The Pump House Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Wood River

The Pump House Bar and Grill is one of our favorite places to go. It has a little bit of everything you would expect from a neighborhood bar and grill but it has been elevated to a higher level at the Pump House. You might remember this location from year’s past as Porky’s, but once you enter you will realize this is an entirely new place and a massive upgrade.

Atmosphere: The Pump House has a very cool atmosphere for a bar and grill. The ceiling is lined with wood and is unique and looks very high end. There is a large U-shaped bar area, two dining areas on either side of the bar with multiple seating options including high-top tables, booths, semicircle booths, tables, etc. On the other side is a second bar that is somewhat open to the outdoors. This side also contains more tables and a few booths. There are pool tables on this side along with darts. The larger side has about two dozen pinball machines. There are TVs throughout that typically are playing sports channels and occasionally news channels. A large karaoke stage is also present. It is not loud and is kid friendly. It has a very cool vibe and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Food: The food is very good. It ranges as mid-range to upper tier “bar and grill” style food. There are the typical sandwiches, burgers, appetizers, as well as steak and chicken. My favorite item on the menu are the boneless chicken chunks. There are multiple sauces to choose from but my favorite is spicy glazed. They are tremendous and among the best boneless chicken “wings”/chunks I have had anywhere. If you go to Pump House, these can be a great appetizer, your main course, or something to share, but I highly recommend you get them when you visit. The burgers are very good, too, and their fries are quite good. Our typical menu consists of a patty melt with friends, a kid’s slider and fries, spicy glazed chicken chunks, and garlic parmesan fries. The food is excellent.

Service: The service is typically above average. Most waiters of tables also work in the bar, so there can be some delay for drinks, etc, but our experiences have almost always been very good. With a family of four, we typically do not purchase alcohol when we are having food, but our kids love lemonade and get plenty of refills. The same goes for water. Most servers are very friendly and attentive. No complaints.

Pricing: Food is generally priced as you would expect and not too high for what you get. All prices have gone up in the past 18 months, but that is the case at every establishment in every sector. For the four of us with the typical meal described above we are looking at about $60 with tip.

Extras: One of our favorite things at Pump House is that on Tuesday evenings after 5pm and Friday’s after 9pm the pinball machines are free! Our kids absolutely love it as do we. It is a great time and offers some nostalgia for adults and something different from video games for kids. It is a huge perk during the free hours and we try to go on Tuesdays when possible to take advantage of the free pinball. Various other specials, including steak meals and various happy hour drink specials are available. The Pump House is a great place to visit once or twice or regularly. You will not be disappointed and be sure to get the...

I order food from pump house daily. Lots of times it's Togo orders. They have messed up my order multiple times and I have called them to complain only a few times to replace my order. I had a 17 dollar credit on my account that the owner told me he would not let me use because he is not going to keep replacing the same order. Even tho HIS cooks are the ones responsible for messing up my order. Sorry if I PAY for food AND drive ALL the way from Alton to pick up my food I expect it to be RIGHT! But even after he told me he would not let me use my credit for the 17 dollars i let it go and continued to order from there. I order the same thing all the time so you'd expect that they could make it right. Yesterday I ordered a Togo order again and surprise surprise they messed up. Mind you I asked the server on the phone to repeat the order back to me and she did and it was correct when she repeated it. And I checked the reciet when I came in to make sure it was right. But of coarse when I got home and was ready to eat my food it was made completely wrong! I got a grillled chicken club wrap and I'm not really sure what they gave me. Something with a very spicy sauce that gave me very bad heart burn and I ended up throwing it up (I'm 8 months pregnant so it didn't sit right) and it had tomatoes on it. I called yesterday and told them I wanted the owner to call me back because I wanted to talk to him personally because of the 17 dollar situation any way and he had another manager call me back today and I still got nothing solve. Got a sorry but they are still not replacing my order. I'm very disappointed about the fact that they didn't make the food right, but even more dissapointed at the fact that the owner did Not have the decency to call me back hisself and deal with the problem. I've spent hundreds probably over a 1000 dollars in this resturant not to mention when me and my friends go eat there too and they spend their money too. I can't even get my order made correctly. I would post a picture of my messed up food but it will not let me do that on here. Smh. I'm just very annoyed with this...

My husband and I had eaten here before and had good food and good service. However, I was on a bus with ladies Saturday night ( about 30 of us), and we stopped in. From the minute we walked in the door, they treated us very rude. The worst was how they treated the 50-somethings in our group. Our crime? A few of us came in carrying the stainless tumblers with ice in them! I tried showing the guy yelling at me that mine was only ice and he grabbed it and instantly dumped it. So when I ordered a beer, I asked them to put ice in it since I like my beer really cold. Seriously, I AM a customer! They actually chased down a couple of ladies like they were criminals, trying to grab their cups. It was very embarrassing! We were ready to leave immediately, but a few ladies had already ordered drinks. One patron who said he was a regular, actually apologized for what happened, and he kindly paid for a round of drinks for the entire group. We then did stay for another round that we purchased, and I think we could have had a lot of fun there had they not dampened the spirit of the night so quickly. My friends daughter is getting married and we had a very well-behaved group of ladies just wanting to celebrate, listen to some music and maybe dance a little. The band who was playing were very friendly to us. Just a shame that hardly anyone in the group had ever been here, and they won't...