Arena Sports Grille

If I could give nagative stars I would. We stopped in between hockey games on a Saturday afternoon when the place was empty. Empty. The manager refused to seat our group. It was disappointing because with 4 families, the servers could have actually made some money. I will NEVER go back and will make sure that we tell everyone we know about the discriminatory service. Not sure how a place like this stays in business.

If I could of not given a star I would have. Don’t bother, sat for 10 minutes know one even bothered to approach our table, even though a waitress, bartender and manager all saw us sitting there.

TERRIBLE service! The food is crappy bar food that is way overpriced. We sat there for thirty minutes waiting for our bill and then were told that we underpaid, like it was our fault that she didn’t give us the bill. I highly recommend spending five more minutes and going somewhere that isn’t awful!

So I just called, trying to give these morons an opportunity to make a few dollars and sure enough they are simply to dumb and I wonder how the stay in business. The place is empty, I asked for 40 wings, 30 hot and 10 plain and they refuse. He said they only do sets of 20 or I can order a 10 pc. I asked to speak to a manager and he was the manager, I asked to speak to the owner and he his name is Tom and he’ll be in tomorrow at 10. I might have to drive a little farther but my money goes to quality restaurants with good service. This crap hole will never get another penny again.

Stopped in for happy hour and a couple beers. Great venue that sits almost empty… $ 3.50 for a miller light draft during happy hour? Seems to me the owner is completely absent or does not care. I’m just an out of state visitor that travels alot throughout the Midwest… this place COULD be a homerun, but is lousy. Applebees has more character than this local place… what a shame.

Wow! Went here with 12 guys (professionals ranging in age from 30 to 60) to watch NCAA, eat and drink. It was a Friday 12 noon. The place was half empty and they wouldn’t put us together. The manager, (could of been the owner) was as rude as could be. When I asked him why, he said «Do you want to stand here and argue with me or do you want to be served». I replied that we’ll be leaving and we’ll never return. His response «Sorry to hear that».
We ended up going to Crazy Pour on North Ave. in Villa Park. They were happy to take our $ 400 bill that we rang up. First time I was there. Way better food, TV’s and way way better service.
Sounds like others have had the same problems here. They’ll be out of business soon.

I guess they don’t seat a party of 20 African Americans at an empty sports bar even after we said it’s ok to split the party into 4 groups of 5. This was on 2÷27÷2016 after we left Sky Zone for a birthday party at 7:00 pm. Too bad for them despite what they think we actually tip very well but I will never in my life step foot in that establishment.

The food is mediocre, and the management is poor. We watched the owner turn away a family because there were ‘too many kids’ in the restaurant. He was disrespectful and unaccommodating to several guests, so much so that we left for lunch at Pyramid just up the road. The Arena staff was embarrassed and very apologetic. It was one of the worst displays of customer service I’ve ever seen. This place isn’t worth the trouble. We did have a great lunch up the road at Pyramid!

Massive place; very cool atmosphere! Waitress was friendly and attentive. There are so many TVs to watch the game on, too. Food was really good. I recommend the wings. Beer selection is great. I recommend this place!

Went here for a buddy’s wedding reception (we like to keep it low key) and we had a great time. The service was subpar at best but the quesadilla’s came out on a nice display. Our waiter was very eager to serve us shots as well as refill our waters whenever half way empty. High quality H2O may I add. Bathrooms are oddly set up and the one woman’s stall had a missing door. My buddy said the men’s bathroom was extremely dirty. Also, a man wearing a fedora came in and started dancing next to a man passed out at the bar, wasn’t sure if he was live entertainment for the night or what. If you’re looking to people watch you’ll see people napping, bartenders obviously trying to take a customer home and people playing Pokemon at their table (no seriously all these things happened).
We were unaware it was BYOC (bring your own cookies) for a man at the bar brought in an entire package of Oreo’s. Good to know for future visits… that’s if we go back.

This is pretty much your typical sports bar and grill. They have a decent selection at the bar, but nothing too great. The food is average but overpriced. They have pool tables and some arcade games to play and lots of TVs to watch sports. It’s a good place to get drinks and hang with friends after work. They have outdoor seating during the warmer months. Overall, an OK experience.

Received an email from arena advertising 20 wingers for $ 12.00 so I ordered 40 for a pick up to my surprise when I got there they said it was for dine in only so I showed the manager the email which does not state dine in only it actually says call for you carry out order on the email the manager would not honor the price actually charged me double, my husband and I use to go there every Saturday for the ribs but no longer I advise if you want good ribs and wings drive an extra 5 – 10 minutes and go to crossroads on Irving park road they have better ribs and the employees and manager are much oe professional, this is not the first time I have caught the Arena doing false advertising, they might want to ask themselves why they are loosing business every time we went in there there was fewer and fewer people well maybe the false advertising and rude management might be a good place to start to get some business back!!!

A martini snob walks into a bar and offers the bartender a 100% tip, but ONLY if he can make a very dry martini correctly on the first try. In the words of Jon Taffer, he’s a failure.
We’ve always come here with a large group because it’s close to work. Arena definitely has the space, but the service is terrible. The servers get argumentative when we request separate tickets. I know it’s a hassle, but imagine the tips you’d get from 30 people if you just did what was asked. Someone from our group even talked to the manager about the server, and even HE started arguing with us.
The food is mediocre at best, and the bartenders (see story above) can’t handle anything more complex than a gin and tonic or rum and coke. Funny story from a previous visit: I asked the bartender for a Cuba Libre. She giggled and said, «we don’t make those.»
I giggled back and said, «yes you do, it’s another term for rum and coke.»
At any rate, my colleagues and I are exploring other places in the area to frequent since we won’t be going back to this shit circus.

I went to Arena to pick up some food to bring back to the house.
I ordered in person and requested a burger. I asked if I could have it over lettuce rather than on the bread as I have a wheat allergy (I explained this). I was told it would be a $ 2 charge for a side salad to accommodate me. If that’s what they want to do, that’s fine. I’m going to order something else though.
I then ordered 20 hot wings instead. He asked if I wanted celery and any bleu cheese, I said sure. He rings them up separately, $.50 or so for celery, $.50 or so for ranch. I think that’s pretty odd that they charge for these things, but again not really a problem its their choice.
The thing that kills me is I drive all the way home, get ready to eat and the wings are all breaded. I ordered regular bone in wings. There was zero reason to expect that there would be bread all over them. I eat wings all the time and they never have bread.
Not only this, but I told the person taking my order that I can’t have bread.
I would NEVER order a single thing from this place again. They take allegories very lightly and I could never trust them after this. Luckily for me it wouldn’t have killed me, but for something more serious it could have been a very big deal if they didn’t realize this and just dug in.

Leaving off a star as it seems Arena is going through a lot of changes in keeping good wait staff. We are normally satisfied with the service and food. And I still say the burgers are awesome. Tonight they forgot my husbands grilled onions and fries but that was due to new staff. I say don’t give up on it as its a great place to watch sports and the wings Rock!!!
If you came and had a bad experience I say give them another chance, I’ve found its hit or miss.
Now, KUDOS to the new assistant manager he stepped up to the plate and gave us a patcher of beer on the house for the mix up on our food…

Nice place to watch football. A little dark for having dinner. We ordered a burger, a rib and 10 piece wings. The portion size is quite large.

We’ve been here more than a handful of times over the last few years and it seems as though «arena» is at the very bottom of their downward spiral. As soon as we walked in, (3 adults & a 12yr), a tall lanky, ponytail wearing guy said, «just the 3 of you?» & immediately started walking towards the farthest corner of the place. He sat us right next to the entrance to the kitchen although the place was pretty damn empty. I tried to ask him about playing pool there and he harshly stated, no children allowed and walked away. I actually just wanted to know how much it was.
Our server walked over whispering about what we wanted to drink, we honestly thought he was a bus boy. His English was terrible & he was so focused on writing everything down that we had to keep repeating our order. We asked for, stoli with cranberry, a coke & a water. All 3 of our drinks came at separate times almost 10 mins later. Food order: 20 wings (10 mild/​10 sweet&sour), buffalo chicken salad with ranch & vinegar & oil on the side as well as a kids chicken tender with fries. … Pretty simple right?!
Que to about 25/​30ish min later… Our server had been mia since he took our order, finally tracked him down, I asked for refill on the coke & another water. He brings me another mixed drink and a coke. Food finally comes, kids meal is cold and hard as shit, wings almost room temperature, chicken Cesar salad and no ranch.
We pointed it all out to our server & ended up watching him run around like his head was cut off while the ponytailed guy walked around doing nothing. I’m assuming he was the manager cause he’s the only one who acted like his shit doesn’t stink. No one apologized for the f ups and no «manager» visited our table, instead they took the kids meal away & off the bill saying that is how their food is. ooh and they charged us for vinegar & oil salad dressing?! I included a picture of our receipt.
Never.going.back.ever.again.

Came to Arena to have a beer and some appetizers with my girlfriend. She raved about their amazing wings. When we entered, there were two waitress’s standing there clueless to our entrance. Not a hello was said. They looked at us and went along with their conversation. It almost seemed as if they were annoyed that customers had walked in. I wasn’t sure if it was a wait to be seated or find your own seat kind of place. So my girlfriend and I took a seat by the bar.
We ordered a beer and some appetizers
We went on the 4−6pm half off appetizers. No where in the menu does it say wings are excluded from that deal. The bartender (older gentleman with a little ponytail) was also our waiter. At first he was friendly but when we called him over to ask for more napkins, he clearly rolled his eyes when coming back to us. I couldn’t believe it. We were annoyed at this point. We asked a man next to us who was giving orders if he was the manager (Herman Munster looking man) and he said yes. So my Gf told him they should be a little more specific on what is excluded on the appetizer deal. He replied in a rude and angry manner,“well I can’t print everything that’s on the menu!“
By that point we knew we were not returning to this horrible establishment. Instead of explaining in a kind manner like any good manager would, he proceeded to give us ugly looks. Not only was he rude to us but also very disrespectful to his busboys. The only thing great about this place are the wings. If you want horrible service this is the place.

First I want to say that our waiter was pretty attentive. Lots of bad reviews about service, but not the food. Of course we came on a Monday night (free pool) and there was hardly anyone there, as you can see in the picture. With that being said, at this point in my Elmhurst reviews, I’m going to go out on a limb and say this is the best burger I’ve had in town. I’ll come back and revise this review if it isn’t. The burgers at Pint’s were my favorite until I had the western burger here. The bbq sauce on the burger was thick, sweet, and spicy. And, as an added bonus, the burger arrived with waffle fries … waffle fries … by default! Solid!
The restaurant has a large bar and dining area. A welcome comfort since we didn’t feel like we were on top of other people (hardly anyone was there anyway). In addition, there are plenty of TV’s, but they weren’t so loud that we couldn’t carry on a conversation, like BWW.
As of this writing there are ninety-​six restaurants in Elmhurst. I plan on eating at, and reviewing, every one. Follow me on Unilocal

Had a server named Jared he was great.
It was very awkward when I later heard the owner of the restaurant call a group of kids «a bunch of faggots» and tell them to leave. That was about two weeks ago. Went here again Friday night and heard the owner call one of his employees a dumbass! Can’t believe this guy, I think he is abusive and has anger issues. Never coming back.