Hoots South Loop — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

I've gone past this place several times over the years and not once have thought about going in it. I honestly question what's the whole point if the entire reason Hooters exists isn't here. It's akin to a FedEx that doesn't ship packages and instead only prints and attempts to actually sell the drinks in the minifridge next to the register. They only have chicken and seafood with two sandwiches available (fried or grilled chicken sandwich.) There's over 8 sauces or seasonings you can add as well.

Even though the place was fairly empty you could tell they were getting a bunch of online orders since it took awhile to get my order out. The place is pricey for what it is. I felt like I walked into a physical AliExpress. They have a minimum order of 10 pieces of anything which sets you back at least $12. That doesn't include fries nor a drink which can be $4-$8 extra depending on if you get loaded fries. I got the Buffalo shrimp as well as some of their signature Daytona beach style wings which apparently are lightly fried then sauced before being grilled. So pretty much they cook them similarly to a steak. These wings also take a longer time to make. Just 10 wings, 10 shrimp, loaded fries and a fountain drink cost me $40.73! I keep staring at my receipt in disbelief...

The buffalo shrimp are pathetically small. Apparently they are aware of this as they threw in a whopping extra two shrimp so that I would get six shrimp with each sauce. Not even buffalo. They really need to clarify on the menu that if you pick sauces then it just turns the order into a regular item even if the sauces are on the side. Everything was ok. The Daytona style definitely left the wings dry. There was no breading on them either which from the pictures I expected it. I don't believe the wings were sauced before being grilled either as it looks like they just dumped the sauce on them afterwards. The clue is the lemon pepper wings only having lemon pepper on top. The sauces are all pretty good except for the Daytona BBQ sauce which just tasted like a very mild, cheap BBQ sauce with no zest to it.

The clientele doesn't help either. From ratchet to a bunch of mischievous, loud children you can tell this is not anywhere near an upscale place. Who would've thought Hoots is a hood favorite?

Overall, this place is nowhere near worth it. It's way better than Wingstop, but falls short in a lot of areas. The menu needs to revamped as well as the prices. The cherry on top is them having a buy one get one free wing special that isn't advertised and not available on the digital order terminals (which I used.) Out of the dozens of people that entered Hoots while I was there...the manager only mentioned the special to a lady with a bunch of kids. The fact that this place has so much foot traffic is amazing, but hey Panda Express a few doors down is always packed as well so it seems clear the people in this area just don't know what...

I purchased food from this establishment on 4/8/2025. I had my husband pick up my food for lunch. When I received my food my order was terribly wrong. I called the business and spoke with Shayna who told me they were at fault and they would give me a credit for a shrimp and curly fries which was not in my bag on top of the other items being wrong. I agreed. Today I went to retrieve my credit and order more food and was told my credit was redeemed 4 days ago by Martin R. the assistant manager. I don’t have a common name at all (Dorian) I know that this was a blant lie unless one of the workers decided that they’ll have my credit for lunch. He refused to give me the credit still. This is no way to be treated after they knowingly and were apologetic about messing up my order from 4/8/2025. Martin was very rude and rhe he needs to take a class in customer service. I gave a reviews 2 years ago which was very positive because I have never experienced something like this before. They should have honored what they said they were going to do after they were the ones who messed...

I will never patronize this location again . This is the second time I’ve received old chicken. I order my food at 2:40pm I walked in the door at 2:46pm & they said my order was ready. I asked was this fresh, he said yes. I got to work and the food was chewy and cold, cold chicken with warm sauce on it and brown cold chewy fries. I reached out to the location, advising of this, the manager Chris stated, if the sauce isn’t wrong I’m crediting you, he proceeded to continually talk over me. He refused to initially tell me his name then told me I’d need to let him finish talking after cutting me off numerous times. I advised him that I’m on lunch I can not bring this food back and my son has a baseball game after work. I used my time to come in to get this cold food, there should not be an issue to credit 10 wings that I paid 16 for! He said you order it online go try to get your refund off line. I’ve never dealt with a ruder manager than this man. If he is how you all chose to manager & represent your location, it won’t...