Allgauer’s

We went here for Valentine’s Day brunch. Although they were booked for reservations, we found plenty of seating at the bar. The buffet was expansive, the seafood was great, and the mimosa flowed freely! We left full and happy — what else can one ask of a restaurant?

After making a reservation on Open Table upon arrival we were seated promptly. Although the initial server greeting was a bit slower than expected, once she did come over she made sure we were well stocked with food and drink while waiting for our food. The 6 oz filets were fantastic with the onion and mushroom demi glacé. The baked french onion soup was also very, very tasty. Good atmosphere and even greater food. The dessert was fantastic a chocolate mousse with hard chocolate over it. Simply delicious!

I was staying at the hotel this restaurant is located in, and had dinner here upon my arrival. I had the pork medallions with a salad. It was good. The portions originally looked a bit small, I wish more vegetables were provided on the dish, but the meat was a thick cut and cooked perfectly. The service was excellent.

Allgauer’s in Lisle has been one of our favorites over the years. We have always had good food and good service. It was a shock when, after all this time, we had bad service and disappointing food on the same day. Normally I would give it five stars, but today it gets only three.
I think our waiter must be new to the job. He did show up to take our drink order promptly. And he delivered the drinks. But then he disappeared for a long long time. He was gone so long we sent out a search party — actually one person who went to the reception desk to inquire about him. He did finally show up to take our order. But he was mostly absent that evening. And I will note the place was not crowded.
In the past I have enjoyed many items from their menu. (The «Chicken Chop» is rightly famous.) But on this occasion I tried something new, the Chicken Breast Medallions. What a disappointment. The dish consisted of some chunks of chicken breast, a bunch of pasta, some vegies and a thin almost tasteless sort of broth.

Amazing brunch buffet, YUM!

Got the lunch buffet, the most I can say is «meh». Not worth the $. However, the desserts were really good.

Excellent seafood, lovey deserts, really loved the fruit salads. Tried something new — papaya/​blackberry with candied walnuts in a berry sauce. Mango /​avocado salad! Nice Sunday brunch.

Just stopped here for an appetizer before going to a party. They keep weird hours (not always posted) but the food was good. Expensive drinks, but that’s a given for a hotel.

This place rocks for Sunday brunch! The all you can eat for $ 40 is well worth it. The buffet spread is amazing. It also includes drinks (coffee, juice, soda, champagne). The service is great and all the staff is very friendly.

Came here the past two years for Palm Sunday Brunch. The servers provide great service, friendly and helpful with questions or special requests. We are provided with a private room which is wonderful for the family! The buffet has a varied selection, so everyone can find at least a couple things that like. Food is just ok. Eggs Benedict is always chewy and not worth the plate space. There is a penne pasta with vodka sauce that is pretty darn good, and the chicken fingers from the kids table are delicious. But other than that it is mediocre. Overall it is a decent place for brunch but don’t expect to be blown away by the food.

The food is always fantastic. I think that it is a good value for the price. When it comes to drinks: mamosa, champagne, juice, coffee… Then the food… yum! I wish there were more cooked vegetable options. However, there are plenty of salad options (I have a personal thing against eating salad at restaurants, but that’s just me). There is also plenty of fresh fruit, delicious seafood options, biscuits, gravy, waffles, eggs, and much more. Also, they have quite a delicious dessert selections (I love the key lime pie). The service is also very good! All the serves were so friendly! Today was the first day I went there on a regular Sunday (I have previously been there only for Mother’s Day brunch). I went around 12pm, and I didn’t have to wait in a line at all (like you do on the holidays). The reason I left on star off is because of the lack of cooked vegetable options and because one of the glasses on my table was dirty. However, the cooked vegetables is a personal preference, and I understand that it might not be popular among everyone else, so I don’t think it’s that big of a drawback. In regards to the dirty glass, that happens at just about any restaurant, and the situation is easliy resolved by asking for a new one. In all, I recommend this place. I’d just like to say again, the service was fantastic!

At first I walked into this place seeing the buffet first impression very nice I’ve been here I want to say five times or so with my relatives and wanted my girlfriend to try this place because I have had some great meals there so we begin by sitting in the bar I sit down and notice that the place setting looks like someone did not get enough train all of the glasses were in one spot and there was a big coffee stain right on the table cloth that wasn’t that big of a deal but for the price it wasn’t nice then we got up and got are plates and started making are way through the buffet tried all of the shrimp stuff a couple of the shrimp were dry and tasted like the have been there all day and the sushi was a little bit better than gas station sushi after eating those things I go for what I came for the prime rib I ask the «carver» for a thicker piece of prime rib I look away for a second and the plate that I handed him with nothing else on it has a folded over piece of prime rib that I would put on a sandwich I try cutting into it and there’s a very rough texture to the meat with a lot of veins and the heat lamp they had it under made it more like the same temperature as the steak the only thing I had that was good and not cooked or kept improperly was the waldfrof salad everything else to say the least sucked and I will not be going back

Here’s the thing… If you have a bar/​restaurant attached to a hotel that is a known and promoted hotel to stay at after weddings, then KEEP THE KITCHEN OPEN LATE. People want to come back from a reception and hang out, but those people are looking for late night munchies. When your bartenders are serving drinks but have no food to offer with those drinks they are losing money AND the hotel/​bar/​restaurant loses money. Keep the people happy and make some money by serving even just an appetizer menu in the late night hours!

Like this place very much, don’t get the Shepherds Pie, it is all fat and gristle, really pretty disgusting! I would have sent it back but I decided that I wasn’t that hungry so I took it home before I discovered that! It’s Hotel Upscale, nice quiet enough to be able to talk! I recommend it with that exception!

Brunch.
Wait.
Champagne brunch.
Need I say more?
No, probably not… but I will. We met some friends and their little one here for Sunday brunch, having heard EXCELLENT things and Allgauers did not disappoint.
We were seated in a side banquet room set for brunch, which was perfect considering the little guy, who had some space to roam.
The champagne was flowin’ fast and loose (in a respectable, we’re-totally-grown-ups-enjoying-a-fancy-brunch sort of way). Our server was absolutely wonderful, as my glass was only empty once… and it was quickly refilled.
I started (as I tend to start brunch) with all my favorite breakfast foods. Eggs Benedict (YUM), a biscuit with gravy (not bad, though not my fave at this brunch), bacon and… cheese. Obviously.
The cheese display was one of the best I’ve seen since my days as a catering manager when the chef would create these stunning exotic cheese trays with colorful and flavorful cheeses. I was impressed.
I followed up with a seafood plate (in which the BF decided it was time to move a chair away from me.) Crab legs, raw oysters smoked salmon, and poached salmon. (Can you see the happy-​dance smile on my face?)
Then it was time to try the salads. I opted for a papaya and walnut salad, an avocado and pear salad, the Allgauers salad and some fresh fruit. All were absolutely lovely. Oh and more cheese. Obviously.
By the time I was ready for dessert, I was stuffed, but couldn’t keep myself away from the chocolate fountain, the key lime pie or the chocolate covered toffee.
Verdict?
See you next week?

What an amazing buffet! The presentation alone is jaw dropping. As for the food, it was quite delicious and very satisfying. Sometimes you never know about buffets but with this one it far exceeds other ordinary buffets. I highly recommend if you’re around check this place out and one thing for sure you will have to try are the salads. Wow!

Great value, ($ 39) for a special occasion, includes Champagne. Various seafood-​not just shrimp; crab claws, oysters, sushi rolls, smoked salmon seafood salads) Typical brunch/​breakfast items along with prime rib, pork, salads, various sides, desserts. So many choices, you’ll want to go back to try more items. A definite favourite brunch spot. They also have certificates available on
for the brunch.

Not sure if this is a fair review, since I don’t care for buffets. All of their food seemed to be very heavy and overcooked. Maybe I should have arrived at Allgauer’s right when they put the food out and maybe I would have been more happy with their food?
The service seemed to be lacking as well.
They did have a wide assortment of food and desserts.
I won’t be returning though.

Spectacular spread for brunch… seriously, there’s so many varieties here that even if you ate a small bite of everything they had to offer… you’d barely be able to go back for seconds. And the quality was pretty tasty on most items, so overall was impressed. As a quick note, their website menu hasn’t been updated since last year (2011), so the price of the Sunday brunch is now $ 39 per person.
The downsides —
1. Automatic 20% tip. I don’t know if this was because we’re a party of six (seriously, not that hard to serve, especially since we’re serving our own food) but I was severely disappointed in the waiter telling me the tip has been added to find that it was 20% gratuity. That’s pretty presumptuous.
2. Logistical placement of the buffet. You have to walk out of the restaurant towards the exit, to enter a hallway to get to the brunch buffet. My guess is that the buffet has probably grown significantly and thus they were no longer able to host within the restaurant like they used to… however that means walking past people waiting to get into the restaurant, through crowds, etc. While I don’t mind a walk to get some food and stretch my legs/​stomach to get food, it’s cumbersome to walk in and out of the restaurant each time.
3. There was still food on my fork when I first sat down. Yes, it was that dried on crusted kind of food that happens when you run it through the large restaurant machinery dishwashers, so it was probably heated enough to kill anything on it… but seriously, at $ 39 a person, shouldn’t attention to details such as clean silverware be standard? I put it in the middle of the table and didn’t use the fork… but there’s obviously a lack of attention to some details at the service level (we were one of the first tables there for the brunch).
Nearly all food items were good if not very good. Eggs benedict slightly overdone (everyone prefers their yolks set differently though), and the biscuits didn’t have any rise to them (flat biscuit for gravy??) but otherwise, everything was very enjoyable.
Verdict: I’d consider going back… seriously, the food and service was enjoyable, but it’s tacky to assume a 20% tip, especially at a buffet style brunch. That left a terrible after taste in my mouth after the good food I just had…

Hmmmm, I was not impressed.
Don’t get me wrong, the Sunday buffet was GOOD, but it wasn’t great enough to justify the $ 35 price tag. That’s hefty!!! I don’t eat/​drink enough to make up for that kind of expense. If I stayed there the whole day, MAYBE.
However, we made reservations for six, and they only had it for five. No big deal, but the hostess made this big production about it.
Then, we are seated, and my friend (who has a one-​year old) says she doesn’t need a high chair. I have never seen this one-​year old use one, and she sits just fine in the seat. It’s never been a problem. However, the second she left, the waiter came back over and asked me no less than THREE TIMES if he could get her a high chair. Dude, I don’t parent other peoples’ kids. She’s fine without one. Leave it alone!
Right after we were seated, though, I noticed both my glass and my daughter’s glass had lipstick on them (see picture). Disgusting. I pointed it out to the waiter, and we got no apology or anything. He just took them away. Ew. What else wasn’t clean?
So overall, I wasn’t thrilled.

Went here for Sunday brunch for Father’s Day. It’s served buffet style with all you can drink champagne/​mimosas for $ 40 a pop.
The good:
key lime pie (perfect amount of tart and sweet)
german chocolate cake (YUM! soft too!)
smoked salmon (hard to mess this up)
scrambled eggs (can anyone really mess this up since they’re instant?)
oysters (light and fresh)
champagne/​orange juice (all you can drink!)
The bad:
french toast (dry and not light/​fluffy)
prime rib (super dry and underseasoned)
cheesecake (just yuck)
tiramisu (double yuck)
seasoned baked fish (i forgot the name but the fish was dry and the sauce it was drenched in reminded me of glue)
eggs benedict (a 5 year old can make a better one)
Not worth the $ 40. 2 stars, but an extra star because I drank so much.

I must admit, I do enjoy their brunches. I have been there on an ordinary Sunday and also for a special brunch. They are good. And REALLY CROWDED.
We decided to just have dinner out last night. We did not know they offer a prime rib and seafood buffet. That made it rather crowded and the rush for the buffet caused a HUGE draft. Do these people think they will really run out of food? Not happening.
Contrary to the masses, we ordered off the menu. It was delicious and our server, Felip, was excellent.
It is a beautiful room, but the mural on the wall is dated 1993 ~ maybe it’s time for a face lift.