First Look: The Publican

girlfoodie from river north - September 06, 2009 at 4:49 PM

Best new restaurant?? Are you kidding me?? Selling the least expensive parts of an animal for rediculous prices, slow, unattentive service, uncomfortable seating and lighting and overpriced beer makes me wonder what the hell is going on here....can still taste the salt, which could be a ploy to sell more beer. One star.

carolcos from hoffman estates - April 21, 2009 at 9:28 AM

We took an out of town relative here. Really loved the creativity. I like that the menu states where the different components of each dish come from including the butter. The wait staff is extremely knowledgeable which is important in a place like this. I did find the food a bit over-salted, though. but is is nice to find "good" salt used and not that iodised stuff. The potee is incredible!! We are returning for our anniversary this week.

AJM from Fulton River District - January 14, 2009 at 7:24 PM

We went with a group of friends who like to try new things and we aren't picky eaters at all; however, this was not so great. The waiter had to explain almost every dish on the menu because you really can't tell from the menu what you are ordering. That kind of thing annoys me! We all ordered different dishes and made sure to order a few additional things just to try as much as we could and we were only happy with 2 things. Most of what came to the table was overpriced for what you get. We decided to tell the waiter we didn't really like the last 2 things on the table and he took them off the bill, which we definitely appreciated and did not expect at all. Overall, we all agreed we probably would not be back.

Michele R from Hyde Park - January 14, 2009 at 5:26 PM

Very mediocre service. It was a Monday night and not very busy, but we waited over 20 minutes for a server to pay any attention to us. The food was good, but seemed pricey for what you get.

Debbie from Gold Coast - December 31, 2008 at 9:09 PM

We were a group of 9 and had to wait over 2 HOURS for a table, the problem is that the system is flawed, there is no way to shuffle up the tables, we had to wait for 3 people seated in the middle to get up. The hostesses were not very attentive to the situation. I had to keep going back to check on status, they should have been coming to me to explain and also they should have a better sense of timing, 30 minutes more turned into 2 hours! The food menu is odd, but the chicken was good, hardly worth the wait....and no one offered us any comps until we were leaving and the waiter offered dessert, but too late. This place is trying so hard to be different and hip, but they lost track of the basics which is better seating arrangements, hostesses that know the timing and flow for an honest sense of timing, and attentiveness to the fact that we have to wait on our feet at the "bar" with a very limited appetizer menu. I won't be back, and neither will the 8 others in my party!

acassard from Grand Rapids, MI - December 29, 2008 at 8:28 AM

My boyfriend and I paid a visit to the city this past weekend and were even more pleased to have dined at The Publican than we were at Avec a few months back (tall order!). We were seated quickly, served impeccably, and were happy to hear from our sweet server, Mary, about some of the restaurant's quirky details. We chose the mussels, which, coupled with the manchego and pear salad, were suprisingly plentiful enough to satisfy both my boyfriend and me. I can't wait to go back for the farm chicken and some more atmosphere!

sneaky from tri taylor - December 15, 2008 at 10:04 PM

We were comped a round of drinks as we waited to be seated. We thought an offer to pay for the starter salad or dessert would have been nice as our bill came to over $700. They asked what would make us happy and comped us another round of drinks. That was what we thought they should have offered up front without us asking. The food and beers were quite good but nobody in our party will return. This place may work in a rural setting but not in the city and especially not on a busy night. The set up is completely flawed and if they don't wise up to this fact they will continue to turn people off. I'm not interested in a "dining experience" over 2 hours on top of a wait of over an hour - with a reservation. Separate the tables, turn the tables and concentrate on service. The good food and beer is not worth it if you don't!

sneaky from tri taylor - December 15, 2008 at 10:03 PM

It was too difficult to get to the bar to order drinks. After we finally did get our overpriced drinks we then had to stand in a very crowded space surrounded very closely by all of the diners eating! After another 20 minutes of speaking to the manager we finally got seated. My guess is that it would have been much longer had we not insisted that this was not acceptable. One person in our party had to order a starter salad immediately, wolf it down and leave as we had been there over 1.5 hours at that point. The menu is as deceptive as the reservation system. Difficult to read, portions are impossible to determine and they were out of 5 items. We were told that the portions followed the prices in descending order on the menu. Huh? We ended up just ordering about everything on the menu. The fish selections were not appealing.

sneaky from tri taylor - December 15, 2008 at 10:03 PM

Caveat Emptor! I firmly believe this place has a major systemic flaw in their seating arrangement. I came to this realization last Sat. night after our group of 10 waited over an hour to be seated for our 8:00 reservation. The only reason we were seated that quickly is because we basically demanded that they seat us. The communal dining experience here does not work well with reservations. We were told by the manager that it can take over 2 hours to dine here. A reservation is a resevation in my book. Initially, I was fine with waiting until they had our table ready and went to get my group drinks. However, the bar area which consists of a few round tables with no seats was jammed. We did not see a waitress for 20 minuntes.

mkathleenpratt from Bucktown - December 13, 2008 at 12:28 PM

Mike, CheeseGirl (and foodman): The Publican started taking reservations about a week ago; prior to that, Sunday (for Sunday dinner) was the only day they accepted reservations. I usually don't mind a bit of a wait, especially when there's great beer involved, but for those nights when I only have a short window of time and need to get my pork rinds on, I'm happy about the new policy! -- Kathleen

Mike from Elmwood Park - December 12, 2008 at 3:45 PM

CheeseGirl, the restaurant is taking reservations now most nights of the week (although I don't know if it was back before November).

CheeseGirl from Wicker Park - December 04, 2008 at 7:43 PM

This "Foodman" fellow is clearly embellishing his "terrible" experience with falsities, as the Publican never takes reservations. Looks like he is the one who is "clueless". Next time Foodman should do a little fact checking before slandering.

alehound from ravenswood - November 04, 2008 at 12:49 PM

Excellent selection of beer although 2 of the Belgium's I was interested in were out (1 tap, 1 bottle), the wait though was ridiculous, on a Thursday night it took an hour and 20 minutes to get a table at 7:30. The waitress brought me the wrong beer the first time then took another 10 minutes to bring me the correct brew. Otherwise the atmosphere is good and the bartender does know his beers.

foodman from lakeview - November 01, 2008 at 11:43 PM

You have to be joking, this place is a wreck. Service is beyond terrible, the staff is clueless in every way. Waited 2 1/2 hours (with reservations) no food, finally had to walk out. You would think these people just got in this business. Can hardly believe they run Mia Francescas, Avec and Blackbird. Can't believe I wasted $10 on valet parking.