Latest reviews from Crystal Lake

“No food but pretty good beers. We stopped in on a busy Friday night, but it wasn't overcrowded. Service was so-so“

randy1969 2426 days ago

“Easily the best selection in the 20 mile area. Events for some extremely hard to find beers. Waitstaff and bartenders are knowledgeable and exceptionally friendly. Amazed at the number of people they acknowledged by name when coming in. the people that are there are extremely friendly as well - good beer makes everyone happy. Food is exceptional as well. Almost all is free range or organic. Kid friendly. High point of an area where it is surprisingly difficult to find a place to have a good beer with dinner.“

TheWkndr 3699 days ago

“Great place to taste many different types of beer, great selection on tap that always changes and even more bottled. Very knowledgeable staff on their beers, recommendations made have turned out to be some of my favorites. (Only place I gave found outside of Chicago to get Zombie Dust on tap :-) ) Oh yeah... And the food is awesome !“

BEARFN 3841 days ago

“Outstanding beer selection...covers all styles. Great selection of organic/grass fed beef and gluten free options also.“

sawbuck 3845 days ago

“Awesome craft beer bar. Great locally raised food with much of it organic. Always have numerous fantastic brews on tap with a laundry list of bottles“

CorneliusBunkr 4000 days ago

“Great place right by train station in downtown Crystal Lake. Long twenty seat bar right when you walk in. Also a seating area for diners to the right. That has a stage as there are bands/dj on Fri-Sat nights. 20+ taps generally with at least 5-10 good options. They seem big on themes, like they are planning to have like 8 winterfest type beers coming in Dec. Shrug. Bartender knows his stuff. Probably best beer bar in a 20 mile radius for whatever that is worth. Sister bar to Durty Nellies in Palatine. Highly recommended if in area.“

ck1 4179 days ago

“Really hard to get to - right along the railroad tracks with all sorts of construction. Inside, a nice long bar area with a restaurant in half. 15 taps and the tender said 200 bottles. The 15 seemed a few macro, 4 or 5 theme (octoberfest right now) and a range of styles for the rest, including Stone’s "Enjoy by" which drew us to it. Nice place. Food was good too.“

AWISLguy 4246 days ago

“Have not been back since right after the remodel. What happened to their Bleu cheese burger? Did the cook move on?“

mikehops 4354 days ago

“(Visited 02/2011): Duke’s Alehouse is located in Crystal Lake north of I-90 on North Main. Parking is available nearby. The interior is laid out in an open manner with table seating throughout the space and lots of windows around the perimeter. Their claim to fame is a restored tin ceiling which lends a nice element to the atmosphere. The bar is on the left side. There are beer posters around and they have a small stage as well. Duke’s has over twenty beers on tap with a lot of craft breweries represented such as Three Floyds, Victory, Grand Teton Great Lakes and The Bruery. A couple of imports from the likes of Spaten as well. As for bottles there are over 100 with an eye toward microbrews like Bell’s, Three Floyds, Great Lakes, New Belgium and even Hoppin’ Frog. Some imports include Chimay, Reissdorf, and St. Bernardus. They also offer a "beer school". Service on a weekday evening was good. The server was familiar with the featured beers and was friendly and attentive throughout dinner. Duke’s food menu includes flatbread pizzas, handcut fries, burgers, sandwiches and the like. My colleague and I both enjoyed our meals. Overall this place is a nice find north of Chicago.“

Dogbrick 4587 days ago

“Visited about 2 weeks ago on a Sat. night. I think this was a small place with one long bar sometime ago and they’ve expanded to include a dining area and updstairs as well. Bar was crowded so no seating. Dining room was about 1 hr wait. Food is done at 10 and then the tables open up (if diners leave) and they had a band play in that area. Unfortunately once the tables open up no food avaiulable at all - damn those late night munchies. Also there is no cocktail service so you must get up and go to the bar to order. (Upstairs was closed to private party). The selection is not comparable to many of the downtown bars but I’m sure this blows away anything you’ll find in the area. Probably 40-50 brews but the menu wasn’t well organzzed. I was also surprised to see many of the customers were ordering miller/bud and vodka tonic etc... My biggest beef was that I had checked the website twice before visiting - mind you they updated the site between my visits - so I was confident their list was up-to-date. When I arrived I found the 2010 Darkness which was listed on the site for at least 2 weeks had not been tapped yet. Then the DFH bitches brew was marked "coming soon" but this had been retail for a month or more. I ordered 2 others Iwhich the bartender could not locate either. So here I am trying to find some good brews on the menu and the bartender walks away leaving me to wait another 5 minutes ( they were crowed I’ll admit). Repeat this process and I finally had a few brews. Made it topuch however to get my non-RB friends to try my hobby. Overall this left me disapointed.“

FullObs 4859 days ago

“Went there with my wife and our 3mo old daughter for lunch today. We didn’t necessarily expect much, so, by the end of our experience, this place blew us away. Ambiance: very clean and orderly bar, brick interior w/ local artwork, dining area also clean with big windows that open to the street. Lets lots of daylight in, noticed a nice outside patio, but didn’t really stop in to check it out in detail, clean bathrooms (note that all of this is based on a weekend lunchtime experience); Service: fantastic, friendly waiter, but our food took a little longer to get out than I would have expected, we ordered burgers, so I think that they could have been brought out a little more quickly; Selection: although I don’t have much to compare it to, there are well over a hundred beers, some of which I had never heard of before, a good mix of all types of beers, from IPAs, DIPAs, Imperial Stouts, Porters, plus all of your typical watered down American lagers if that’s your thing, also, for beer lovers, they serve the beer in the proper glass, which is awesome, I’d like to try their beer tasting class that they host every 2nd Wed of the month; Food: wonderful, now, we just got burgers, so I wasn’t expecting much, but then out comes my bison burger topped with pesto and mozzarella, and out comes my wifes black angus burger with mushrooms and gouda, plus our parmesian and inferno (spicy cajun) fries, really, the combinations that they offer seem to really, really work well together, even if you don’t consider burgers gourmet food, they taste just great; Value: at 13$ and 10$ for our burgers, I was thinking that these better be damn good, and they didn’t disappoint, however, any more, and I would start saying that it’s getting a little expensive for alehouse/burgerplace, even if it is a very tasty and cozy environ, some beers are way too expensive and should just be purchased at your local liqour store instead, however, others are the right price, and still others are a deal, in other words, their beer pricing is very confusing, overall, highly recommended, and I can’t wait to go back, also, I can’t wait to take my buddies out for a guys night out, they’ll love the place, especially with all of the live acts they seem to host over the weekends“

MacDouglass 4994 days ago

“The best beer selection in McHenry County. The staff knows their beer.“

WileCoyote 4995 days ago

“Pretty cool place. The Bar is decent sized, isolated from a restaurant/concert stage area. There is an upstairs but I didn’t go up there. Menu is very big, steaks, pub food, southwestern, the works. Beer selection is ok. Better than the average bar. They had Hopdevil, some Great Lakes, Bell’s, Delirium and some other decent stuff but limited.“

Zeswaft 6662 days ago

“Okay, so let me start off by saying that I know nothing about home brewing so my rating of this place may not be the best but from what I can tell this place looks like they know what they are doing. The building is an old house so you may miss it if you arent looking for it. The entire first floor is health food and supplements. But UPSTAIRS WOW, all kinds of different grains and yeasts and stuff and in another room is lots of equipment that ranges from what appears to me as beginner to very advanced. I must say that I was truly impressed with the place. THe guy I spoke with also seemed to know what he was talking about. There were many signs located throughout the place that said that they can order you nearly anything. So if yous are intos the homebrew and in the area this may be a good place to stop by. Hopefully someone with some experince can say what they think about this place as well.“

SubstanceT 6800 days ago

“man o man, i have some good memories at this place. After i graduated college, a good friend of mine moved to Woodstock, IL, just up the road from this place. We would go here quite often. I havent been here in a few years, but i have had my fare share of great beers here on tap-two hearted, sprecher seasonals, SNCA, and they get some nice belgians as well. They usually have an odd cask beer on hand-once it was a rare Goose island that slips my memory for the name. Decent food when they serve. It can get a little cramped and smokey later in the evening, but they have some good bands play to enjoy. Right in downtown Crystal Lake.“

Terminus 6836 days ago