Dog N Suds

I brought my dog to Dog and Suds! It is one the last old school car hop drive-​ins around. The name refers to their specialties — the delicious hot dogs and root beer.
I absolutely love the authentic retro ambiance. Sitting there in the carport I felt like I was a character in American Graffiti or about to see Ponyboy Curtis start a rumble, wanted I to «do the hand jive baby» with Danny Zucko. You catch my drift. But I actually if I am honest wished I had a convertible to really get the full experience.
I ordered a black cow for mir and a cup of ice for das Hund. The root beer float was tasty, he loved crunching his ice, we enjoyed the breeze from the open windows, and listening to The Killers on the stereo. The only way it would be better is if the car hop servers still wore roller skates.
100% Fun

Their cheeseburger was tiny, however it was good. The fries were terrible. Crispy with no taste whatsoever, even dumping salt on them didn’t help. Their root beer is really good.
Their service is atrocious. I came here on a Wednesday around 1:30pm with my best friend who was pregnant with twins (she gave birth 3 days later so that gives you a vision of how pregnant she was) and we had her 2 other children who are 5 years old and 2 years old with us. We parked at a drive in spot that was close to the picnic tables so that we could order and eat outside. As we are getting the kids out of the car, a teenage girl server comes up to us and asks to take our order. We told her we needed to look at the menu and we’re going to go sit at the picnic tables as I am in the process of getting the 2 year old out of his car seat. She then precedes to tell us that we will need to move the car over to their parking lot if we are not eating in the car. I look around and there is literally 2 other cars under their car port and about 12 other open spaces. It’s 1:30pm on a Wednesday, and lunch rush is over. She clearly sees my friend is pregnant and could barely get out of the car. Now the 2 year old is having a meltdown because he’s hungry and I haven’t finished getting him out of his car seat. I ask her kindly if we can just stay parked there so that my friend doesn’t have to walk that far. She shakes her head no and points over to the parking lot area and says «it’s not that far» and then walks away. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! If the kids weren’t hungry from their swim classes and it wasn’t nap time, I’d have left. The icing on the cake though is that as we were eating at the picnic tables, two gentlemen who were in their mid 40’s got into their car that was parked under the car port and this same server waved goodbye to them! My recommendation to the owners is to train your teenage staff on common sense manners.

Burgers, fries, hotdogs, root beer floats… Hmmm root beer floats.
Great Root Beer, did I mention they have root beer floats?
I have been coming here for over 40 years… I guess that makes me old. But seriously they have great root beer and awesome root beer floats.

I’m 26, not old enough to have been around in the era of muscle cars, diners asks drive ins among other classic staples of Americana.
I grew up here so we’ve always come here, it’s a nice thing to do on nice days. Shine up the car and hit dog n suds.
The food has been mostly consistent for as long as I remember and I still order what I ordered as a boy.
This season has been much different. The food has gotten a little less «cared for» and has been mostly thrown together without care, service has definitely taken a large hit.
Was overcharged, and the attitude of the carhop left a lot to be desired about the situation. I politely blipped my horn to get her attention and she came out and «what’s wrong», I explained I was overcharged and given the wrong food.
Ok. She corrects it for the improper amount on a refund ticket.
At this point I don’t think I’ll be back for a while which is sad considering this was usually a once a week visit as it’s between work and home.

Had a burger from here that was good once. Otherwise I prefer Sammies or Tastee Freeze. This place is expensive for very average to bad food.

I have eaten here before and although the food is good, this review is in regards to the horrible staff (possibly the owner or manager) and his lack of compassion for an emergency.
My vehicle recently broke down in front of this establishment with my family with me. I managed to get the vehicle into one of the two entrances of Dog n Suds. My vehicle was smoking with possibly a fire present. After getting my family and myself out of the vehicle for safety, we were immediately approached by the staff mentioned above. To my disappointment, his agenda was clearly to ask how long would are vehicle be blocking his driveway as «are lunch crowd will arrive shortly». I understand his concern but not a «are you and your family ok» or «could I help you push your vehicle over a little». After I explained we have smoke filling in the cabin of the car his response was «what’s the plan here»?
What a horrible ordeal to go through. I pushed my vehicle across the street where we were greeted by another business with open arms. Dog n Suds was a place I would frequent in the summer with my family but I will never support this business again!

There food is not the best food. There Chicago style hotdogs taste like cardboard. Yuck!

This place is so great. I love a good drive-​in restaurant with sodas, burgers and hot dogs and Dogs-​N-​Suds gives you so much in that department. Sometimes a local, old drive-​in can be kind of dirty and scary, but Dogs-​N-​Suds takes their years of history and continues to do things well. The young girls who usually wait on you are nice and the area is well kept for its age. The food is great but it’s the root beer that makes it worth driving to.

We’ve tried this place now three times, and my 14 year old daughter absolutely loves it! She’s obsessed with the mini corn dogs and side of tater tots. Tough to go wrong with I guess. :) I however have mixed feelings, as the concept is great, drive-​in nostalgia and all (this isn’t any Sonic!), but the food has yet to wow me, and I’ve so wanted it to! We passed this place all through the cold of winter eagerly waiting for its season opening! We were even bold enough to brave a terribly frigid day once they opened. The staff have always been so very nice, prompt, and accommodating. Prices are reasonable. Unfortunately I just think a step up on the food taste/​quality would be a huge improvement. Overall I’m sure we will be back, if nothing more than to get a great smile and excitement from my daughter, and worth a trip, if in the area, and want to experience something a little different (we much prefer these types to the chain stops). It’s fun to enjoy dinner eaten from your car! :)

Old fashioned drive in :-). Love to go to these types of places.
Service is very good and the atmosphere is fun.
Root Beer and ice cream are pretty good.
Meat products could use a bump up in quality.
I think if this place had fantastic burgers, Chicago style hotdogs and a good Italian beef sandwich it could be a real threat to the competition down the street.

Yummy, greasy food :) fried macaroni nuggets & corn dogs are my favorite. The only root beer I’ll drink!

I’m going to go ahead and give Dog N Suds a two for two reasons: one star for the friendly waitresses and another star for the good hot dogs. Besides the hot dogs, the food is pretty poor quality, but what do you expect? I’ve been going to Dog N Suds my entire life just for the nostalgic feel and for a fun, quick lunch with friends, but the owner is an ASSHOLE. I hope he reads this. I’ve seen him yell at many kids for sitting at the nasty-​ass picnic tables he has and not ordering right away. Calm down. Why are you so protective of those rotten, filthy, ancient picnic tables? He also had the nerve to deny that he failed to complete my friend’s order correctly and blamed it on her, saying she never gave her order in the first place. Sir, the only reason you must feel you don’t need to pick up on basic business management/​customer relations skills is because your business is a monopoly. There isn’t another drive-​in restaurant close by. I’m so sorry for all the kids who run that place! You’re very sweet and I know it must be hard working for that guy. Take your paychecks and run!

I’m hesitant to give Dog N Suds anything more than 2 stars until I come back a second time. After purchasing dog food next door at the Grayslake Feed Store, I decided to pull in to Dog N Suds for a quick lunch. I parked my car and the sweetest carhop/​waitress came out right away to take my order. I decided on a Coney Island hot dog basket, which included fries and an order of homemade coleslaw. Their version of Coney dog consists of an all-​beef dog with chili sauce, onions and cheese. Sounds good in theory but I didn’t enjoy mine very much at all. The «chili» sauce was watery and weirdly sweet and the «cheese» was fake nacho cheese. The fries were not very enjoyable either. Overall, I found the service to be wonderful but the food was lacking. I may consider giving them a second chance before the end of the season (October 26) because I have yet to try a burger or their tater tots.

Stopped for a quick lunch. Had a grilled chicken wrap with spicy BBQ and ranch which was really good IMO, I couldn’t have had the BBQ sauce by it’s self… would have been too spicy for me. The sweet potato tater tots were good, but not worth the $ for the amount I got. My daughter (14 months) thought they were amazing, so that kept her busy for a minute!

We stopped here on the 4^th of July, starving after a long day in Lake Geneva. They were open so we figured, why not? It’s got to be better than Taco Bell. I normally pass by this way in the winter when it’s not open. This old school drive in is amazing, I wish we had something like this by me in the city (Yeah right to that!). The hotdogs weren’t huge but they were tasty and the ingredients were fresh and to the exact proportions that I like. The fries were crisp and not too salty. The service was prompt and cheerful. My brother ordered a shake, and of course I wanted to taste it. It was excellent and I have quite the sweet tooth. I see why their shakes are held in such esteem. On every trip up to Lake Geneva, I’ll be making the stop from now on.

Old school drive in fast food, delicious fast food!
It gets very crowded on the weekends of course, I always prefer to go on weekday
This has always been one of my *favorite* places to visit in the far north suburbs!

Good old root beer but the hotdog was blah. The bun was somewhat stale and the fixins on the hotdog were nothing exceptional.

I love the IDEA of a place like this… the old-​style drive in, car hops, 60’s music, you name it. On the outside, this place really delivers the image… but that’s about it. While the gimmick is there, much else of this drive in falls well short of where it should. I recommend going if you happen to be driving past, but don’t go out of your way — you aren’t missing much.
ATMOSPHERE
Throwback to 1964. Neon lights, drive in service. Beep the horn, the server comes out (in theory, if you’re lucky) and takes your order. 60’s music blaring from the overhead speakers, the server comes back with your food, hangs it on the window, and you eat. A cool idea if you’ve never done it before, makes you think you’ve gone back in time.
SERVICE
POOR. The service is almost always atrocious (I’ve been a few times). The girls are slow like molasses, and seem to have the attitude that they’re doing you a favor. We’ve seen them spend more time gossiping in the small kitchen area than anything else. Good luck getting anything you might request (extra napkins, ketchup, etc.) before your meal ends, if at all. The atmosphere, cool as it is, simply doesn’t make up for the terrible service, period.
FOOD
MEH. Again, the atmosphere is the reason to go, not the food. You can find these hot dogs (or better) at any hot dog stand in the area. The kid’s nuggets are (sort of) shaped like dinosaurs, and that’s good for a snicker until you taste them and realize they’re kind of like cardboard. The food falls short, like the service. You WANT to love it, because of the drive in theme, but if you’re honest you just can’t. HONORABLE MENTION — Root Beer. When they make it right (sometimes the carbonation is waaaaaaaaaaay off and it’s brown water), the root beer is sweet, frothy, soda counter quality, and it (almost) makes the trip worth it.
VALUE
Fair. They aren’t over priced, per se, but the quality of food for what you’re paying is dismal. Overall, probably not worth it, unless, again, you’re going just to say you went.
Bottom line — the service /​food quality stinks. The atmosphere is a novelty. If you want great food, PASS… if you want to do something different than the normal, go with low expectations and this is a decent choice.

They sure do get a lot of mileage from the nostalgia of the drive up experience. However, in my opinion, is come to a screeching halt right there.
The menu is diverse in terms of fast food, however the quality of the food is extremely poor, at best. When you get the hot-​dogs, they generally come to the car somewhat smashed and since they wrap them, any condiments you get are all over the wrapper and dog. Then, when you think of the high price you just paid for the lousy dog your holding, it tends to get me overheated.
I avoid Dogs N Suds as much as possible and so far this year, I’ve been forced to come here once on account that it was the day my daughters school was having a fund raiser… otherwise, I would not have gone.
There are too many other places nearby here which you can get a good dog or burger and fries at better prices. If you want drive up nostalgia take the extra time and go to a Sonic… which is well worth the drive.

Love the dogs and the ambience of an old fashioned drive in…
If you come here and do not try the Coney Dog, then you should be exiled! 1 whole foot of dog excellence. The Coney sauce puts it over the edge. This is probably my favorite hotdog ever to grace my belly.
I always order the foot long coney dog with grilled onions, but the menu is diverse enough for even the most picky.
If you go, I think its mandatory to try the root beer!