Pleasant House Pub — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Going here was the worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant. I went on a very sunny day with the outside temperature in the mid-80s. Unbelievably, inside this restaurant there was absolutely no air conditioning on, no windows open, and no fans that I could see. I did hear a constant buzzing noise inside which may have be a fan but if it was a fan, then it must have been hidden and only on the employees because there were definitely no fans for the customers. It literally felt like a suana inside this place; seriously, an actual suana. I was sweating under my shirt and my forehead was sweating perpetually. I have never experienced anything this extreme before in a place to eat, it is unacceptable. I ordered their famous Steak and Ale Pie which was featured on a food show, yet it was quite unexceptional. It was okay, maybe even more toward just simply "good", but nothing extra tasty like it has been made out to be. Also there are pictures of this pie with a ball of mashed potatoes on top of it, but this was not the case when I received my order. Furthermore, I was given a fork and a butter knife to eat this crusty pie with. It is beyond me as to why they would give a person a butter knife instead of a steak knife. So upon using the dull butter knife, it ruined the pie because the pie is crusty/toasty so the butter knife flattened and destroyed it and mashed it into a very inelegant mush of food. Also, I was only given a single napkin with the utensils, which upon receiving, I ended up using it to constantly wipe my forehead. And I also had to hold onto one of their little menus so that I could fan myself because of the insane heat inside this place. Because of this ubsurd heat, I only ate about 1/6 of this small pie and I needed to grab the receipt to pay so that I could get out of this ridiculous place. And when the waitress did give me the receipt, she just handed it to me and left, basically. She did not communicate what to do to pay. So do you have to go up to the counter somewhere and pay, or does the waitress come back to you and pick up the payment? Who knows, it wasn't communicated. I ended up having to leave and let the other person I was having the meal with pay because it was unbearable in there. It really was that unpleasant. So there you have it, the Unpleasant House Pub. A total...

When I was young, I was given a meat pie for Christmas from my neighbor. From what I recollect, it made a very poor first impression, it tasted like awkward sweet candy with meat filling and some sort of...prune? I can safely say Pleasant House Bakery has helped me change this around with their savory, non-candy pies. What is even better is that a liquor store/bar is right next to it so you can grab some ale with your steak and ale pie. On another note, you can just order a pie from the bar and they will bring it to you which adds a nice touch.

I tried three of the pies here, The steak and Ale, Mushroom and Kale, and their Premium pasty. Oddly I liked the Mushroom and Kale the most out of the three. The flavors of the meat pie started to blend together in a worcestershire/ale sauce and was kind of flat after eating halfway through. The pies are a bit on the smaller side but are rich so you feel content finishing them. Yes I suppose hipsters or whatever people call them these days like to flock here but forget that intolerant language and grab a pie, a pint, and enjoy a grand ol' time with your chums here. Oh and the seating is scarce and slightly cramped just to throw that out there.

The good: the pies. The BYOB. The regular joe schmo feel to the place. The not so good: slightly cramped so you will definitely hear plenty of drunken chatter barging in on your conversation. May not be the best place for grandma, unless she swigs her gin...

A very good experience. We had lunch on a Saturday afternoon and got seated immediately. The ambiance had a very cozy and British feel but in an updated and modern way. The service was friendly and attentive. The beer list is small and very curated (but it would have been nice if it was rounded out with a few run of the mill local options in case I can ever wanted to bring my dad to lunch here). We got four different pies (3 of them crowned with mashed potatoes and gravy), minted peas, curry chips, and a Scotch egg. The peas were completely unremarkable. The Scotch egg was ok. The sausage in it was good and the egg was nicely cooked, but the thing was over-fried to the point where the breading tasted a little charred. The curry chips on the other hand were awesome and definitely worth revisiting. The pies (mushroom kale, premium steak, beef and ale stew, and some curried chicken pie) were beautiful, satisfying, and although at points very salty, for the price and the ambiance they were all good. More specifically, the sauces were great and the chunks were tasty and generous, but the pastries were a little too thick and chewy sometimes and I felt the pies weren't really thoroughly re/heated. None of these things were deal breakers​ though and overall it was a...