Wednesday 8th of December 2010 11:52:39 AM

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I was able to stop by for a pit stop after doing some shopping in the adjacent mall.

As you enter there are two outdoor areas. One overlooks the Bass Pro Shop parking lot and the other a mall courtyard.

The layout reminds me of other GBs with a long bar on the west end with lots of high tops and booths. There is a separate dining area as well. Behind the bar are some cool glass garage door type windows that can be raised on nice days.

There are high ceilings a muted color scheme with lots of iron and stone. I like the old beer posters that decorate the bar area.

They offer 5 regular beers plus a seasonal, which was the winter lager during my visit.

The menu appeared to be the standard GB fare. I had a decent turkey sandwich and garlic fries (a bit overpowering). I liked the chili made with winter lager. It hit the spot on a old day.

Service was friendly and was able to describe the beers and the food.

I would have no problem going back if I find myself in the neighborhood again.

Wednesday 24th of June 2009 06:06:57 PM

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My first beermapping review...

As the only brewpub in town and frequently on the way home from work, I've been stopping in here since they opened. The address is a little deceiving since they are located on the south side of the mall. It's best to enter south of Boughton Rd off of Janes Ave. Use the huge Bass Pro Shop as a landmark.

The regular and quarterly seasonal beers are pretty much what you'll find at other Gordon Biersch restaurants. The full-time lineup is Maerzen, Hefeweizen, Golden Export, Schwarzbier, & Czech Pilsner. The seasonals (IIRC) are Maibock, Winter Bock, Sommerbrau, & Festbier.

All beers are well-made and to style. I do find the Czech Pilsner (used to be called Czech Lager) here to be crisper with more hop character than at the other locations I've visited. For me, the Czech and Schwarzbier tend to be the two I enjoy the most.

On occasion, the brewer will release a brewmaster's special beer in addition to the regular and seasonal lineup. It's reported that an Altbier is in the works for the August-September 2009 timeframe.

Beer prices are more or less typical for the Chicago area; $5.00 for the full-time lineup and $5.50 for the seasonals and brewmaster's specials. All beers are served in .5L lined glasses.

Free wifi is available. The Gordon Biersch access point requires a login available through the online registration page. Just connect to the access point and browse to any page to be redirected to the registration/login page. [Note: Other nearby restaurants also offer free wifi which may have a stronger signal than GB depending on where you're seated.]

The only time cask beer has been spotted was during tapping events. At times, the brewer has brought out a cask/keg of the new beer and served it "ungespundet" (cask on bar & served by gravity). This is not, however, a regular offering.

As others have reported, food offerings are across the board. Food is acceptable but prices are a little high in my opinion. Burgers and personal pizzas are around $10 and entrees are in the $15-20 range.

There are happy hour food discounts. From 4:00pm to 6:30 and 10:00pm to closing, many appetizers are 1/2 off. The wings are a really good deal during this time; you get a full order (10-12 wings, didn't count them) for 1/2 price. I also like the Tapas appetizer plate; hummus, tapenade, garlic, & tomatoes with pita bread. Very tasty and filling. The burgers are good as long as you accept that they will only cook them to 150F or higher. My "medium" orders usually come out medium-well but at least are juicy. Lastly, what can I say besides "garlic fries"? After being introduced to this fabulous creation in California, I've been wanting a place here in Illinois to offer them. This version has the garlic heated and softened a little in oil. The oil & garlic is then drizzled over the fries. Depending on how much oil vs garlic you get, this can lead to soggy, oily fries.

Service has always been good but I have noticed it a little slow when they are busy. This is especially true during the warmer months when the garage doors to the outdoor seating area are open.

Lastly, the recently-released Sommerbrau (a Koelsch-style beer) is fabulous. It's crisp, hoppy, and very drinkable; perfect for the onset of Chicagoland summer. There should be enough to last a couple months.

Prost!

Sunday 4th of May 2008 11:43:00 PM

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It took me a while to find this place packed in a outdoor mall that reminds me of Disney world. Head toward the Giant Bass Pro Shop and park there, GB is across the parking lot. Walking inside it was a big open place with a high-end chain restaurant feel. The bar is in the front with a series of small glass garage doors that could open in the summer making it a open air bar, which I will come back for.
The menu had a nice info sheet of how they brew beers, using the Reinheitsgebot to the strictest accord. Really? Then I can't wait to try there hefeweizen brewed without wheat. All the rest of their beers are German styles aswell. The beers are actually served at a decent lager temp. and some were pretty nice.
Even though the beer was strictly German, the food was all over the place. They served whatever was trendy from mini-burgers to lobster mac n' cheese, to steaks. I feel like the food is served in double portions at double the price. After an starter of house chips, thin sliced chips with tons of blue cheese dressing and a few green onions I was full.
They have a passport club for $20 that gets you a discount card for beers much like other brewpubs chains but this one gets you VIP seating and a $10 gift card to start.
If I had to go to a chain restaurant this would be my choice but if I don't then it won't.
I also felt like the servers had memorized cue cards on each beer and could recite that verbatim and that was the extend of their beer knowledge or interest.

Sunday 13th of April 2008 08:08:01 PM

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I arrived on Saturday, April 12 at 11:00AM. (I like to get started early on my beer drinking.) We were seated promptly, although I was a little puzzled by the hostess' choice to put us right next to the waiters' station in an almost empty restaurant.

Our server was a pleasant young lady who asked if we had been there before. After answering "no", she did absolutely nothing to help us on our first visit. In fact, she immediately asked if we wanted something to drink. I replied that I would need a little time to consider the beer selection since it was my first visit!

I eventually decided to start with the seasonal choice, which was the Maibock on this chilly day in April. I was pleased with the character of this beer and I enjoyed the whole glass.

Over the course of the next several hours, I tried most of their other beers. The Maibock was really the highlight in my opinion. The Marzen was my second favorite, but nothing too special. The Hefewiezen was drinkable, but not remarkable. The Schwarzbier disappointed me. Despite its dark color, it tasted watery and a little sour. I finished with a Czech Lager because I wanted to give everything a try. It was OK, but frankly I don't usually like that style of beer.
Overall I would say that the beer experience at Gordon Biersch was fair. If I was in the area, I might stop by again, but I would not go out of my way to go there.

While I was drinking all that beer, I did sample the food a little. We started with the Tapas appetizer plate. I really liked the roasted garlic and olives. It was pretty tasty and went well with my beer. Later on we had the Bistro Steak Medallions. They were very good and cooked to perfection.
Someone else in our party had the often mentioned garlic fries. I tried them out of curiosity and they were what I would have expected... deep fried potatoes with garlic on them. Good for fries, but fries nonetheless.
Overall, I felt like the food was on the pricey side. I only ordered a couple of items, but I did browse the menu before making my decision. Maybe I am getting old and falling victim to inflation over time, but it seems like food at these types of places is trying to be premium, but it is often just glorified pub grub.

I love to try brew pubs and restaurants. I generally enjoyed my visit to Gordon Biersch, but it just wasn't my favorite beer. This location is a fairly far from my home in Bartlett, so I probably won't be back.

Tuesday 18th of September 2007 01:51:16 AM

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I really had a great time at this location.
Our servers were very cool, friendly and eager to talk beer in an eager possitive crafty way!
Our excellent service continued throughout our drinks and dinner and desert! The prices of the food and beer are fairly high but I didn't feel that I wasn't getting my money's worth. Dinners are on average $11 to $24.

Food was above average pub grub and the menu included a few unique items which I liked...Go for the corn beef rueben sandwhich which is served with really good sauer kraut, thousand island and swiss cheese on the rueben classic marble rye brewd. I accompanied the sandwhich with a side of the pint glass of Märzen. You will enjoy that all sanwhiches includ [fresh] garlic fries with a pickle wedge and there was great selection of desert items...definately get the chocolate penut butter pie with the Schwarzbier! Yum. One of the satisfying and pleasant dinners bellied up to a bar.

There was not an above average quantity of different craftbrewed beer styles at this this brewpub location but I feel that I must comment that the selection rating should not be as applicable when a location always specializes their craftbrewing skills to just one specific style....in this case "german beers".

I would for sure say that this GB had authentic and great brews pooring out of each tap..we had a taster of each outside of the pints we drank which included the Czech Pilsner Lager, Märzen and Schwarzbier...during our tastings of the different beers on tap I noticed that the Bavarian Hefeweizen was just little too sweet and candy-like in my opinion.

Here is the idea of what's up with this location only serving german style ales and lagers which comes from their website "about page" at http://www.gordonbiersch.com/brewery/about/index.html.
[quote]
As far as the beer went, they [Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch] would serve only authentic German-style lagers in the tradition of the ones Dan brewed while attending Weihenstephan...

They would brew with only the finest ingredients. Hallertauer hops. Two row barley. And a special yeast strain imported directly from Germany.[/quote]

When you get to the bar, there are a set of over-head garage doors on the bar-back which open to the patio/outdoor seating...very slick as we really enjoyed to fall winds blowing through. The outdoor seatong which you view through the bar back garage door have heated lamps above each seating area which also keep the bartenders warmer. Smoking is aloud (until 2008).

If you are not familiar with bowling brook, IL, I would strongly recommend that you call ahead for directions...this was actually my second visit. On my first visit to this location I tried to call ahead while on the way there but the phone number I had was old/wrong and I drove all around the outdoor shopping area that this location is housed at and could not find it for the life of me. On this second visit we were successful in reaching this destination and where pleased with the overall experience.