Foul. describes the food here. Terrible. describes the service. Waste. describes how I felt after spending money here. Do not get the mushroom soup, it tastes like an entire jar of dried rosemary with cornstarch. The chips and queso are chips from a bag, and queso from a jar? Velveeta and cornstarch? Not sure. Even the Coke didn't taste like coke. The silverware was dirty, the tables sticky, the chairs uneven. This place looks great and enticing from the outside, but it's a straight sh*thole inside. read more

Fantastic spot. We had lunch and each ordered soup. mushroom with artichoke hearts, and Bleu cheese with kale and carrots. Superb! Served with bread that was just the right crisply crust and soft middle. The root beer float martini was all you'd expect from the name! Great service, good prices. read more

I'm a lifelong vegetarian who also believes that a salad isn't a meal, especially for dinner. My choices were, in fact, salad or ...a PBJ. I asked about having them make a grilled cheese, & was told they couldn't melt cheese on the grill... (The cheese is inside the bread..?) I ordered the salad, which came with champagne vinaigrette, which I swear had raw sugar at the bottom of the cup. It was super sweet & grainy. So even if the grill is somehow lactose intolerant, may I suggest grilling a few pieces of zucchini, or a slice of eggplant, slap it on a roll with some goat cheese & a little peso & a tomato, & hot damn, you'll probably make a few dieters happy, too? Or what about a caprese sandwich. Mozz, tomato, pesto, done. Served cold. Make a vegetarian happy. Also: Maui onion is a great flavor, but it gets overwhelming fast. The saving grace was one of the gin cocktails. The name escapes me, but it was something with cucumber--it was absolutely delicious & I highly recommend it. read more

Food was fresh and delicious! We had the cream of mushroom soup and the seafood chowder soup, both were excellent. We shared The Refrigerator sandwich and it was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. read more

I stopped in on a Monday night. The town is basically closed on Monday. I had some delicious seafood chowder and a wonderful beer. The server was super nice and helpful. They have a great selection of craft beer. I might go back tomorrow because I need to try their homemade vanilla bean salad dressing. read more

First time visitor, first time lover of the food! The ambiance is kind and warm and Charlie, the owner, made our evening with home made bread pudding! This was on the heels of the corn beef brisket sandwich, which was delicious! 5 Stars all the way! read more

Embe Eatery and Lounge - the bar area - Lounges Near Me - Galena, Illinois

Outstanding service. The brisket sandwich was delicious and melted in your mouth. Sea food chowder was excellent. But the warm bread pudding was to die for. Even if you are full not ordering the bread pudding would be criminal. read more

Stopped in on a quiet Sunday Morning and had a wonderful time. Tasty Bloody Mary, great assortment of tap craft beers, had a side salad with interesting vinaigrette and a top notch seafood chowder! Served piping hot with flavorful ingredients. Also sampled the bread pudding that was excellent (as others had reviewed). Service by Katie-a friendly bartender with lots of personality sealed a great experience! Highly recommend this place. We will be back when in Galena. read more

A group of friends and I came on a Saturday afternoon for lunch and were seated right away. I was torn between getting a sandwich or a salad from the menu. Since I knew I wanted to try the bread pudding for dessert, I ended up ordering the chicken cilantro salad in order to keep things a little balanced. The salad was okay, but not something I would ever order again from here. I should have gotten a sandwich from a place like this to be on the safe side. The cilantro salad dressing barely tasted like it had any cilantro in it at all. Even though there was plenty of chicken on the salad, I think it would have been better if they had used chicken breast on the salad instead of what seemed like dark meat. The highlight of the meal was the bread pudding. The bread pudding was perfect in every way, and something I suggest trying when you come here. read more

Embe Eatery and Lounge - Bread pudding - Lounges Near Me - Galena, Illinois

Website was wrong. Hours were not correct. Said closing at 1:00, but announced last call at 10:35. It was uncomfortably hot, when temp outside was significantly better. Waitstaff seemed annoyed when asked did temp could be adjusted. Reviews online make this place seem like the place to be.....not true. Ordered chips and queso and it was very below average. Would not recommend... read more

Visiting Galena and checked out the reviews for this place. We agree with others, did not disappoint! Tried the thick cut corned beef, so tender and flavorful. Seafood chowder tasted amazing. Oh and house made coke slaw. Wish we had more time to come back read more

Pleasant little joint! The staff was welcoming and friendly, if a bit spread thin (who isn't these days?!) We were torn on the drink menu because there were so many yummy sounding drinks to try! Ended up getting a specialty cocktail (me) and hubs tried a local beer. We devoured the lunch sandwiches -- total clean plate club situation (because we worked up an appetite wandering through town and also due to delicious, fresh ingredients). Cute decor. Will return here for sure next time we're in town! read more

Stopped at the outdoor patio for a drink. Service was quick and friendly. Menu looked great, but we were pressed for time. Would go back again for food. read more

Whenever we come to Galena, this is a MUST stop for us! We haven't had anything we haven't loved! Soups/chowders, sandwiches, you name it. The best ending is the Bread Pudding!!!!! If nothing more, go for that! Embe, thank you for consistently standing up to great standards. read more

You have to try the mushroom soup-it's out of this world!! The sandwich was amazing as well. Great service too!!

We absolutely have to rave about this small, family-owned local restaurant! We, coincidentally, met one of its the owners, Kati, in front of Embe, while looking for another restaurant in town. When she said she and her fiancé owned the Embe, we stayed and, boy, are we thrilled we did! The food was outstanding and her wonderful, sparkly personality made the experience that much more special! The seafood chowder is absolutely delicious! And the roasted corned beef brisket sandwich is mouthwatering! Living in Scottsdale, AZ., I'm not sure how soon we'll be able to return to Galena, but do go and enjoy Embe whenever you're there! It's GREAT! read more

Drinks are top notch. Ambiance is great. And it's NOT quite kid-friendly, which I consider a positive attribute. Sometimes the staff can show a hint of attitude, but that's pretty much exclusively when it's well-deserved. And it's always well-meaning. So we always enjoy our time at the eatery. The sandwiches are all pretty incredible, too. read more

This is our go to stop when in Gelena. Every year we travel up here and have to make the stop here for Portabello Soup, and seafood Soup. Such great service and shareable plates. read more

Great food! I had a Cuban. Very good and reasonably priced. The bar also featured some great artwork that's available for purchase

I ordered an Almost Famous sandwich. It was terrible, and I heard the microwave in the kitchen when the young lady was preparing my sandwich. I am positive it was my food, as there was nearly nobody else in the bar at the time of preparation. There was a man in his 70's and a woman in her 30's, both already eating or finishing eating their food. When I received the sandwich, it was clear that the bartender/ cook had even included the bread in the microwave adventure. Terrible taste - Next time warn people if they're spending money on microwaved bread... not cool. Never again. read more

The wait staff were fabulous and our food was fresh and delicious. Would recommend to anyone in the area!

Place was packed on a Saturday afternoon. Service was on the slow side. Every time we wanted something we had to waive to our server. They never came back after taking the initial order and someone else brought out our food. Food was okay to good. I had a Cuban sandwich and cup of cream of mushroom soup. Both were a little bland. Wife had a beef sandwich and clam chowder. Her sandwich was better than mine and her soup was very good. 3 stars is probably a little low but this place is pricey so I expected a little more. read more

One of my favorite places of all time- great food, ambience, service. Don't forget to try the bread pudding!

Outstanding food / bar service! Cozy and quiet place to share meals and drinks with friends!

We were staying in the Desoto House across the street. After 6pm in Galena, the only thing you are going to find open are bars and restaurants. We decided we didn't want to sit around the hotel anymore so we went to Embe. We had eaten prior to arriving, so we just wanted to have some drinks. Both of us are martini fans and they had a nice looking selection on the board. We tried a couple, but our favorite when we were there was the "Fat Elvis". It's a Peanut butter and banana martini. Fantastic! Loved it! The prices on the Martini's ran about $10.00 each when we were there. I'll let you judge if that's high or low. I thought it was average for what was being served. The place itself is kind of small. The bar takes up most of the room, but there are some tables in the front and along one of the walls. They have DJ's and live music at times, but due to the size, it gets loud. I mean LOUD. We were at a small table with another couple and we could barely hear each other. It was that bad. Just be prepared when you go that you may have to yell at each other. We enjoyed our visit and I'm sure we'll go back. read more

Great food, drinks and customer service! Everything is homemade by a nice lady in the kitchen. Got a turkey sandwich salad and chips and split it. Serving size is large so it was more than enough. The chocolate martini is good too. Had a great time here! read more

See all

Embe is a must stop for me whenever I visit Galena when I want a good lunch or light dinner. I had their famous Refrigerator deli sandwich, which was fantastic. Served with simple sides and good drinks, you can't go wrong. The service is always amazing as well and the ambiance is nice. read more

Quick service. Great dessert. Just wish they asked their customers to wear mask when walking around.

There is nothing better than ending the evening at Embe and having their bread pudding and a drink of choice. The bread pudding is one of the best around, with a generous topping of whipped cream. Staff is always friendly, and they have a lot of interesting looking drinks. read more

Excellent food and service! Spectacular place wonderful staff the best dining experience you'll ever have in a bar atmosphere ever!

Stopped here while meandering through Galena on a Monday afternoon. Menu looked good so I stopped and sat at the bar for a quick meal. I saw they had bleu cheese soup with kale and carrots on the menu and I had to try it. The idea was there but I can see why this soup is not more popular. So salty it was almost inedible. Had a nice corned beef / pastrami hot sandwich and a cold Capitol Brewing beer chaser and those were pretty good. Service was good. The soup just left a bad taste. read more

Embe Eatery and Lounge - Lounges Near Me - Galena, Illinois

In my opinion, Galena is a terrible restaurant town. I primarily am concerned with quality ingredients (going out of my way to eat local/organic/GMO-free/etc.), and that seems to be a total mismatch with the mentality of restaurants owners here. You would think that with all the Chicago visitors, there would be at least one restaurant in this town where you could get food made from quality ingredients, but that is not the case. It's basically a food desert in terms of places to eat out, in my opinion. I recently tried Embe, which bills itself as having "natural" food. I don't quite know what that means (there is no official definition), but I will say that compared to almost all other Galena restaurants, it did not seem too bad to me. The menu is just sandwiches, soups and salads, but they seem to be made with fairly good-quality ingredients. I tried the "Lisa" roast beef sandwich and a bowl of seafood chowder, and both of them were tasty and fairly enjoyable. (I did eat the chips that they served with the sandwich, but I think they could do better on that. Kettle brand chips would be better, for instance. And they could easily do MUCH better than the French bread slices served with the soup. If nothing else, the organic sourdough bread sold at Hy-Vee in Dubuque - frozen until needed and then lightly toasted - would be excellent and not that costly.) So all in all, I would say that they are (along with Cannova's Pizza) in the top two restaurants in Galena, as far as food quality goes. Which is an accomplishment, I guess. It's also a fairly nice bar-type atmosphere with a nice selection of creative mixed drinks that might be fun to try. So I will definitely be returning to this place anyway. Note: I've been here a few more times since writing this review and am liking this restaurant more and more. Everything I have tried has been high-quality and - as sandwiches and soups go - really interesting and enjoyable. It's now my favorite restaurant in town by far! read more

We love the food here. A great variety for three very different tastes. My daughter asked to come back which is a rare occurrence with her as she is very picky. Wait staff is very friendly, too! read more

Started off w the soup; loved the idea of mushrooms w artichokes and sun dried tomatoes BUT was overloaded with herbs - completely overpowered the soup. It's a "PASS" until they tweak this could-be soup from the Gods. Next, corned beef sandwich - GOOD. Sweet onion potato chips really completed this coleslaw topped beef mountain of a sandwich. Can't go wrong ... Atmosphere and customer service is good. Attentive but not breathing down your neck. Overall, give them a try. Enjoy! read more

See all

The place was empty , except for one couple. The waitress was attentive and very enthusiastic about their items on the menu. My husband had the signature soup... Cream of mushroom. It was a thick soup loaded with mushrooms. We both had pulled pork. I had the Cuban.. The bun was delicious, loaded with pulled pork , ham and melted swiss cheese. I especially enjoyed the horseradish sauce. We split an order of bread pudding. It was absolutely out of this world delicious. read more

Lunch for 2 on a Friday. Service was excellent. Food was good...not extraordinary, but good. Portions were great & prices were reasonable for a touristy area. We'd go here again. read more

Was excited to try the bread pudding dessert after lunch with husband. We received our drinks, i was able to ask if all their soups had cream in them, as Im unable to have dairy. There we sat. We watched our server converse or flirt with a customer; take another customers food order who came after us; and watched customers waiting for same server to pay for their bill. We waited 20 minutes. When we finally got server attention we of course offered to pay for soda before leaving. Server, let us go saying soda on the house with no apology. read more

Popped in for a quick bite because we were starving. An ok craft beer selection, mostly big name brands but a few locals. Very tiny place so go during irregular hours. Tried the blue cheese and chips, pretty decent, chips were a little sweet but balanced out well with the blue cheese dip. plit a Rueben, great bun and filling without stuffing you, also comes with a side of chips. Service was super friendly and the price was not bad at all. read more

My husband had the special seafood chowder and coleslaw. He loved the soup and was glad he got the large bowl of it. Said the Coker was fresh not creamy (the way we like it) I had the spinach salad and a cup of the mushroom. Artichoke and sundries tomato soup. But heavy on the rosemary but still very tasty. The salad was very fresh and the vanilla bean balsamic dressing was great. I think the dressing would have been awesome if they warmed it, and then drizzled over the salad. Maybe for winter? Menu was labeled with vegetarian and gluten free options. Finished off the meal by splitting the warm bread pudding! Yum read more

I visit Galena a few times per year and I always make it a point to stop by Embe for a drink and a bowl of their famous bread pudding. I never liked bread pudding until I had Embe's a few years back. Now it's a must have whenever I'm in town! The staff is awesome and attentive to their customers. It's such a small space and those servers are always on the move! It's good to see them busy and making money again. Our sandwiches were excellent and we could tell the staff was keeping up on the cleaning. Keep up the great work Embe and we will be back next time we are in town! read more