Chicago Ale House

LTH,

Chicago Ale House has been reviewed and posted about in a specific thread on the Drink Forum and mentioned in a few other posts, but I wasn’t able to locate any Food Forum specific thread to date. Thus, let’s begin one…

CAH recently opened a few months ago I believe and is located a couple blocks east of Western and Lawrence up in Lincoln Square. On a hot, muggy day last week, I made the 20 minutes stroll from West Lincoln Square over to this place. CAH is big and probably a little nicer than I thought it’d be inside, but not too nice – if you catch my drift.

A few plasmas adorne the walls and areas around the centrally-located bar. I remember about 60 or so beers on tap with a decent selection, but only 3 or 4 IPAs which was slightly disappointing. Why not 50 of them???

I opted for the Double Doggie Style IPA and it was rather pedestrian to say the least. I was hungry and perused the menu which seemed slightly on the pricey side but not outlandish. My eyebrows rose when I saw the Burger with caramelized onions and sautéed mushrooms so I ordered one medium rare with cheddar.

I also re-upped my beer supply redirecting my efforts toward a Dogfish 90 IPA, which was an improvement but nothing close to my favorites like Goose Island; Two Brothers; Great Lakes; Sierra Nevada; Lagunitas; etc.

Anyway, the menu’s description of the burger had me jonesing for the kitchen to get it to me.

Upon arrival, the burger looked nice and was served open-faced and I applied the top bun with the onions and had my first bite, an aura of coldness and crunch perpetuated my taste buds. Why, you say? Upon removing the top bun and deconstructing my burger I noticed that the burger contained RAW onion. Now note, I did not specify caramelized onions or sautéed onions or grilled onions, the damned menu says “caramelized onions”. The only thing I did was add cheese and say medium rare. Additionally, the mushrooms were COLD for Chrissakes. Are you shit*ing me!?!? Not lukewarm, COLD. AND, I highly suspect that they had been recently poured out of a can, drained, and then put onto the burger. WTF?! Topping it off, or should I say, topping it first, was the thinnest slice of cheddar cheese I’d ever seen on a burger. Almost like it was painted on. Sickening.

The burger meat was drop-dead mediocre, something I’d expect to get at an event catering to 1000+ people. The bun non-descript. The fries were, again, mediocre.

Unbelievable. $9 for a caramelized onion and sautéed mushroom burger with a cheddar cheese add-on with almost no cheese, raw onion, and canned, cold mushrooms.

I want to nominate Chicago Ale House for two GNR Awards:

1. Worst preparation by the kitchen compared to description of item on menu; and
2. Highest price-to-quality ratio of any burger I’ve had in the City in years.

Now, I’ve had worse burgers but not at this price point.

You charge me 9 bucks for a burger and it better be AT LEAST “good” and probably should be “great” or better 80% of the time.

Mediocre ingredients + Clueless kitchen = YUK!

I take my burgers seriously, CAH does not.

Very occasionaly when no other option is available, yes for the beer, no for the food - at least the burger.


Chicago Ale House
2200 W. Lawrence Ave.
773-275-2020

Debating between the two great LTH second response cliches:

1. That's all well and good, but how were the portion sizes?

2. Du'uh, I can't tell, are you being sarcastic?

How was it after you sent it back?

You did send it back right? I mean, anyone who walks 20 minutes in this swelt seeking a quality burger would reject that thing before the first bite, right?

I did not send it back, though maybe I should have. I rarely send food back unless it is a health hazard (moldy or severely undercooked - yes, these are real examples) or completely not what i ordered (chicken instead of steak).

What's more, I was extremely hungry to the point of feeling a little faint so I didn't have time to stop after one bite and wait for the new burger. Also, the burger was cooked properly - about the only thing the kitchen did right - but was just a very average piece of meat which would not improve with a second chance. I didn't have the patience to wait for the carmelized onions and warm sauteed mushrooms. Had it been a steak or more $$$$ meal I probably would have metioned something.

The cost of the meal, while outlandish for the sub-par burger, was not high enough to warrant taking the requisite time and patience to give the kitchen a chance for correction.

I took the never again approach here.

Bster

Not surprising since this place is owned by the Cy's people. Their two other places are not worth entering.