Town Club Restaurant — Restaurant in North Township

I got out of a two week hospital stay at St. Mary’s hospital in Merriville Ind. I searched google for locations around me that had Prime Rib. I called six restaurants and unfortunately either they no longer serve Prime Rib or they only serve it on weekends. My final call was to the Town Club and the gentleman that answered the phone proudly exclaimed “we have Prime Rib every day. A quick trip to a storied supper club brought my prime rib and my wife’s bbq ribs to our car door. We then drove 40 minutes home to Lowell Indiana and sat down to a wonderful restaurant meal. The relish tray items were packed and individually wrapped. The soup was individually wrapped and included the packages of saltines. The portion of the prime rib was huge. I ate my fill for dinner and made a prime rib sandwich with garden fresh tomatoes for lunch the next day. Kudos to this great historic supper club. We will return often. EDIT SEPTEMBER 26,2023 We dined in the restaurant and found this 75 year old building that houses this gem of a restaurant a frozen in time. It is truly an amazing place, an old school restaurant that is something you dream about or see in old movies. We entered into the rear entrance which is labeled HANDICAP ONLY ENTRANCE. I’m handicapped and walk with a walker so we walked in and say a table of people then we proceeded in a little further and sat down. The waitress walked up and gave us the menu and acted rushed. I looked at the menu and said that I wanted the prime rib that they are famous for. She said she had to get me the dinner menu. She brought the dinner menu and we ordered. My wife ordered the grilled pork chops with sweet potato chips and I ordered the prime rib with a shrimp cocktail, Ceaser salad, baked and the 20 ounce Prime Rib. The food is outstanding, fantastic, unbelievable. You really have to try their food to believe it. The prime rib is seasoned perfectly sliced and their signature finish is to put it on the grill for a few seconds to seal in the flavor and the juices. My wife’s pork chops were tender and seasoned perfectly, juicy and delicious My wife had the sweet potato chips with drawn butter and brown sugar and wow, unbelievable. My prime rib tender and the best I’ve ever had. My Fresh shrimp cocktail was made up of giant shrimp and a homemade cocktail sauce perfectly seasoned. The entire meal was 5plus stars. Excellent. Unfortunately the waitress didn’t like the fact that we sat in the rear of the restaurant near the handicap entrance. We sat at a table near that entrance and had no idea there was another part of the restaurant. The service was forced and not very pleasant. The waitress said she was the only person working and the restaurant “in front “ was busy. We had no clue about a restaurant in front. But fortunately the fantastic food ruled and we didn’t care about the rude waitress. You have to try this gem of a SUPPER CLUB. You love it right down to the old school relish trays...

My girlfriend and I walked inside and I quickly became confused. There wasn’t anyone up front to greet or seat us. We had to walk through a slim aisle through the bar area and up to a weird nook to be helped. The woman who came up to us had to see if they had an available table. It seemed as if they feared more towards reservations than walk-ins. Luckily, they had a two-seat table for us. It was very cramped as we headed towards our table. I feel we were near everyone’s breathing space. The restaurant is simply poorly designed. I understand the restaurant is really old, but updates are still best friends to businesses.

I ordered a Diet Soda and a Chrissy’s Pucker Up Martini. My girlfriend ordered a Mark’s Blue Heaven Margatini. The Diet Soda was not too good. The Pucker Up Martini was way too doused in alcohol to call it an enjoyable drink. There was a very light green haze in the drink. You really couldn’t taste the Apple Pucker. I hated it. The Margatini was also doused in alcohol. The salt was presented sloppy around the rim. It’s as if they want you drunk when you dine here. They brought us bread. It was too crispy and I believe it was stale. It was okay loaded with butter.

I ordered The Town Club Steak Sandwich with French Fries and my girlfriend ordered the Big Bertha sandwich, which is roast beef, cheese, and pepperoncini on toasted garlic bread. She chose French Fries as her side. We planned on sharing them to get the best of both worlds.

The Steak Sandwich was horrible. It was infested with fat. The French Fries were skinny and almost flavorless. They also tasted as if they’ve been sitting on a counter with the air just flowing around them. I had to send my meal back. I was pretty grossed out, but as planned, we shared the Big Bertha sandwich. It was very bland. I dipped it in the juice, and still very bland. I thought maybe it was just me at first and the Martini killed my taste buds, but even my girlfriend didn’t really want her portion of the sandwich. I finished the bland sandwich, since I didn’t want to send everything back and look like a bad guy. I figured I might as well just finish the sandwich and fill up my stomach.

The service was okay. I understood they were busy, so I don’t want to complain too much about the speed. The complaint I do have about the service is that the busier-type staff just grabbed our plates freely and didn’t seem to care to ask if we were finished. The plates weren’t even completed all of the way.

Overall, I would never want to come back here. From the layout to the vibe to the food, it’s not worth it for me. Like I said before, it seems like they want you drunk before your...

WHITES ONLY ESTABLISHMENT! Discriminated against for the first time in my life! Is it 2023 or 1953?! I am a young black professional woman and I should never feel like this. My close friend dines here pretty often and recommended that we dine in for a early dinner on Sweetest Day, I agreed. We walk into the establishment and the owner Mike Hines was at the host podium. They were indeed packed which was expected. We asked for a table for 2 his response was "Sorry, we are booked solid its Sweetest Day". We looked around and at each other because there was open seats, we figured maybe they were reserved tables. My friend said that's fine I'll just order to-go and proceeded to give her order. Before she could finish her sentence a white couple walked in and as for a table for 2, Mark Hines response to them was "Sure, there will be a 15 minute wait if that's okay?" I looked at my friend and looked at the owner with the dirtiest look, it was then that he realized his true colors had come through. I said "Excuse me, who are they that we aren't?" He responded "I didn't think you guys wanted to wait". At this point I'm thinking how is that true when you originally told me you were BOOKED SOLID! Did you mean there were no seats for black guest because we were the only ones there anyway? Is this a WHITE ONLY establishment and I missed the memo?! I told my friend she better not dare support this establishment with a to-go order. The couple behind us left the establishment right after us, they approached my friends vehicle and expressed how disgusted they were by how we were treated. I called in to express a complaint with the owner and it turned out Mark was the owner LOL! We talked briefly and he did indeed apologize and said he's not racist because he has BLACK CHEF and LATINO employees WOW! I asked Mark again "Who were they that we weren't?" How were they given the opportunity to wait for a table but we were turned away, told you were booked solid?! All it takes is one time for me to be treated like the bottom of the barrel before I speak up! I've never written a review in such a manner and it wont stop here. I must shine a light on this it is 2023 and we all deserve to be treated EQUALLY regardless of skin color! We should have been given the same choice as the WHITE couple behind us. MARK please get with the times, I'm sure at some point this establishment was just that but its a new day. I refuse to be treated anything but equally because no race is superior! I'm so happy the nice couple in question recognized this also and...