One Lake Brewing — Restaurant in Oak Park

OVERPRICED MEDIOCRE FOOD

We got a group of 14 people here on a late Sunday afternoon. Nobody had ever been here before. We chose this place because it was a central location for everyone. The first impression was that it was a pretty neat place. The beer bottle chandelier is a really nice touch.

The service itself was fine. Not great. Not bad. Just fine. I guess this was a slower time of day, therefore the bartender was taking care of the tables as well as the bar. She did a fine job.

I’m not a craft beer connoisseur myself, so I tried the soccer mom seltzer. Apparently it’s something that they make in-house. It’s awful. It tastes like a watered-down wine cooler that lost all of its fizz. I do not recommend it.

The food was extremely overpriced for the portions that they serve. For example, I ordered the barbecue pork sandwich. It came on a big bun, but when you open the sandwich, the portion of the protein was disproportionately smaller than the bun. The temperature of the food was not great either. They also upcharge you for ordering additional sauces. About the only thing I give them credit for (food-wise) is that the fries were tasty. Otherwise, everyone else in my group pretty much felt the same way that I did.

The beer might be good, but no one in the group said anything...

I doubt we'll be back. Service is terrible and the food is far from good enough to make up for the lousy service. Our last visit, our server returned after we ordered to inform us that my son's entree was actually not available. We asked for a menu back so he could pick something else. And then we never saw our server again. They brought out everyone's meal except my son and only then could we get someone's attention so he could ORDER his entree when the rest of us had already gotten our food. They clearly didn't bother putting a rush on his order in spite of this, because it still took forever. Also no silverware provided requiring us to flag down a very reluctant server again. Well, finally dug into the Mac and cheese, blech, awful. My other son's fries were cold. Our drinks were never refilled (at a brewery!).

Employees don't care about providing a quality experience and it really shows. Across the board.

Edit: why do I keep coming back?! Remarkably similar experience: this time sitting at the bar, STILL didn't get my beer refilled, again served a meal with no silverware or napkins, again constantly had to flag down the bartender to get anything in spite of the place being half empty. I don't get it, the beer is good and the space is nice, why is the service...

This time, I had the BBQ chicken sandwich. Wonderful! Great fries, too. My friends seemed to enjoy the selection of brews (I no longer drink, though a couple of us expressed interest in them someday offering a nonalcoholic beer). I'm sure younger folk will not feel the same, but on the roof it was noisy for me to hear conversations across the table. Especially when the rain kicked up. Subsequent visit: I tried the Mac and Cheese, for which OLB is somewhat famous. Excellent! You have the option to add bacon, or other protein choices, which would also be awesome. My friend had the meatball sandwich, which I will try next time. They now feature a list of non-alcoholic drinks on the menu for us teatotalers,but still no beer. Another friend had a margarita that was unlike any other he'd had (mixed reviews- he didn't like it, but others who tasted it found it interesting to exotic). Anyway still 5 stars...