The Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Show Chicago

Fun show… But not what I was expecting. I took my dad to tommy guns last yr and he had a blast. This yr not so much. He didn’t get much of the dirty or modern puns that the actors would say. And I was expecting a lot more more then expensive price. The meals were way too gapped in between. Be prepared to have one simple appetizer, a measly salad, and not have your full course until 8:15pm. So definitely do not go hungry! They force you to mingle for a half hour which is ridiculous. We paid to watch a show not talk to strangers. Tommy Guns was a show the entire time and worth the price. Sadly cannot say the same about this.

I took my husband here for his birthday as he’s super hard to shop for. I wasn’t sure what to expect as the reviews appeared to be 50 – 50. Well… We had a blast! The detectives were hilarious and the actors at our tables were very good at blending in with the rest of us. The clues were a bit hard to follow but all in all, it was a great time! The food was great as was dessert. I would absolutely recommend this place!

I guess it was an OK time. The actors did not seem like actors to me; most of the time, I didn’t even understand what was going on. I definitely expected better actors… that’s for sure. On the other hand, the food was DELICIOUS. I also enjoyed how the show was organized– with breaks for meals in between sections. A definite 3 star experience.

We recently went to the show with some out of town guests. It is a little pricey, but you get a complete dinner and a 3 hour show. Considering the cost, that’s a pretty good deal! The Hilton Garden Inn was a good location too. If I have 1 complaint about the show it would be that sometimes it was hard to hear. The actors work without mics. I would definitely go again.

I am thoroughly disappointed by all the one and two star reviews here as I’ve gone to the Dinner Detective in Chicago and to the ones in Long Beach and Los Angeles and I have ALWAYS had a great time. Yes, the tickets are a little pricey, but they include a four hour show, appetizers, dinner, and dessert which is about what I’d pay at any upscale restaurant WITHOUT a funny show to watch. I’ve been to a lot of murder mysteries (yes, I’m a dork) and this one is by far the best. It’s not cheesy at all, as the performers don’t wear lame costumes and a lot of it is improvised; the detectives are HILARIOUS. It was fun trying to figure out who was the killer among us. I also like that I hear that they moved to the Hilton over there on Grand which I’m sure will be far better than the Knickerbocker (when I saw the show at the Knickerbocker, that was the main downside… that hotel is a bit old and they hadn’t done a good job keeping up the room that the show was held in).
I know they rotate the script that they perform so I’m looking forward to seeing another iteration of the Dinner Detective again at the Hilton!

A little overpriced, but a lot of fun!
The actors were fantastic.

Me and my wife attended the dinner mystery and we had a ball. The cast was great the show was entertaining the people there were nice only thing that could tell I would have to say is that the chicken could have used salt. But besides that it’s definitely worth doing to try something different in Chicago never would have expected but is definitely A must attend. Taking place in the historic Chicago hotel such as a Knickerbocker was a great setting for the evening me and my wife really enjoyed ourself.

This was my first murder mystery dinner and I had more fun than I expected! Yes, it’s cheesy, but come on what do you expect? If you are willing to play YOUR part as another detective, you will have fun. The food is not great and the drinks are way over priced. Since my group knew this before arriving, we had drinks at the apartment before taking a cab to the hotel — the Knickerbocker is a great location for this by the way! If you need a little liquid courage to really get involved in the mystery, then I highly recommend that route. Pay attention to the clues and talk to everyone you can! Maybe you’ll get lucky and solve whodunnit!

If I could I would give the performance/​show portion 3.5, but this is an overall rating. The performance was great and kept your interest. The dinner and drinks were lacking. For the price for 2 people with parking my wife and I could have had an outstanding meal at one of the city’s great restaurants. The bar was a cash bar and didn’t have much of a selection. The food was 4 course meal with the chicken entrée being a small flavorless portion. I hate to punish the acting cast with this below average review, but in my opinion there are better ways to spend your money downtown.

I think the show was great and entertaining (and no I don’t even drink). I thought the actors were very good and I was laughing throughout. Going with a big group of friends will make it even more fun. The show itself is interactive, so be prepared to interact and talk with others. The hotel (Millennium Knickerbocker) is a nice setting. It’s actually a nice little piece of Chicago history. I think it would be cool, however, if they made it into an old school murder mystery, like a Sherlock Holmes theme, and use more costumes and props and theater lighting, because the hotel has that vibe. Nevertheless, I think they did a great job and it was well organized. Food was fine and better than I expected.
It’s something different to do in Chicago. Give it a try!

Not sure about these negative reviews, I thought the two lead detectives were hilarious! The food was fine, and we had a great time. Just have a couple of glasses of wine and get involved, and you’ll enjoy it too.

BEWARE IF YOU BUY A DEAL ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PLACE that they charge tax and gratuity at an obscene rate. This may have been more of Living Social’s fault, but I still want to be sure people are warned about the tax and tip that comes along.
I bought the living social deal and went to redeem it for the show. So they only set aside a certain number of seats for the living social holders, meaning over a month in advance of the expiration date and there are no seats available. AND THEY CHARGE $ 54 for «Tax and gratuity» –um, what? Is this a $ 250 mystery detective dinner? It better be damn good with amazing food and amazing wine.
They also used the term «bottle service» when explaining the $ 54 additional charge that you must pay in order to redeem y our deal. Bottle service for a bottle of house wine? Am I going to the club? Do I get a VIP sectioned off couch with a server pouring me house wine?
I find all of this laughable (and enraging). So The Dinner Detective and Living Social will not see another dollar of mine. I will not be paying $ 54.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I won’t be letting that happen.
My only response to the owner’s comment is that the voucher should have said the amount of tax and gratuity. No one in their wildest dreams would think they would be paying an additional $ 54 to tax and gratuity.

After reading all the low reviews on here before going to the show this past Saturday, my date and I had pretty low expectations. But we actually ended up having a lot of fun. The actors were good, and they set up a fun environment. Yes — parts of it are cheesy, but come on it’s a murder mystery dinner!
The food wasn’t outstanding, but we still ate most of our veg & chicken choices. I noticed some guys walking around with little appetizers on platters. They never stopped at our table, which was a bummer. So maybe we should have chased after them…
I had some issues using my Living Social voucher for the show. The voucher itself was $ 83 — which seemed like a steal b/​c tickets are normally $ 65/​pp + tax. My voucher also came with a bottle of wine & 2 mugs. However, I ended up having to pay an extra $ 53 in gratuities & taxes which ticked me off a little. I understand the need to add gratuities & taxes, but I felt mislead into thinking I was getting a much better deal than I actually was.
When I made my reservations, my bank account was charged, but never received a confirmation email. I waited a few days, and after unsuccessfully contacting someone by phone, I emailed the company to ask what was up. They had no record of my reservation or payment, but they did resolve the matter very quickly.
I guess there were a handful of things leading up to the show that put me off, but once we got there — drank some wine, and loosened up, it was a really great night!
Side note: Yes — the bar inside the show is cash only, and a little pricey.

Wow — these reviews are awful! I really loved it. I was expecting cheesy dinner theater — but what happened is very cerebral entertainment experience. The actors are mixed in with the audience members, so the killers and victims are at your table (maybe) — eating and chatting. (It’s a very social experience and you meet new people — so it’s not for people who want to sit back and be alone on their date). Anyway, these actors have told these lies so many times — they have it down pat. I won’t give spoilers, but one guy was pretending to work at the same place I do — and I went up to him — and he totally pulled it off. I saw him after the show and said, «you got me!» I should have asked you X and Y. He said, «I would have had an answer, no matter what you asked.»
So it’s a whole exercise in looking around the room, trying to figure out who’s an actor, being somewhat suspicious of the people around you, etc. It was actually somewhat fascinating.
That said, I see why people don’t like it. It’s an actual mystery interactive show and not one-​direction entertainment. At one point you’re supposed to mingle, work the room and ask people questions, and I was like, «Ugh. Really?” — but once I got over the fact that the lights weren’t going to be dimmed — I had a good time. And got fooled!
I thought the food was fine.

SAVE YOUR MONEY AND DO SOMETHING ELSE! We went to the show because our friend wanted to do it for his birthday. The bar is a cash bar which they neglect to tell you and we were pooling all our cash together to make sure we could get drinks. To make this night the least bit interesting, you had to have alcohol. The show was okay; we had one good actor in our show that made us laugh. The food was awful (think bad wedding food). For the price we paid, it’s a shame they don’t even include drinks which we did know ahead of time.
All of us agreed that we would’ve preferred to have gone to an upscale restaurant. At least that way we could’ve had an awesome meal with great company.
Also, when we went to solve the murder, the person that did it was never even introduced as a suspect in the show. So unless you had some interaction with him which most of the room didn’t, you would’ve never guessed it.

The show started with a screaming women running through the doors scaring the bejesus out of us. The people on our table were very friendly and the all the actors were very professional and kept the audience engaged. Throughout the show hints are dropped between courses. I would ideally like to do less reading while eating. As with all interactive shows the more you put in, the more you get out of it. I will give the show a ³⁄₅.
However, the food just sucked ! Both my wife and me are vegetarians and we had cold and bland pasta. There was a lady on our table who had requested vegan food and she got raw veggies. Even the people who ordered meat said that the food was just OK. The silver lining being that as we had bought our tickets through Living Social so we got a free bottle of wine and a discount. I will rate the food as only a 1.5÷5.
All in all a pretty-​ok experience.

This is bad… I was with a group of ten people (young, middle aged, old). The show is geared toward a younger crowd, even though a majority of the crowd was older. Its hard to understand and hear the actors so you dont really know whats going on. They tell a dumb story, pass around clues, and call on people in the crowd. Everyone in the crowd seemed lost or bored, and waits for it to end. The food is so bad. Two people in our group (who usually eat everything) completely returned their food it was so bad. It seems like it was frozen and microwaved… Soda is 6.50, beer 8.00, and wine 9.50 a glass.
Save your money…

WARNING!!! DO NOT SEE IF YOU THINK THAT THERE EVER COULD BE A CHANCE THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO RESCHEDULE! If I could give this place ZERO stars I would. If anything happens to where you have to reschedule, they will not allow it even though their policies do not state anything anywhere about rescheduling.
We ordered tickets to this show and were thrilled to go. Getting closer to show time, we were forced to reschedule.
I just contacted customer service saying that we weren’t looking for a refund or to just cancel on them all together. We just needed a different date. We were still told that we couldn’t reschedule. A refund is one thing and rescheduling is another. According the box office guy, we were stuck going to a show that was impossible for us to see and that if we couldn’t make it then we would have to give our tickets to «family, friends, or a loved one».
The cherry on top? I asked to speak to a higher up about the situation and I was given a first name. Then I asked for a last name of the person. The gentleman stalled and then quickly gave me a different name all together. He also stated that there was no other number or email that anyone could be reached at. Mind you, I contacted the box office and was not speaking to a manager or anyone higher. For this person to state that there is NO OTHER number to call (as if a manager didn’t have a desk number) is a lie. He then gave me an email address that was generic to contacting customer service as if it would be ok for me to do that once again. Heck, he probably is the one checking the emails.
When I asked for his name, he hung up on me. Shady if you ask me. Spend your money wisely on another dinner show that might actually be able to accomadate you. There are others that can and will.
Will I ever recommend this place to someone… NO.

I went on oct 15, 2011 for a date night. We had such a good time. It was the 1^st time we had been to something like this so we didn’t know what to expect. My guy is rather shy and not a people-​person but by the end of the night, he had relaxed and was very comfortable.
The interactive show is very fun, exciting, and funny. The hosts were excellent in providing a story line that could be easily followed. The room Is a moderate size, not too big and not too small, so the use of microphones it’s not needed. They do speak loudly enough for every individual to hear.
The seating… well, they do put you at a table with strangers depending on the size of your party, which is a good thing, from my standpoint because it allows you to converse with some who could be the possible suspect (s). Oh, by the way, the tables seat 8.
The food was surprisingly very good. we chose the chicken option. The only thing that I felt could’ve been changed was the amount of sauces they put on their food. I would like to have had a little more sauce. But I’m sure if I would’ve requested more, it would’ve been given.
As for the drinks, I don’t drink so I am unable to give an adequate review. However, the lady who was sitting next to me said her first drink was ok, a little on the weak side but her second drink was strong and right on point. My date had two beers. And some patrons at another table practically stayed at the bar. Lol. Maybe wasted was their goal. I heard no complaints about the pricing.
We are definitely planning to go back next month when they have a new story line and are looking for more murder mystery events to participate in.

The dinner detective is an interactive murder mystery show and supposed to be the largest one in America. They also have at least 10 other locations in different states. Being that it is a large show (meaning group size), I think a lot can be missed. I couldn’t hear or see the actors most of the time. Their voices just get lost in the noise of the crowd. To be honest the format isn’t all that great either. I’ve been to other murder mystery games and they were a lot more interactive and gave a better plot. This just seemed thrown together. Plus, it didn’t help that the food was god awful. I couldn’t even finish any of my dishes and left hungry. Follow that up with bad wine and limited cocktail selection… Millennium Hotel that was a major fail! People might have been a little happier with the show if the food was better, just saying. Still I give credit to the organizers who check you in and stop by the table to check if you’re enjoying the show. Also, the actors were funny and had a lot of energy. Would I go again? Probably not.