Skoog’s Pub & Grill

Food was very good! Huge portions. Friendly staff and accommodating for kids. The only downside was no changing table in bathroom. I would definitely recommend this place to friends and will be returning when we come back to this area!

Fantastic burger, big enough to share with my wife. Great homemade creamy garlic dressing also.

This place was awesome, great service hamburgers are HUGE and very flavorful. We’ll be back again

I live about 80 miles from this place. I was out visiting a friend in Ottawa… which is 10 miles from Skoogs. This place came highly recommended! So we checked it out. It is located on Mill street in downtown Utica, IL… a small nice quaint town. This place survived the tornado that ripped through the town in 2004. Since we were told to get the wings we ordered the CASE (24)…with 4 different dipping sauces. They arrived in a saw-​offed bucket with handles. OMG! These wings were HUGE and MEATY! I expected them to be 90 percent breading. But this was not the case here! They were succulent and delicious! These wings put Buffalo Wild Wings to shame! The 4 sauces on the side were GARLIC PARMESAN, KAMIKAZE, SPICY SWEET ASIAN and THE BOURBON. All 4 sauces were to die for! Our server (can’t remember her name) it was an unusual but beautiful name… she was the greatest! She said she has worked here for 8 years and she attended our table and made sure we had full drinks and answered our question. What a sweetheart she was! She explained all the sauces on the menu and said the kamikaze was her favorite. Out of the 24 wings we took 10 of them home. They were just too meaty to finish. So if you are ever out near the Starve Rock, Illinois area and you a looking for some good drinks and wings… I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PLACE! Five Stars for Food and Five for !!

Here’s the deal for me. I’m a burger guy, not wings. If I’m eating chicken (rare) it’s going to be white meat. NOW, as to their burger. It’s wonderful. You get ¾ pound of meat. This isn’t an error. The burger is a full ¾ of a pound. I don’t know where they get their meat, but it’s the best I’ve ever tasted. It’s fresh ground daily from steak. With the burger you’ll get a large amount of fries done just right, along with a side of creamy slaw that’s really good. For me and the lady, two ¾ pound burgers, 2 fries and two soft drinks WITH tax totals $ 21.00. Now, that’s a deal. On Friday and Saturday night they have steak which is melt in your mouth tender and wonderfully flavorful. Need I say the portions of the steak are large and prices are more than reasonable. Service by the way is friendly and fast. I drop by every time I’m hiking in one of the three parks in the area. I’ve been there three times already this year and seven times last year. The food is always great and the service matches. When you arrive check out the lunch specials on the chalk board. Last year they really went overboard with a ¾ pound burger topped with an all beef split hot dog, first rate cheese, grilled onions and bacon for the price of their standard ¾ pound burger. It was outrageous and great. I’m a big guy and this was the first time I couldn’t finish my lunch.

We stopped here after a long day at work, looking for something different, we ended up trying the wings. The husband is something of a wing «snob» and has pretty high standards.
We ordered the breaded wings with Garlic Parmesan and the Sweet Red Chili sauces. The wings were cooked well with just enough breading to make it crunchy but also a decent amount of chicken. The sauces were very good and it came with a pile of celery (some restaurants will just give you one or two) with both Ranch and Blue Cheese. They even tolerated me bringing in my own bottle of tea (the husband ordered a MGD).
The hospitality made it all worth it thought. Being from out of town, you never know what you are going to find and there was no cold shoulder, just a warm and friendly bartender and customers.

Was in the area and looked in Unilocal for some where to go and this place came up, so my daughters and I decided to go on in, there was not to many people inside we where greeted by the waitress, I had seen that the special that day was the ribs and my girls wanted some wings. They food took about 15 min to come out and OMG!!! The Ribs where soooooooo good they will fall of the bone and the bbq sauce was sweet and thick, mashed potatoes were on point and the wings where delicious… I will definitely be back and I recommend trying this place out.

Laid back, quiet. Kamakazie wings are not insane spicy like I thought from the pics. They are like a hot BBQ with garlic. And the breading is crispy. They are delicious. Good service and our bartender wash chill.

Stopped here for lunch before going hiking. The wings I had were just ok… I was hoping for more flavor and sauce. My husband had the pork tenderloin sandwich and seemed to enjoy it. There’s not much else in the area, so we may or may not be back here.

The service was terrible and slow despite the restaurant not being that busy. The food tasted as if it had been taken out of a can or microwaved. Would not recommend stopping by.

Huge wings!
We drove up to Starved Rock and spent the night nearby and stopped here for dinner. Definitely part of my memories of the trip.

As if the Best Wings in the Illinois Valley (or in my limited worldview, anywhere) weren’t enough, the fine people at Skoog’s decided to start Taco Tuesday. Three enormous fried tacos for five bucks! Unless you are a real sow, you don’t need to order an appetizer or anything else. Ground beef filling, done right. So yes, if you are here for Burgoo, or at Starved Rock, or are just rolling on I-​80 going from here to there, take the five minute drive into North Utica as the natives say, and Treat Yo’self!

A friend suggested we stop by Skoog’s when at nearby Starved Rock state park. We stopped by on a lovely day, and got lunch and a beer to eat on their «patio» (i.e., some patio furniture set up on the walk in front of the bar). It ended up being a great way to spend the day in ‘scenic’ Utica. Good quality food for a great value, the burger was juicy and well-​prepared. Some basic pub grub; but a good experience.

Awesome! Excellent food with big portions. Everyone in our family really enjoyed their meal. You must go if your in the area!

The food at Skoog.‘s is awesome. A few months ago a shop next door had a fire. Smogs finally opened in June. Could not wait until they opened. Walked into the restaurant and could not stay the smoke smell was terrible. Always loved wing night and their food. Tries again yesterday… Same thing. Eyes burned, food was good, bur the restaurant reeked of smoke. They really have to do something about the smell. Probably in the walls!. Really miss the great restaurant.

Love this place! Great staff and great food! Reasonable prices and a lot of food and good quality. The wings are the best. Great batter and the wings are some of the biggest I’ve seen. The kamikaze flavor are my favorite and the garlic are second. If you haven’t been stop in!

Very good food! The wings were amazing and the spicy chicken sandwich was hot and so good! Highly recommend!

Delighted. Attentive. Delicious. Great little pub. We had a wonderful meal. Our server was a rock star. I wish I remembered her name because she was so good.

The Unilocal reviews were good. I had eaten at Duffy’s a while ago and remember their burgers.
First, the wait staff ladies were on the spot and very friendly. We had chicken and rib combos and that was delicious. The parmesan encrusted steak was as good as it gets. I loved the mashed potatoes. The portions are generous and the Rebel IPA and Blue Moon on draft were fresh and delightful.

After downing glasses of wine at the winery, I was in dire need of food. Thanks to Unilocal,all I kept reading about were the Kamikaze wings at Skoog’s. Even though I’m not really a fan of wings in general, I could pretty much go for any type of food after drinking on an empty stomach.
We were greeted by an amusing bar regular who had recognized us from the winery. He wasted no time recommending the Kamikaze wings, so I felt that I needed to try them. They also have a number of other flavors, so my bf decided on the regular honey bbq wings. We got an order of 24 (insanity) and the waitress told us that we could get up to 4 flavors. How effin’ nice! The price was amazing, too… like $ 15 bucks or something insanely low.
The kamikaze wings are realllly something you need to try if you’re ever here. They’re an awesome blend of spicy, sweet, gingery goodness. I was full about 2 ½, so we had enough for a midnight snack. The drinks were so incredibly cheap that we didn’t know what do with ourselves. Everyone was super friendly and welcoming… and my bf, of course, wasted no time befriending the regulars.
Lovely dinner stop in Utica.