Interested experience. Must try once in a lifetime. Definitely different. Cool staff.

The lectures on tap event here was great! I do like the vibe of this bar with the natural lighting & plants, but the food is pretty mediocre. Best food we had was the buffalo chicken wontons though. I really would give them like a 3.5 overall if yelp let me! read more

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Went here to celebrate a friend's birthday for brunch & entertainment. The show was amazing they did their thang. The place was so pack. The food was so delicious I loved the avocado toast the pancake balls , eggs, hash browns the service was good and everyone was having such a good time. I will be back. They even had cards to fill out to win a free birthday party read more

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Literally some of the worst service I've ever received in this city. We were there for trivia and there were probably 6 tables total with 2 servers so not at all busy. Our server was nowhere to be found and we had to ask the busser to send her over as she was standing by the service well drinking a beer and hitting her vape. I have worked at multiple breweries so I know beer and the beer tastes like the lines haven't been cleaned in years. Cocktails and mixed shots taste like pure sugar with no alcohol and food is just frozen stuff they throw in a fryer and overcharge for. Super sad because the trivia lady is awesome! read more

Finally got the chance to attend a drag brunch here and loved every moment of it ! They offer a brunch with unlimited drinks at a prefixed price . Food is your average breakfast items . We enjoyed the has browns and little pancake balls . Customer service & ambiance was 10/10! Staff available if you're in need to singles for the show & become part of the show as well. I only wished the time slots were a little longer as it feels like you're being pushed out as soon as the performance is over . However they have many shows that day so it makes sense. Give them a try if you haven't yet! read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - Brunch - family style - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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The River has a really nice Brunch menu and the drinks were good. All in all the food was good, nothing too special and somewhat bland. I came with a large group and the servers were very attentive and quite quick. I will say the open vibe of the place is was what drew me in. read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

This place is awful. They forgot one of two appetizers we ordered. When our entrees came we were missing one as well. When we asked about it they said they had made a crispy wrap vs a grilled wrap which we ordered. Then they had the audacity to charge us a service charge when the service was very subpar and also automatically applied a 20% gratuity for our party of 3. When I asked about the gratuity the waitress said they applied it so we did "not have to worry about it," Please stay away from this place, it doesn't get much worse. read more

Came for drag brunch, left pleasantly surprised. To be honest my expectations for the food were very low based on the reviews but I actually thought it was fine. Standard breakfast foods served family style, none of us left hungry. The fruit was delicious and the bacon and eggs and toast were all acceptable. I would have been happy with this selection at a diner. The unlimited drinks were refilled quickly, I barely even had to ask before I had a new one. And of course the drag was on point, so entertaining, the queens all did a great job. Maybe we got lucky sitting by the stairs but it was fun being right there as they came down for the first time in their set. Honestly my only real complaint is that I used to come here for Eagles games and now we don't have an Eagles bar close to me but I will forgive them for that :) read more

Came in on Thursday afternoon for cubs home opener. Had a nice time there. Nice atmosphere and game sound. Our bartenders name was Eddie and was really great and we talked his ear off. Suggested the pizza which was delicious and made really good margaritas. A+ experience read more

Have been here twice for Drag Brunch. Performance is fun and high energy! Great music and good energy. Mimosas are continuously flowing - moneys worth. However, food is just okay. The servers do not round and even though its "unlimited", its really hard to ask for more platters of food. The environment and entertainment is what gives the 4 stars. read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Got horrible food poisoning from a pizza here!! Clearly some very serious issues with food safety and sanitary food preparation. Will never be back and if you don't want to be sick - beware. read more

Perfect place for a private event!!! Abbey was extremely helpful and couldn't ask for a better coordinator! 10/10 reccomend this bar if you're looking for a great private space. read more

Tori was amazing and made our experience that much better! The queens were amazing and made me gag!

The River is a nice bar and event space off of Sheffield. It was not very crowded when I was there compared to some of the other bars in the area, which was nice for getting in and finding a place to sit and have a couple beers. The prices are standard Chicago prices, but they also seem to have some cool events like bottomless mimosas with a cereal bar. I will probably be back some time in the future. read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I come to this bar every Thursday night for family feud and it is terrible. Week after week the food is bad and the service is incredibly slow. There are 25 teams of 6 people in the league. We all show up at 7 and leave at 9. You would think the bar would be staffed properly for such a predictable "rush" but it never is. It usually takes about an hour for food to come out. We usually only get to order 2 drinks because we never see the waitress. All around bad experience. read more

Drag brunch here is so fun! The dancers really get into it and have a lot of energy! Food could be better, but I do like that's it's a set menu mainly for sharing. read more

Disappointed. We went to the restaurant for a drag brunch from out of state for a bachelorette celebration. We arrived and discovered that it was an "all you can and eat and drink" family style meal. They brought out food periodically throughout the show. We were mostly disappointed in the food options. We received one slice of avocado toast for the entire table, dry beignets and a platter of unseasoned eggs, sausage, bacon and hash browns. The platters were very unappealing and bland. Other tables received fruit and we had to ask to receive it. Our server only came to the table two times during the entire experience which was supposed to be all you can eat and drink. During the entire experience they were advertising to win "free brunch" if we filled out our info. We so excited to find out that we had won the raffle however, when they handed us our winning ticket they informed us that we couldn't use their coupon for this meal and had to come back another time. As I stated previously, we are from out of town and unfortunately we will be unable to use this. When we received the bill we noticed that there was a 20% added gratuity. Normally, I would always leave this amount or more. However, the service was lacking. We had to wait at least 20 minutes after we got there for the server to ask if we wanted anything to drink. We absolutely LOVED the drag show and had such a fun time with the queens. We are so disappointed that we had to spend $60 per person plus a tip for very bad service and horrible food. We were also disappointed by the seating arrangements. The seats were extremely uncomfortable and arranged in a manner where half of our party couldn't even see the show. Although we were given a "free brunch" coupon for a later date, even if we lived local, we don't think we would come back. read more

The River Kitchen & Bar in Lake View, is one my favorite places to go to in Chicago. It has a fun atmosphere that brings in the best crowd. The music is soooo good too. They have amazing happy hour deals & I love going with the girls on Friday nights. They have such good food, I love the Philly cheese steak sandwich the most. & the nachos are also unreal I love the bartenders!! They're all so sweet read more

I came here for my bachelorette party andTori made it so so special. I cannot say enough good things about her service and the drinks here. I had so much fun and she really took care of my group. read more

Like others, I was a bit disappointed with the value for drag brunch. I thought it was way overpriced. You can see drag shows at boystown for just a cover charge, that are better in my opinion. The drag performances were good, but it just was not worth the money for me. After added gratuity, it was $240 for three people. Insane. And you have to factor in tips for the drag queens. The food was definitely not worth it. The performances were good, but not as engaging as I felt they should be for the price. And my group was put at a cheap pop up table with a plasticky tablecloth put on top of it. Will not go back and do not recommend. read more

The food is delicious, the staff are all super friendly, and the music is always good on the weekends! Plus fun weekday events like trivia night and karaoke, this place has really got everything you'd want read more

Cute spot and seemed fun for groups. was super empty and went on a Tuesday -- 8 PM karaoke. Service was fine and we just split the caprese salad which was good but very small. read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - caprese salad - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

The worst service in the world. Took so long for the waitress to even acknowledge our existence. Will not be back read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - Chicken - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I was really excited to come here especially since it was my first time, however, the experience was not that great. Depending on where you are seated will determine if you get to enjoy the show or not and I feel like my section for the most part kept getting skipped. The queens were very fabulous but would usually come around our table grab the tip and go we didn't get too much of a show like everyone else did unfortunately. The food was nothing crazy which isn't bad but for the amount we spent at this place yea no personally it didn't feel worth it. The manager was super nice and offered us better seats the next time we attended but it was just over such a let down experience I rather not go back. I feel like the vibes are great if you get great seats. read more

Food is uninspired, bland, and on one occasion raw and stone-cold in the middle. Barely edible at its best. I cannot emphasize further how consistently bad every item is and how consistent the bad reviews are among my friends. Choice of drinks is peculiar and rather limited for a place with "bar" in the name. Choice of food is abysmal and strangely also limited. It's managed to mess up bar food. The venue is roomy. Other than that, it's noisy, louder than such a nice place ought to be. The bathrooms have doors wide open to look in (???). Service is attentive but just too pushy and almost obsessive in how many times I was asked to order more. Again, it's another Chicago scam for brunch or sports. Get drunk enough so you won't realize what you're paying for. I hate to be stern, but it's just not right to be serving food to so many people and doing so poorly. read more

I absolutely LOVE this place. I kid you not, probably the best brunch I've ever had and I will literally fly back here just to experience this again. We got their Sunday Brunch Package and honestly you're only here for two things: alcohol and the drag show. The drinks were bottomless which includes mimosas, bloody mary's, shots, cocktails. You're honestly really not here for the food tbh; the food is kind of like high school lunch/drunchie foods (onion rings, fries, pizza). The show itself was super fun, the crowd we had such a great energy as well making the experience even better. The bottomless drinks are absolutely dangerous especially if Dylan is your server! He literally had the drinks coming back to back for us, he is probably the best server I've ever had. My friend and I came a bit late and he sat us down in his section, it had a pretty bad view but he asked us if we wanted to join another table so that we could have better view of everything which was super thoughtful of him. The entire time we was just attentive and had such great vibes and energy. Loved how caring he is of his customers. You'll be in great care of he's your server. c: Definitely going to be flying back for a weekend just to go here again! read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

We came for the drag brunch which was great! The show is very entertaining and they start you off right away with drinks. The only downside is to remember to keep eating and drinking while watching the show or it will be over before you know it - it goes by very fast. Also try and get there early to get a good table so you're near the staircase. You can exchange larger bills for dollars at the beginning of the show to tip the queens. I am surprised that there was so much complaining about the food in the comments, no it wasn't mindblowing but it was pretty standard breakfast food and there was enough of it for a table of 4. It does end up pricey but we had a fun time! read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Went for bottomless brunch on a Saturday and it took 30 minutes to receive our first round of drinks. Keep in mind there is a 2 hour time limit on the drinks, and we spent most of that time waiting for our next drink to come. The waiter messed up 3 of the food orders and forgot to put in multiple of the meals. It took over an hour to receive a simple avocado toast and by the time it arrived everyone else had finished eating. There were only 3 tables, and most of the staff was just hanging out at the bar not doing anything at all. Some of the worst service I have ever experienced. read more

Came here for the Drag Brunch with some girlfriends to celebrate a birthday. Definitely the oldest in the place and we were high maintenance with our dietary things (vegan, lo carb, gluten free) and the staff couldn't have been more helpful and attentive to ensure everyone had what we needed. No complaints about the service or food. The food was actually better than we were expecting, based on the reviews. Started with a fruit plate than I would have expected to be bigger for 5 of us, but it is bottomless, so we requested and eventually got, a second plate. They gave us gf bread for the avocado toast (delish!) and also 2 separate scrambled eggs - both with and without cheese. French toast balls and hash brown bites (aka large tater tots - perfectly crunchy outside and soft insides) were really good. The drinks were plentiful and have plenty of options. The queens ranged from 'Wow - that has to be a girl' to 'he's not even trying to dress in drag' - facial hair, sparkly clothes but even left his shirt open. Definitely entertaining as they all kept the party going with high energy. Some were AMAZING with their athleticism and all were just a lot of fun. We left with happy tummies, big smiles and fun memories. read more

If you're looking for an amazing Sunday funday with great entertainment....River is it!! This was my first time having brunch and being a part of drag show. It was the most fun brunch I've ever had. The ambience was on point. It was such a vibe. Everyone just having a good time. The food was pretty good. It's family style but they give you plenty of options. And the service was amazing. Everyone was so pumped and happy. Don't forget to bring singles to tip the Queens hunny! If you do forget they can give you change so you can enjoy the show. There are unlimited mimosa specials and it's def worth the package. I can't wait to go back with my friends read more

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tori was so kind and so sweet! i was so impressed on not only with her service but she has SO MANY tables DURING a drag show and still was SO FAST w our orders! was here for a bachelorette party, and couldn't be more grateful for such an amazing server! work girl work!!! read more

I'm giving this place two stars and that is only for the fab performances the queens put on. (At least what we were able to see of it) They carried this place because, let me tell you everything else was severely lacking. 1. First things first and this is MAJOR, sitting in the booth you cannot see anything. So if you're there for the drag show, you will most likely be disappointed sitting in any of the booths. 2. The food, it literally tasted like everything came from the Target freezer section with bags of chopped Cesar salad . It was literally so sad and frankly a little embarrassing that I brought my friends from out of town and this is what was served. We had one vegetarian in our reservation and they brought out another sad looking plate of salad. Like what? We were a group of 8 and they brought one plate of pizza to split amongst 8 people. 3. Well drinks were included and we were given one bottle of Wycliff (retails for ~$8) to split amongst 8 people. This is a timed show so unless you're flagging down the waitstaff you're not consuming much there. Overall we spent about $100 per person. About $800 for frozen snacks and a bottle of Wycliff and maybe 8 well mixed drinks. With about 10% visibility of the drag performances. It was quite disappointing for my friends birthday weekend who came from out of town. read more

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Food- terrible and all fried and the drinks included with the 'brunch' all sugar and a little alcohol. When they screamed at us as we were corralled to sit they screamed so you want to get effed up- in reality you would be ramping up diabetes. The bathroom women's had no toilet paper and the waiters were too busy to take ala carte drink orders. read more

**This is a review for the Sunday Drag Brunch!** We booked the drag brunch for 3 people at 11 am on Sunday and it was fantastic! The drag queens were entertaining and very talented. I would get there early to try to get seats closer to the stairs, but they typically seat larger bachelorette-type parties there. We were seated on the far side, but the queens came around during every performance. We were there for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. You definetly need to show up with some cash- we spent $20 per person in singles. We heard the food was okay, so we got breakfast before coming in and I think that was a good move. We were snaking on the food and it was like a continental breakfast at best. The drinks were good for bottomless. The servers were attentive. Would come back, especially with a large party! read more

The food here is horrible and inconsistent. They also don't seem to clean the tables. For such a big venue, I now understand why it was nearly empty on a Saturday with good weather. read more

We chose this spot for brunch because of the $25 bottomless mimosas. It comes with the cereal bar (probably 15 cereals and a few types of milk), which was fine but not enough food for bottomless mimosas. So we ordered the nachos, the salmon tacos, and a Cuban sandwich (comes with fries). The nachos were pretty good with lots of toppings. The salmon tacos were bland with a small portion of salmon for the big tortilla and a very plain tasting slaw (pretty sure it was just mayo on cabbage) - no salt or pepper, no taste. The Cuban sandwich was quite good, although the fries were pretty standard, definitely not homemade. We also got a Moscow mule and a house margarita, which were both fine but they refused to put salt on the rim of the glass. As for service, our waiter was not helpful for making recommendations and he wasn't welcoming or excited to be there. The ambiance was fun although the place was nearly empty. read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - Salmon tacos - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Do not eat food here unless you want to be sick! Way over fried and overall disgusting food chicken sandwich and fries. Place was totally empty at 5 PM on a Saturday, which is a red flag and servers seemed not to care that we were even present. read more

Great bottle service at fair price in Chicago. Fun time with friends turning up. Just drinks. Dancing. Music. Lots of fun

Came for drag brunch. It's worth the price because the drinks for sure keep flowing but the food is like hotel continental breakfast food to be honest lol! A ton of eggs The drag show was a good time-- make sure you have singles to top the performers! I'd return for the drag show and bottomless mimosa. Not sure about other food here idk. read more

Bottomless drag queen brunch every Sunday for $60 a person! Pro-tips: - Get there on time or a little before show with a reservation, there is a waiting room to get seated and you don't want to miss anything! - Bring cash! $1 singles are perfect, but they also give you opportunity to get change if you need to convert larger bills - Brunch food is family style with set menu. No substitutions. If you have a group, they give you plenty of food to share! read more

The River Kitchen and Bar - Inside area - New American Near Me - Chicago, Illinois