Rookie’s All-American Pub & Grill

I’m in agreement with the majority of other reviewers, good bar food, horrible service.
Incompetent hostesses who cannot manage tables & parties waiting to be seated.
Tables that sit empty and dirty while people wait.
Groups of 2 or 3 being sat at the tables that seat 6+.
Rude, rude manager who is unfriendly and often unseen or looks down over the chaos in the restaurant from his perch by the kitchen door.
Slow, slow, slow service.
Long wait for food.
Forget about sitting outside, you will be forgotten, the one time we asked to sit outside we ended up leaving because no one ever came to get our drink order despite the fact that the patio was full of people and staff.
Elgin is a much better location service wise, but I feel like their food isn’t as good. It’s a toss up really, I guess. Heard these people also owned The Village Squire… Hard to believe.

Love the food here! The service, however, does not match the quality of the food. There have been many occasions when we have walked in and stood at the hostess stand not been greeted for 2 – 5 minutes. We have been seated at a table and the waitress never came over to the table and after 20 minutes of sitting there, we walked out. I have ordered food to go and am told it will be ready in 45 minutes. I arrive at the restaurant 45 minutes later and wait another 30. We ask for extra sauce to go or no pickle, etc and it is almost always ignored.
Improve the service here! These things would never happen at the Elgin location.

I’ve been to I think 3 of the Rookies including this location and I like them, however the other locations are too «busy» for me, plus this one is closer to where I live. I really like this location, it’s great for watching sports and the crowd is usually good to be around. I read other reviews and I’m really not sure where they’re coming from. I mean this is a great sports bar, it’s supposed to be a fun sports bar, that’s the point. A couple times I’ve been here for sports games the bartender Jen with reddish hair served me. She was very nice to me, and if you’ve read my other reviews I care about atmosphere and I liked this atmosphere. She was genuine and smiled a lot so you really can’t beat that. I Look forward to returning for the playoffs and wings or pizza.

Been coming here for past 2 – 3 years on rare occasions. But NEVER again. Especially after what my eyes saw today. They have a deal for endless soup/​salad and a half sandwich so my coworker and I picked that. We both got a turkey sandwich and I got the chili and he asked for the garden salad. We sat in the back-​left of the place (as you walk in) by the TV’s and the slot machines. Unfortunately, this gave us a view into the kitchen and directly into the prep table.
As our waitress walked to pick up our plates, we asked for refill on chili and garden salad. She walked back and my coworker noticed that our waitress was actually the one that makes the salad. He noticed that she didn’t wear any gloves as she reached her bare hand into each container to prepare his salad. She brought the food out and my coworker was a little concerned. So I ate my chili and we sat there talking. He noticed another salad plate being brought back there for refill by a different waitress, but this time he noticed she at least wore a glove on the hand she used to handle the food. Th salad was left on the tablet, waitress went somewhere then the bus boy came and started helping to prep the salad that was left by the last waitress (the one with 1 glove). My coworker thought it was weird that the bus boy was even handling the food. Coworker told me and I saw him doing something to the plate, I couldn’t see from my angle. But my coworker said it looked like he put some chicken on the plate. I can’t confirm what the item was but he put something on the plate. When he was done, he licked 3 fingers and disappeared on the other side of the wall. At this point, I got really disgusted. The fact that the bus boy was near the food and licked his fingers before walking away… HELL NO!
We waited for the manager and told him about the concern we had. The manager confirmed that waitresses make the salads and that they SHOULD be wearing gloves. And bus boys do not handle food. He asked my coworker if he could bring him out another salad, which I thought was a joke. At this point, we wanted to pay for our food and just leave and we will never return.
But there was a table next to us, maybe the owner knew them. But I guess a different waitress overcharged them or forgot something on their bill, so the owner apologized and bought the whole table, INCLUDING HIMSELF a shot. My problem is, we didn’t even get a «sorry» or any other offerings except a new salad plate. Seems rather ridiculous considering the owner just witnessed 2 tables complain about 2 different waitresses.
To add to things, as we walked away, the bus boy stared us down as he was wheeling the trash can bin outside. Really??? Not my fault you got caught picking your fingers. They carry dirty towels and clean tables and then they handle food? Doesn’t seem part of the job description but what do I know.
Sorry this happened, but I’m glad it did. Just confirms why the reviews are low for this establishment. Quality has got worse over the years. Not sure what’s going on. But they offered good deals on their $ 1 burgers. Now I question those $ 1 burgers…
Sorry review is so long. Just wanted to share our final and worst experience at Rookies.

Normally I’m not a fan of going to Rookie’s but during my last visit I was pleasantly surprised. I decided to try their buffalo chicken salad this time and it was actually very good. I think I finally found a go-​to on their menu.

The staff is friendly, food is ok. I would give it three stars for atmosphere and staff but the manager, Chris, is awful. My husband and I went to grab a seat at the bar to watch a major sporting event. I didn’t want to sit by the doors because it’s too cold. We chose two seats near the kitchen and Chris immediately told me I couldn’t sit in that particular chair, we had to move down one. I told him I preferred not to because it was the corner and we couldn’t see the tvs. He told me no one is allowed to sit there, dirty glasses go there, so we walked to the other side of the bar. Within 15 minutes I watched him sit in that chair drinking a beer and when his friend arrived he gave him that seat. Chris then proceeded to take shots with the staff. The place started to get busy and 2 girls sat at the bar, one clearly underage. The older lady ordered drinks letting the underage drink from them. All the while, Chris is preoccupied watching the game taking shots with friends and staff, until someone finally let him know what was happening. We are from Huntley and decided to come here to watch the event. Never again. This place is extremely unprofessionally run.

I’m only giving them one star because I can’t give zero. My wife and I stopped in for dinner tonight. We had heard the food was good and the beer selection extensive. After being seated we waited ten minutes for a server to come by. She finally came over to the area when a larger party was seated, AND SRRVED THEM. We left and won’t be back.

I went here with my boyfriend about a week ago and the moment we walked in we got a feeling that just wasn’t right. No one greeted us while we were standing in front of three hostesses waiting to be seated. After a few minutes my boyfriend asked if we were supposed to seat ourselves. We were waiting so long without anyone talking to us so we weren’t sure. The hostess just bluntley replied «No.» and looked back down at whatever she was working on. The waitresses that work here all look like they have attitudes and no one ever smiles or seems friendly. All the other reviews are correct. This place needs to seriously work on their customer service. I only gave Rookies in Huntley two stars because the waitress we had (who was in training at the time) was very friendly. The waitress who was training her though, of course, had an attitude. We won’t be going back there again.

The service here has gotten even worse. I placed a pick up order, and the beer nuggets were crunchy like chips. Why would they even let that out of their kitchen. I would suggest heading down to Parkside for better service, and food.

I’ve have been to all 4 Rookies locations and will say that the Huntley location is by far the worst of the 4 when it comes to attentive service and overall experience. The daily drink specials are the same for all locations so no big deal but what makes this location so disappointing is overall service and horrible management. Most of the waitresses and bar tenders are 21 – 23 year old girls that stand around and chat amongst themselves while your food is up and sitting in the back getting cold and the drinks are getting warm.
I tried on several occasions to play the music jukebox and put $ 2 – 3 in machine to listen to classic rock only to have the manager turn the sound down so far that absolutely no one in the restaurant could hear it or make out the song being played.
I asked 2 different times to have the waitress please ask the manager to turn the music up so we could hear the songs I selected on jukebox and he was hiding out in the back kitchen and unresponsive to my requests. When I paid the bill I told the bartender that people next to me were getting sick and tired of listening to the satellite radio Country station of songs that was playing continuously on the overhead speaker system and that I tried to play other music from the jukebox but the manager refused to turn up the sound to a level we could even hear.
As I was leaving and half way out into the parking lot the manager followed me out of the bar to ask me what was wrong. I began to tell him about the issue I was having with the music not being played on the jukebox and he started to get very defensive and telling me that he decides what songs are played!!! Hey buddy, I put my money in the jukebox not yours so this isn’t communist Russia. This guy has a real bad attitude for customer service and he’s definitely one of these alpha male, hot head types that doesn’t truly care about his patrons unless you are a regular there. I’ve watched on a few different occasions how he treats his staff and he tries talking over the servers and down to them instead of speaking to them and doesn’t lead by example. The manager is clueless about what good customer service is and I feel sorry for the staff that have to work under him. This manager should go on Bar Rescue and learn a few things from Jon Tafer but doubt he would even let anything soak into that fat head of his. IF I could give this place zero stars instead of 1 I would. Never going back.

When this opened for business the quality of food was great but recently its declining.
I’ve been to the hoffman estates location and they serve more portions and better food than in here.

Wow what a great experience at rookies! What a friendly place to eat at! The manager was especially nice to me and my family. There coke machine was broken so they gave us complimentary drinks next time we come in! I will definitely be coming back to this great establishment! St. Charles rookies has a lot to learn from this location!

The food is perfect for the type of restaurant it is and I’ve always gotten good service at this location. Today my family and I came here to eat and ended up having condensation constantly drip on us from the ceiling. We were moved to a dry table very quickly and offered free drinks for the hassle. They went above and beyond to take care of us and we will definitely be back!

I’ve been to away all of the Rookies in the area. This one is no different except for the customers that attend. It is right next to a Dell Web retirement community so let’s just say it’s interesting.
The food and service are great! I always get the crispy chicken BLT wrap and it’s by far the best thing on the menu. Top it off with a table topper of beer and some beer nuggets and your set.
Great place to watch a game and it’s not too crowded. They also have a beer garden if you want to eat outside. Never had to wait for a table here.
The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was that the parking here is insane. The lot is confusing and it’s always hard to find a spot for my pickup. I would still check this place out if your looking to watch a game, eat, and drink.
Enjoy!

I have read the horrible reviews for Rookies and have low expectations. I know the service is mediocre at best, the food is alright, and drinks are reasonably priced. I decided to go there tonight to watch a UFC fight. The Blackhawks were playing as well, the majority of the TV’s were playing the hawks game. For several hours we watched one large TV that was playing UFC. When the main UFC fight started the manager changed the TV we were watching to the Hawks game. He said more people were interested in the Hawks even though 4 full tables were watching UFC on that one TV. No wonder Rookies has horrible reviews.

Good food, friendly staff, plenty of big TVs for sports fans. If it’s a fun night out or an enjoyable lunch, Rookies is the place in Huntley. Beer selection is top notch, and so is drink menu.

Service was awful. Our waitress would disappear for 20 minutes at a time and completely forget about us. At one point, I saw our drinks sitting at the bar and debated getting up and getting them ourselves. Terrible food and horrendous service. I will not be going back there ever again.

Terrible! Went in with a few families. Was told that if we want separate checks, expect to wait long for everything. That was the manager! When the check finally came, it was wrong. Service stinks! Food is mediocre.

We often go here for a few sporting games. It is a great place to watch with a group of friends. The only negative comment I would have is the service is slower then other Rookie’s. I feel like there needs to be more management here.

If I could give no stars I would. We walked in and there was no one at the front as well as no sign so we sat ourselves. We were given menus and after 20 minutes we were told that we needed to go wait in line behind several people who arrived after us. If you like the food go to Elgin. They will give you
Much better service.