Illinois Beach Resort — Restaurant in Zion

The food was insulting. The night before, I got the catfish po'boy—the catfish itself was done well, but it was served on a French roll with a single piece of wilted lettuce, no sauce, no tomatoes—nothing. The fries it came with were fine (hard to mess up), but I had to request tartar sauce and steal my partner’s drink lemon since I wasn’t provided one. After that, the meal was tolerable, but the morning was far worse.

My partner ordered the same as me: country-fried steak, eggs, and potatoes. Our other partner ordered a parfait and coffee. Let’s get the parfait out of the way—it was fine. Just fine. The fruit was frozen, but other than that, no complaints. The coffee, on the other hand, tasted like it had been brewed by the loose hands of a dust bunny.

Now, the sad excuse for country-fried steak… Where to start? Dry. How could it be dry? No gravy. Why would you even serve it without gravy? I asked about it and was told they didn’t have any. Then why was I allowed to order something that comes with gravy? Worse yet, there were at least two or three other items on the menu that also included breakfast gravy. If you’re out, say something. The server went to check, came back with ketchup, and comped one of the meals. Thanks, I guess? I choked it down.

The potatoes seemed to be stretched with cut-up fries. The toast—well, we weren’t given a choice of sourdough or wheatberry; we were just given wheatberry, and it tasted like their freezer. To make matters worse, it had no butter. The steak, without gravy, was lackluster and really dry—just damn. And one of my eggs? Looked like they cleaned the griddle with it. It was well-done, riddled with blistering craters, and covered in black bits, more akin to a kitchen sponge than its acceptable brethren. The ugliest duckling, to say the least.

To top it all off, they’re rather pricey for what was served. If you're going to charge those prices, at least put in the effort to make it worth it.

The location is pretty, and we came in the off-season, but if you’re open all season, communicate unavailable items and clean like...

I have not had the pleasure of staying their that I can recall, I have lived in the area my whole life. I can only repeat what I have heard until I am able to stay there to see for myself. I am told it's clean and comfortable and that the food is OUTSTANDING. I can testify about how beautiful the beach and nature trails are and the ever so loved sunrises on Lake Michigan. See my photos and I will...

My family has been coming here since 2011. It's our happy place. If you're looking for a 4 star hotel, keep looking. But you can spend the time on basically a private beach. The beach was recently redone. There are no rocks.. just sand and water.. it's beautiful. Plus you have the option to bring a grill and use...