Ive been a satisfied customer of Kellys for nearly a decade. After reading the reviews below, I felt the need to clarify something. If you think Kelly's Mexican is equivalent to Taco Bell... go to Taco Bell. If you would prefer KFC wings to Kelly's wings... go to KFC. Both instances will leave me in less of a crowd to wait for my delicious Kelly's. Either way, never leave such a disrespectful review for a restaurant that has food clearly above your taste comprehension levels. To equivocate Kellys to fast food says more about you as a critic than it ever will about Kellys. Uncle Lou's dip, Buffalo strips, every quesadilla, the jalapeño-bacon grilled cheese, and every drink they serve at the bar is without fault. Is it slammed sometimes? Yes. Can the incredibly busy waitresses seem a tad frustrated/overwhelmed? Yes, but they work at a busy restaurant and have to deal with A-holes like the reviewers below. Wouldnt you be testy sometimes? If you are stopping through Sterling, Kelly's is there with Candlelight, Angelo's, and Arthurs as the best places to eat in town. If you want a pub atmosphere with great food, there is no better place within an hour drive. read more

Everything This place is very over rated. The food isn't even close to authentic. Everything is like straight from a can to your table. I don't recommend this when you can go to taco bell and get better food cheaper. read more

Doesn't take credit cards and doesn't have an ATM on site. What is this, 1985? The food was ok. I mean it's a dive bar that isn't sure if it's an Irish pub or a taqueria. The biggest turn off to me is the lack of payment options. Overall, meh. read more

Went for lunch a while back. Great atmosphere inside! I ended up getting fajitas and was really impressed with the portion size. I felt a little more seasoning would have been a good idea. They do not take cards but I don't remember seeing that on the menu. I always try and go easy on servers. Our server just was not that friendly. Certainly will try again. read more

Delicious thick but tender Corn Beef on their Ruben's. Great Nacho Appetizes & delicious Mexican Food. This place gets very crowded on Friday & Saturday evenings so we choose to go on other days before any evening dinner rush. read more

I had the shrimp enchiladas they were delicious. My husband had the onion and cheese enchiladas , and my son pork enchiladas.. Everything was delicious The service was great. It is in bar . I could just see the old fashioned bar read more

The Kelly's experience is slipping. Used to be fabulous, no matter what you got. Now their prices are out of control and food is inconsistent. The 'small' order of 'quacamole' we settled for was half avacado/half sour cream. It was smooth and barely green, not a speck of tomato or onion in sight. They stopped serving free chips a long time ago. $11.00 for a bowl of potato soup?! A 'large' bowl of quacamole is TWELVE DOLLARS. Wasn't the avacado shortage like, three years ago? I just bought two avacados and they were $0.65 each. Come on Kelly's, stop price-gouging. Put some of that money into an upgrade to your uncomfortble seating. read more

The food is consistently Great. Service is awesome too. We got the guac nachos the wings a burrito a chicken tostada and some tacos..... yummo. Guac nachos are as yummy as old school nachos from the city... each chip has beans and guac on it..... yummy... read more

Servings are big and prices are reasonable. They only accept cash though. A little hard to find because they had a fire a while ago and the sign isn't up. read more

We love Kelly's. One night we drank about six Moscow mules, a piece. My wife, who is very conservative in her social actions was doing donuts on the way home; They just kept pouring for us. They didn't care how much we drank as long as I got a big tip. read more

They may have good tacos but their burgers lack flavor. It took 20 minutes standing at the counter to pick up my carry out order. Also don't understand why they put all the toppings for the burger on the side and not on the burger when we did not specify that. Normally when you order a blue cheese burger it comes on the burger. Not crumbles in a plastic cup on the side... way overpriced for a let down experience. Also don't understand why they only take cash.. its 2024 read more

Kelly's is consistently the best restaurant! Everything they serve is absolutely delicious. Fajita tacos, chicken enchiladas, chicken burrito, shrimp nachos, potato soup-the list goes on and on. Everything on their menu is high quality, fresh, and mouth watering. Kelly's is #1 for our family and has been for decades! read more

If you have kids, please DO NOT take them to Kellys. my son started having a meltdown and the owner came to us and asked us to leave before I could even get him to calm down. I didn't even get to drink my drink or eat my food. I will not be going back to that place and really fucking hope that you choose to not as well if you have kids. read more

Great bar with excellent food. Especially Mexican food you better go hungry. Orion's are big!!

Best place ever. I would give 10 stars if possible!! Incredible food with amazing atmosphere to match. If Kelly's was around when Jesus had his last supper I'm sure he would have asked Kelly's to cater it. read more

ZERO STARS. I'm visiting & my bf & I decided to order mr from this place which the locals said was great. Big mistake, the food was horrible all it gave us was diarrhea there was no flavor in the "Mexi-Kelly" pizza. I true loading it with sour cream, salsa verde.. my bf got fajitas and they didn't cut his chicken up fajita style and there were far too many onions & peppers +chicken was hella dry. He drank 4 drinks with it before giving up. I would never recommend this place to anyone, visiting or local. read more

I enjoyed my overall experience at Kelly's..it was very busy on a Holiday Weekend, and since there were only two us us we sat at the bar. Quick bar service reasonable price, 3 draft beers were 16 bucks...and the bartender poured a perfect Black and Tan... It helps to be hungry when you arrive, but after chips and salsa, neither me or my wife could finish the quesadilla's we ordered....The food was good, I had the shredded beef quesadilla...the beef had little flavor, but that didn't stop me from eating half of it, my wife had the veggie quesadilla, which she liked. Would I return here? "Yes". They serve the food on plastic throw away plates, that's about the worst thing about Kelly's. They have a countdown to St Paddy's Day, but yet the menu is mostly Mexican food...now that in itself is a little weird. read more

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Used to go here with my dad. Irish-Mexican bar is a huge-brained concept, executed perfectly here. Gives me hope for humanity. Perfect experience. Were the enchiladas "good"? They were perfect and either you understand what I mean or you don't. read more

I'm not going to act like this is the worst food I've ever had, but it's up there. I'm not from Sterling and I guess this place is a favorite of people who grew up here. So, knowing that I apologize to whom I may offend, but come. on...I ordered a steak burrito. Really simple. The steak was completely flavorless. It's standard to marinate the beef but Kelly's cannot be bothered. The rest of the burrito is stuffed with a disgusting amount of what tastes like Colby Jack cheese or some other cheese a five year old would enjoy and refried beans. It's pretty disappointing when the refried beans are the most flavorful part of the dish. On top of it all being this ooey gooey flavorless mess there's this weird practice of not wrapping the burrito on both ends and it makes me wonder if the reason for that is that they just don't know how? There's no reason for that and it's only letting heat out. Wrap it properly, then wrap it in tin foil and boom, you got a hot burrito when you get home. It's simple. It's portable. It's manageable to eat without a fork even. It makes sense.. I gave it two stars because I could tell the ingredients were fresh, but I'm just kind of blown away that this place is so popular. Also, why, for the love of god WHY is an Irish pub trying to pretend they can make Mexican food that's passable!? Just BE an authentic Irish food joint! read more

When I visit the Sterling/Rock Falls area, I have to visit Kelly's. Not so much for myself, it's always one of my family members. They swear by the Mexican food, which is pretty good for the Twin City area. They also have pretty good gourmet burgers. But be warned - the place is so popular with the locals that you will encounter a wait during the dinner hour. It has been this way for years and to my knowledge the owner has never attempted to add seating or any type of waiting area - you need to go outside or attempt to get a spot at the bar. If you sit near the door during winter, you will be blasted by arctic air. I scratch my head on the appeal - I never went here when I lived in the area. It's ok food, too crowded with a bad set up, dark and in my opinion over-priced. read more

Pros: Amazing salsa and alot of the Mexican-American items, while not great, are decent. Well-stocked bar and knowledgeable bartenders. Cons: Rather pricey for food that comes out on paper plates. Also, they don't accept credit/debit cards (I have not been there in a while so if that's changed, kudos). Always really packed...you have to find your own table. read more

I would give this restaurant 0 stars If I could! It sucks because I still liked some of their food tonight, but the rating is based mainly on the customer service. It is sad because I grew up in the area but haven't lived here since 2010, & this is one of the places I must eat at whenever I am here to visit. Well, tonight my husband, my sister, & I met my 2 cousins here for dinner, & we had a terrible experience. One of my cousins & my sister ordered the fajitas..my sister ordered the chicken & my cousin ordered the combo. First of all, the fajitas did not come out sizzling or even in a skillet thingie. Secondly, the chicken was in big pieces like the size of chicken tenders, & the menu says that the chicken is marinated, but it tasted soooo bland..like they didn't even add salt..let alone marinade it!!! My cousin & sister were so disappointed that they could not enjoy their food at all, so I insisted that they return it, & when they finally tried to, the waitress was not accommodating. My cousin was very polite & asked if what he received was fajitas & went on to explain his idea of what fajitas should be.. Then, the waitress asked if he wanted to order something else. Seeing that it wasn't going well, I interjected & said that my cousin & my sister both want to return their food & get something else instead. The waitress said that they would still have to pay because they ordered it. What?!?!?! How can they pay for something they haven't even eaten? I explained that we have sent food back & ordered something else at fancy restaurants, & this place is not fancy at all, haha. I guess that was kinda rude, but come onnn!!! Then, I said I would have to talk to the manager then. Some lady (who my cousin said is the owner but am not positive if she is) popped out of nowhere & seemingly heard the convo & asked why they don't like it. My cousin & sister said the pieces of chicken are really big & don't have any flavor. I interjected & added that the menu says the chicken is marinated. The head waitress (a comment from the restaurant corrected her position in response to this review) said that "they are marinated" in a very snippy, defensive tone. Then, she just said "I don't care; take it off the bill then" or something like that in the same tone & stomped away. Her reaction was so pitiful & disgusting. It was like she took it as a personal attack or something when really what they ordered was just not fajitas AT! ALL!! What kind of customer service is that??? The head waitress lady seemed like she was stomping around our table all pissed off after this happened & DID NOT SAY ANOTHER WORD TO ANY OF US!!!!..NOT EVEN WHEN MY HUSBAND HANDED HER A $100 BILL TO PAY FOR THE MEAL!!! She was stomping around so close to our table that one of my cousins accidentally bumped her when she moved her arm at the same time the owner lady was walking super close to the table..my cousin said "sorry," & she didn't even say anything :/ Also, don't owners/managers or whoever is in charge usually come up to the table & apologize & make sure the customer is happy after something like this happens??? If the owner/manager or even head waitress would have done that, I would be back, but she avoided us the entire time after that. It's sad because there is no one to talk to about this when the person who acted in such a shitty manner was the person in charge (found out she wasn't the owner after) :/ It is so sad because Kelly's is a place I always want to eat at while I'm home as aforementioned, & now I cannot even imagine giving our money to someone who acted so immature & pathetically. Gross! (Well, now that I found out that lady isn't the owner, maybeee I'll come back for guaconachos, lol) My cousins said they eat there a lot too & were so disappointed :/ However, the staff obviously doesn't care to keeps customers anyway. This was the most pathetic restaurant experience I have ever had in my life. :/ Good bye Kelly's!! read more

Kelly's - Do these look like chicken fajitas or chicken tenders?! Absolutely nooo flavor...did not even taste any salt!!! Terrible!!! - New American Near Me - Sterling, Illinois

This is my 2nd time dining at Kelly's.. I didn't recall having a pleasant experience here the first time, but my wife and I and a few relatives decided to give it one more chance. Based on the amount of Yelp reviews this restaurant has, it seems like not many people care for it much, but I still want to help other Yelpers out by giving a genuine review of their food and service. It was during dinner time, so I understand it could take a little while for the food to come, so we start off with an appetizer plater, which has (4) taquitos (3) guaconachos (4) nachos & (4) cheese quesadillas.The taquitos were burnt..part of the chicken that was at the end of the roll was completely black..totally inedible. The nachos were just nachos..I mean you can get this from a 7/11, so that's enough said. And guacanachos!!! What a dummy gimmick! It was nothing but ordinary nachos with some guacamole on top, LMAO! So, they charge $14.95 for (4) taquito rolls (7) pieces nachos and (4) cheese quesadillas?? What a rip off!! I ordered buffalo wings and a shrimp taco. The buffalo wings were a complete disaster. They have no idea what they are doing here with their wings. They didn't have any flavor at all..they were covered with old oil and mixed in with some red oil (not even spicy; it was gross!!! I hate myself for not going to KFC!!!) I would give 0 stars for the wings for sure ! I would give 1.5 star for the shrimp taco because the shrimp was not seasoned. I only gave it a 1.5 star because there were actually 1 and 1/2 shrimp in the taco, hahahaha! You charge $4 for that?!?! Idk how is this restaurant is still in business????? Overall, this was the most awful dining experience that I have ever had. The most pitiful part of it was when my cousin was telling the owner of the restaurant that he didn't like the food and how it didn't taste right, and she simply just said "I don't care; just take that one off the bill" to the waitress. She didn't directly reply to us or even apologize about the food being bad. - Bye Kelly's! You won't be missed! 0 star restaurant!! read more

I don't find myself in Sterling often, so I probably don't have to worry about coming back to Kelly's. And that's OK by me. I mean this in the most non-sarcastic way: I really enjoy the small town, divey restaurant ambiance of Kelly's. I mean, they serve Mexican food at a bar called Kelly's. They also don't take credit cards, but they do take checks. Love it! Prices are ok, but they could have sprung for some drink specials during the week. Chips and salsa are also not included with your meal, they'll cost you an extra $2 and change but they are homemade and really fresh. I ordered a steak and veggie quesadilla. Everything comes out on Styrofoam plates and the quesadilla filled up the plate. It was delicious and I really enjoyed it, until I started feeling the oiliness of the veggies. After half the quesadilla I knew I was going to have some stomach problems. Although it was delicious, my stomach hurt all night. Kelly's- you were the perfect one nighter. Enjoyable at the time, but full of remorse and regret after. read more

The food is great and plenty! I live in Naperville so I dont get to go as often as I would like but everytime I am in the area I stop at Kelly's! read more

Well this was an awful dining experience!!! Mainly due my waitress. The food was okay, nothing at all spectacular. Overpriced for what it is. Basically it is generic Mexican food that you could get better at Taco Bell across the street. But my waitress!!! I sat there for 25 minutes waiting to pay my bill. I was sitting there bill in hand with cash. She would ask every table around me if they were okay or needed anything but never once glanced my way. I finally got her attention, and she could not have been more rude or unfriendly. Never ever coming back here read more

Hands down, this is my go to place. When i wona go out and celebrate anything , if i just wanna let lose an endulge in the finer food in this area. I come to Kellys. The food here blasts anyone out the water. I love Kellys. Contrary to the name, kellys resteraunt is nothin ta do woth Kelly the bartender who flashes who boobs and and lets you smack her butt and make out with her even tho shes married. (This bar tender does not work here, sje works in Rock read more

There is a reason why this place is always packed. You have to try the Lou dip. The burrito is okay. The hot wings are delicious. The staff is extremely friendly. FYI..They do not accept credit cards. So make sure you stop at an ATM machine or bring cash. They do have an atm on site but it will cost you since it is a privately owned ATM. read more

Kelly's is that place in Sterling where everyone knows your name. It's a comfort bar where you can go, drink quality beer, and chat with your friends. The seating is very cramped, but you'll get over it after a few cold ones. The food is pretty good for Sterling. This is coming from a big-city California elitist food snob (or so what people would probably call me in Sterling now--like my parents). I used to get the Uncle Lou's bean dip and really enjoyed that, but it's been a few years. You just can't get super quality food in Sterling/Rock Falls (outside of a few specialty dishes), so suck it up, go here, and have a good time. read more

By far my favorite Irish pub specialized in Mexican food! All kidding aside, I love this place. I have never had a taco better than their shrimp tacos...ever. I would give those tacos six stars if I could. Same with their Uncle Lou's dip and guaconachos! My dad loves the shredded beef burrito, and my mom rotates among the buffalo chicken sandwich, shredded beef tacos, quesadillas and potato soup. Yes, I know their orders, because we come here so frequently! (It's my food-of-choice whenever I'm in town.) Being a Sterling native, I often thought I was just biased, but everyone I have ever brought here from out of town has loved it too and asked to come back. However, remember to bring cash or a check, as they do not take cards. Overall, it's the perfect small town, quirky bar/restaurant! read more

We were seated at the bar and never moved to a table or booth even with a wait. The food was not authentic or memorable. We had to give head's up to the bartender and the waitress several times for service...will never go back. read more

I like Kelly's a lot. The food is real good and reasonably priced. The staff is always accommodating and upbeat. The wait can be very long, but most people who go there already know this and are prepared and willing to wait. There is a full bar, which can help the wait go by quickly. I would highly recommend the margaritas and tostadas with the works! The Reuben sandwich is also something I would eat any day! Definitely check this place out, but be prepared to wait a bit if you go during prime dinner hours. The inside is bar like and they show games on tvs..it's cute, but its now someplace you would wear and suit and tie...casual dining. read more

The salsa was spicy & good. The guacamole was absolutely fresh. The chips were still warm and tasty. My boyfriend has the carne guaisada (sp??), I had a reuben. He said it was some of the best Mexican he has had since we left Texas. My reuben was delicious. It was thick cut, which I generally don't like because it is tough to chew. Not this time, fell apart and was tender and juicy and tasty. It's a bit far from Beloit but if we are out that way again, we will certainly stop there again. I would suggest this place. One thing... they don't take credit cards. There is an ATM machine at the door but to save yourself the ATM charges, come with cash! read more

I was told a lot of things about this place. Fish tacos are amazing and had awesome service. Never had grouper before and was not dissatisfied. Just for my pallet wish it was spicier!!! Also try the dips, they are tasty!! read more

Really good food! I was pleasantly surprised by the tamales. Friendly and attentive bartenders. I'll be back!

Probably the best rueben sandwich i have ever had. Thick cut like they should be. But they only accept cash and can get very crowed from time to time. Their fajitas have left me disappointed as well as their burritos but then I guess that's what I get for ordering Mexican food at an Irish pub. But my girlfriend absolutely loves the flauta. read more

The food is decent, nothing to write home about though, just really... average. The place is always packed during typical dinner hours (who decided that dinner should be eaten around 6pm anyways?!). I think it's lacking in the seating department as I often see people just waiting around for a table. It absolutely sucks sitting anywhere near the door during Midwestern winters lest you enjoy an arctic blast of air every time the door opens, which, once again, is often during typical dinner hours. read more

Uncle Lou's dip is a must-have. Reasonable prices, big portions. Nice staff. Fresh food. My only complaint is the foam plates.

This wants to be an Irish Pub. The devote is Irish, but the food is Mexican. We ordered the Guacanachos. Really good!!!!! They provided us with salsa, so don't buy the extra chips and salsa. We also each ordered a taco: grilled chicken for me and steak for my husband. This food is Americanized, but tasty. I'd eat here again if passing through. read more

Food is really good here. Chips and salsa are homemade. Burgers are really good and so is Uncle Lou's dip. The tacos and shrimp is also good quality for the area. Bring cash as they do not take credit/ debit. read more