We were there for our first time and found Emerson's ale house to have outstanding food, service and circuses! We will definitely go back again! read more

Very rarely do I give any restaurant a 5 star rating. Since we've moved to Mt.Prospect 3 years ago this has been our go to restaurant. Their Italian beef egg rolls, fried pickles, prime rib sliders and cauliflower bites are amazing. Their Buffalo wrap, Southwest wrap and the Emerson wrap are delicious and filling for sure. The Fuego, patty melt and short rib burger with their tots are so damn good! The wait staff and others in the front of house really try to make you feel comfortable and not rushed. Always greeting you with a smile. Who ever runs the back of house, expedites and cooks need to be recognized. They do an amazingly at getting you your order exactly as you wanted. Sometimes I like to go out of the box. Defiantly go visit! read more

I've been here a few times now and I rate this place a solid four stars all around. For service, for value, for variety on the menu, for the burgers, for the chicken tenders and sliders, service, and in future visits I have to think there will be more great choices. The two different burgers I've tried here were cooked perfectly and were served hot and juicy with hot fries and tater tots. (I hate cold or luke warm fries/taters) On one I had the Royal which gives you american cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and a fried egg. I thought I wouldn't like an egg on my burger but I loved it, the whole combination worked so well. It'll be my burger choice from now on. The other was a Mac 'n' Cheese burger that was juicy, crunchy with a ton of flavor and again, worked well together without either main ingredient overpowering the other including the bun on both which was very good. Their burgers are from Ascot Meats and use a combination of chuck, brisket and steak which explains the great flavor. Only downside was the upcharge for the tots. WHY? If they're more expensive just cut the portion size down a bit. Other items were the 'real 'chicken tenders (not the formed shredded frozen crap) served with ranch and buffalo sauce. Excellent, and again served HOT! The reuben was very good for a bar/restaurant, certainly not deli quality but very good with a nice portion of corned beef. My wife loved her veggie sandwich. Typically the only veggies I eat are on my burger. LOL The sliders were excellent, just as good as a big burger only smaller. None of the cold skinny slider crap here. A variety of seating is available including booths, hightops, tables and of course plenty of bar stools. Seems like everyone has a small ropped off gambling area now and this place is no exception. Sunday brunch and daily specials. Downsides are the cold ass wind blowing in from the door, that needs to be fixed as least for the winter. Our draft beers were a little too warm and did not have a 'head' on them, it was like they were 'flat', it forced me to a bottled beer which cost them a star. read more

See all

very nice server but very busy, had to ask for flatware. I got nachos, perhaps the worst of my life. chips were flimsy and a bit soggy. cheese was quite thin but short rib meat was excellent, my friend got a veggie burger that was pasty. she used to get a black bean burger that was fabulous. she asked and was told that they changed vendors. they should change back. won't be going back. Celtic queen read more

Not bad We got delivery, so my review is strictly on the food, not the bar/restaurant itself. The food was ok, but that's about it. Comparatively to similar places in the area, I felt the food was more bland and boring. Everything felt like it was missing something, so I just wasn't that satisfied or impressed. read more

Great food and lots of options! Had the Rueben and it was phenomenal. Highly recommend trying that with the sweet potato fries. Will definitely be back! read more

This place has been on my go to list for a while and I'm glad I went because its a gem right next to my home! I always wanted to have a bar less than 10 minutes away and this did not disappoint. Area was spacious, decor was minimal and well lit. Food was excellent, there were so many options to choose from but I went with the chipotle ranch burger that was recommended by our server and the beef was juicy and the sauce was creamy! The cucumber basilico drink was very good as well. I plan to be a regular here now read more

Emerson's Ale House - Cucumber basilico - Bars Near Me - Mount Prospect, Illinois

See all

Very cute place, nice staff, you can get a decent beer or a drink, and the bacon sliders were chef's kiss. Good for an after work hang or similar. read more

The food was great. But our super small table had us back by the bathroom and the band was so loud we couldn't even talk to each other. What a disappointment read more

One my favorite places, order take out all time. I like burger, mac and cheese, chicken strips and Mac cheese Waltons. Lots other good stuff. read more

Sort of Caesar, is sort of expired. Emerson's usually has great fried chicken so I was excited to try it on their sort of Caesar. Very disappointed to be given old dried out chicken tenders on soggy wilted lettuce. read more

Emerson's Ale House - Bars Near Me - Mount Prospect, Illinois

My bf and I stopped by there for the first time and the staff was nice. The bartender made it easy to order and helped out with food choices and I was indecisive (per usual). But the drinks were overall good and so was the food. I'd go back again. read more

Really sad to see this place has steadily degraded in quality over time. Awful service and poor food quality. Management is rude to customers and lies to their faces. I've been going here since it opened and it used to be a nice place to bring my family. Absolutely not coming back again. I'd really like to know where the disdain for patrons comes from. The current management? Ownership? Either way, avoid this spot at all costs. read more

Awesome staff! Great food! Great place, kid friendly. Definitely worth a visit. Try the sliders. read more

Crooked table, busboy dropped dishes in bin next to us numerous times. Took forever to get a waiter and drink. Both of us had burgers & were sick that night. Very disappointed. read more

Terrible food/service tonight and the manager lied to our faces. We've been there many times over the years and never had such an awful experience (June 7th). We waited forever for our food while we saw it sitting in the kitchen. It came out cold, so we let the waitress know and she said they'd remake it. We had a toddler with us so I asked if they could at least heat the mac n cheese right away. The waitress left the Mac sitting while taking the rest of the food. I had to flag her down to come back for it and then wait forever to reheat it. We waited a good 20 min for them to "remake it." When it came back it clearly looked like the same food. Toast was now hard as a rock, fries double fried, and my husbands burger still had a bite in it (with a new bun). We asked if it was the same food and they INSISTED it wasn't. Both the waitress and manager lied right to our faces until we pointed out the bite in the burger. Then started trying to back track and apologize. So long story short, we waited forever to get served cold food, waited longer for them to pretend to remake it, served even worse food, then lied to. Super cool. Oh yeah and we sat with empty drinks while waiting. We've been there many times over the years and will never return based on how poorly the manager handled a situation that could've been easy to fix. read more

I would not recommend this place for take out, but if your looking for a patio and a. At dinner this is the place to go. Love their patio and food is what you would expect from a venue like this. I wouldn't recommend for take out. read more

I enjoyed the outdoor seating, dining indoors is fine, but the restaurant can get noisy making conversations difficult. The food is quite good, and the rotating beer menu makes for a fun time. read more

They claim they work till 12am. We came at 11pm four people, they said they don't have customers and will close. When we said we are customers they said we are not and they are closing. read more

Visited on a beautiful evening so we sat outside! Cute little neighborhood spot! Food was yummy and staff was attentive'. I am a simple girl and ordered the quesadilla and it was stuffed with 4 kinds of cheese, came with a decent serving of pico and sour cream. Enjoyed every bite! Will be back again for sure!!! read more

Bar seating is super quick & perfect for game day with Redzone and wide range of channels available to watch. They have a wide variety of beers & nice wines! Everyone we spoke to loved their food and the people working were quick but also very nice! Looks like it's on a very homey road that you can walk right up to with inside or outside seating! Will definitely be back! read more

Emerson's Ale House - Burger & fries - Bars Near Me - Mount Prospect, Illinois

See all

We have lived in Mount Prospect for years and have never eaten here for some reason. B it looks like a bar and we're vegan so it never came up as a choice. Well we just tried it for the first time and we will be regulars here from now on. It's great! They have PLENTY of vegan and vegetarian options and a wonderful atmosphere that is very inviting. Look for more check-ins from us! read more

Really fun place, great atmosphere Would recommend to others Not a fan of holding on to credit card But understand why read more

We were invited to try Emerson's via a promotional coupon. What a gift that was! We came to dine-in shortly after opening during COVID precautions. We were welcomed warmly, hand sanitizer at the door, and masks worn correctly by all the staff we saw - which was just two people. Our server, Erik, seemed to do everything, from welcoming, to taking our orders, to bringing our food, and reconciling the bill. Great guy! The food was excellent! My wife tried pulled chicken nachos, and I tried their Reuben. Both were hot, and came in huge portions! Flavors were wonderful, and we'll try the pulled pork and maybe a burger next time. Only drawback (this was during a bitterly cold day in early February) is that the window seat is quite cold! Keep your coat on, and the staff could also turn up the heat a bit. Warmer weather, no problem! ;-) read more

Emerson's is the go-to restaurant for my fiancé and I to go to ourselves and take family and friends! Everything we have eaten has been insanely good: cauliflower bites, prime rib sliders, wings, salmon caprese, pretzel prime rib French dip, Emerson wrap, birria tacos, and Mac and cheese!! My only complaint is the everything is so delicious it is impossible to choose what to order! Truly some of the best food at a very reasonable price point. read more

Love the food at Emerson's! The menu has something for everyone and have not found anything we don't like yet. My only complaint is that their weekly trivia starts at 8pm. Would love to go more often but we've found ourselves going to Draft Picks in Mount Prospect instead for weekly trivia which starts an hour earlier. The event ending at a more reasonable time makes a difference! read more

I have been to this restaurant several times and it is one of my favorites. I like the decor and I especially like their pizza! I like Gino's and Uno's and Emersons pizza is like a combination of both, leaning more toward Uno's. It's not a pan pizza, but it has that crispy, buttery crust taste like those places. (From the pictures I see posted, it looks like the crust is burnt. It certainly wasn't when I had mine.) I've had dinners and lunch at Emersons and I've always had attentive service every time I've eaten there. Most recently we stopped there for drinks on our way home from a movie. When we sat down for drinks one of the owners, Bobby was sitting at the bar and he saw us come in so he got up to serve us. (We are not regulars and didn't know Bobby from Adam). I told him we wanted a night cap so he suggested a Frangellco. We got it on ice . As I was drinking mine I realized they had a hard to find root beer beer (made by a small brewery in Wauconda. It tastes just like a sweet root beer... only 19% alcohol) so for the second round I ordered a root beer beer and instead of a Bailey's he suggested my wife have a rum chata. I tried a little of the rum and it was very good. We enjoyed ourselves and will certainly go back. One other nice feature of the bar is their complementary salty bar snack is strips of bacon! Nice touch. read more

See all

Love this place! Food is great, and the service is even better. We've had a few of their apps, the prime rib sliders are our favorite. To be honest though, we haven't had anything bad so far. The ambiance is also good. Emerson's has become our new favorite spot! read more

I got on the wrong commuter train from Chicago, and instead of going home to Carol Stream, I ended up in Mt. Prospect. Hubs came to my rescue and then we hit up Emerson's for dinner. We got there around 6:30p.m. on a Friday night and got seated right away. I would have liked to sit in a booth, but they don't have too many of those, and so we got a table right near the bar. It was pretty busy and a tad loud, but it's a bar, so.... There was a line out the door when we left. THE FOOD! Holy crap that was a good burger!!!!! Both my husband and I loved our entrees so much, we decided that I should take the wrong train once a month so we could eat here more often. ;) You know the food is good when my husband wants to drive 35-40 minutes in RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC to meet me for dinner somewhere! GET THE CHIPOTLE RANCH BURGER!!! It was thick, juicy and perfectly cooked. It was covered in melty cheese, crispy bacon (not floppy or rubbery!), and topped with a huge hockey puck-sized tater tot. As if that wasn't enough, it was then drizzled with chipotle ranch sauce. You get a cup of chipotle ranch for extra dipping, or in my case - drowning. TIP: Use the dip for everything - fries, burger - heck, put it on your dessert! It's that good. My husband's buffalo wings were also delicious. He doesn't always like wings from new places, but loved these. They have multiple local beers on tap. Ask for a sample (as long as it doesn't have a "P" (for Premium) by the name). I wanted the beer flight, but was told "they didn't have any." I'm assuming they'd just run out of flight holders? I had some kind of Lagunita's pale ale - didn't like it. Sticking with Blue Moon next time. Our server was friendly and did a great job. He did take a LONG time to come back with our check, but maybe he noticed that I wasn't finished with my drink and waited before bringing the check...even after we asked him for it. Who cares though, we'll be back!! read more

See all

The menu here is quite nice since it's what you'd expect to find in one of the nicer restaurants downtown but the prices aren't extremely high (although pricier than many of the local restaurants) and the execution is better than average. I really enjoyed the braised short rib. The mix of flavors and soft texture was very comforting for a cold winter day. There was enough meat in this dish to share with another person. It was perfectly complemented with garlic mashed potatoes. The steak sandwich was perfectly cooked but seasoned a little too much. The textures were good however and it was presented nicely with crispy fries. The caramelized pizza was quite nice although it may have been a mistake to get it with garlic (at least I didn't think it was the best choice of topic. If you're familiar with the flavor of saganaki you'll probably be able to guess what this tastes like. It was big enough for my party of 4 to all share one and be full. Overall, the menu and flavors are interesting enough to keep me coming back. read more

See all

We are new to Mount Prospect so we were excited to try out Emerson's since we've heard from friends it's a good place. We were actually on a low key metra crawl so it was the perfect stop for a drink and some apps. We ended up getting the Mac and cheese egg rolls. I was a little nervous about it being greasy and too heavy but they were great. The outside was nice and crispy not greasy at all. The ranch helped cut the cheesy a little too. My husband needed a meal so got the fish tacos. He really enjoyed them and said the fish was perfectly cooked. It seems that they've got some good happy hour and other specials so I'm pretty sure this will be a regular place for us. The service was great as well. read more

Emerson's Ale House - Fish tacos - Bars Near Me - Mount Prospect, Illinois

See all

I'm sad to write this two star review because the menu looked soo good and the other reviews were promising. On a positive note the fried pickles are pretty good!!!Our main courses were disappointing. I ordered the Cajun chicken philly, the chicken was twice the size of the bun, making it impossible to pick up. The Chicken was pretty dry but The Sriracha sauce was pretty good. My boyfriend ordered the el jefe burger. When we received the food I assumed that the Jalapeños were fried and that's why the burger looked that way... halfway through the meal I asked him if he liked his burger and he said that it wasn't spicy at all and he really disliked the taste.... later on I learned that they charged me for a cheese curd burger... overall the experience was pretty disappointing. We are not the type of people to complain, so I didn't mention my poor experience to management. read more

See all

We used our friend's groupon to try out Emerson's. It's a really great deal especially if you want a variety of beers or martinis with your dinner. Beer flight - I got the Grapefruit Schofferhofer, Skull & Bones Imperial Pale Ale, Edmond Fitzgerald Porter, and the 312 (had to get a familiar one just in case). The grapefruit was by far my favorite beer out of the four. It was really light, refreshing, and citrus-y. I think I may have discovered a beer for future purchase! Martini flight - comes in cute little martini glasses. The chocolate one tasted just like chocolate milk. Other favorites were the mango-tini and the apple-tini. (Can you tell I'm kind of a fruit person?) For my meal I got the mushroom swiss burger but substituted the swiss for manchego cheese. It was a fairly standard burger on a pretzel bun - not bad but nothing special either. I thought the mushroom really added more flavor. Fries on the side were standard as well. Overall, not a bad place to stop if you're in the area but I wouldn't drive 30+ minutes just to eat here. read more

Emerson's Ale House - Martini flight - Cosmo, appletini, mangotini, chocolate martini - Bars Near Me - Mount Prospect, Illinois

Food is amazing, good service but sometimes can take a while. The staff is nice too, and I love how this restaurant has pick up!

We enjoyed our visit. The patio was nice. I had pretzel bites and chicken tacos. Everything was good and the service was excellent!

We sat ourselves. Service was quite slow on a Sunday afternoon. Burger was good; tacos lacked seasoning as well as the chipotle sauce it came with. Very blend in taste. read more

Pot roast tacos are phenomenal just service is usually lacking every time I've been here. Placed an online order once, family in front of me waiting to be sat, manager finally came around and sat them and I was still waiting for over 10 minutes until someone finally acknowledged I was standing at the hostess stand and at that point I was the only standing there and not even half the restaurant was filled. Most seemed too occupied with their own private conversations and I only saw 1 bartender actually working picking up the slack of everyone else. read more

It might've been the holiday season, but I have NEVER had slower service. I went through an entire round of an appetizer with no water- I was SO thirsty. The food was decent, we tried the nachos and the trio sliders- they were okay I saw they had some great drink specials and a large and wide bar, so I would probably stick to coming here for drinks and maybe an app. I wouldn't expect a fine dining experience or outstanding service. Overall, the food was alright but the service was plain ridiculous. read more

We were looking for a place to grab some food and a drink after a wake in the area. Not many places were opened so we tried Emerson's. We had a large group, 15 people and no reservation. Initially they seemed a little overwhelmed but quickly put some tables together and welcomed us. The service was excellent, our waitress checked on us regularly and made sure everyone had what they needed. The food was great as well! I had the prime rib sandwich which had tender meat and plenty of flavor. I would highly recommend Emerson's and will definitely stop in again when in the area and looking for a place to go! read more

Update - I just tried their main meals for dinner - AWESOME. The buffalo chicken sandwich here is amazing it really fills you up and you get multiple sauces on the side with it too. Hope you open for dine in soon! read more