Maevery Public House — Restaurant in Lake Bluff

My husband and I visited Maevery last night very spur of moment as we were in town for one night. Looking at reviews and the menu convinced us to give it a try. On the positive side, it has a great atmosphere as well as solid food and drink choices. In all we had 2 beers, 2 glases of wine, a starter and two entrees. The bill came to $125 before tip; about what we would expect for a nice meal out. The pork chop and pork shank were both very tasty, but if you want to share or try each others dishes, I would select something different as these two dishes are almost identical except one comes with grits and the other potatoes. Now for the not so good. We try to be very understanding about short staffed establishments, but there didn't seem to be a shortage of staff and they were not very busy. Despite this, we waited to order drinks, waited to order food, waited a long time for our food, were completely done with our food and drinks before we were offered another drink and were never offered dessert. In all, we had 5 different employees visit our table. The two bartenders were both very nice and helpful. The short blonde waitress was inattentive and the ponytailed brunette had no service skills whatsoever. The gentleman serving water and busing was efficient and friendly. The icing on the cake of what could have been a very nice night was the half dozen rowdy and likely drunk people that came in to order drinks and stood in the narrow dining area just in front of the bar for about 20 minutes talking and laughing at concert level volume. There was plenty of space elsewhere in the dining area and outside on the patio that these customers could have been directed to. Awareness of the impact on other diners would have been nice to see from the staff. Perhaps they were friends or regulars? I could be enticed to try again by the food alone, but it would be...

To be perfectly honest, the food here confused me. Almost everything was good, but nothing was incredible except for the gnocchi. It was comfort food, but everything was spicy for some reason. The shrimp said it would have sriracha honey on it, and but I couldn’t really get the flavors coming through on that. Then when my fried chicken and sweet potato waffles came, the chicken was loaded with sriracha honey. The chicken was delicious, however, it was a chicken and waffles Sunday Special. The sweet potato waffles were definitely not sweet potato waffles, but maybe just a plain waffle? The atmosphere was homey, but then it also had a metal pig’s head on the wall, and then there was a fancy wall of white wine. I just wasn’t quite sure what the atmospheric direction was, and didn’t exactly know what to make of my surroundings. The place was supposed to feel like home to everybody, but it didn’t 100% work on the atmosphere. However, it did work very well with the food. Grilled cheese, chicken and waffles, ribs, brisket, gnocchi… they hit the nail right on the head for finding that one comfort food for everyone. The gnocchi was stellar, very soft and doughy. It wasn’t too chewy and the sauce was quite exceptional. I would definitely recommend that if you are confused on what to get here as there is a lot to try. I’m not really trying to insult this food in any way, but nothing was too special and while it was good, everything was spicy. The brisket, the chicken, the ribs… wasn’t bad, just very strong and spicy. The ribs were nicely grilled, on a plus side. Definitely something to try out if you’re feeling adventurous...

My fiance's family and I went to meet her sisters boyfriends family here and we had a decent sized area set up side for us. Upon walking in the area isn't too bad, however I noticed it is quite crowded. Conversations are right next to you and there isn't much personal space.

We started off with artichoke dip which was really good, however the pita chips were like stale pita bread that had been left out for a week. We then moved to getting a burger which I got medium rare. It was too rare and ended up falling apart and ripping, there was also no sear at all with minimum flavor. Her sister got chicken and waffles with a side of bacon and it came out very dry and overcooked on some parts as if it had been in a warmer.

Their house made ketchup is mid at best and overall the experience in terms of food was not something worth writing home to.

Lastly, the service. The lady we had was showing visible signs of holding back from the annoyance of the requests I had given. My fiance is pregnant and requires certain things and also to have things not be around her.

Overall this was an unenjoyable experience, for literally the entire group. Most people didn't even touch their food after a bite. We will not be back. That being said, the orange...