Hackney’s – Palos Park

Came here for Father’s Day 2016 brunch. Quality of food was 3 stars. Variety of food was about 4 stars. They served chicken noodle soup that tasted like it was right out of a progresso can.
Poor cleanliness I asked for a clean glass because my original was sticky. Then the waitress brought me a glass with lipstick on it. The silverware appeared dingy and dirty.
Not worth coming back. But I guess worth the quality for a $ 20.95 per person brunch. I would prefer to have them charge more money for more quality.

Good solid food. It’s got an aged ambiance inside. The food menu is varied and large enough to please ask your guests.

Spacious restaurant with plenty of seating. The servers are great and the food is great as well. Although it seems to be advertised more as a bar, it’s a great restaurant which happens to have a bar. I’ll be back to experience all their food items.

I’m a trucker so I travel the country trying every food from everywhere. While in Chicago I decided to look up local favorites. Hackneys popped up at the top of the list, and I saw it on DDD so I picked one my semi could fit into and headed there (Guy fierri, you’re awesome on tv but if you honestly thought this place’s burger was bomb, then you must have been high).
–let me first say the bartender we had was superb and nice and attentive and simply wonderful. No complaints with her and left her a big tip. It was the food that is the problem here. FYI I had to stop 4 times the following morning to use the restroom because the food gave me diarrhea. You have been warned.
— My partner and I both got the inside out burger. Mine medium rare his well done. He got the pretzel bun (he said the bun was awesome, burger sucked) and I the rye. which I thought was a bun but it turned out to be 2 slices of bread that weren’t even cooked. The burger fat soggied my bread instantly and it fell apart halfway through eating. Huge disappointment. I thought my burger would have cheese on it but nope. Only cheese u get is what little bit u can find inside the meat itself with bits of bacon. The concept is cool but it’s not enough. The burger should have had cheese and bacon on top as well. Especially for $ 12 f-​in dollars!!!
— burger had 0 flavor. Not even a pinch of salt could be tasted in the meat that’s how dull it was. In fact «in n out» burgers has more flavor in it than this place. Which is sad since they’re a fast food chain and you’re supposed to be a small business with «amazing food».
— got the half order of onion rings because they claim to «have the best onion rings in Illinois, maybe even the world» and they claim their «onion rings are in the top 3 for best onion rings in the USA»… Wrong!!! So dead wrong.
–First off these aren’t onion rings, they’re onion straws. Secondly they lack flavor so bad. The batter at Outback Steakhouse on the bloomin onion has more flavor than these and I don’t even like outback… Definitely not the «best onion rings» anywhere.
— got the bread pudding for desert. It came out hot and was surprisingly really good.
— I will never come back to this place ever. The price for the food is not worth the quality of the crap they churn out of here. I don’t know if it’s just this hackneys since they’re all supposed to be independently run and offer different things. So I’m willing to try one of the ones in Chicago like printers row, but I’ll never come back to this shi.thole.

I went to Hackneys for a private party for a physician retiring from the emergency department where I work. They served appetizers, cake and ice cream, and had a cash bar. I enjoyed the appetizers of burger sliders and potato wedges, as well as a glass of Riesling and a glass of Chardonnay. Staff was friendly, offering to clear our table and get me a glass of wine. The waiter was very knowledgable about the wine options they offered.

If you know me, you know I love beers and burgers. So when my birthday comes around that is precisely what I ask for EVERY YEAR. This year I chose to trek out to Hackney’s after seeing it on some food show (Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, maybe?). It totally looks like you are eating in your grandma’s kitschy house (if your grandma had a huge house, that is). There is weird knick-​knacky stuff everywhere and it’s really homey. Point is, if you are one for ambiance, I wouldn’t come here as it’s kind of old and odd overall. That said, the food was REALLY good. Now I know if you’re a die hard here you get the rye bread with your burgers, but I am a pretzel bun loving girl so I went with that. We got both the inside-​out burger (stuffed with cheese and bacon) and the bleu cheese burger with a quarter order of the onion loaf as a starter. The onion loaf is AWESOME. I hate onion rings that are huge and have a ton of breading so these were my jam. They are skinny and crispy and have a nice thin breading. The burgers were juicy and tasty and all the toppings and stuffings were awesome. Especially the bleu cheese… I love a good bleu cheese. And they don’t skimp on the good stuff. The only thing is, I think I might get a regular old bun though next time (I know!) because the pretzel bun kind of takes over the burger and makes it taste chewy. And a bonus for beer lovers since there’s not many great beers here is that you are awfully close to Imperial Oak Brewing and Pollyanna Brewing as a first or next stop. You’re welcome.

Maybe I’m nostalgic because I grew up with Hackney’s being a special treat but I still love this place. Never been to this location but it’s just like the others. The décor is like aunt Edna’s house and that’s the charm of it. Delightfully outdated and slightly tacky it’s that old school charm of grandma’s house for Sunday dinner. Simple menu, just get a burger and be done with it. I’m a traditionalist so dark rye is the only way to go. Get the onion loaf and eat till your greasy little fingers can’t hold your fork. Nothing fancy just old fashioned service while you put down the phone and have a real conversation with your family. Hopefully

I have only been here for their buffet brunch multiple times over the years (thanks to my parents who are unwilling to try another brunch restaurant). That being said, it’s awful, just plain awful. $ 22 for powdered eggs, over-​cooked bacon, slimy pasta, and so forth. There was not one redeeming item up there. Do not waste your money, go somewhere else — anywhere else!

Quiet and relaxing atmosphere. Nice place that supports jazz music in the suburbs!

It seems odd to say a restaurant has potential when they’ve been open for almost 30 years, but I can honestly say that about Hackney’s Palos location.
Hackney’s seems to attract an older crowd… lots of silver haired heads in the dining room.
The food was OK. I had the inside out Hackney burger. It was huge, tasty and cooked medium, as ordered. I chose the dark rye, but a better choice would be the pretzel roll or something sturdy. The bread was tasty and fresh, but kept tearing. Mostly I used my knife and fork to eat the burger. Speaking of the knife and fork, it arrived wrapped in a paper napkin. They were water spotted and/​or not very clean. I used the napkin and water from my glass to thoroughly wipe the utensils off before using them.
I passed on the mustard, the bottle had dried mustard spill at its shoulders. I think better attention to cleanliness is in order!
We ordered one of the seasonal special beers only to be told the tapper for that one wasn’t working (not the first time that happened here!).
The fries were cooked to perfection, hot and fresh! The Cole slaw was fresh tasting. Onion soup was tepid, very oniony, lots of croutons. Meh.
No complaints on the service, that was okay, but could have been just a little more attentive.
Some evenings there’s entertainment in the bar… the night we were there, they were featuring a Rolling Stones cover band. This is where the potential comes in… I think they could draw a pretty good crowd, but they need to do a little better with the food and sanitation to keep folks coming back!
There’s plenty of free parking and quite a few handicapped accessible spots.

The décor is definitely set in an great aunt Clara motif. Could use some modern update if they want to attract younger clientele. Service was great. The onion loaf is the best, even better is they offer a ¼ size portion, perfect for two to share. We also split the Hackney burger and they cut it in half (we didn’t even ask them to) they put on two plates gave us both cole slaw. Burger cooked perfect medium. Worth the stop!

I have driven by here a thousand times over the years but never stopped in. This Wednesday night was the exception as a close female friend and I stopped in for something to eat after an appointment in the area.
We stumbled into a fabulous eighteen (18) piece live jazz orchestra in progresss, they were outstanding and made our evening memorable. NO Cover! What a bargain! We were so impressed and amazed at our lucky evening at Hackney’s
We found the service to be prompt and courteous. The food was standard good quality bar food at reasonable prices. The interior décor was not dated or dirty as some of the posts I have read. It was warm, woodsy and cozy.
Truly, I should only give Hackney’s four (4) stars as there is some improvements that could be made to bring up the food quality a notch or two.
However, after reading some of the very critical and overly judgemental Unilocal posts such as being overpriced or dirty… That’s totally out of line!
Hackney’s is well worth a visit. In Chicago, you would pay a lot more for an establishment with free, live entertainment. Be thankful you have Hackney’s in your generic suburb, stop your complaining!

Joseph M: thanks for your feedback regarding our visit. However, a lot of reviewers are complaining about the same things: Food, cleanliness, décor, and menu prices. Instead of commenting that you are sorry the experience was subpar, how about investing some money into the business and modernizing the restaurant? The waitresses there are very nice, so you would only need to hire new cooks. If you update your establishment, re-​train/​hire new cooks, and drop your menu prices, let me know and we will give it another shot. Thanks

Ate here August ’14. Our food was great especially the onion ring loaf and Hackney burgers. The setting is very nice and clean. We were seated in the room with the jazz band and wish the hostess had told us as we were there to talk and would have preferred the other quiet room. Service was a bit slow but that appeared to be our waitress and not the establishment. I will return when in the area.

I have only done the bar area. Had the Steak and Chicken sandwich which are both very good. The service has been very good overall.
They have bands which is also nice feature.
I would love to see a Beer Garden added, and upgraded TV in bar.

Lesson learned. Don’t take restaurant recommendations from coworker Grant again.
I recently visited Chicago and before I left Austin, I wanted to get some good places to check out. Grant is from Chicago so I figured he’d know the hot spots. I asked for a burger place and Hackney’s is what he suggested.
We got there about 20 minutes after they opened for lunch on a Monday. There were only a couple cars in the parking lot which was good because we were on a schedule. When we walked in, the place was VERY outdated and VERY empty. There were only two tables of people and they were rather older blue haired ladies. Nothing against grandma but that should’ve been our first sign to find another lunch spot. But we were here so we gave it a shot.
There was a huge hunk of something white on my mom’s water glass so she swapped out with one from another table. The other water glasses just looked dingy which wasn’t very appealing.
I ordered the «famous Hackney burger» on rye bread and my mom got the sliced tomato chicken salad. The bread was soft and the bottom piece was soggy from the burger — it would’ve been better if they had toasted it. The beef had zero flavor. I barely ate half of it. The coleslaw did not look very good and the fries were bland. My mom’s chicken salad was actually pretty good but the tomatoes could’ve been a little redder.
Not going to go back here though. The only redeeming quality was that we had a $ 10 off offer for signing up for their email list. That reminds me, I need to unsubscribe…

My wife and I came here for my birthday. We were very pleased with the service and the food. I was particularly happy with the specials on wine as well as the Summer Shandy.
The small or quarter-​size french fried onion appetizer is a must have, and more than enough for two people.
We look forward to coming back.

It’s a nice little local place with a homey, sort of grandmotherly feel. The menu basically covers salads, burgers, and some pub appetizers. They’re accommodating in terms of bread and sides. They have lots of bread options including dark rye that really tastes like rye, and pretzel rolls. Fries can be subbed out for a baked potato, veggies (over-​steamed broccoli and cauliflower), or fruit (extra fee for the fruit, and it’s a pretty meager, cantaloupe-​centered fruit dish). They served «their» cole slaw, which was completely white, so it both had a ton of mayo and didn’t have carrots and stuff, so I steered clear. The food took a while, so don’t go in a hurry, but the servers were friendly, bathrooms were clean, and there were plenty of tables. They put carafes of water on the table, which was nice, and they were pretty quick with my friends’ soda refills.
It’s a big space, and I’d think it’s a popular local event venue. When we went, after a hike, in our hiking clothes, there was some sort of reunion of women who appeared to be in their 50s or older, and who all sang some sort of theme song together, so we felt like we got some local color.

Great free weekend fun, 40′ 50 y\o fun, live bands everyone is of dancing. no cover reasonable drinks. Sexy people! Join the fun! Come in around 10pm they close around 11:30pm :(

Hackney’s — Palos Park, Illinois … 3 stars: Interesting old restaurant located at McCarthy Road (123^rd Street) and LaGrange Road on the far southwest side. The reviews for this place seem to be fives and ones — and they are probably all correct … all depends on what you were looking for.
This place is usually filled with members of the older generation who have been coming here for years — and there is a nostalgic reason. The patrons have aged as the location has. It was originally called The Matterhorn Supper Club in the 1960s and 1970s, and back then there were not a lot of alternatives on LaGrange Road. There was Fox’s Pub on 143^rd Street, and the Farmer’s Daughter on LaGrange at about 146^th Street … and of course The Matterhorn on 123^rd. The Matterhorn was purchased by the Hackney family of restaurants in 1986 and has been there ever since.
Today you see the restaurant almost exactly as it looked before the name change. The Alpine décor has morphed only slightly into a more Irish scheme. The restaurant area is basically unchanged in this mostly two-​room establishment — a large room on the left of the entrance for the restaurant and another on the other side for a large bar area with tables and TVs. I heard they have live music at times, but have never been there for those events.
As to food … it is mostly pub grub. They have a few nice beer selections from time to time (I had a nice Bitburger pilsner on draft when I went) but this is certainly not a craft beer place nor a sport’s pub. The onion loaf (shredded onions formed in a loaf and deep fried) was a bit greasy, but still a nice offering that competes with the Blooming Onion at Outback. The Hackneyburger and corned beef sandwiches were nice but unspectacular. Service was respectable and staffing was appropriate.
This is a nice old place. It hangs on in the midst of scores of newer and trendier settings in the area, largely because of its loyal albeit aging following. While you are welcome to bring them, there really isn’t much here for youngsters.