Billy Barooz Bar & Grill

Terrible service to say the least. My family and I go here all the time for years but when we showed up with a large party it took 20 minutes longer than they said and sat many large tables before us because they had a reservation but we are in here once a month and we never told that they changed the policy on not taking reservations. The waitress’ are nice but the setup for the upper management it terrible.

We recently moved here and were told we must try this place. The first couple of times we went was great. Service and food has always been good. The brisket nachos are definitely my favorite.
The last time we visited however was not the same. We stood at the front door waiting to be seated for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile serveral servers walked by and I made eye contact with at least one bartender. As the host was casually walking up this was the conversation:
Host: Two? (no real greet and it was COMPLETELY obvious she could care less)
Guest: Yes
Host: Booth, table or high top? (While we appreciated being offered the choice it was said with a tone of no real care, which we didn’t appreciate)
Guest: Booth please
*Host begins to walk away towards a booth in the corner. Casually tosses the menus on the table and (with the same «I don’t care» tone) said «Enjoy». Well we weren’t sure who she was talking to us or the air behind her because we hadn’t even made it to the table yet.
As the server approaches (with the similar attitude) and her greet was «can I get you something to drink?» My husband asks if there are any drink specials and the answer was «No». So we just get 2 waters. At this point we weren’t feeling very welcome so we just did 2 waters, ordered dinner (which was eh), ate and left.
Now, being in the hospitality industry myself and managing restaurants this is a far far cry from any good hospitality to make a guest want to come back. There are things that service can make up for. If we had been nicely greeted from the get go and had our waitress made us feel more welcome we may not remember that our food was just eh. The pasta dish was flavorless and the steak sandwich was about the same. He dipped it in ranch to give it at least some flavor.
We live just down the street but from now on will probably head downtown for better service and food.

One of our in town favorites. Love to go especially in the summer and sit outside. Jerk chicken sandwich is the best! Potato skin appetizer is good too!

Restaurant review
Every single time I come to Billy Barooz I am surprised by how many people come here. On a Friday night you can find a lot of young professionals enjoying dinner and socializing. Other days are very busy depending on which sports are on TV. We ended up coming on a day when the Cubs were in the playoff hunt. I was pleasantly surprised that we did not have to wait long for a table of 3. I have been here previously and went with the steak dish which was so so. I decided to try the basic of basic bar foods, which was the burger. There was some special burger on the menu with BBQ sauce, bacon, and cheese. I ordered it with a side of sweet potato fries. The burger itself was good, but not very memorable. I can’t say that it was exceptional, but there was nothing that was bad with it. If you like sports, bar food, and lots of TVs then you should give Billy Barooz a try, however the food is very pedestrian.
Pros: lots of TV, inexpensive depending on what you order, the menu constantly changes (check the menu insert for new items)
Cons: can get very busy and a very small waiting area
Hidden deals: None
Health code rating: B. The ratings are so so with a lot of issues revolving around restaurant cleanliness.

Got to go! Drink prices and selection great. I had their Reuben and it was one of the best I have had. Friend had nacho app and could feed a football team. Wife has spicy chicken and said it was a sweet spicy. Our visit there but will return to try more of menu.

This place is a sports bar that supposedly caters to customers. Wrong! We asked several times to have one of the tv turned to the Bears packers game because that’s the whole reason we went there. They only had the game on one TV in our room and a small TV over the bar that wasn’t visible from our table. What a waste of a Sunday afternoon. They eventually put the Bears game on another monitor, but by that time it was too late, they already pissed us off. The food was good and came out in a reasonable amount of time, but we went for the game. I doubt we’ll go back. Buffalo Wild Wings treats us way better than this place did, even Jupiters is better. If you only want to eat, then this place is adequate, but if you wanna watch sports, avoid this one and go to BWW or Jupiters. Heck, papa dels is right across the street and their pizza is awesome and reasonably priced!

Creative Menu, Consistent Good Service and the place to be seen Friday’s for lunch. We love supporting local businesses. The patio is must during good weather. And the bar a great place to watch the game and enjoy a beer.

This is a really nice looking sports bar with TV’s galore! The burgers are fairly good, but the cocktails here suck.

Excellent service and food. Best steak sandwich in central Illinois. If you are getting an appetizer, go for the nachos.

Went there on a Saturday and it was busy, but not too busy. Our server was very unfriendly and had more tables than she could handle. It took forever to get anything we ordered, from drinks to appetizers, etc.
One of the guests we were with didn’t even get his food, when she came to check 15 minutes later, we told her we were missing a meal so she went to check. 5 minutes later she comes back and tells us the kitchen forgot to make his meal. So, about 30 minutes later he got his meal and the whole table was already done eating and ready to get out of there.
The pasta dish I usually order did not come as I had listed. It was missing the Capicola ham as described in the menu. I asked the waitress if the kitchen was out of the Capicola or simply forgot to put it in, she said she would bring me some on the side to place in my pasta. Kitchen staff brought out a plate of sandwich ham — which is completely not the same thing. I was very displeased at this. Not to mention I was charged for nachos at $ 7 when I ordered a SIDE of chips and salsa which is $ 2.50.
*** I would like to update and say that management has contacted me to resolve the conflicts I had. They were very friendly and gracious with their kind words to solve any issue I had. My favorite menu item had recently changed ingredients, which was not relayed to me as the customer so they promised to improve their communications to the returning customers. Very pleased with their management. Kudos. ***

I went to Billy’s this evening to watch the Seahawks game. There were so many tvs that it didn’t bother anybody to switch one to the hawks.
Service was good. Food was great. And the prices reflected that.