Emerson's Ale House — Restaurant in Elk Grove Township

Went in for dinner last night. The place was packed which seemed like a good sign! The aesthetic of this bar/pub/ale house was really cool. The inside was very clean, with modern decorations and cool neon lights. The hosts were very nice, the bartenders were also very nice. We were greeted as soon as we sat at the bar. We got our beers right away as well. One of the bartenders was training which perhaps took a little time because the main bartender would finish explaining stuff for a minute or so before she would talk to us, even after we said we were ready to order (not really a huge deal at all).

Dinner is where the issues comes in. We ordered everything at once. Started with Jalapeno Mac n Cheese bites. The flavor was there, but they were luke-warm at best. To save time, they are likely pre-made then dropped in the fryer to heat up/cook. I am not sure what went wrong here, but you expect a cheesy app to be hot in the center. They were not at all. Also served with a yummy thousand island type sauce, and warm ketchup?? Could be left off.

Okay, the entrées. I ordered the Fish and Chips and my fiancé ordered the El Fuego burger with sweet potato fries. The fish was perfectly fried, the slaw was tangy and creamy, but the fries/chips are best described as used. They were dark brown as if they had been fried and left in the basket to sit until they were completely cold and limp, not to mention they had no salt on them. The burger was cooked perfectly medium rare and was very good. The sweet potato fries were also cooked well, as they likely were frozen since they were crinkle cut. The reason I mentioned the training bartender is because no one came to ask us how the meal was even though I immediately pushed the heaping pile of sad fries to the side.

Finally, the dessert. We wanted to try the banana cream pie. Clearly pre-made because it came out in about a minute after ordering. Nothing is wrong with this, except inside they use freeze dried or dried banana chips because after sitting in the pie filling they have a texture that resembled banana flavored rubber bits. Just off-putting. The crust however was perfectly crumbled and salty to match the whip cream sweetness.

So all in all, we were left with the most neutral dining experience. Not mad, but not ecstatic. Nothing worth complaining to management, but we might not come back. I give it 3 stars and recommend only drinking at...

We came from out of town to visit friends and wanted to come here after seeing great reviews, but what a disappointment. Food was great, ambiance was fine, but our server was clearly having a very off day... I have no idea what was going on but she almost seemed drunk from the moment she came up to our table. It wasn't just our server that we had an issue with, it was the menu, soda and the happy hour options. Happy hour is apparently DAILY 2-5pm, but it doesn't specify that it doesn't include weekends. When were Saturday and Sunday not considered DAYS? Say WEEKDAYS not DAILY. We planned on ordering most of the happy hour options, only to be told AFTER asking, that happy hour isn't included on weekends, even though the menu states "daily 2-5pm". I'm glad we asked and weren't blind sided when we got our bill. Our server had to check with management to make sure, and she came back to let us know, only to continue making negative remarks about the happy hour options and how they don't make sense for an extremely awkwardly long amount of time, which is apart of my reasoning for me thinking she was drunk or on something. One comment about the happy hour was along the lines of "our happy hours aren't happy, they're more like unhappy hours that need Zoloft". Aside from that, my fiancé asked for a coke, and got a completely flat one, so I brought it back to the bar and asked for a Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, Diet Coke and was told they don't have any of those, so I asked for a Root Beer and was told yes. We were brought $4 a bottled root beer in place of the flat coke we asked for, for which you can't get refills‍. Another thing that factors into the 1 star review, is when we asked for our bill, we asked for the bill to be split between the 2 separate couples, and we were met with an eye roll and the server telling us that we should have told her before we even ordered. I apologized because she made me feel bad but I've worked in restaurants and know that it's not hard to separate 2 apps, 3 plates and 4 drinks.(mind you, it took 12 seconds for her to make the bills) We had a blonde server and her name started with a J... This place needs to get it together. Fix the happy hour menu and stop trying to trick people and check your servers attitudes and BAC before they start...

Update: removing a star based on management’s lack of accountability. I’m very confused how the manager “did his best.” Practices like this can cause food poisoning. Had the manager actually taken the time to come talk to us, the situation could’ve been very different. He was well aware of what was going on. I don’t appreciate being lied to… and if I’m going to wait forever for reheated food… at least remake the toast and fries. Also, reheating mac n cheese for a kid takes 1 minute, not 20. I rarely leave bad reviews, but this one unfortunately deserves it.

Side note: anybody else notice how I left this review and they magically had 20 5-star reviews all within hours from people who have never left a review? Not fake at all… no wonder their star rating isn’t lower.

Terrible food/service tonight and the manager lied to our faces. We’ve been there many times over the years and never had such an awful experience (Wed. June 7th).

We waited forever for our food while we saw it sitting in the kitchen. It came out cold/lukewarm, so we let the waitress know and she said they’d remake it. We had a toddler with us so I asked if they could just reheat the mac n cheese right away. The waitress left the Mac sitting while taking the rest of the food. I had to flag her down to come back for it and then wait forever to reheat it. We waited a good 20 min for them to “remake it.” When it came back it clearly looked like the same food. Toast was now hard as a rock, fries double fried, and my husband’s burger still had a bite in it (with a new bun). We asked if it was the same food and they INSISTED it wasn’t. Both the waitress and manager lied right to our faces until we pointed out the bite in the burger… Then started to backtrack and apologize. So long story short, we waited forever to get cold food, waited longer for them to pretend to remake it, served even worse food, then lied to. Super cool. Oh and we sat with empty drinks while waiting. We’ve been there many times over the years and will never return based on how poorly the manager handled a situation that could’ve been...