Famous Freddies

If you’ve never been to Famous Freddie’s be warned: it is a little bit tricky to find. It is roughly three blocks off Rt. 12 tucked back in a neighborhood. The location is great if you are boating on the Chain. It is located on Pistakee Lake, and I’m guessing they have 50 or more boat slips. This is a great place in the Summer, but I enjoy it in the offseason just as well.
There is no wait staff; just walk up to the counter and order. They will give you a number and post it on the digital screen when your order is ready.
The food is very good (I love their fries). Service is friendly and hardworking. The views of Pistakee Lake are a big part of the overall experience.

Really good bar food, great rustic atmosphere, ordering process painful. Were you to pull your boat up to the huge dock or arrive by car the atmosphere on a warm summer day is hard to beat. You can sit inside, on the deck or down by the water. The wait staff is attentive but restricted by the ordering process. Drinks can be ordered and they are brought to the table, but all food has to be ordered at the counter inside which is quite a good distance if you are sitting by the water. You have to pick up your food when you number is posted on a couple of small electronic signs on the property. Once the food is picked up you will be pleasantly surprised that it is solid bar food. Great burgers, Fish Sandwich, Peel & Eat Shrimp. If they could be the process change this would be a 5 star place.

The only redeeming item we ate were the fries. They were a surprise and delight, as they were perfectly seasoned sized and cooked. Beyond that and the lake view, the food was mediocre and the service was awful. It took the drink server about 20 minutes to actually approach our table on a quiet Tuesday evening. I will try this place one more time only for the view, fries and drinks since the service could of been a fluke.

This is one of those places where your first impression can set you up for high expectations. When approaching Famous Freddie’s, you’re greeted by a really cool looking cabin type structure. It had some charm. We ended up sitting on the outside deck, because… why wouldn’t we? It has a boat access so that’s a good thing for those with boats.
I found the whole «ordering» thing to be kind of a pain. We sat down outside, were greeted by a waitress and presented with a drink order and a menu. We ordered our drinks and then when the waitress returned, we went to place our food orders. That’s when we found out that you can’t place food orders outside, those have to be done upstairs in the cabin like structure I told you about earlier. This caused a bit of a problem (and probably a few bucks for Freddie) as some of us had opened a tab outside. Those tabs were closed so we could go upstairs and order the food.
The menu items aren’t anything special, burgers and the like. I ordered a burger and shrimp skewer out of curiosity. You have to wait outside of the line with your ticket in hand as they work through the orders. Quite honestly, it took too long to get the food out. I’ve been to places with far more complicated menus that were way busier that got their food out in half the time. We waited around half an hour with a third of our party waiting downstairs. When your order is ready, you have to present your ticket to retrieve it. I’m not sure if they’d had an issue with people stealing food in the past but it seemed a little unnecessary. Not that big of a problem though so we won’t dwell on it.
The burger was decent, the shrimp skewer wasn’t. I’d probably return for the food again if the food would come out quicker and if you could order out on the patio. But for now, this place will probably be reserved for the occasional visit for a drink on the deck.

Went there today and ordered two pulled pork sandwiches. Took over 40 minutes. Was told by cook, «your ticket had customer number 2, ours had 1. So they couldn’t figure out what was happening. Really!!! What a lame excuse for poor service. No offer of any kind from management (if there was any there) for delay. Will never eat there again!!! This place sucks!

Drove out on a gorgeous Saturday after a recommendation saying that I «would love this place». Let’s just say that I’m not in love but in like. A solid 3.5 stars.
Upon arriving I noticed a huge building with about 4 deck/​patio areas. Lots of tables and people were everywhere, enjoying the sun and the shady areas. We shared a table with another group and then just waited About 15 minutes before I finally went up to the bar and asked the waitress to come get our order.
We gave her our drink order and she walks away, I tell her that we’d like to order food too. This is probably the worst part about this place… You have to go inside, order your food, and then wait for the number to pop up in the bar. While inside ordering, I did notice how cute the inside was. Large bar, a lot of TVs.
Upon ordering we’re told they’re out of pork when we ask how long the wait for more pork is the cook says that they’re not out of pork just potato salad for the dinner. Lots of miscommunication between the employees in this place, including receiving 2 wrong drinks at the bar Bacardi instead of Bacardi limon.
The food was actually pretty decent.
I’d love to try give this place another chance as it really is a nice place to sit outside, lakeside, and enjoy a few cocktails. Hopefully the next time the service will be a little better.

I gave this place 3 stars instead of 1 because the food is really good. But getting the food is the hard part! Every single time I’ve been here, I’ve waited in line for close to an hour. And the last visit, the credit card machine was broken, so i had to use their ATM which charged me a $ 5 service fee. I ordered a chicken sandwich and they made a burger instead. I was annoyed and didnt want to wait any longer. I wont be going here much anymore.

First let me say that I have been eating here for the last several years and love the burgers! We went here for lunch today and I was surprised by another price increase. This place used to have great prices for food, which was always pretty good and made it worth stopping in. The burger is still really good, however now they have increased the price to match «full service» restaurants. If I’m going to pay 10 dollars for a burger, I don’t want to have to stand in line, keep an eye on my number, then walk back up to pick up my food and condiments after several minutes. I also used to overlook the overpriced drinks for the cheap food, but now that is not the case. Sorry Freddie’s, you lost a former loyal customer this year.

Great place to enjoy some awesome food and drinks poured by beautiful bartenders! They have drink specials everyday! Stop by and feel the great atmosphere the staff represents!

I surprisingly loved this place! We went on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and it was crowded, but not crazy!
Basically, you seat yourself, and a waitress from the bar comes and takes your drink order only and you pay her for that. Any food order requires you to walk upstairs into the main restaurant and order/​pay at the same time. Then you are given a number and when your number comes up on the digital reader (there are numerous around the bar/​dock) and then you pick up your food upstairs. Kind of strange, but it works!
Their food menu is small, but there is a lot of variety. The beer and alcohol selection is large (obviously, it’s a huge bar). I ordered the chicken avocado sandwich, a Marga-​Rona (Coronarita hahaha). My partner ordered the pig roast sandwich. A member of our group ordered the peel and eat shrimp to share. The food took a little bit to finish, but it was so crowded, so we didn’t care. My sandwich was awesome. Came out hot and tasted really good. My partner said his pork was excellent as well. I didn’t get to try it. But I tried his potato salad, and that was so good! There were a lot of pickles and eggs and it was so good! The peel and eat shrimp were really good as well, but it’s shrimp, pretty hard to mess up.
Overall, a really cool place to go with lots of good food and drink. They had a DJ taking requests, the Kraken rum girls were there giving out free samples of Kraken and Coke, as well as free merchandise! We got the last tin Kraken sign! There were contests and all sorts of good stuff. I was surprised at how family friendly this place was (we had two little ones in our group), but also so adult. The bar was huge and had a ton of different things to drink. Great place to dock your boat and have a meal.

This is one of the best waterfront options on the chain of lakes in my opinion the patio makes the place. It’s a huge outdoor space with a large outdoor bar and has a few TVs for watching sports. The service is for drinks only you order your food inside and are given a number. You can see the numbers posted in various areas including outside so I recommend ordering and grabbing a table outside. The kitchen and waitresses are not speedy so I generally order a beer at the bar inside before I walk out too. The inside of the restaurant has a lot of great old signs which make it fun to look around and the inside bar has plenty of TVs for watching sports when it’s not patio weather. The menu here is basic limited to a few selections of burgers chicken etc. It would be nice of they would add some additional items like a veggie burger for non-​meat eaters. So for me the patio is 5 stars the food and service are 3 stars rounding it out to my 4 star review.

Great for stopping on the boat and grabbing a drink. LOVE the deck and the chairs are super comfortable. Beautiful view. The food sucks and you have to go order and bring back your own. They need to have food service on the deck… Or anywhere for that matter. Basically a good place to get some drinks on a nice day and that’s the most it offers.

Bought a boat this summer and making our way around to all the restaurants on the chain. Let me premise my review with we have 3 young children and yes this is technically a bar and restaurant and I may feel differently if we weren’t with our kids, but that’s why we bought the boat– for our family. Also going to dinner at 4:30 on Sunday is a pretty family friendly time and this place was fairly empty. We were the only ones in our waitress’ section.
That said it’s ridiculous you have to go inside and order your food like a cafeteria. This is not a full service restaurant, and for that reason we will never be returning here. Even without the kids I wouldn’t return on mere principle that I expect the waitress to being me my food, especially when there isn’t anyone else in your section and you have nothing to do except sit on your phone or socialize.

I enjoyed this place.
Just a tip for you newbies, you dont just sit & get waited on (except for drinks) you gotta go inside & order at the counter & wait for you order (which if they are busy can talk awhile)
but relaxing on the patio is nice when the weather is good. If you own a boat make sure to swing in.
The food we ordered was good. I had a Chicken Avacado wrap with fries & a side of onion rings. Delicious!
The others had a burger, chicken tenders, nachoes & corn dog. All yummy!
Cocktails were good, but a little high.
All in all we enjoyed sitting on the patio by the water & enjoying some good food.

Stopped by in a pontoon boat in the middle of our Chain-​O-​Lakes pub crawl. The staff was really accomodating, and the food was delicious! We’ll be back next year. Try the hamburgers.

1. For the price, this place has fantastic food.
2. Drinks are a bit pricy for the area considering many bars in Fox Lake sell domestics for 2 $ a draft on average.
3. Has an upstairs dance floor which is quite large.
4. Has a gigantic patio with a bar of its own for off-​the lake drinking and dining as well as another smoking area which is screened in.

Came here randomly on a Sunday during lunch hour… not their most popping time, I’d imagine, but there was a decent crowd. The food was amazingly cheap, and not half bad either. I was kind of annoyed that they prepped my fried twinkies first, which they serve with ice cream… by the time the rest of my food was ready it was in a pool of milk.
Still, pretty amazing to find a bar where the specialty burgers are around $ 5 a pop. The drinks weren’t badly priced either. Probably a decent place to chill if I was around the area more.

What no wings? Come on. It’s a boater bar on the lake. Lots of drinks and food selections. I just can’t believe that they don’t have wings anymore. Sorry Famous Freddies, I won’t be back.

Ambiance — 5 stars
Food — 3 stars
Drinks — 1 star
This is a great spot, to have friends meet up before a day out on the boat, or a ride on the bikes… food is good, and reasonably priced, although sometimes can be quite a wait TIP: your server does not get your food for you. From diet cokes to daiquiris, drinks are terrible and terribly expensive. You are safe if your drink comes in its own bottle… if not save yourself the hassle.

Great place for lunch dinner or drinks prices are dirt cheap favorite lunch spot on the chain.