A little downtown diner serving up your typical bar/diner foods. They have fish fry on Fridays, and open mic night on Wednesdays. They do take reservations, be prepared it gets busy. We sat at the bar and ordered: ** Garlic butter mozzarella bites- DELICIOUS ** Ribs and onion rings ** Cream of wild rice and chicken soup Our food came out fast. The bartender Regan was very friendly, quick with the drinks and gave us several menu recommendations. read more

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I decided to give Lambemi's another try while in the downtown Crystal Lake area. This is bar is a staple in the area and you can tell there's a lot of local customers that come back over and over. The bar did not smell that musty this time and this is still a no-frills local tavern. The bartender was very nice and very attentive. The local customers sitting at the bar made me feel welcome. The white cheddar cubes with a breaded coating appetizer was very tasty, especially when I added their homemade ranch dressing. The Labemi chicken that was recommended by the bartender who she said she always orders that dish. This was one of the best chicken entrees I have ever had! The dish has artichoke hearts and mushrooms in a creamy lemon butter sauce with wild rice. The chicken was very tender and outstanding and ample for two people. You can always sub out the wild rice for pasta. This dish comes with a side salad or cup of soup as well. The clam chowder was pretty good. One thing this restaurant is known for is their generous pores. They did not disappoint this time too! I definitely plan to come back to get that same chicken dish! If you have not been here yet, I recommend it for a very low-key lunch or dinner. read more

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Tara was the best bartender I ever had! She worked by herself and handled like a pro. She makes wicked drinks! Give her a raise and a bonus Plenty of seats available at the bar and lots of tables around the bar making it welcoming whether you're by yourself or with a group of friends read more

Hidden gem! Great service with enjoyable live music but most of all the food was great. I had a filet and my girlfriend had walleye. Soup and salad were good and nice baked bread as well sat down. Small town bar feel, nice alternative to the overpriced, trendy places. Great place to go! read more

Food 2/10. 2 because it was served hot. Ambiance 0/10 ; old and worn out. The room kinda smelled and staff are obviously OK with customers vaping at the bar. read more

From the moment we walked in, we should have walked out. The bar was smokey, dirty, and musty. There where people at the bar vaping. The bar was all taken, with half the seats vacant as they were gaming. We sat down at a table and were greeted promptly. The wait staff was good, and did the job well. We ordered a few dinners and sandwiches. My reuben was a joke. A traditional reuben has thinly sliced corned beef. This sliced corn beef, was thick. My husband ordered one of the german specialty dishes. He said the mashed potatoes were disgusting. The gravy was canned and the meat was overdone. There are. Too many places in the downtown Crystal Lake area to enjoy. We will not be back! read more

The Labemi's chicken is my wife's favorite. Their hamburgers are the best in the area. Service is amazing and they have music, on Friday.

Same as last time for four stars. Had the duck wings again and not as tasty as I remember them for some reason. On tasted a big off, maybe not cooked fully, I don't know. Ordered the beef Stroganoff and got it to go. It was good, needed salt but the beef was very tender, the gravy good with mushrooms-and a dollop of sour cream on top. The price was a bit high with no side included but fair actually as the serving was big enough for at least two people. It seems to be a good go to for food and the people at the bar seem to be locals, as I coulda swore i'd seen some of the same folks last time there. read more

Labemi's Tavern & Restaurant - Part of the menu. - Restaurants Near Me - Crystal Lake, Illinois

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Went there with a friend for drinks after work. The staff was attentive and friendly. Drinks were good. Food I got was not good. I did only have pretzels bits. But the were over cooked and hard to eat but I was so hungry I ate them. I did see other people eating and the meals looked and smelled good. But the pretzel are the ones you buy at the grocery store and just deep fried and over cooked. Will go back to eat dinner next time. read more

Labemi's Tavern & Restaurant - Over fries pretzel bites - Restaurants Near Me - Crystal Lake, Illinois

We stopped here after discovering so many restaurants in downtown Crystal Lake are closed on Tuesday! The staff is very nice there and the martini was great! Quesadilla hit the spot and they are not skimpy on the guacamole and salsa and sour cream. Fries were really good too! read more

Labemi's Tavern & Restaurant - steak and tater tots - Restaurants Near Me - Crystal Lake, Illinois

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What a joke. The whole staff was wasted, including the old man door guy who says he is the owner! He carded us after we had already been there drinking. He was either so drunk or too old that he couldn't read our IDs and told us to leave. The guys behind the bar did nothing because they were also drunk. I get its st. Pats but if the owner is so drunk he can't read a ID?! Wtf read more

With prices what they are today, we had to try Monday night burger basket special. Nothing fancy, just a perfectly cooked burger on a great bun that had some heft to it. It didn't fall apart. Sweet and regular fries were hot and crispy. Fresh coleslaw. The pour on the drinks were generous. Atmosphere was more typical of a friendly up north Wisconsin bar. Our wallets and taste buds thank you. read more

Labemi's Tavern & Restaurant - $2 beer special and an old fashion - Restaurants Near Me - Crystal Lake, Illinois

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So I'm torn about this place... The first thing I have to say is that this place can be off the chains fun! Crowd is excellent and kind and chill, the beer is very reasonably priced, the outdoor patio is so spacious and nice and there's just a whole lot of love going on! And it's that last comment that brings me to a two star review for an otherwise awesome place. Yelpers, have you ever known someone who just sucks the oxygen out of the room when they are there? Well if you haven't, it sucks and if you want to see it go to Labemis on a Wednesday night! I've been there twice, and both times this bartender Dana has had a remarkably bad attitude every time I've gone! Rude! Like... eye rolling and impatient and just obnoxious. Look, it happened the first time and I said nothing. But when it happened the second time I saw a pattern. How would you like a complete stranger to approach you like you just killed her grandmother when all you want is... a drink... at a bar. It's like... what y'all do. And to see the fun and light hearted joy just being completely contrasted by a really pissed off bartender when you've literally done nothing- well let's just say it says way more about her and the bar that hired her than it does about me. I call on businesses regularly as part of my job. I know more business and bar owners than most non alcoholic Joe's off the street and I recognize a liability when I see one. Dana and her attitude... all I can say is I've been there twice and am to the point where IF I decide to come back to this place, walk in and I see her again, I am going to turn around and walk right out. I get it... it was busy... maybe a bad day, but twice? It's ridiculous and One can only take solace in the fact that they don't have to wake up being her... because with a rancid attitude like that; this is a fate I would not want anyone to endure. read more

Only been to Labemi's a few times, but continue to have a great experience. Liann was our server and was absolutely awesome. She made sure we had a great meal and great experience. Would recommend Labemi's to anyone looking for a great meal and low key atmosphere. read more

Went here on Wednesday 12/13/22 because everyone was raving about it on FB. It was German specials night, my husband had the schnitzel and I had the stroganoff, it was good but nothing to write home about. What got me was the surcharge on the cocktails, I ordered and vodka with cranberry the bartender said you want that on the rocks I said yes, when we got our bill they charge me an extra $2 for rocks, really for ice? My husband had a whiskey with a splash of ginger ale on the rocks, they charged him $2 extra for the ginger ale but not for rocks. When I asked them they just said we don't set the prices. Won't be going back here. For what we paid we could have had a better meal and drinks somewhere else. read more

This was my first time in this place, the staff was amazing, the atmosphere was really sad, run down. The food was ok not the best... I think this would be a fun place for a drink, but go somewhere else for food... it's not the staff's fault. They were fantastic and the waitress was really nice and friendly. read more

Another spontaneous eating experience that was a positive experience. Needed to kill some time in the area and was hungry so we took a chance and we won. For those who are Murphy Brown fans, this place remind me of Phil's bar. There's a neighborhood crowd at the bar and tables for those wanting food. There's plenty of parking on the street and in the lot around then corner. The menu has decent and offers a variety of dishes. I chose the burger which was good, cooked to a nice medium and some of the freshest fries, right out of the fryer. They were cooked to perfection. Their salad was fresh looking with some of the juiciest veggies ever. The garlic dressing is nicely balanced but not too pungent. Great drink specials. Our server was as sweet as could be offering honest opinions on the menu items which is always helpful at new places. I would not hesitate to return read more

Been going here for all you can eat fish fry on Fridays! You can choose to get both perch and cod which is great!

Hometown favorite. Classic downtown tavern. GO-TO bar for a good normal cocktail, no light on the booze here. Food is great, specials are affordable. Great to have some drinks and then order carry out. read more

Food was good a lot for the money, Birthday dessert was fabulous!!! Fun for a crowd. Can't wait for summer patio!!

Not bad for the prices. They did a real good job in hard times. The food was well prepared and served for a Friday night fish fry. A vary happy and friendly staff we had a good time read more

My 4 friends and I walked in and grabbed seats right by the entrance and attempted to pull a chair out however it was wrapped around the cord of a florescent wall light. The wall light fell to the ground and did not break. Immediately a "manager" off duty yells "F***ing idiots" and got in our faces. He then yelled a variety of inappropriate slurs at us. This staff member threatened us in front of the whole bar that he would beat the "s**t out of us" First- that's a hazard to the customers leaving loose wires on the ground and second the fact that a manager called us "retards" and "faggots" for tripping on loose wires is a direct correlation to Labemis' poor hiring process. Please do not come to this establishment for a nice drink among friends otherwise be prepared to face violent verbal attacks from management staff. read more

Visited on a Friday to have a birthday dinner. Husband loved the fried perch and my pan seared walleye was very good. Although it needed a little jazzing with fresh lemon, which was quickly provided. Nice portions and excellent service. Laurie was great. Drinks reasonably priced and large pours. On the house birthday dessert. Yummy! read more

This place is a gem. Good food, good drinks, friendly service and live entertainment! What else could a person want? read more

Labemi's Tavern & Restaurant - New special on Friday night. Bruschetta Salmon - Restaurants Near Me - Crystal Lake, Illinois

What a great place! After years of wanting to try Labemi's we finally followed through and it was perfect! Our table shared the duck tenders. Crab cakes and bacon wrapped scallops and all were amazing. My date and I split the fried chicken dinner and yes it was also amazing. The drinks were strong, food was way better than what we were expecting from what looks like a hole in the wall and the live music was the cherry on top. If you haven't tried this place do yourself a favor and stop by. My favorite part of this place is it's not fancy, you can get a fantastic meal without the bother of dressing up. Highly recommend!!!!! read more

This is the hidden gem of the town. I used drink a lot of my dinners here back in the day, so yeah, the food's great. It'll take a hundred years to get the nicotine off the wood-paneled walls, I've seen a man stop-drop-and-roll while his pants were on fire (a victim of a great prank), it's so dark you can't see who you're making out with, there's always some monkey pissing in the sink when the only men's toilet is being used, the bartenders purposely skip the shitty songs on the jukebox, and they pour the most honest drink in the state. I love it. read more

Tiffany is so nice & friendly! Makes great drinks! Definitely will be spending more time there

Labemi's is my favorite bar in Crystal Lake. They aren't trying too hard like the other bars in town. My main reasons for loving Labemi's are as follows: The staff is friendly but sarcastic/funny. Phish and the Grateful Dead are the top played bands on the jukebox. The crowd is usually a little older, more calm and relaxed. They serve the best fish fry I've had outside of Wisconsin. The drinks are simple and reasonably priced. The atmosphere is that of an old dive bar with fake wood paneling and orange-colored tiffany style lighting. If you're sick of going to Dukes where you pay city prices for drinks/food while having D-bags rudely scream in your ears at bar time, try Labemi's. It will be a refreshing change of pace. read more

In search of cheap eats and something new, we were lured here by some seriously stellar Yelp reviews. And, much to our chagrin, we were pretty disappointed. On the bright side, it's like hanging out in your friend's grandparent's basement. Totally old school and totally comfortable. The staff is beyond friendly. They make you feel like family. That's why it pains me to write this review... The food was not that great. The walleye and ribs that came highly recommended were both subpar. The walleye was littered with bones. The fish fry batter was strangely sweet. The ribs were dry. And, in the end, the bill was higher than we had anticipated. Sad :( read more

Not bad at all....good food and appetizers. Decent crowd of regulars at the bar, nice bartenders. The prices here are a bit lower than the other bars around. I like the fact that you can still smoke inside here, which is becoming more rare these days. Also nice to see more adults in here, where a couple of the other bars nearby tend to attract huge crowds of wanna-be tough guys, loudmouths, clowns, etc. There are a lot of bars in this area so you could start here and if you get bored it's just a short walk to 8 or 10 others right nearby. read more

We went out here after a great dinner at Duke's. I had never been here but being recently single after 9 years I wanted to go out and have a good time and did we ever! This place is pretty laid back - clean with younger people (25-30). The bartenders were very hospitable - basically this place is like your best friends basement with some really fun people. I dropped $220.00 that night there alone and it was worth it! Next we have to try the food. If any of the folks out Saturday are members here - thanks for a completely kick ass night! read more

Food 4/5: The food here is cooked well and comes in decent size portions. I got the burger here which was a little smaller than expected but still filling enough. There wasn't much flavour to the burger except for a very meaty taste (which I enjoy in my burgers). Was cooked well to my request and wasn't dried out or crispy. The meals and cooking style feel like something you'd come to expect when eating your best family dishes. Ambiance 5/5: It depends what type of environment you are going for. For a pub/tavern this is great. When you enter the place it feels like your going into a friends basement. It's definitely not an 'romantic' dining place but its a great place to meet with friends and to engage in some friendly bar talk. Service 5/5: Friendly staff that act like real people. They were by to take our requests as needed and didn't hover around to much. read more

This place is one of my favorite bars in downtown Crystal Lake. It has an old 70's bar feeling inside and feels home-y. Most places like that feel old and dated, but here it not only works, but it works wonderfully. It's almost got a Wisconsin cottage feel to it. The bar is usually full of happy people and I've never seen any of the bartenders anything but cheerful. Good music, good drinks, good atmosphere. I'm always glad to go here with friends. Whether you want an IPA, mixed drink, or just a Coors, you can get it here. If you're looking for a bar that's a little more relaxed and less upscale than other downtown CL bars, this is your place. People of all (legal drinking) ages and all backgrounds can enjoy a nice drink here with plenty of other good people. read more

I came here to see if anyone had reported an incident that happened last weekend with the group of about 4 or 5 people and a self-proclaimed manager of the restaurant. It looks like they have and good for them. I witnessed this altercation and wanted it to be known that the employee in reference was way out of line and was clearly intoxicated. What should have been a non-issue of a sign falling to the ground without damage, quickly turned into a series of very offensive insults and threats by said employee as the group sat in disbelief as many in the restaurant/bar area did as well. It was very unprofessional and a bit concerning that this establishment would allow an employee to not only berate a group of customers but also clearly be over served at the bar. read more

Great find!!! Vintage bar with great food and great atmosphere. Will definitely be back!

Popped in on a Saturday evening for dinnerwith my hubby. Typically this is a day drinking stop with my girl friends. We were blown away by the amazing Prime Rib special, live music and cozy atmosphere. We will be back for sure! read more

Like a few others have said, eating here is like if a good friend or relative of yours had a really killer basement with a few kegs and some dartboards. It was a fun place to be inside, because of the ambiance, and the food is pretty good too. We came here for a Friday night fish fry, which was very good. Good portion size, and the fish is done pretty nicely. The only real reason I don't come here very often is because I greatly prefer the beer selection across the street at Duke's. read more

Are you kidding. My friend and I visited this place on Friday night around 9:00 pm. We originally wanted to go to Dukes Ale House but it looked a bit too fancy for us. So we walked pass Labemi's and it looked just like what we wanted, we were really excited to go in, so we walk in and got our IDs checked, and found a table. 15 min later (I did time it) a waitress FINALLY shows up asks us if we wanna eat, we were both starving so yes we wanted to eat. She responds "Well make it quick the kitchen is about to close" and she walks away. I look at the clock its 9:28PM so we have at least 30 min before the kitchen closes and IF YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN HERE 15 MIN AGO THIS WOULDN'T BE AN ISSUE. Any who its just seafood, ribs and burgers, nothing exciting. We both order burgers, med-well. They arrive to us and the middle is RAW!!!! by this time we have been informed the kitchen is already closed(we didnt even have time to send back the under cooked burgers, and it was only 9:49) At 10 o'clock exactly we were given the check and told we had to pay now ( I thought it was really odd because we did get drinks, but even if we did need to pay our food bill we could have simply been asked in a nice way, not rudely told.) We payed our check, chuged our drinks(which tasted awful) and packed up the other half of our gross burgers and got the hell outta there. I WILL NEVER GO BACK! HORRIBLE SERVICE, HORRIBLE FOOD, HORRIBLE DRINKS. read more

Don't come here or even walk by unless you want to be harassed. Two friends and I were walking downtown bar hopping at night when we were going to pop in and try Labemi's for the first time. As we were waiting on the corner to cross the street, this older man with missing teeth starting yelling us to jump in traffic over and over again. He had just seen us cross the tracks and as we were doing so the bells started dinging. He screamed that we were dumb asses and then proceeded to follow us and encourage us to jump into traffic and kill ourselves. As we crossed the street he approached us and continued to yell in our faces. My friend asked him why he was even there and then he pointed at his shirt which was a Labemi's shirt-- he was an employee. I asked him if he was going to stop harassing us and he proceeded to get closer and completely invade my personal space while mocking us and swearing at us. Thankfully, two women who worked there came out from inside telling him "Mike stop, we don't want another problem tonight". So CLEARLY after hearing that and also reading other reviews, this is a pretty regular thing. How many people need to be harassed by Mike before something is done? I will absolutely never step foot in Labemi's. read more

Really great local bar. Nice atmosphere and Joe thr bartender is great. Highly recommend this place