Red Balloon Saloon

Longtime fan of this local-​for-​me no frills watering hole. Used to go here much more years back and at the original location down Northwestern Hwy. Not as big and snazzy as the sports bar down the road but nice homely feel. Mixed crowds in ages and types. Since it is smaller, it can get crowded inside and in the parking lot.
Good burgers and solid bar food.
A lone convenient pool table.
Limited drinks specials.
Jukebox often utilized.

This is your classic hole in the wall local bar. The atmosphere is dark and gloomy with old-​school bar Decour. In fact, when you leave, your eyes will have to re-​adjust to the daylight.
This is a great place for lunch. The burgers are very tasty. I will go back when hungry for a good burger.

A little divey, but food was well beyond expectations. Open late in a late night food desert. Had catfish fingers, a little SYSCO-​y, but good I would order again. The ½ burgers are super solid! Flat top grilled bun with butter, good juicy burger, toppings generous and smothering! I come to this area evenings a lot for work and will definitely come back!

I love the Balloon. I don’t know where else in the metro area I can go for a well made cocktail, incredible burgers and a friendly staff, all while running into familiar faces. The pool table almost always has some action (and not the kind where you’re too intimidated to put down your dollar), the music on the jukebox was good and they have a plenty of TV’s to catch the games. We most recently had steak bites, burgers and the Friday night Fish N’ Chips special; everything was delicious. If you’re looking for fancy and pretentious, don’t bother. Looking for great drinks, even better food and a charming staff? This is your place.

Granted we came here on a Tuesday Night during the NBA Finals. We seated for 30 minutes, tried waving down the two servers. We only got drinks ordered for us bc the table next to us that JUST arrived were regulars and ordered for us bc they felt bad.
I give one star bc it would be a good spot to watch a sporting event with friends bc there are plenty of open tables. The service needs a lot of work. I’ve been in the hospitality business most of my life and have not seen such poor service!
It took the server 50m to approach the table and she had no idea what drafts were on tap…
7 minutes later another server came by and took our order. We waited almost an hour. Luckily regulars hooked us up. We only stayed for the game and location!
We finished our drinks and waiting on the servers of which both ignored and walked pass our table…
We ate from the left overs at the restaurant we ordered at nearby and a waitress stopped by telling us that we couldn’t have it here which of course but maybe if we had gotten a menu and so we did. And then we tried again for drink #2.
Went to the bar.
And the same…
If they only knew we’ve all worked hospitality and are great tippers. Worst service ever! And to top it. It wasn’t even incredibly busy which would be a good reason for the poor service!

Balloons is a local dive bar and my husband and I love it. Great drinks and their chips and salsa are GREAT! We try to go as often as possible to unwind after a long week and enjoy ourselves each time. I also like that it’s a nice mixed crowd!

I used to love the Balloon Saloon when I was in my twenties. The old location was one of my favorite hangouts and even went to the new location a few times many years ago. We stopped in last night for a burger. It was 8 PM and the parking lot was empty. We thought maybe it was closed at first. We walked in to a completely empty bar except for about 10 regulars sitting up at the bar. The tables were completely empty! No music. Sports on the TV’s but no sound. It seemed as though the regulars would just prefer to hear themselves talk than anything else.
But the bathrooms were clean and the patty melt and burger were pretty good. I think this place could use a visit from that guy from Bar Rescue. Sorry but we wont be back.

They’ve completely redone this place since last time I was in there. It used to be that you couldn’t see the TV for all the smoke, and when you got home, you’d have to put everything in the wash, or you’d smell like a ash tray. This is one place that has really benefited from the indoor smoking ban! They have enough TVs (but not super large screens), and they now have a digital jukebox (not overly loud either).
They have lots of stuff on the menu, but the best thing is the burger. The fries are pretty good too. For a beer and burger place, I’d highly recommend this one now.

I love that fellow Unilocaler, Valerie G., has gotten me hooked on checking in whenever we go out for lunch. So I’ve become a regular at the Balloon Saloon (we’re pretty tight, so I’ve dropped the Red from the name). Though I must say I think I only had to check in twice to become a regular, so I’m not throwing back beers on my lunch hour on a regular basis.
The food is good and cheap. They always have a burger & fries special for just under $ 5 and various beer specials. Who doesn’t love a 16oz beer can? There are a few large TVs, good for NCAA tournament watching which was the reason for our most recent trip. It’s never very crowded during lunch time and I don’t have to worry about running into other people from work (which cannot be said for many of the establishments in the Mixing Bowl area). My one complaint is that it is pretty dark inside so if it is a sunny day be prepared to be blinded when you walk outside. But that definitely won’t prevent me from returning.

About a million and half years ago, my high school friend and I would drive by this place, all wondering what kind of things were going on in there. We were always so curious… I think it had to be the blacked out windows and the funny name. Was it an homage to Nena’s 99 luftballons? or to the french film by the same name? or just a euphemism for something more sinister and seedy? Despite our guesses, we never knew the true meaning behind the name… all we knew was that we were curious, as we counted down the days to when we could legally find out the mystery behind the bar’s name.
So finally, we slowly started turning 21 and slowly we started venturing into the bar scene. Yep, The Red Balloon Saloon was on that list of bars to check out. Imagine our surprise when we found out its just like any other divey bar. No Nena enthusiasts, no Francophile film lovers, no seediness. Just a normal, run of the mill, divey joint that serves up fairly priced drinks, bar food and a place to watch the game.
So that’s what it became to us. The Saloon became a place to catch up with friends when they visited from out of town, catch that Tigers game or to shoot some pool, if so inclined. Food is pretty good here as well, nice big and reasonably priced burgers, thick cut fries, spicy wings and decent specials make this a great dive to stop at when cruising down Northwestern Highway. Oh, and we still don’t know where the name come from.

I was pleasantly surprised on a recent excursion to the Red Balloon Saloon. On many a drive to other lunch spots– I have joked about stopping here, but then continued on. It looks shady– it’s next to a seedy sex store and the windows are all blacked out. Additionally– I always thought that Red Balloon film was weird, so I figured this place is probably weird too.
Guess what? It’s just pretty normal. It’s pretty clean inside– and it’s well-​lit to counter the lack of windows to the outside. There are plenty of TVs for your sport watching pleasure (though lunch companion #3 was a little POd that one of the TV’s was tuned to the home shopping network during March Madness). Service was decent. My lunchtime meal was a cheeseburger and fries for $ 4.95 and a draft Killians for $ 4 and change.
I wouldn’t mind stopping back.

Very solid dive bar, in a strip ball, with all the windows painted black. The type of place when you walk in, everyone stops what they’re doing to look at you, then they go about their business.
Never eaten here, so can’t comment on the food. The drinks are well made and very reasonable prices and have plenty of TVs to watch the game. The waitresses are always very attentive and I have no complaints about this place. The other patrons always seem to be friendly to us chicagoans.

Great strip mall dive bar. It’s a great place to sit and watch games and hang out with friends. I’ve been going here for years, and it’s always the same great service, clean, and decent food. Try the chicken nachos, you will be surprised at what you get for the price and how good it is. The burger is of a good size as well as tasty. Not the best I’ve had but not a bad attempt. They bring out a huge condiment tray with all the fixins so you can make it any way you want to. They also have a FULLY stocked bar so you can find whatever your drinking here. If for some reason you get bored while here you can play pool, and keno, and they have a lot of big screen tv’s.

The beer is cold but I am not sure I would eat much more than the chips in a bag. A dive bar in a strip mall. A fine place if your expectations are set properly.

Local dive bar. I agree with the other reviewer. Clean bathrooms though. I believe were remodeled around 2003. Each week is a different themed night, hockey night, football, or trivia night. I recall a beach night in the winter so they try to get creative.
Weekend drink specials, Jagermeister is poured from the ice machine if you have ever seen one of those, and besides a decently grilled burger or chicken strips they can put together a nice chicken caesar.

Great local dive. Good service, good specials and good mini burgers.