I just had lunch there with friends. The Mac & Cheese and the Grilled chicken sandwich were tasty, but DON"T order a soda! Not only were they ALL flat, but when I told the waitress (who was not too pleasant to begin with) she just brought us MORE flat pop. read more

One of the better craft beer selections in the loop. They have around a dozen taps or so that seem to change almost weekly and feature a wide variety of small batch offerings. I have only ordered appetizers here, so I can't say too much about the food - but what I see going by me looks amazing. The prices are relatively decent too. Their regular specials include things like $4 cans (which includes craft cans like Dale's, Half Acre, etc...) and $2 off draft pours - neither of which are too bad. They have some pricier draft beers too, but you'll notice that some of them get up into the 12% abv range - so you won't need too many. Verdict: Conveniently located across from the Sears Tower (please don't call it the Willis Tower, I don't even know who Willis is) this is a great little spot for snacks and a solid craft beer! read more

Check for service charge. Came in with a party of 6 last week. Ordered a number of things. When we went to settle up, the server included an 18% gratuity but neglected to tell us at any time during the visit. I tipped on top of the included service charge. Snagged it when I was doing my expense report. Went back to the bar and the bartender said I needed to see the manager. Bartender said it was an "oversight." Called the manager the next day and they said will refund me. Didn't have my credit card with me when I reached him, so it is still pending. Will update the review when it is resolved. read more

Mine is not a super objective review. This was a former post-work gathering spot for myself and many others so I'm sure I'm treated slightly better as a regular. Like many bars in the financial district this one can get pretty crowed after work hours, but with my clan someone was usually there by 4 to guarantee a table for us. Staff is always friendly (again maybe more so towards my group) and food on the bar food to restaurant food scale is more of the restaurant quality. read more

Not being in the mood for the usual Chipotle/Potbelly lunchtime routine, my friends and I decided to check out the Franklin Tap. Conveniently located near the Sears Tower, this place is great for anyone looking for a good place to have a causal power lunch. There is no shortage of flat screen TVs on the wall to watch whatever sporting events are going on. The menu is basic bar food. I had a pulled pork barbeque sandwich with french fries. My two friends went with burgers. No complaints at our table. The waitress was attentive and never let our sodas get close to empty. The food also came out in less than 15 minutes. We were able to enjoy our food and take time walking back to work. read more

Quick lunch, salad for $20! How: mediocre Cobb salad ($11), bad ice tea ($3) and stale bread ($2) I was charged for stale bun :-/ Items priced $1 more than menu online Skip read more

I came here with some friends from California. As soon as we walked in Stephanie welcomed us and told us to sit anywhere we liked. She immediately came with menus and offered some happy hour deals. She gave great recommendations for drinks and food. After a while we wanted to move outside and she said no problem! It was amazing and really felt that I was at my neighborhood bar. Ended up staying for close to 3 hours, having great food, great drinks and even better, amazing service! Thank you Steph! Will definitely come back when back in Chicago! read more

Stopped in for a couple drinks on a Thursday night and this place was awesome. Reasonably priced drinks and a great atmosphere. The best part by far though was the service. Our server (shout out to Steph) was awesome! Attentive, quick, and just generally fun to be around. I think the only con was that she couldn't come out bar hopping with us after haha. read more

Hello everyone, I do not usually write reviews but I felt obligated to write this one. Today, I visited, "The Franklin Tap," after work with a few of my co-workers. We got some drinks, which was perfectly fine... We even got some fireball shots... still everything is normal. Afterwards, I ordered salt, tequila & lime shots for my two other co-workers and myself including (3 of us) at $7 a pierce ($21 total) and it seemed to me that our tequila shots were VERY MUCH WATERED DOWN!!! I asked our server to bring the manager and she thought I was kidding... I mean my reputation is on the line as a co-worker when I buy shots for my fellow colleagues and they had more water than tequila. The manager finally came to our seated table and gave me a 5 minute spiel... finally and I kid you not, I asked the manager (red bearded guy), "So are you telling me that the customer is wrong??!" He said, "Yes you THE CUSTOMER are wrong!!" On my way out, I pad my bill for $21 for the (3 tequila) shots and left a tip for my waiter for $9 because I realized it was not her fault. The manager came up to me afterwards and said, "Get The FUCK OUT OF MY BAR!" I am highly concerned about the Human Resources aspect of, "The Franklin Tap," as it seemed to me that the manager is disrespectful to the customers and there is false advertising involved! They are selling you 3/4 water & 1/4 tequila shots with lime and telling the customers that it is normal tequila shots! Not only is my reputation as a credible and an empathetic co-worker to my colleagues ruined, but I will also be very careful going to this place. Please be aware as the owners are only after your $$$$ and do not care about the overall experience that you endure when you are visiting, "The Franklin Tap." Please take this review seriously as I am humbly expressing my concerns, I do not intend for anyone to take this personally. However, I do intend for the manager and the waiter to read this review and take the initiative to better their service. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, many of whom own their own local restaurants & liquor license holding establishments in Indiana and Illinois, this behavior is clearly unacceptable!!! read more

Expect to be held hostage. It is really hard to be able to find someone willing to bring you your check. Plan to wait at least half an hour extra before being able to leave this place. read more

I frequently eat lunch at the Tap and have hosted a few happy hours here for work. I love the food and bev menus but felt compelled to mention the rude and unfriendly service I experienced today. Prefaced by: as a previous server, I rarely complain about my food and try to be conscientious of any requests. However, my soda today was flat. I requested a new one. Instead of simply bringing a new one on her next pass by, the server's response was "there's bubbles in there." Is this a challenge? It was not a joke. I'm not sending back a $75 steak. It's soda. I wasn't sure how to respond. Yes, some bubbles that equalled minimal carbonation and it looks like syrup. Not a difficult solution to offer a different soda or bring a new one. As someone who does not enjoy confrontation, this small, but rude interaction disrupted my meal. I get it lady, you probably deal with rude suits all day with bs demands, but this was simple and I'm a nice person who tips well everytime I come in. read more

Best beer prices in the Loop! And quite a few things on tap, too. Full dinner menu, although it gets crowded at dinnertime. Good food and good service, I'd go back any time. Except on weekends, 'cause it's closed. read more

Steph is amazing. She recommended a delicious beer and so I got 3 more. All my food came out right away and was perfect (I had a complicated order). read more

A group from work came to the Franklin Tap after an all day training, and the pub as well as our server, Kristin, made everything easy. She wasn't checking on us every 3 minutes, but she always made sure everyone had a filled glass in front of them and kept food flowing across our group of 15ish people. This is pub food- it's not gourmet- but it is good and as expected. The buffalo cauliflower was a surprise treat, and we had a lot of options for vegetarians among the group. read more

Came to the Tap on a Thursday around 5pm for some "team building" with a few colleagues. My friend knows the drill here so she called ahead of time to reserve a table. As soon as we got there they kicked the people out of the table that they were sitting at so that we could sit down. That doesn't seem fair, but I'll take it. I was excited when I saw all the different beer taps hanging on the wall, but then really let down when the waitress gave us a beer list that was weak! Not one Pale ale on the menu, but I'll take a $2 Blue moon. We all came prepared to have a great time and take down a lot of beer. The service was fine at first, then it became impossible to get a beer. The waitress was hard to find and it started to get awkward b/c she would come around when we were all sitting with empty glasses waiting patiently and she would act like it was no big deal, "can I get you guys anything?" YES buzz-kill mcqueen, you can get us another round of beers and please keep them coming!" It was impossible to get a buzz going b/c of the wait between rounds. We started doubling up our orders and that still wasn't doing the trick. The place is always crowded on Thursdays and the line for the bathroom seems kind of outrageous. Why is there only one stall for the ladies and one stall for the men? What idiot designs a bar with single stall bathrooms? Franklin Tap has decent specials during the week, but they aren't worth it for the crowd and horrible service. read more

Typical Loop-area bar. We had our office holiday gathering here because we needed something relatively cheap and it was just ok. The food was surprisingly tasty but the drinks were weak. Maybe it's because we had an open bar for our group so they were holding back, but a lot of people ended up ordering wine or beer; At least we knew what we were going to get with that. I've heard they do have some good specials during the week but I think they close a little early. The waitress told us that they are never open past 10 or something like that. But like I said, pretty typical of Loop bars I think. Overall it's not a bad place and I'd probably go back for Happy Hour or something. read more

I like this place because it is very close to my work, which makes it a great option for happy hour if you work anywhere near the Willis/Sears Tower. What I also like is that they have food and drink specials most weekdays. $5 shareable appetizers and $4 cans on the evening I went. The apps (pretzels with cheese dip, spinach artichoke dip, loaded tator tots) were good accompaniments to the beer and conversation, but weren't standouts. read more

This place is all about ambience and service! We went as a group after work and had a fantastic experience thanks to our server, Cody. He was quick, fun, very knowledgeable about the menu, and extremely helpful. Super smart guy and friendly, and the food he helped us select was amazing! I would go back again and again! read more

I would say "nothing special" if not for the hot pretzels. I probably wouldn't even be bothering to write a review if not for the hot pretzels. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty much only writing this so I can create a "best hot pretzels" list in the near future. These are pretty spectacular. No one is going to beat Rock Bottom in my eyes apparently, but these are still pretty amazing, what with the melty cheese inside the pretzels themselves. MMMMMMM....nothing ends a long week in January on a high note like pretzels and booze! Decent drink specials for Friday- $5 effen cocktails. Not that I bothered with those up front, since Kelly to a martini menu is like the moth to the proverbial flame. Hello minty chocolate goodness. Did later switch to the effen cocktails though to avoid sugar shock. If you want a table, apparently you need to get here well before 5. Walking in, there was barely a place to stand let alone sit. We did get lucky and a very kind group offered to split up the two tables they had and cram themselves into one so we could do the same (after two jerks who were on their way out decided that because I asked if they were leaving that they would sit there another half hour, sucking up a whole table for just the two of them- what ever happened to chivalry!) Nice enough atmosphere but not my cup o'tea for happy hour- I'd rather go for something a bit more loungey and comfortable, and getting rammed into by the poor waitresses trying to squeeze between tables to do their job was a little much (but after a few drinks, I stop caring, so whatever). Service was okay, slow at times and there doesn't seem to be a way to get drinks unless you are actually at a table- trying to get up to the bar was impossible. Can't say I'd go out of my way to come back on a Friday at 5, but I could be persuaded at off times to go for the pretzels! read more

Even though Franklin Tap has been around my workplace for 3 years, I made my debut here for lunch yesterday. I think my boss was bored so he dragged me out of the office for lunch. It was fairly busy, so we were fortunate to snag a sidewalk table and enjoy the nice weather and stellar people-watching. Our waitress was pleasant but a bit off (perhaps new or too busy), as my boss ordered a cup of soup with his burger but instead a giant bowl of soup came out at the same time as the burger. They were nice enough to volunteer and take the soup off of our tab though. We both enjoyed our food. I had a patty melt with delectable grilled onions and perfectly toasty (not soggy) marble rye. There were some nice looking sides (including sweet potato fries) but we both went for the macaroni and cheese with bits of bacon, which is a meal in itself (and you can order it as a meal too). I think we would have each enjoyed a beer too (there are decorative beer taps displayed on the wall), but work was still to happen so no beer. read more

Great beer specials and overall a good selection of beer/cider overall. This place is good for happy hour after work (had plenty of those!) and can accommodate large groups of 8-10 if you get there early enough. It gets packed around 4:30-5 some days, so you may have to stand around table if you have more than a couple people. read more

I've been here twice recently--once for lunch and once for after-work drinks. Neither experience gave me any reason to return. A co-worker and I went for a late lunch one afternoon, and the place was literally empty--we were the only two people there. In all fairness, it was 2:00 on a Tuesday or something, so I didn't necessarily anticipate a crowd. I ordered a caprese panini which I think came with fries, if I correctly recall. The sandwich was really sad. I think it maybe had one piece of mozzarella, one slice of tomato and some very sad basil. It was edible, but that's about it. A group of us went for drinks after work on a Friday night and the place was jam-packed. It just really isn't my speed to be fair (a lot of 20-somethings, kind of felt like a frat party). But that said, the organizer was able to get a table reserved for us and the service was pretty decent considering how crowded it was. The music was insanely loud where you had to scream to have a conversation. No thanks. read more

I organized an office party and made a reservation for 15 on a Wednesday night. They did not have my reservation and the waitress was irritated when I suggested she seat us at another reserved table that was not yet occupied. My group ended up being closer to 25 and had to spread out throughout the bar for seating even though she said she would close out tabs on several smaller tables in an area. The waitress refused to do separate checks and I ended up getting charged for a lot of drinks people in my group did not have. The waitress was rude and inattentive. She added an 18% gratuity, otherwise I would not have tipped her. The drink specials were good, but I will never go back. read more

Great Selection of Beer and Munchies. Always a winning spot for a lunch w a friend or a company happy hour.

I don't know, I've got a problem with a place that has a little menu and can't even get that right. A friend and I stopped in for lunch last week, neither of us had been there before, and we both ordered the chicken sandwich. How do you screw it up? By pre-cooking and nuking the meat! We ordered and our food was on our table in minutes, upon biting into the sandwiches, we figured out why... it was drier than powder on a cracker! Blegh! So, BBQ sauce was our friend and it helped, but did not make us forget how it tasted on the first bite. read more

Good vibes and local beer choices, a bunch of TV screens to watch sports. A little too crowded when we went.

My husband and I and 2 friends stopped in for drinks and apps before going on a sunset cruise on the river and while the service wasn't the friendliest, it was efficient and the food and drinks (wine and IPA) were very good. We had the spinach artichoke dip, hummus, and chicken fingers. All very fresh and yummy. Great pita bread was served with the dip and the hummus, along with fresh veggies. Would definitely come here again if I was in the area. read more

Yikes! What an experience! Can honestly say it will be a very, very long time before I go back here again, if ever. It all starts back on St. Patrick's Day; mistake #1. My friends and I had an entire day planned to avoid the Irish bars as much as possible and we made a cool little map that we would hit cool bars along the way that my partner and I have found to be tried and true. Out of the entire experience Franklin Tap was the only disappointment. We had left Cavanaugh's after our requisite "one green beer" and made our way to FT. When we got there we found a table near the front and got our drinks in order. As soon as we sat down the server required we give her our credit card up front. I explained that we were on separate checks, showed her how it should be broken up and she said she understood. The drinks came while I was in the loo so I can only go by what my four other friends and partner had to say about the way the drinks were delivered. In a word: poorly. Apparently they were slammed in the center of the table and they had to divvy them up themselves. I didn't witness it but whatever, moving on. My vodka tonic was gross. Like really gross. Flat. Watered down. Gross. I wasn't going to say anything but after the mediocre delivery my friends felt it necessary to make mention of it to the server but it made no impact. I noticed that my friend next to me had a chip in the rim of her glass. We brought that to the server's attention and boy did we feel like we were making a fuss over nothing. We told her we would be cashing out and leaving. She grabbed the drink and went off to the bar only to bring a replacement drink that we did not want. The server could tell things were going badly or she wouldn't have said [I feel like you guys are mad at me for something I've done]. By this time we were over it. So the chip-in-the-glass friend went to speak to the manager. Again, I wasn't there to witness but the conversation didn't go much better. The manager said he'd rather comp the drinks than argue about when the chip occurred or it causing a problem; going on to say he didn't understand the big deal because they made her another drink. Point missed. Pretty sure everyone is aware that regardless of when a chip occurred, the drink must be returned and the glass thrown out. Standard health practices for the restaurant industry. So somewhere between the chip in the glass incident and talking with the manager our card (my partner and I) was charged for everyone's drink when I clearly stated we would be a split check. The total BS part is that they auto-gratuity at six people and only four of us had a drink - two had water. Snapping back to the manager's decision to comp our drinks we received a $0 receipt and was told that the card would not be charged as we had not signed the receipt agreeing to payment. The best part of this whole shitty experience, three days later we get a notification that our card was forced-pay for the bill at FT. We promptly opened a formal complaint with our credit card. I think this experience speaks to my willingness to visit FT. I am very vocal to all of my friends who work right down the road with me about thinking twice before going there again. My regards to this awesome customer service experience at FT. read more

As a resident of the Big Willie, this place has become is an all-star in my Happy Hour Bullpen. It's a great place to go to drink away your boss' criticism or to celebrate that new raise. The food and customer service is always consistent. I know I can depend on them to have a new and delicious beer on tap. Also, it always seems they have a deal going on their drinks too. Franklin Tap, you can definitely expect another visit from this returning customer. Have a cold one ready for me! read more

Flavorful Bison burger, tater tots and Cod sandwich. Cold, local beers - can't beat it!

I loveeeeeeed Caroline! She was the best! Give her a raise, she deserves it. This is my first time leaving a yelp review btw, only because of her! Charlie! read more

I actually frequent this place pretty often for lunch during the week and unfortunately I'll agree with the other reviewers that this place could use some work. I've had quiet a few of the sandwiches and just about all the appetizers and I've never been too impressed with anything I've had there. During lunch this place fills up with the business class looking to grab a sandwich and maybe down a few beers. The best part about this place is the few servers who are pretty hot. read more

Fun, relaxed place for an after work drink! Good service and good crowd of people.

Strolled over from Union Station during a train layover. Really comfortable place and fine service. Good draft beer selection. Some of my favorites from around the country, as well as solid locals, and some things I'd never heard of. I had the bison burger which was delicious, manageable, and not too greasy, though it might have been a little overdone. Tried my brother's broccoli cheddar soup and steak wrap, both of which were solid. read more

I would rate it 3 because the ambience was good and servers were really good. But the food wasn't up to the mark. Chicken was uncooked and big in size. Atleast that's what is to expected from wraps. Thanks! read more

Food was average and didn't do anything for me other than fill me up. I had a burger and tried the fish and chips which was ok. Coke tasted funny. Service was good. Better options in the area read more

Service and beer selection were okay.. Food is ok, nothing special that stands out thats not the same in any other bar. Went there last week Thursday with some friends and handed my credit card to hold for the tab. Here's the thing though, I was rang up for the amount I owed but they lost my credit card. I was never called back the next day as they said they would to let me know if my card was ever found, as the manager said she would. It happens right? Well as I was walking out to check out what had been charged, I noticed that not only was I charged my tab but someone else's tab as well. Went back to the bar and to dispute it and finally was able to have them admit that it was a mistake on their part and that the charges would be reverse for all of the charges. Well guess what, never happened and never received a call.. Last time I go to this spot... read more

Stay away! I've heard others complain about this place but I didn't really see it until it happened to me. Terrible service at the bar! Don't bother! They completely ignore you. But if you;re a big party, they will come to your table, but DON'T DON'T DON'T give them your credit card. Big mistake. They charged me for drinks I never ordered! I flat out refused the last shot she brought me, and she ignored me like I was drunk. No! I had two hard ciders! I was not drunk, but the waitress just walked away and left the shot NEVER ordered! My card was charged $70! I'm furious! read more

This bar and its food was over-rated and not very tasty. it was below most bars I have tried and even the service and look of this place was well below sub-par as one would expect in a bust downtown area. This place is more deserving to be in Warrenville or Naperville than Chicago's loop read more

Location was right down from work so no complaints. Get there early if you want a table. Nobody in Chicago works until 5pm on Fridays so if you're looking for a happy hour spot - better show up around 3:30. Beer was good, food was bar food. Service was fun and entertaining #hushpuppy read more