4 reviews of Vaj’s Garage Restaurant & Filling Station
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Steven S.
Place rating: 4 Winthrop Harbor, IL
Good food, nice local place. Friendly staff. Friday fish fry all you can eat with large servings of fish. Fish is lightly breaded not dripping in grease. Pizza, Sandwiches on menu look good.
Jennifer M.
Place rating: 4 Hagerstown, MD
A wonderful, local dive! Just the place I’m looking for when I drive around randomly. Good burgers, friendly atmosphere.
A C.
Place rating: 4 Oak Brook, IL
Great place! Pool tables available. Great Pizza! Great prices on beer!
Dan M.
Place rating: 3 Round Lake, IL
I used to frequent this place because it’s the quintessential Wisconsin tavern experience. There’s nothing else in the world like a legitimate Wisconsin tavern… bearing in mind, whether that’s good or bad is entirely subjective. Everyone in this joint is a local, and you get the sense that they’ve probably never traveled more than fifty miles from home. When you walk in the door, all heads turn and all eyes rest on you for a few uncomfortable moments. This is the Wisconsin way of saying, «You’re not from around here, are you? Lord, you best be quick about your business.» Then, heads swivel back to where they were and conversations continue. If you behave yourself, you’re comfortably invisible to the patrons after that. If you don’t, and specifically if you loudly proclaim that you’re from Illinois, or a Bears or Cubs fan, or really anything other than a Packers fan, your remaining time on Earth will be slim. The staff here are very friendly, and service is pretty good considering the bartenders ARE the waitstaff and vice-versa. They’ve got really incredibly surprisingly good burgers, all named after a famous classic American car. In the Wisconsin tradition, Friday is all you can eat fish fry, which has become one of my most favorite things. Vaj’s fish fry is better than most. Most importantly, beer is cheap and plentiful. Vaj’s is fundamentally a dump. It’s old, it feels kinda grungy, and everyone and everything inside is imbued with a permanent sheen of nicotine stain. Much the same way that your favorite leather jacket or baseball cap is frayed around the edges and the color is faded. For the right kind of customer, this kind of thing is charming. The bottom line: Vaj’s isn’t classy. It’s a Wisconsin tavern for Wisconsin folk, but it’s a good Wisconsin tavern if you like that sort of thing. And I do.
