River Roast

It's truly indescribable how superb the overall experience at River Roast was - the ambiance, the delicious food, the warm hospitality, everything was simply exceptional. Our culinary journey began with a delightful appetizer of grilled octopus, elegantly accompanied by a flavorful piquillo coulis sauce. The octopus itself was flawlessly prepared. I then savored a delectable dish of roast beef alongside grilled asparagus and a serving of mac & cheese. To add to the celebration of my birthday, the attentive waiter surprised me with a heavenly carrot cake, hands down the best I've ever tasted. If I were to return to the city, River Roast would undeniably be my first choice restaurant to revisit.

What a great lunch experience. The decor is beautiful. Really enjoyed the bottom floor patio views of the water. Had the added surprise of the Navy Blue Angels practicing for their show this weekend. I had the Grilled Chicken B.L.T.A. and side of Street Corn. The meal was delicious. I was confused with the BLTA which the A was supposed to be avocado. I think it was really an avocado spread on the bottom of the sandwich. The sandwich would have been better with the avocado. In my head, I was wanting it so it detracted from the experience even though the sandwich was still so good...as a BLT. Oh, the toasted sourdough bread was wow! The street corn was excellent. Lots of great flavors. It was a big serving, best for 2 people.I really want to go back for this BLTA and have the avocado! Since I won't have time, please go for me!! Let me know what you think.

Updating my review because I GOT MARRIED AT RIVER ROAST! I want to shout out the amazing event team and event space, that only made my love for the restaurant stronger. 7 years ago when I moved to Chicago, I was nowhere close to getting married, but I saw River Roast's event space from a boat tour and said "now THAT would be a dream wedding venue." I'm still blown away that I actually made this dream come true! We booked River Roast in Dec 2022 for our April 2024 wedding after touring about 20 venues. We chose based on River Roast's location, amazing food, close to all-inclusive packaging, and dynamic pricing for the off-season. And OBVIOUSLY for the gorgeous patio space!! We had a great initial tour with a staff member who is no longer there, and our account was transferred to Jessica after we booked who was then our main contact. Jessica was so great!! She checked in often in the downtime before we really needed to start planning, and then was totally on top of things as we got closer. She knew all the details that other couples cared about or forgot and always made sure nothing was overlooked. When some floor plan things needed changing after our rehearsal, she got everything fixed right away so it was ready to go when we arrived on the wedding day. Jessica also went above and beyond, letting us store some things at her desk to minimize stress on the wedding day. The food on our wedding day was PERFECT and even better than our tasting. We had a guest with extremely severe allergies, and Jessica personally worked with him to make sure he could eat. And it wasn't just a bland plate - they brought him every side dish and even late night snacks tailored to his needs. We loved the menu options, and how we could have unique options like tuna tartar on wonton chips, but could still offer a classic steak and potatoes for the grandparents with less adventurous tastes. Several guests said the chicken was the best wedding chicken they've ever had. We could not have asked for a better venue. We were lucky to have a perfect April weather day and the patio was gorgeous. We had lots of out of town guests who loved being downtown on the river. Our photos are amazing. The River Roast team and event space truly made our dream wedding come true, and I'll be talking about it forever.

A bit of an unusual review. Unusual in how every person working at River Roast is empowered to ensure customers are satisfied. We had a couple of issues and two different employees- one server and one bus person- immediately took steps to correct the issue without having to get a manager. We only commented on something and they immediately reacted. Extremely unusual in these times, kudos to the culture they have created. Now the food.Sat outside along the river, beautiful atmosphere. Ordered Pork belly, was awesome, a great treat. Tuna tartar, same, unbelievable. Beef roast was good, no disappointments. Service was attentive considering how busy they were, was nice that servers not responsible for our table still asked if we were ok. Normally I would rate lower for a couple of issues we had, but the immediate response and care was phenomenal, erasing any negativity. Again, kudos to the whole team and culture of service.

Affordable prices even though it has an amazing view of the river! $3 beers during happy hour, nice servers, and a lot of space inside and outside of the restaurant. Portions are decently sized as well!FOOD:Beet Salad w. Steak (7/10) - Steak was well cooked, beet salad has a bit too much dressing. Opt for dressing on the side!RR Burger (7/10) - Solid burger but nothing special here!

I typically only leave 5 star reviews, but had such a terrible experience at this restaurant that I had to leave this one star. I was planning a family vacation, and our last night was in Chicago. I knew my kids would love the location -- right along the Chicago River and I made a reservation nearly 3 months in advance asking for a riverside table. I know it's not guaranteed but I put in the date as early as possible knowing it would be such an amazing way to wrap our trip.My spouse arrived first with our kids as I looked for parking nearby. I ended up just doing valet since street parking is nearly impossible in this part of the city.Unfortunately, there wasn't a riverside table available when we arrived. We totally understood, but asked if we could get a table along the water if something opened up. The host checked with the manager, Ernesto, who said he'd be happy to seat us as soon as a table was available. My partner took a seat with our kids away from the water and I joined as soon as I parked. But that's when things went in a bad direction. Ernesto walked by our table and saw we were gay dads with 2 kids. It clearly made him very uncomfortable.A table opened up right by the water after being seated about 10 minutes later. We just got the menus and didn't order anything. The host came back and said that the manager declined our request. His reason? There were reservations that night. Wait, didn't we also have reservations? Why the change of heart? It made no sense.Ernesto ran to the table to clear it and said we absolutely couldn't take this table since there were others that claimed it. The table was a group of high school kids (seriously). We held strong and pointed out the fact that he agreed, only to change his mind once he saw us. He immediately folded and reluctantly gave us the table.We moved to the riverside table and our kids absolutely loved it. They waved at every boat that passed by. It was so cute and even our neighboring table took our family picture since they could tell we were having so much fun.We knew exactly what we wanted to order, but a server didn't show up for over 20 minutes. When I tracked down Ernesto to ask who our sever was, he immediately put the blame on us, saying that we confused everyone. He honestly went as far as saying that it was our fault since we changed tables and that confused everyone. I found it truly shocking he was blaming us for the service, rather than apologizing and just sending someone over to take our order. This is a sign of terrible management and needs a change.Overall, the food was delicious (the roasted chicken was out of this world), our server was warm and welcoming (once we could track him down), and we enjoyed the wine and the ambiance along the river. But it was absolutely terrible how they treated our family. At one point, I needed to use the restroom and started walking inside to find it. There was a straight woman also lost, and Ernesto went out of his way to show her. But when he saw me, he put his head down and walked in the opposite direction. I find it so strange in a city like Chicago to experience such discrimination. We honestly have never been treated so terribly in all our years of travels. We started our trip in Kentucky, where we were welcomed with open arms and such love. It was terrible to have this happen to us.If you're gay, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, we recommend not supporting this business as long as this management is in place. It's terrible and they should be ashamed of how they treat their customers. I will say that the host, and servers were so warm and welcoming. They seemed to be stuck by this terrible manager. Ernesto should be fired. And yes, I welcome this business to contact me directly and I'm happy to provide more details to this experience.

To get there was a little odd, but that was probably user error. We walked North on Clerk and went along the river overlook, around all the people eating. On the way out that gate was locked. So maybe try the front entrance. It does have a great view of the water, elevated between the road and river. The outside tables were full but inside was fairly empty. It is a large place but I believe this was dinner on a Sunday. We got the cheese board, $21. Cheese boards are always overpriced but this one had a variety of items and sizeable. For entrees we got the Beet salad, $18. The different components of this worked well together. It was also large and would be difficult to finish. And the Beer Stewed Mussels, $21. I really enjoyed this and I couldn't even eat all of it. The beer mixed well with the sherry. The toast was great to taste more of the sauce. The mussels tasted fresh. I would actually recommend sharing this dish. It is a lot of one item. One or two small knocks on this place was every song seemed to be the hits of 1985-1995. You can pay online, which was a positive, especially as our waiter didn't come back to ever give us the check. They did have a mix of inside and outside tables though. There's not a ton of choices, especially if you're not a big meat eater.

Went to River Roast for the first time and I really like the laid back vibe of the restaurant. Looks like there was an event going on so it took us a long time to get our food, however the staff were accommodating to make sure we got all our dishes.I highly recommend the burrata. It does have ham on the side. The cheese was delicious on toasted sourdough and comes with greens as well. The mac and cheese was good but I wish it was more creamy as all the sauce was at the bottom and the top had dried. The salad was alright - I do love beets! The half chicken was really juicy and had delicious potatoes at the bottom. I wish the potatoes weren't all different varying saltiness because it seems that the different potatoes soaked up the saltiness from the chicken and were left burnt in some spaces.

Service & drinks were excellent for the pricing; location & ambiance you can't beat on the river in summer

Food, service, ambiance and the view - it was amazing! Would definitely come back here