Hackney's on Harms — Restaurant in New Trier Township

First, I should say that I enjoyed a delicious Reuben Sandwich this evening and the people I was with also enjoyed their meals. So, two girls brought the meals to the table. Though neither of them was my server, the restaurant was fairly busy so I asked one of them if I could get a pint of Guinness. She was polite and said she'd tell my server. So, clearly she was a kitchen helper and wasn't authorized to get the beer herself, but she would find someone who could - fine, that should have been the end of the story. A little while later a waitress who also was not our server arrived at our table and asked, "who wanted a pint of Guinness here?" I said that was me. Then I noticed she didn't have the Guinness. She looked at me and said "those girls are too young, they can't serve you alcohol". It sounded like an accusation. I said something like I didn't necessarily expect HER to serve it, I was just requesting one. Now, this may seem like a small point, but I've never had a server in any establishment who actually took the time to stop what she was doing to walk over to my table just to tell me I'd ordered a beer incorrectly. That interaction should never have happened. A good waitress would have understood what had occurred and just poured the beer and brought it to my table. Why this waitress felt like she needed to lecture me in front of my family and other diners is beyond me. I won't be...

Randomly stopped here for dinner when we were visiting friends in the area. They have outdoor seating when it's nice, but it's a little confusing as to what to do when you arrive — I believe there are two hostess stands (one outside and one inside), but there are no directions to either, so we ended up following someone inside thinking that there was only one hostess stand. The indoor seating is a throwback — it's dark with wood paneling, dark brown booths, an L-shaped bar.

I'm not sure if they are often short-staffed, but they were that day. It took a long time for anyone to acknowledge us to be seated and then forever to get drinks and then our food order in. The servers were all incredibly nice, though not super efficient. Also, they ran out of some of the specials on the board already the previous day, and no one thought to change it.

Once you order your food, it comes out crazy fast — we placed our order for our appetizer and entrees at the same time and the appetizer (the fried onion brick they're known for) came out before our waitress had finished taking down our entrees!

It's mostly bar/pub food and northern midwestern favorites (gave me Wisconsin vibes). The food was good, like a well done version of the genre. I can see why they have so many regulars, but we wouldn't go out of our way to come back next time we're in this part of the suburbs. I'd give...

Go to Hackneys on Harms for the history and vibe of a homey grill that still feels like you are in someone's backyard eating home cooked food. Sadly, the burgers that made Hackneys famous are not worth ordering, and are barely edible. We have been twice, thinking the first must have been a fluke but same exact disappointing burger: a barely seasoned (maybe unseasoned) burger patty, cooked without achieving any color on the exterior (perfectly bland grey, with zero caramelization or crust), and set on a bun without resting the meat so the meat juices soak the bun. What was delivered each time was a burger whose bottom bun was so wet it was not edible, and almost no flavor to the meat. Worth me mentioning again that this happened on two visits, separated by over 2 years, with multiple burger orders each visit so not a fluke. Sad, because the meat blends itself appeared to be good, and the buns were soft and flavorful. The "famous" fried onion tasted of raw flour and dough, and needed some kind of sauce to be edible (but none was offered). The kitchen needs to be cleaned out (as in new chefs and cooks, not physically cleaned) to revive this historical place, but until that happens we will not be returning. We also tried other dishes but none were remarkable or worth visiting Hackneys...