Jimmy's Charhouse — Restaurant in Libertyville

1st Class Service and Great Food! We have been going to Jimmy's in Libertyville for over 20 years and it is our go to place for any special celebration or whenever we want a nicer meal. Then again, we've gone there just for our calamari fix. Located at the end of a shopping strip, you enter into a supper club type eatery. Lighting is lower, booths and tables, multiple sections, and darker wall coverings. A good size bar is in its own room to the right. A room in the back is available for special parties and events. From the main dining area you can look right into the kitchen area with cooks bustling and expediters getting orders ready for servers. We often see whole chickens on the spit spinning in the wood fired rotisserie. It's just fun to watch the operation, especially when it's busy. Servers have white tops, ties and black slacks with the trademark steakhouse black apron. Service is prompt and attentive. Very soon after being seated by the hostess, a server is there to take a drink order. The bar is full service with several tap beers. On each and every visit we have to get the Calamari (one pound for $19.95). We try calamari everywhere we go and this is by far, hands down, no doubt about it, nothing less than outstanding!!! Mostly rings with a few tentacles, very lightly battered, possibly a tempura style, and super quick fried to just get them lightly browned. Served with lemon wedge and cocktail sauce. My mouth waters just writing this. The seafood flavor is subtle and clean and the calamari itself cannot be more tender. No rubberiness here. On the other hand, we tried the Octopus appetizer special on a previous visit and we were a little disappointed. Served greek style, grilled, olive oil and seasonings, we found it to be a bit tough and lacking in flavor. Saganaki, the fun flaming cheese is always tasty and begs for an Opa! Every dinner we have ever had here is excellent. Dinners include a soup or salad, choice of potato or rice pilaf. We always get the salad which is a crisp iceberg blend, served super cold on cold plates. The garlic and the peppercorn ranch dressings are excellent. As for the potatoes, I hope they still offer the Garlic Mashed Potatoes as they are to die for. Roasted garlic adds just the right flavor to these spuds. There are several substitutes for the salads and taters. My sons favorite dinner was the Shrimp Alfredo Pasta. A huge portion of fettuccine with a tasty alfredo sauce loaded with shrimp. My wife loves the Greek Half Wood-Roasted Chicken ($19.95) with a side of Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower ($4.00 additional). This is one jumbo half chicken, roasted right there on their wood fired spit, topped with a lemony Greek sauce, accompanied with fresh steamed veggies. She subs in the mashed cauliflower for potato. Baked, broiled and served in a mini cast iron skillet, the cauliflower is seasoned just right topped with some caramelized cheddar cheese. I switch off between two dinners - the Jimmy's Pasta ($28.95) and Chicken Al Forno Pasta which I think is the same price. Both are served in a cast iron or aluminum skillet with a side of grated cheese for you to add extra goodness. These are so large that you will easily bring home another dinner. The Jimmy's Pasta has a white creamy wine sauce that melds with fettuccine, chicken, bacon, mushrooms, whole garlic cloves and onion, into which they add a couple cheeses, then broil it. Oh so good! The Chicken Al Forno Pasta is no longer on the menu, but those that know to ask for it can get it. The skillet is first loaded with pasta, then tossed with a wonderful marinara which then gets covered with a half of a roasted chicken, then topped with more marinara, cheeses and bread crumbs and sent to the broiler just before being delivered to your table, steaming and bubbling away. Clearly, one of my favorites. On a previous visit, we shared a slice of Lemon Cake and it was delicious. Some reviews say their prices are too high, but when you consider the extra meals you get from the bring home left-overs, it's actually...

We had a very poor experience on June 25th at Jimmy's. We booked the party room for our soccer team that was in town for US Nationals. Every year we do a team dinner and have had such a wonderful time. When I contacted them to book the room I was very clear that our group needed to be able to pay by family. We have done this multiple times, no issues. We were told that it wouldn't be a problem. We would bill under each player. Great. As it was discussed and explained, I was assured there would not be an issue. When making the reservation this was the first question I asked and we only booked this location based on the assurance we could pay as families, but the team members could sit together.

The day of the reservation, when we arrived it was clear there was going to be a problem immediately. First they called at 6:45 to see where we were since we were late. The reservation was always for 7. Then we arrived and they wanted us to sit by families at tables and said each table would get a bill. This was NOT what was discussed. After a brief discussion, we understood that it was figured out. We offered suggestions but were immediately told that is not how they could do it. It was apparent that the staff was not able to handle our request.

We had 60 in our group and there were three servers. A young lady, a man and a middle age woman. Immediately the woman was incredibly rude to us. At no point was she friendly or welcoming. She was short with us, cursed at a parent, and said "I don't have time for this." on more than one instance. The poor young woman was apologetic and the man was very polite. However, the older woman was short, rude, and condescending to multiple people over multiple tables. Several people complained to me about this afterwards. It was the worst behavior ever displayed by a server in any restaurant I have ever witnessed.

When it came time to do the bill, we wait over an hour to discover the staff had no idea what they were doing. Parents were getting very upset and finally it was determinded they were going to bill by table. Despite my specific request at booking and previous discussions, despite several offers to help organize the bills and orders with the staff, they insisted it be done this way.

One parent paid for our entire table. I personally paid for another. Another parent paid for yet another table, and one table split. Then we spent the next 48 hours trying to decipher who owed who money, writing checks to each other, and overall lamenting about the horrible way the situation was handled and the terrible service we received. At this point, there are 4 full entrees that are unaccounted for that we believe our group was double charged for, all steaks at $19 each.

We were offered a 20% discount for the hassle, but not after we were told we would be offered gift certificates! We live over 9 hours from the restaurant and would never have an opportunity to use worthless gift certificates. Gratuity was added on, of course, although I wish the young woman and man could have split it because the third server was not deserving of a single tip due to her outlandish behavior.

The food was ok - - that's probably why half of you are reading the reviews anyway. Some of us liked our food a lot, some thought it was terrible. Overall the vegetables were very undercooked, basically raw. Some people got roast beef or prime rib instead of sirloin steak, without explanation. We were charged for refills for the teammates and children and never told that refills were additional and it was not listed on the limited menus we were presented at the tables.

I wish I could give this restaurant a ZERO for how horrible the experience was. It will be talked about amongst our team for years to come. Lastly, our team is able to walk into random restaurants nearly every weekend as a group, be sat, waited on and be able to pay for our families individually. For an "upscale dining experience" you should be ashamed at your service and lack of basic understanding of...

Hi, usually I don’t like to do reviews for different reasons but, today it’s different I have to do it, my family and I choose Jimmy Charhouse because we thought it would be a good option to have dinner there, we were 16 people in total, and we called in advance to book and they told us that they would put us in separate tables and we accepted. So when we arrived we waited about 20 minutes for them to give us the tables and when the time came to take us to the tables and our surprise 😏 was that they put us in VERY separate tables I’m telling you we had to go to the other side it was the top surface And the other 8 members of my family who were our children put them on the other side, ☹️ we couldn’t see them we have to get up to go check on them it was not pleasant. so where we the adults were sitting we noticed that there were two unoccupied tables next to us and I asked the Host guy that if those tables were empty if it was possible to bring our children to those tables and the man answered me with attitude 😣that those tables were reserved so I said ok thank you. well we were two hours we finished eating and people never arrived for those 2 tables so I told the Host that why did he lie to us in telling us that those tables were reserved No one arrived and apart from all this chaos the FOOD was bad ; the steak was not cooked as my sister-in-law requested and the baby ribs were also semi-cooked we paid for food without eating 🤢 The Host guy and the waitresses have an unpleasant attitude apparently they work in a very toxic atmosphere that’s why they are unhappy workers, working there I think the management have no tactics to have their workers happy with a positive attitude, we saw sometimes at the time we were there how another waitress treated her other partner she told her I don’t have time and snatched the paper Super annoying the boy was just asking her a question 🤦‍♀️ wow) but well, saying all this our conclusion is WE WILL NEVER GO BACK THERE JIMMY’S CHARHOUSE my family and I believe that when there is an atmosphere with respect and good attitude a restaurant or other business will always be successful. Please if you read this message make sure before going to this Jimmy’s Charhouse restaurant in Libertyville. With a lot of respect but for being so unpleasant that’s why I had...