Sluggers World Class Sports Bar and Grill & Dueling Pianos — Restaurant in Lake View Township

This is a CLASSIC Chicago old fashioned Barcade. They have a bar on the main floor downstairs and an arcade on the second floor. There is 1970's wood paneling throughout the building, Skeet Ball machines, a few broken arcade games here and there, basketball arcade hoops, batting cages, (If you are a serious arcade gamer, this isn't the place for you. This is more of a casual, quarters only, and physical ticket dispense arcade.) The prizes are good, they have rubber duckies, tattoos, stickers, Jolly Ranchers, etc. Lucky Strike is around the corner for when Sluggers becomes too over run with puking Cubs Fans, and you need a cleaner, vomit free, restroom. The staff is very friendly, and on slow days they chat with you for a long time since there really isn't much work to do. My only complaint is that I really wish that they would bring back the Movie cashew gumball machine. It was in the corner next to the Batting Cages. The gumball machine was filled with movie theater cashews. Those nuts with the buttery flavor and just the right amount of salt. They were PERFECT if you were hungry and couldn't go to the bar because of the crowd. Also, I really wish that they would load the crane games with Powerpuff Girls prizes and set it to win. They had a super cool SpongeBob prize in the second floor Claw, but I couldn't reach it since the Staff was using the body of the game to keep the door to the Dueling Pianos open. They missed out on an extra fifty cents for that one. The Crane Games actually WORK! I have won so many prizes from the claw game. (Hint: use the "lurk" technique.) If you want to use the batting cages go on a MONDAY when they first open, while everyone else is at work. If you go during a Cubs game FORGET IT! The Arcade is too packed and way too busy with local drunks, who drape themselves over the equipment, block the change machines, lie to others who are there to play that the games are "Broken", when really they are just too lazy, stupid, or are waiting for their dates to move. There is NO PARKING in front of the building, so take the 22 Clark Street bus. It is safer and you don't have to waste gas by "doing doughnuts" while searching for parking. Please Folks, respect the Staff! They put up with a lot from the Drunks, budding Instagram stars, pretty young blondes, fighters, and idiots; and if you see someone like me who is there to play a game,...

So here's my story. I have lived in Chicago and very near Wrigleyville for 8 years. I always avoided the bars in Wrigleyville though because people told me they were racist and that there were always fights. During the pandemic when the bars were finally allowed to open I decided to give Wrigleyville bars a shot after walking past them every day when all the bars were closed because of Covid. When I walked into Sluggers it was NOT busy at all because people were still afraid to go out. There were lots of appetizer and drink specials and the bartender, Jill, and the owner David were super attentive and friendly. This first experience was amazing. I returned the next day, I believe and ended up buying shots for the entire bar to help out business and to bring joy to the customers. I knew Sluggers had a reputation of being a popular bar so I knew if the pandemic would end they would be booming again no problem. I kept coming back to Sluggers and was impressed with just the main level. Then I got to know Steve who runs the batting cages and got a tour of the upstairs with the batting cages, all the video and carnival games and dueling pianos area. I knew then this was going to be my regular bar from now on. Everyone was so good to me and the bar offers so much there was no need to go anywhere else. I started going every single day and just had so much fun and got to know all the girls and the regulars and even the owners. They treated me like family and before long I had VIP status and enjoyed every visit to this bar. Dancing my butt off whern the dance floor is open, meeting the friendly patrons who come in and doing shots with them. FUN!!! FUN!!! FUN!!!!! My favorite bar in Wrigleyville for sure. No bar is perfect so I can't give it 5 stars but 4 and half YES. I am sure some people who have reviewed the bar poorly probably have legitimate reasons but others seem to be knitpicking. If you don't have a good time here before and after and even during Cubs games you need to just loosen up. So much fun! And most of the patrons are...

The worst service that I've ever had at a bar, most likely because of the bartender and not the place, but still wanted to share. One of the drinks we ordered tasted nothing like margarita (was extra watery), so we asked our bartender add more liquor (we were willing to pay for the extra shot if needed), but she started arguing saying she knew how much liquor she put in the drink. We asked a couple more times to add it or re-make it, which sh was unwilling to do. Instead, she started cursing (Are you gonna take the f* drink or not?), and went to check us out (she already had the card as we asked her to close out before we tried our drinks). When she came back, we asked her to re-make it again, she kept cursing, so we asked for the manager. She threw the card and the receipt in our faces, cursed again, stepped back, gave us the finger and started serving people on the other side of the bar. We asked another bartender to help us out, and she gladly agreed to re-make the drink. When that girl saw it, she came back and continued cursing at us. By the time it was super frustrating so I raised my voice and said that she was being extra rude and disrespectful, to which she answered that she "don't f* care". We started arguing and she called security. A little background: it was our friends birthday and we had over 10 people at the bar. Luckily security guy was adequate and after he listened to us he called the manager/owner, who, after we explained the situation reimbursed us for our drinks. Being a professional I know I would be probably forced to apologize, put on probation or even fired if I ever spoke to my clients like that, so hopefully management takes some measures towards the girl that just cost them at least 10 customers that are hardly ever...