and has a much more trendy/​upscale feel. its a bit odd being so used to the other one with its more traditional German pub feel.
But good news! They still serve the same great beer in the giant steins, and they even have shot-​skis.

On a busy Friday night beginning with a surprise birthday party and ending with a house warming party, we stopped in here for a beer or two before the second party. We were looking for a chill, laid back bar on North Avenue. I remembered this bar from walking past it to go to my dentist’s office. For me, this is the bar next to the dentist’s.
We found an open table and looked over the menu. I did a seasonal beer to start. We watched some baseball playing in the background during our first round waiting for another friend to arrive. Uberstein was definitely our pace for a bar, relaxed and laid back. It kind of felt like a sports bar with Hofbrau on tap. Our server was attentive during the breather between parties. All in all, Uberstein’s a great, no frills bar on a part of North Avenue full of frills.

Those damn chicken quesadillas!
Yes, I’m raving about what’s traditionally a Mexican dish… but this German-​styled bar in Wicker Park got my attention with their spicy hot rendition, raising the bar on a modern remix of this tasty favorite. All of the ingredients taste quite fresh and the shell is grilled to crispy perfection.
It was hot and muggy this past Saturday and I slid off of a packed and sluggish west bound 72 North CTA bus, which crawled through traffic slower than the grandma paying for a month’s worth of groceries with coins. The North Avenue traffic near Halsted was so bad (as usual) that most of probably could have walked faster… yet people still don’t see this as a reason to get out of their cars and take transit.
With that being said, I decided to pop off of the bus a few blocks east of Damen to avoid the crush of people attending the very popular Wicker Park Fest. After standing up for hours at Clark Street Fest earlier, I decided this was a good opportunity to find a nice, posh bar to get some grub and adult beverages.
The service at this place was almost too damn friendly, at first almost like a department store that means well but follows you around asking if can they help you 100 times.
But the Überstein staff knew when to hold back and let me catch my breath. Later after bugging the bartender to suggest a nice beer to fit the gorgeous weather, I decided to throw back a couple Goose Island Green Line beers before walking over to the festival, which paired wonderfully wit the quesadillas. Wasn’t in the mood for paying $ 7 for lukewarm PBR at a festival.

great beer, great people working behind the bar. been here several times. finally muscled up and purchased THE BOOT. really glad i did. Hofbrau is the best beer around.
the décor is cool inside too. great bar, several flat screens, love the food. definitely check it out when looking for great beer.

$ 8 huge ass Hofbrau Original’s on a Thursday night? YES! I mean you get 1 liter of HB’s original beer for $ 8. I can repeat if you’d like me to… Large beer = $ 8. Ok, you get the point.
Great beer. Super cozy and trendy little German bar in Wicker Park.
Great specials M-​Thurs… The staff is super duper friendly and won’t let your liter of beer go dry :)
I’d go back here in a heartbeat!
**Didn’t try the food but totally want to**

I have mixed feelings about this place. The beer is good, obviously if you like German beer (which I do). However, you also have to be willing to pay premium prices and drink a lot, as they only serve stein-​sized mugs and proper wheat beer glasses (which are huge as well). I did have the pretzel which was damn good (i preferred the mustard over the cheese that came with it). The music was good at times as well and they have a «beer garden» of sorts in the back. Overall a nice addition to the neighborhood, if you are willing to deal with the ski shots taking place from time to time…

Who knew fried pickles could be so good?!
I discovered how great they are last night.
Other things I learned at Ubertein are…
I really do like beer. I admit, drinking too much Miller/​Bud/​Coors light etc caused me to wrongly discriminate against the whole category.
They have the best soft pretzel ever. It puts WestEnd to shame. Although I didn’t care for the sidekick cheese — it’s oddly reminiscent of the neon orange spread I was forced to sell in grade school.
Ski shots are silly, but fun.
Questions that I still can’t answer are…
What’s the patio like? It was miserably cold yesterday so we didn’t check it out.
How exactly do you pronounce Uberstein (do you emphasize the «e» or «i» in stein — «steen» or «stine»?) We asked our waitress who admitted that even after working at their Wrigleyville location for quite some time she didn’t know.
Why can’t I order a boot of beer? The boots are there I can see them by the bar, but you wouldn’t let us have one. Not cool.