Emporium Arcade Bar — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

TL;DR: Mixed reviews on cocktails . Our waitress was great. The hostess was awful. The atmosphere unexpectedly loud and slightly obnoxious, and unsurprisingly pretentious. The decor is pretty/dark/hipster.

My friends and I arrived and were greeted by a polite guy asking to see our IDs. He directed us towards the hostess, who promptly asked how many in our party. We were four, but expecting a fifth. She said gruffly, "OK. But ultimately how many will you have?" to which we replied, "five". She then said, "I can seat you at those bar seats right there, and I recommend you stay there the whole night. The fifth person will just have to stand." This became a battle throughout the night as we watched other people be seated at larger tables, some of whom had smaller parties. When I mentioned one table to the hostess, she said that a party had been waiting for that specific table for over an hour. That party consisted of TWO people.. for a table that would seat 6+. Eventually, two others showed up half an hour later, still making use of extra seats to hold their jackets. Our waitress was understanding and kept working with the hostess. Another table of eight went to a party of six... and by that time we were done with The Betty - already planning never to go back.

The first cocktail we had was the Cobbler, which was sweet on the front, but had a super bitter finish. We ordered a beer to replace the cocktail and the waitress took immediate notice of my friend's dislike of the cocktail and took it away. The mlik punch was slightly deceiving - it's not a classic milk punch, but rather uses "clarified" milk. It tasted pretty great. The Willet Rye was ridiculously strong - recommend getting it on the rocks. And the beers were tasty - loved the IPA.

I would like to point out that the waitress we had (a pretty Asian gal, in case the staff would like to reward her for her awesome service, which she totally deserves!), smiled through all of our complaints and was exceedingly friendly, helpful, and knowledgable. She definitely saved our visit to The Betty and helped negate some of the disappointment we had.

A bartender or waiter did come by with a random beer and said it was on the house. We don't know who sent it or prompted it and we didn't even know what beer it was - we figured it out after our own taste test. While the gesture was appreciated, it would've been better handled if they actually asked what drink we might want ... plus ... how does a party of five share one beer?

P.S. The fifth person did have to stand....

My friends and I are from out of town (Texas) and wanted to find something to do on a slow Monday night so we stumbled upon this cute arcade bar! Unfortunately at the door we came across an extremely rude and insufferable bouncer; Older white male with black American flag (back the blue) beanie. From the jump he did not greet us or pay any mind. He proceeded to examine my ID for some time. Afterward, he asked if I had another form of ID. I didn’t carry anything but my actual license around so I offered my Apple ID (to confirm my identity), passport picture, etc. He proceeded to get extremely offended when I asked why. He buckles up and goes on a huge rampage of how you shouldn’t question anyone because you never know who’s a cop. Quite frankly I don’t see how that matters. If you were a cop then scan it. I already offered to show him my passport picture and I don’t think a simple “why” justifies being yelled at. He continued to try to speak over and interrupt us when we were just trying to understand where he was coming from. After seeing my friend’s ID for 2 seconds he berated us to “just hurry up and go inside” upon multiple other things. At this point we just laughed and walked into the bar for maybe a couple of minutes, and just realized he completely ruined our vibe. We decided to leave as he yelled at us the entire way out of the door and was so miserable it was insane. I never understood why some older men think they have the right to talk over and belittle young women. I hope he had the night he deserves and that this bar hires better bouncers. I think that was the most unacceptable experience I’ve ever had with one and it sucks because that bar seemed like a really fun time. During our entire Chicago bar crawl experience we didn’t come across any other issues. Maybe next time we’ll give this place another chance with the exception of a...

Let me start with saying that The Betty absolutely earns a star for its interior decor but that's probably where the charm of this place ceases.

Went here because of the cool pics of the decor for some drinks and bites on a Friday night. Place was on the emptier side compared to its counterpart The Publican.

The first assault arrived with the extremely uncomfortable chairs outside. Literally they were digging into our backs. I didn't know it was possible to feel so much pain when seated. We asked our waitress if she's aware of these chairs and she said, yes we know!?! (Head scratch) She was lukewarm towards us the entire evening.

Then came the train of food that was borderline inedible. The spicy cauliflower tasted it was bathed in dishwater and it arrived as a pile of a ton of things. I would rank it in 10 worst platings I have seen. The taste would match this atrocity with the cauliflower coming out burnt. Not sure how it left the kitchen.

The samosas are decent (thank god frying practically anything helps) but the dipping sauce not so much.

I ended with my favorite dessert, a pana cotta, they use ricotta here, extremely underwhelming.

I suspect the issues of this place run beyond the kitchen. There's just gotta be either bad energy or horrific management.

If you're looking for a good experience, go to Beatrix across the...