Sam was phenomenal! Honestly such a great artiste with drinks. He gave us a lemongrass beermosa and it was phenomenal. Definitely the best experience I've ever had! He made the environment so relaxed and chill but also so fun to try and experiment new drinks! Ambiance was immaculate read more

Worst bartenders in city. Rude and don't want to serve pints cuz they get overwhelmed

Ambiance spacious. Food decent bar food - beef stew was excellent. brussels sprouts, bacon, apple salad, not so much, brown bread had an off taste to it. Something in the ingredients Im sure it's good to others but we didn't care for it. However, it was fresh and soft. crab and corn dip were excellent. Brat was ok but way too much sauerkraut. Homemade chips are awesome. Waiter was incredible. Our waiter was on it and never missed a beat. Best waiter. I've ever had. it was my friend's birthday that night, waiter brought out a big piece of chocolate birthday cake. He went above and beyond. Definitely worth the extra tip. The hosts were friendly and helpful and had a great attitude even during an extremely busy Saturday night. Disappointment of the night was that there was only one Guinness on tap, and the rest are in a bottle. Hence the 4 stars. stuck with a Guinness drought, stout excellent. It was very busy night, we were told it would be 1hr 15mins but it was really only 30 minutes. Definitely would come back. read more

Great food and beer. Extremely clean and friendly staff! Well organized and welcoming environment.

We walked over on a Friday afternoon for a TGIF lunch and to check out the space. It was amazing! So much thought was put into the design and decor - especially the custom "harp" structure hanging over the bar. Our server, Megan, was outstanding, starting us off with a "welcome" tasting of one of the Open Gate brews. She was super friendly, knowledgeable, and attentive. I had the Reuben board, which is basically an assemble-your-own sandwich on a board with house chips - fantastic! My companion had the Chicago Dip with fries, also two thumbs up. Our beers were also delicious - quite a selection. We'll be going back to try different food and drafts! read more

We visited a couple of weeks after it opened. We thought they might still be ironing some things out, but everything was great. Great beer, great food, and great service. A fantastic addition to the Chicago eating and drinking scene. read more

I was really excited to visit this location as I've been to both the Dublin and Baltimore locations. I had high expectations for the Chicago location, but sadly they fell short. I arrived at around noon on a Saturday afternoon and was told that it would be a 45 minute wait. I walked around and noticed around 8 open tables which most went unused while I waited. I purposely waited a few months after opening to let them work out the kinks but I'm sure this was due to lack of waitstaff? Also, there's no formal ordering system at the bar. Just join the bunch and block the main aisle. Lastly, upon arrival, I had to make my way to the back to find the hostess stand. Add some signage or an info person at the front. The food- i had the beef stew- was pretty damn good, and the beer, of course, was excellent. Let's get it together and make someone else's experience better than mine. Slainte! read more

Made a reservation for 4 at 4pm on a Saturday as soon as they were available on Resy. They sat us in a high top table at the bar. The line for walk-in people to get a beer was very long and wraps around the bar area. Those people kept crowding around everyone that had a table and bumping our chairs. Was super annoying to have people hovering and breathing over you while we are trying to eat. I booked this table 2 weeks in advance, so this was a tad bit ridiculous to not have a decent table. Now the food - bread was awful and had an odd taste to it. Everyone could barely eat 1 piece. Never have I seen so many people turn down bread. I had a ceasar salad w chicken...gross, just gross. The chicken was fatty, rubbery, and barely cooked. I only ate half. The lettuce was wilted, which is baffling as lots of folks are eating here so ingredients should not be sitting around. Beers were underwhelming. Certainly not that same as Guinness in Dublin. This place was quite a disappointment. read more

Great place to grab some beers, wait staff was great and service was awesome. Jeremy, our bartender, was fantastic. Best pours out there!

drove two hours to get here. the place is a tourist trap and a circus. got here at 1 pm and wanted to order lunch. we were told they don't serve lunch until 3pm. no where on the web site menu is this indicated. terrible experience. guinness is racking in the bucks on over priced items a mid leading web site. will never come back read more

Not really worth it. I love Guinness, but this place is just a smack in Arthur Guinness's face.

Went here for lunch on Saturday 10/14/23 (with reservations). Tried many different beers and the curry chicken salad sandwich. All very good! We were concerned they almost didn't put the Ireland - New Zealand rugby game on, so missed the beginning but they eventually figured it out. read more

Crowded/disorganized ,beautiful space, Guinness was great, service was friendly, beer cocktail was disgusting, food was shit. We tried every appetizer and everything was average. read more

Sad to leave this review but the service was terrible. No one offered us water until 20 min later when we stopped a waiter passing by. The apps were WAY too salty. When addressing this to our waiter, she said she would see what she could do but she never returned.... When our food was brought out, the steak was undercooked and no one bothered checking in on us to see if we liked it. I regret not informing them about my steak - but at this point I had felt bad we had complained about the appetizer already. When the check came out we told our waiter about the apps again and the meat being undercooked. She said nothing else but thank you and handed us our tab. read more

Amazing service, great beer cocktails in addition to a nice selection of beers. Good energy and great vibes. Ask for Chase - he's fantastic!

Our server Chacz was awesome. Very knowledgeable about the beer and the food. Beer is great. All different kinds. Food was very tasty!! Loved the setting read more

Food, service, ambiance all amazing. Dre is great behind the griddle. Service all around amazing. Can't wait to be back!!

My husband & I made a special trip to Chicago for his birthday and he specifically asked to go here. After reading the other food reviews, he decided on just drinks and dessert. He asked the server what dessert she recommended. She said the chocolate Guinness cake was "moist, made that morning". It was not moist, but very dry and not very chocolatey. He told the waitress & her only response was "oh, well she [baker?] made it this morning." We didn't finish any more than 1/3 of it, eating what we tried w/ the frosting. Also, he was very disappointed to learn that there was no traditional Guinness brewed onsite, but special "experimental recipes", per the server. We've been to multiple breweries that brew on-site at their different locations (Ex: Hofbrauhaus Munich & Rosemont), so he was expecting it at Guinness Opengate too. We still each had a glass, because we were there. After our visit, I asked him his thoughts: "I am glad we decided to not eat lunch here." "I am very underwhelmed." read more

Tried to go here but couldn't because there was no parking. This is the worst possible area they could have opened this place. Way too much going on. read more

We couldn't get reservations for 8 until 8pm on a Sunday, when we got there the place was half empty. They seated us in the side room which was very quiet and didn't have much of a vibe. When we were leaving and passed through the main room, we could see that would have been a much better time! The menu was VERY limited, much of the food listed on line was not in the menu (no fish n chips or Irish breakfast). The food was ok. One person in our group didn't get their food til most of us were already done. The service was ok, we were pretty much left alone mostly. Expensive for what it was. read more

We were so excited for them to open - we went with a party of 8 last weekend. We are all big fans of Guinness and could not wait to get an authentic Guinness outside of Ireland. The restaurant is huge - lots of TV and will be great in better weather with a lot Of outside space. We had a great waitress and started with drinks and a few appetizers. The brown bread is excellent, Along with the cheese curds and the Gardiner dip ( not hot at all). Then came entrees. The menu is limited - the burger was good, the French dip was average, corned beef was just ok. We all placed our orders at the same time. About 20 minutes after our apps were cleared, we received one entrée (not 8). The runner came out, put one down, and just left. It took about 10 minutes for anyone to check on us. No one else in our party received their meal. They had a computer glitch or something like that, and it took another 25 minutes for six more meals to come out, and one more meal was forgotten. The manager came out and was not accommodating. I'm not sure if it was just a lack of experience handling any of this or just poor training, but it turned our meal upside down and so mishandled. The last meal came Out after everyone was finished, in conclusion - it's a great place to catch a game and have a beer with a few apps. I wouldn't waste your time with dinner and put your expectations low! Our waitress was great but had poor management support. Would not recommend for anything but a beer and brown bread! read more

Arrived and was told by security no one without a reservation is allowed. Great. Go to their website. There is no place to make a reservation on their website. Definitely not a great launch for the venue. read more

We went with a small group to Guinness Open Gate not too long after it initially opened. The space itself is really beautiful, especially the main bar, and has a nice atmosphere. The service was fine (though we went at a not-so-busy time of day). The food was overall ok; we got a sampling of the different brunch offerings which were overall pretty good. We actually liked the bread best of anything we got, but we had to send it back after we realized that there was a plastic bottle cap baked into our loaf (unfortunately not before we took a bite of it!). The server and manager were gracious about this and of course we understand things happen, but was still not the most positive way to experience the place. We might try coming back at a later date when some of the early kinks have been ironed out. read more

First time here, great place, service was exceptional, thank you bartenders Sam and Victor, you made our first experience amazing!! You guys are on top of your game, thank you for a great experience, only hope you're there when we visit next time!!! read more

My spouse and I went to this place fairly early on a Saturday morning, around 11:00am, would have been earlier but there is hardly any parking that is close and everything was occupied, but it's the city, so that wasn't an big deal. Walked in and we were immediately asked if we had a reservation or would like to make a reservation; we didn't have one and didn't want one. We just wanted to check out the bar, which we figured would be fantastic; spoiler alert, it was nice, but given the size of the entire building, the bar is way too small. I don't think anyone did any research about the Chicago consumer when designing this place, or maybe they did and figured that they could make the most money by having people make reservations and purchase beer and overpriced, very average bar food. We found one seat at the bar and were trying to place an order for 2 stouts, but were told that we needed to get in line to purchase beer. The beer line was about 12 people deep and moved very slowly, mostly because it takes them about 2 minutes to pour a stout (the beer has to settle at about the 2/3 point and then gets filled to the top). And if someone orders a black & tan, forget it, because there is a settling process and then a very slow pour over a spoon, then some foam scraping, then some more beer over the spoon, etc., etc. It was painful to be in line watching how slow everything moved. There are plenty of table around the bar, but these are "reservation only", and even though about 60% were unfilled, any bar patron that tried to sit at a table was quickly shooed off. Overall, the ambience is nice, but not anything like I imagined, and does not resemble an Irish pub in any way, shape or form. It is more modern and sterile, which isn't bad, but not what we were expecting. The entrance is big and there is A LOT of space dedicated to selling merchandise (fail #1). Then there is a lot of space dedicated to a coffee experience, which was essentially empty for a Saturday morning (fail #2). The merch and coffee space could be reutilized to add more bar space. Beer pricing and food pricing is expensive/very expensive; the beer is great, but the food looked very average and serving sizes looked small. Here's the good news, there is a bar called Recess, which is kitty-corner to the north-east of this place. We had one beer at Guinness and then left, because the line to get another beer was just too long. So we discovered Recess, which has a nice big bar, numerous bartenders who were all nice, and plenty of high-top tables that do not require a reservation. Check it out! read more

Had a lovely lunch at Guinness Brewery. We were a group of five and were a little concerned when morning message indicated the reservation was for 2 hours maximum. Fortunately we were able to complete our meal within the allotted time. Kathleen was our server and did a great job. One of our party wanted tea and there was not much of a selection. She decided on Earl Grey but did not enjoy it. Kathleen happily replaced it with coffee. I had the Irish stew. It was delicious. Two of my friends had the fish sandwich. They both enjoyed it but thought it was difficult to eat with the bread. Another friend had the fried chicken sandwich. She liked the chicken but thought the sauce was way too spicy. When we left Derrick Watson in Security could not have been nicer. We were waiting for a Lyft. He brought out 2 chairs for the two elderly ladies that we are and helped flag down our driver and helped us into the car. He refused a tip. He is fabulous and deserves a raise. read more

We had a fantastic experience at the Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Chicago. The bar was awesome with a great 'open area' concept. Drafts were superb, as would be expected. Our server/bartender, Jeremy was extremely helpful with suggestions and recommendations. We will be back very soon! read more

The restaurant is beautiful! We had reserved the patio but since the weather was cold, we were seated indoors in a booth. It was surprisingly quiet in the booth considering how busy the place was on a Sunday evening. Our server Ally was very friendly and guided us well with good choices. The food was delicious. The ambiance was warm and bright and happy. Definitely recommend! read more

tasty stew and good brew wait staff Allly very attentive manager Kristie stopped table to make sure all was well-- always impressed when a floor manager stops by for feedback read more

Guinness Open Gate Brewery - Breweries Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Very disappointed. Came looking forward to a Guinness draught, but can you believe they were out! How can a restaurant so hyped be out of their signature beer? read more

Only beer...obviously and some food. Pleasant atmosphere but some of the people I was with were expecting music. There was no music. I would go back. read more

The outdoor patio is especially cool but the interior is awesome. The Harp over the bar is great. Food was good, tried wings, lamb, the skewers (my favorite), crab dip. Service was spot on. Recommend a reservation. This is THE destination in Chicago right now read more

First time here, Loved the décor, super vibrant with the warm amber colors. Love the feel and look of the taproom. My girlfriend & I are big oyster lovers, so a course we had to try them. She then ordered the Coconut curry, it was to die for !!!! Our sever, Alexis was very knowledgeable about the history of Guinness. Beer was amazing (had the hazy, & the cranberry ale), better than a few other breweries that I've tried in chicago. read more

Open Gate Brewery is a beautiful disaster. The space is nice and fits into the West Loop neighborhood. Understanding that they've only been open for a little over a week, it's sad to say the organization is pretty terrible. If you do not have a reservation, you will be waiting in line for a minimum of 45 minutes. You will not get a seat without a reservation, unless it's at the bar. I was lucky enough that I and my friends waited only an hour. Security outside, who was on line control, seemed to be increasingly confused by the long stretch of not being able to let people in, despite the number of people leaving. Once the next wave of people (about 20 people) were allowed in, we were ushered into the main bar area, passed the host stand, and were told to enjoy. No other instructions were given. My group was able to locate a high table with four chairs. Some of us held down the table as one member of our group inquired about claiming a larger table. We had a host come over to tell us that all tables with chairs were reserved, even though there was no reserve sign at the table when we arrived. There were several tables sitting empty, being held for reservations. This continued to be the case of making people stand just waiting on reservations that arrived super late or that never arrived. We were told that there's a 15-minute grace period for reservations that arrive late. After some back and forth with the host, she told us that because of the change in weather, a lot of people changed their reservations from outdoor to indoor. Considering the weather wasn't bad, there's a lot of people I'm sure would have opted for the patio if there were heat lamps outside my group included. This also seems like poor planning, knowing that you're opening in the fall in Chicago and not having heat lamps. Keep in mind that the patio that sits out front of the building overlooks a naked stretch of sidewalk and dirt because they haven't even finished landscaping out front. Before having us vacate the table, we were also told we couldn't order food. This seems to be that food is only for people who have a reserved table, which comes with a server and also a bar. There are only a small handful of tables (maybe 5) that don't have chairs, which means you just end up standing awkwardly in a corner or three rows deep at the bar, which slows down getting a drink. In my opinion, right now the experience isn't worth the time, frustration, or money. I suspect that after the couple of delays that Guinness had in opening the place in the first place, it was rushed to open, having not even finished landscaping out front. The staff wasn't properly trained, and the overall management's handling of the situation even after a week since opening is pretty poor. If you really want to go, make sure you have a reservation; otherwise, I'd say give it 6 months to a year. read more

walked up to the hostess desk and was immediately told there was a 2 hr table limit. table had to be separated in front of us before we could sit. did not have mimosas for brunch let alone a lemonade. had to wait for ice tea to brew. as soon as our drinks were empty the staff removed the glass. two infants were considered part of the table to make it a "large party" with automatic 20% tip. we stayed for one hour. the cleaning staff was piling our stuff at the end of the table while bussing it as we were trying to gather the two infants and their things which made us feel rushed and frustrated. will not be back read more