Red Robin coming to Skokie

The signage finally went up on a new construction project on the east side of the Village Crossing Shopping Center. It's a Red Robin -- looks like the closest location to the city by a longshot.

Chicago Style™ wrote:The signage finally went up on a new construction project on the east side of the Village Crossing Shopping Center. It's a Red Robin -- looks like the closest location to the city by a longshot.

Permit me to feel good on two counts. One, I think Red Robin is OK. Two, a construction project is happening somewhere.

Darn, for a brief moment I confused this with Cock Robin.
Red Robin is OK for chain food, but it's not Cock Robin.

JoelF wrote:Darn, for a brief moment I confused this with Cock Robin.
Red Robin is OK for chain food, but it's not Cock Robin.

Cock Robin. . .hmm. .anything that sounds like Goblin Cock must be a good thing for Kuma's fans.

pretty average burgers, and nothing to get excited about in my opinion. It is a decent option if you have kids though, nice and loud.

Is it going to be where the old Macaroni grill was?

JeanneBean wrote:Is it going to be where the old Macaroni grill was?

Next door to Buffalo Wild Wings.

The best I can say for Red Robin is that it doesn't lower the culinary level of a mall already containing a Chili's, a Chuck E. Cheese and a BW3.

Mike G wrote:The best I can say for Red Robin is that it doesn't lower the culinary level of a mall already containing a Chili's, a Chuck E. Cheese and a BW3.

Lest you forget a Quizno's and an Outback Steakhouse----

cito wrote:

Mike G wrote:The best I can say for Red Robin is that it doesn't lower the culinary level of a mall already containing a Chili's, a Chuck E. Cheese and a BW3.

Lest you forget a Quizno's and an Outback Steakhouse----

And the crowning glory, Noodles, Etc.

there is also a dear frankies which is a hot dog place but i've never had it

Coming soon to Orland Park, down the street from the new Fatburger.

http://www.redrobin.com/home/locate.aspx?id=478&dist=0

I seem to be spilling an inordinate amount of e-ink hating on places lately, so I'll restrain myself, BUT...while I've been known to enjoy the low pleasures of a TGI Friday's/Chili's/Applebee's sandwich, every Red Robin experience I've had has been really bad (all three were at Wisconsin locations; once in Janesville and twice in Madison). The patties were consistently cooked to death, and the shredded iceberg lettuce on top is unpalatable. FWIW, the coffee at both locations was really, really bad, like vindictively bad. Hope the franchisee in Skokie does a better job.

(Just typing "Skokie" made me realize how much I miss Barnum & Bagel.)

ndgbucktown wrote:The patties were consistently cooked to death...

Red Robin makes a point of telling you that they "won't" cook a burger less than medium. (Or maybe medium-well. I can't exactly remember.) Which is irritating. That said, the medium or medium-well burger that I had there a few months ago tasted like meat.

I am not familiar with this chain. Is it a fast food place where they give you a burger at the counter (e.g. McDonald's), a fast food place where you order at the counter and they bring your order to your table (e.g. Culver's), or a sit-down restaurant where a server takes your order (e.g. Chili's)? Do they usually have a beer and wine license and/or full bar?

It's sit down, with a full bar. I like the bar area better than the restaurant area (if the one in Owings Mills, MD is typical). The restaurant is big booths and a feeling of J.P. McApplebee's. The bar, however, resembles a real bar, and has some decent draft beers. And you can eat at it.

Yeah, those are pretty much the good points. The downside is that most of the combinations of toppings for the burgers are sort of lame, and the bottomless French fries and pop are just what the average child needs. But there are worse things that could be right next to the movie theater I go to with my kids. Oh wait, Chuck E. Cheese is already there.

I love the fried chicken tender salad with honey mustard poppy seed dressing and I go there about once a week to eat one. I think the food is pretty good for a chain. Burgers....eh....there are better places.

They also have a bunless burger that comes on top of a salad for those doing the low carb thing.

I do like being waited on. Their ice tea is good and some like the fact that they serve alchoholic drinks. I've always wanted to order the onion rings but never have.

No one has mentioned the absolutely awful milkshakes that they serve up at Red Robin. The server may tell you differently, but they are NOT hand-dipped. $4.29 for a milkshake from a machine is absolute garbage.

I've always wanted to order the onion rings but never have.

I'm the same way about the double cooked spicy pork intestine at Lao Sze Chuan.

Yeah but I don't order the onion rings because they are too high in calories and I'd never be able to finish them myself. I go to RR a lot by myself.

I would not order the pork intestines cause I would never eat any kind of stuff like that. I am really challenged when it comes to meat and only will eat a few things.

I only eat, chicken breast, strip steaks or filet mignon, lobster, roast beef, turkey breast, shrimp, scallops, pork chops, roast or tenderloin, ribs, salmon, and a few fish, calamari, and some sushi. And bacon!!!

I do not eat dark meat, duck or goose, clams, oysters, organ meats, lamb except gyros, intestines, chitlins, shanks, wild game, venison, alligator and the like. Andrew Zimmern and I would never be friends.

To be fair, I like brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, rutabagas, cabbage sauerkraut and anything prune. Call any vegetable. Mostly I'll like it. I'm off to RR for the fried chicken tender salad...............

MBK wrote:there is also a dear frankies which is a hot dog place but i've never had it

Dear Franks used to be a U Dawg U, which was started by Jeff Mages. . . whose original joint "Mages" was on Dempster and subject to a lawsuit over the continued use of Mages' name.

It's a very solid food joint in my opinion, with good burgers, jumbo polishes, and one of the better phillysteak sammies in Chicagoland. (not to say it's similar to a genuine philly sammy, but its damn tasty and i know quite a few who go here for their fix).

One of the better items on the menu is the char-salami sammy. Sliced into discs that are charred on the outside but tender and juicy on the inside, they are perrectly topped with raw onion, mustard and sport peppers.

Phil wrote:Coming soon to Orland Park, down the street from the new Fatburger.

http://www.redrobin.com/home/locate.aspx?id=478&dist=0

Is Orland Park becoming the center of the center of our burger universe?

Schoop's Hamburgers‎
348 Orland Square Dr (roughly 14800 S LaGrange Rd)
Orland Park, IL 60462
(708) 873-9933
schoophamburgers.com‎

Suffering from mall food court-itus from what I hear.

Fatburger‎
15100 La Grange Rd
Orland Park, IL 60462
(708) 364-8380
fatburger.com‎

Haven't been but am eager to try...

Red Robin
15503 LaGrange Road
Orland Park, IL 60462
redrobin.com

I have visited a few times. Not the stellar burger we have sought out but there certainly a lot of worse burgers out there. The thing I hate the most is a dry burger and RR will be juicy with fresh ingredients.

It would be interesting to try all three and make a judgement.

Panther in the Den wrote:It would be interesting to try all three and make a judgement.

I don't think you can lump Red Robin, which is more of a TGI McThursday-style operation with the other two you mentioned. They are completely different styles of burgers.

I like Red Robin. I like a few of the salads along with the chicken sandwich.
Other in the family get the BBQ chicken wrap.

Ghazi wrote:

MBK wrote:there is also a dear frankies which is a hot dog place but i've never had it

Dear Franks used to be a U Dawg U, which was started by Jeff Mages. . . whose original joint "Mages" was on Dempster and subject to a lawsuit over the continued use of Mages' name.

Jeff Mages is the son of Marty Mages who owned Irving's on Dempster and Bronx in the 1970's, then it became Mages. I think Jeff opened the Irving's in Wilmette. He later opened U Dawg U (which I loved) in Skokie and Northbrook, and for a short time, at the Tollway Oasis in Schiller Park on I-294. He now is a part owner of Norton's in Highland Park.

As for Red Robin, I had it once at the Lincolnshire location and it wasn't anything special. I didn't even care for their seasoning. I usually like the special seasoning at restaurants that offer them (Five Guys, Gibson's Steakhouse, even Chili's).

stevez wrote:I don't think you can lump Red Robin, which is more of a TGI McThursday-style operation with the other two you mentioned. They are completely different styles of burgers.

Personally, I think all three of them are kind of different in their own ways. And similar, considering they're all chains. Since we're talking about burgers, I actually had a fairly decent one at Longhorn Steakhouse in Orland Park, next to where Red Robin is going in. My only complaint was that they over-cooked it. (Big surprise, right?) Still, I wasn't in the mood for a steak [side note: theirs are very consistent and good for the price point], so I had the burger. Not bad at all!

I had my first and probably last experience with Red Robin a few months ago. The burger I ordered arrived cooked, but cold. And I don't mean room temp cold like they just let it sit in the window too long, I mean refrigerator cold like they had pulled a parcooked burger from the reach-in and forgot to reheat it before throwing it on a bun and sending it out to me. When I sent it back, they just threw it in a microwave until it was warm then sent the same burger out to me.

The only good thing that Red Robin has to offer is its Strawberry Lemonade.

lk wrote:The only good thing that Red Robin has to offer is its Strawberry Lemonade.

This is exactly one thing more than I would recommend.