Sunset Pub & Grill — Restaurant in Lincoln Park

To start off on a positive note- The outdoor seating area and bar are absolutely gorgeous on a nice day. There's an open view of the hills around 287 that almost makes it worth the trip there. But it's not.

I live very near this place so over the years I've dropped in 3-4 times on nice days and my experience has always been the same. The food is awful, the prices are too high, and it's often extremely crowded. My trip there this past weekend is pretty archetypal of my experience there.

I got a table with one other companion and we ordered some drinks and nachos outside. There wasn't a wait, which was nice. The day was beautiful and the view was great. The nachos were pretty terrible. There were large cuts of Romaine lettuce leaves piled on top for some reason, which we removed- A little weird but okay. The real problem was that half of the nachos tasted like soap. We didn't finish them, and later both got stomach aches from what we ate. Gross.

We finished up and asked if we could move to a 4-person table since we had two other guests joining us for food and we were going to have a few more drinks since it was a nice day (thanks Uber!). They told us they couldn't seat us, which was fine. I understood that on such a nice day there was probably a high demand for tables. What was frustrating, though, was having to stand near the bar area (which was incredibly crowded) and watching 2-3 four-person tables at a time remain empty even after they had been cleaned. Why couldn't we just have taken one? We ended up not ordering any more food since we had nowhere to eat. Did they not want to sell more food?

To make things even worse, the bar area was so crowded that we ended up having to stand within the walking routes of the wait staff and busboys. This led to one of the more obnoxious staff members yelling at us and making us feel like idiots; "Really bad place to stand guys, you're right in the way. I have to bring out food, you better move." After which he rudely shoved past us. Listen pal, it's not my fault you're having a bad day or whatever; and your restaurant denied us a table despite the fact that there have been 3 open for the past 15 minutes. The exchange really made me angry, I'm getting annoyed again just thinking about it.

So we left the bar area and went to the dining area, but this wasn't much better because we were constantly in the wait staffs way. There were some tents and about a half dozen picnic-style tables set up next the dining area. It was some sort of event area, but it was completely empty. There was a sign that asked us not to enter, so we asked one of the waitresses if we could sit there until whoever had the area reserved arrived to use it. She was friendly and said to go ahead, it shouldn't be a problem. So we go in and we don't even get to sit down before a different person rushes over and tells us we're not allowed in the area. And he did this by yelling to us and rudely saying "Nope.", as if we did something wrong. Didn't even give us the time of day or to explain that we had asked another member of staff.

After this we went back to the dining area before deciding just to leave the place. On our way out we again spied a couple of empty four-person tables. It's absolutely puzzling the way they manage their restaurant; we would have spent another $100 there between the four of us, easily. Instead we left to go elsewhere. Money left on the table by poor management and unnecessary rudeness.

It's a pretty terrible experience pretty much all around, and it seems to have gotten worse over the years. It used to be that the food was poor and overpriced, now it seems overcrowded, poorly managed, and staffed by overly rude people as well. The outdoor area and the view are fantastic, but even then it's just not worth it. Find somewhere else with outdoor seating until this place changes management...

Was there yesterday. It was awful! Worst restaurant experience I have EVER had! Have been there several times over the years but it's been awhile. This place has totally went down hill! We had reservations. Was seated on time but brought to a FILTHY table! It was reset up but NOT cleaned. There were chip crumbs all over the table, 2 of the 6 chairs were COVERED in crumbs and all under table was filthy. The young hostess didn't have common sense enough to say " hold on a minute while I clean this up " when I pointed out how dirty it was she looked at me like I had 2 heads. She tried replacing 1 chair and thought doing just that was ok. I told her she had to get a broom and sweep. I really wish I had taken a picture of the floor. Not just under our table but middle of floor between tables was dirty too! Littered withe straw wrappers and debris. Some other kid came over with broom and didn't even know how to sweep. I wound up having to take the broom and sweep under our table.

Very limited menu. Same few ingredients used over and over. No variety. One of us wanted to add coleslaw to her cod tacos as they came with either chips or slaw and she wanted both. At this point we were on our waitresses nerves and she informed her it would be $6.95 for a side of slaw. We were ShOCKED and said that can't be. She was insistent. So we passed. BTW she ate her first taco, one of two ( which the fish STUNK, fresh fish should not ) it was dripping in some kind of liquid she was getting ready to start second taco and realized the fish was not fully cooked. At this point our waitress went home and we had a new one so she told her. They took off half for her dinner because she ate one taco! I have never heard of such a thing! They served her raw fish! She wound up going home and throwing up all night! Another of us had cod cake to which she felt was under cooked as well and she ate less than half. 2 of us had drunken chicken sandwich which wasn't good either but at least it was cooked. Dishes sat on table of long periods. Very poor service! Food expensive for what it was! Management was non existent and really needs to teach their staff . Only plus was the calamari which I have to say was delicious!...

My friends and I frequently come here to enjoy the football games at the bar area almost every week. We have always had a great wait staff, the food has always been delicious, and the drinks are amazing. Why the 2 stars? Last Wednesday, we called and reserved a table for 5 at the bar area for 8:00 pm for the following day. We were asked if we could push it up to 8:15 to ensure that the party before us was gone and that the table would be cleaned when we got there. We said of course, and there were no issues then, similar to the other times we had made a reservation. We get to the restaurant and the hostess tells us there is a party there, and they are past their 90 minute time limit (their COVID rules), so they will be promptly asked to leave. 10 minutes goes by, 15 minutes goes by, and then the manager comes up to us and tells us they just got the check and that they will be getting up soon. We are then escorted to a table inside to wait (we aren't really comfortable sitting inside yet because of COVID, but we said yes to accommodate them). Another 25 minutes goes by, and still, nothing is done, no one asks them to leave, and the prior guests are still at the table making no motions to leave. Finally, at 9:05 pm (note our reservation was for 8:15), the bar tender walks over to them and tells them they need to leave now. If it wasn't for him, we still wouldn't have gotten the table. Every time we go there, we respect the 90 minute limit, unless told there is no one waiting after us. However, it took only one bar tender to ask them to leave, which the manager and the wait staff were fearful to do. I don't usually write reviews because I am understanding of the demands of the job, however, I thought that this was clearly unacceptable and showed disorganization. We have since chosen another restaurant to go to for our weekly outings. It is such a shame, because we really loved the food, but this poor experience made us not...