We stopped in for lunch at Ember's after seeing some positive reviews on Yelp. Walking in I have to say its a pretty cool setup. They have a great bar and the just a nice warm vibe to the restaurant just walking in. We didn't go to deep on the menu as far as eating but being that we are vegatarian i have to say they had some great options. But had to give it a start with the Bavarian Pretzels ... I would recommend them simple but fresh and so good. They have a great beer list of tap and bottled that consist of many great options. For my lunch I had the Falafel sandwich was so tasty. I would highly recommend it and the sweet potato fries that came as the side were amazing. Everyone in our party enjoyed the food they had (burgers, Falafel's and salad). I would definitely come back and have to say was not expecting a great spot like Ember's Tap House. Cheers to a job well done! read more

Embers - Really nice place - Gastropubs Near Me - Lockport, Illinois

We recently held our Wedding there and we couldn't be more happier with the entire Embers staff as well as Theresa Wolf. The staff was on point, the food was better than excellent and the reception hall was done up to perfection. This is a day my wife and I will remember forever. Excellent job to Theresa and her staff. Thank you so much Embers. ......oh the speakeasy was a plus!!!! read more

I have never had a poor experience at Ember's. The food has never disappointed me and sometimes I just go there for the Brussel sprouts and a beer. I've had the Lockport Legend, the grilled chicken panini and the adult grilled cheese ( which they need to put back on the menu for takeout!) My only complaint is that it can be hard to get a table on the weekends, which of course proves how popular this place is. The staff is always kind and attentive. I have never had even a "meh" server. They hire some very personable and friendly people, in my experience. read more

UPDATE re Ember's/933 Speakeasy Thanksgiving Dinner Catering- The Catering Manager called to explain the perfect storm of events which caused a mishap with Thanksgiving Dinner orders. After hearing what she had to say we fully understood most things were out of her control due to employee illness and she owned their mistakes in the mix as well. She assured us it was being looked-into carefully so this will not happen again to their customers old and new. She offered a Full Refund and asked to meet with us in person at the restaurant so she can apologize face-to-face. We are very happy with her professional and courteous reply. As mentioned in my previous review, once the food was properly cooked it was quite tasty. We will be repeat customers. read more

I ordered a Thanksgiving meal with Turkey to pick up on Thanksgiving day. I picked up the food and when I got home I realized they had forgotten the rolls and the pumpkin pie didn't look like a pumpkin pie. I called and the man who answered said I could pick up the rolls and he assured me it was a pumpkin pie. It was a s'mores pie. The meal was okay but nothing amazing. read more

My Marine son and DIL contacted Embers on short notice to have their wedding reception there before he ships out, and they were so great accommodating us. The good was fantastic and the service awesome! I highly recommend Embers for your party needs! read more

Embers - Gastropubs Near Me - Lockport, Illinois

See all

Great food and service! LOVE the live music! I think they are really trying to pick up the experience here after a long few years. They are still short-staffed, but the employees are working hard and polite. The manager is very helpful and from what I have seen is always pitching into help the staff. Great place to go! read more

Awesome ambiance, great service and phenomenal service. Great prices and just the perfect quality on their service. Hands down the best place I've Ben areiunfcthus part of town. Hands down great down here and take advantage of the best service and great quality they have to offer! We are looking forward to coming back. Also we met the owners of this place one night while in the Gold Coast. They are down to earth and very sweet couple. read more

Came in on a very quiet Thursday night. The food was mediocre. The garlic Parmesan fries left a lot to be desired, especially for $6. The green goddess dressing was the consistency of water and had no taste. I was going to order a pop but they were $4.50 each! Huh!! Then we were gonna play darts before we left. The hostess didn't care at all there were no darts anywhere. We stood there for 10 minutes while someone "looked" before just leaving. Service was slow. read more

Amazing time today at Embers. We had a group of 6 today for the sweet and savory crawl, Faith was our waitress and she did an incredible job. we can't wait to go back with a larger group! Thank you for the amazing service and incredible food and drinks! read more

Just have to say that Embers has left the best impression! Hospitable and attentive staff, delicious dishes, beautiful presentation, wide drink list and wonderful dessert. I recommend to everyone! I will come back again. I heard about Chef Bobby and verified it myself. read more

Seems like is should be good based on looks. The plus is there are many craft beers to choose from. The menu seems limited. Got a margarita flatbread as an appetizer. Not a whole lot of flavor for $10. Ordered a breakfast burger for dinner. At least it had flavor. Burger was tiny and only had 1/2 piece of bacon on it. Again, not a value at all for $10. I was hoping for a better experience in downtown Lockport, maybe Ill try again in the future, but am not in any hurry to return. **Update 11/18/2017 Went to try again for dinner, arrived at 5pm, had Brussels sprouts appetizer, probably the best I've ever had. Went downhill from there. Service is awful, slow, not attentive and did I mention slow?Ordered rib tip dinner, absolutely awful. Wife only ate half her sandwich, so I finished it so I did jot go home hungry. Bill came, was charged for extra beers and sides I didn't order, walked out 2.5 hours later. So yeah, place still sucks. Nice mojo inside though. read more

Embers - Gastropubs Near Me - Lockport, Illinois

Really disappointed in some recent changes to the menu. This place had killer veggie fajitas, and an impossible burger burrito that were easy to modify and make entirely vegan. I raved to my friends how good the vegan options were. Well, we came in and noticed they were taken off the menu. There's literally nothing vegan on the menu now except maybe a side of vegetables (who wants just that?). Our server informed us there is a new chef and he wanted to rework the menu.. I get it, but why take away options so everyone can enjoy the food? We had drinks and the drinks were okay, but we were hungry and disappointed we had no options. I hope this is just temporary and the chef will consider adding at least one vegan (or easily modifiable vegetarian) option back to the menu. read more

Awesome location. Great roof top. Awesome Food and Service! Staff is attentive and menu is awesome! read more

Embers - Great Food and Service! Roof Top Deck is one of a kind. Great Staff and Service! - Gastropubs Near Me - Lockport, Illinois

Met a few friends here last night on a recommendation. Great variety, great tasting "elevated" bar food. The Brussel sprout appetizer was awesome. I could make a meal out of those. Nicely caramelized with balsamic and a side of Parmesan dressing. Check my photos. I also tried the black bean burger which came with guacamole and chipotle mayo. Soooo good! They have so many beers on tap to choose from. Casual dress and atmosphere. My only complaint is the music got cranked up as the night went on and you couldn't talk without yelling. read more

Embers - Gastropubs Near Me - Lockport, Illinois

See all

We recently had our company Christmas Party at Embers on the third floor next to the Speak Easy. The place was decorated so well and would put anyone in the Christmas spirit. The Embers employee helping me with all of the planning and setup was extremely patient and was always willing to make any of the changes I needed. We had a larger party for the space, but we made it work. The food was served buffet style and was delicious. Despite the crazy busy night, our server was always gracious and served our group with a smile! I would recommend Embers to anyone having a party. Be sure to know how many people will be at the party so that you can reserve the correct space. read more

Went to this place around 8 times. Not served the last 3. No staff to handle demand, and frequently don't have balcony seating because employees are too lazy. SAD read more

want to like this place. rooftop. downtown location. but they don't serve u on the rooftop. the biggest reason i only gave this two stars is that EVERY time i've been in here the bartenders ignore us for like 15 mins even tho there is hardly anybody in there. very bizarre read more

Best rooftop patio in Lockport. Delicious, perfectly cooked and well seasoned meals. Very quiet off the downtown Lockport main-street. Very attentive waitstaff, Allie M. was very kind. Most importantly... GREAT place to watch the sunset. read more

Embers - Seared Salmon & Smoked Amish Chicken dinners. - Gastropubs Near Me - Lockport, Illinois

Sat with my 2 daughters for over 10 minutes without so much as a recognition that we were there let alone water or drinks. Got up and left. Unfortunately this is was kind of expected at Embers but they're local and I really want them to succeed. Please spend time training your servers. read more

This used to be where Dreams was once located. You can parallel park on the street, on a side street, or in the back across the railroad tracks. The restaurant was very clean. It was a Monday night, and we arrived before the dinner rush. I was happy to see they got busy on a Monday. The decor is nice. The tables and bathroom were clean - major +++ points!! I asked the waiter for a recommended IPA, and he went on to tell me he doesn't like IPAs, so he did not study the drink menu. Being with my girlfriends, I joked that I did not ask for his own opinion. ;-) My friends laughed because I really just wanted to know which beer was selling the most. The beer list is pretty long like Tap House (Lemont). The menu online was well presented and enticing. The menu in house was a piece of paper with no descriptions and formatting errors. I felt like I was ordering from a dive bar. The food arrived, and WOW!! Delicious!! We ordered three appetizers to share: artichoke dip with pita bread and chips, a small pizza with tomatoes, and a chicken tender basket with sweet potato fries. Do order these!! Love the food and presentation here. I am writing this review as 4/5 because the menu was a poor representation of the actual food presented. By the time we left, the place was quite busy. Clearly the repeat customers come for the food. It gave me a clear indication that I should come back again with my husband. The waiter had to be called back twice to give us our bill. I think he was new and did not have his time management skills honed in yet. Perhaps a manager on site could guide newbies through this. Just my two pennies since I used to work at Dreams many, many moons ago. Timing is everything. Overall, yes, I will definitely be coming back to give it a second try. read more

This place just opened. Service isn't there yet, but they are polite. They over serve their customers. As I write this sitting next to my 9 year old son, a drunk at the bar is dropping the F-bomb every other word as he espouses his political views. Btw, it's a Sunday @ 6pm. Currently a limited menu, but what I had was tasty, albeit a bit overpriced for what it was. Currently, it's just bar food but I've heard they plan to expand the menu. The decor is welcoming, but the music is a bit loud (it's possible we were just under a speaker). Loud music generally makes people talk louder, hence the profane drunk at the bar. read more

Embers - The Dreams burger - Gastropubs Near Me - Lockport, Illinois

Worst service ever and rude. Had a party scheduled there; they had my phone #, they suddenly decided to close restaurant, never contacted me. As guest started to arrive and could not get into the restaurant, I called and they said they didn't have the staff, which I would have understood, but at no point did they apologize or even call me so I could schedule the party for some where else. They were rude to me and basically told me that it wasn't their problem. I gave them 1 stars, so I could inform and worn people what to expect. They deserve LESS THAN 0 stars. Management needs to be removed before they run this business (if you want to call it that) into the ground. read more

So like many families that were celebrating Mothers Day we decided to order dinner out. After reviewing the online menus and deciding what to order we proceeded to call Embers on the telephone and place our order for pickup with them. After numerous attempts to call the restaurant to no avail we decided to just drive there and wait for the order to be filled. Upon our arrival at the restaurant we were informed by an employee of Embers that they were not serving or taking orders for food as they had a technical failure in the kitchen. While I can appreciate the fact that unexpected and unanticipated events can happen I can think of no excuse for not answering the phone in a professionally run business establishment that relies on customer satisfaction, ie. restaurant. read more

The food was okay, but what I was really disappointed in was no one was wearing masks. The bartender wasn't wearing a mask. And you couldn't really tell who was working there because the staff wasn't weren't a uniform they were wearing street clothes. read more

Love the atmosphere. Nicole is the best bartender. Make sure to say hi to her in Thursday's.

First time at Embers tonight and we absolutely loved it. Attended a food and wine tasting arranged by Isabelle and it was amazing. Highly recommend this location for any type of event you may have coming up. Ambiance is awesome. Cool outdoor spaces. It has everything. Call Isabelle! read more

This is a nice place. But slipping, New menu, but not as good as in the past Many great menu items were dropped as not selling as good as could be. Unfortunately profit over being a grealace be taking priority here. Still a nice place to Enjoy an evening, with exceptions, Tuesday evenings they have bar bingo. Nice if you are 65 years old or over and like bingo, if not its obnoxious and loud if you are not into bingo. the time Still nice atmosphere and overall a nice place but not quite as good as they were Makes me sad as this is one of my favorite places read more

Food was good, would recommend the jalapeño poppers. Service was terrible! Waited 15 minutes before anyone brought us menus or even took our drink orders. The wait only got worse as the night went on. The staff was inattentive and unapologetic, especially when they spilled hot oil from the fajitas on our friends leg. read more

I have been to Embers before and have good experiences, great food good service. Unfortunately was very disappointed with COVID regulations. They were unable to seat us outside due to rain, and when the rain was slowing, we asked to be seated outside. The manager abruptly informed us "maybe in a hour". Our waiter was not wearing a mask, multiple employees not wearing masks or wearing them wrong. Silverware and straws came in a communal basket. We decided to leave. When we told the manager about the poor mask adherence, he said "thank you" and ushered us out. Very poor adherence to masking standards, made me very uncomfortable. Will not be back. read more

So, I usually never go to Lockport. Really just because the traffic is so bad and it's not the safest town around. But considering downtown Lockport is mostly just bars I probably won't go back for a while, especially after the experience I had at Embers. I've worked in the restaurant industry, and an incredibly busy restaurant with a lot of rude customers, so I understand how stressful it can be. But even at the young age that I worked at a restaurant, I was mature enough to suck it up and treat people with respect, no matter how stressed I was, especially when the customers were treating me with respect. That being said, there is no excuse for the way I was treated at this depressing place. On Thursday evening, I went here with a friend for a Friends trivia night. The hostesses were nice, but as soon as we sat at the bar I received nothing but a horrendous attitude from the main bartender, who looked like she hated everyone, but she was especially hostile towards me. Anytime I asked for something she looked at me like she wanted to kill me, and her voice was terribly snippy. She needs a serious attitude adjustment if she wants to make any kind of tip money. I always tip, but she was so rude that this was the first time I've ever not left anything for a tip. Then when I went to bring the trivia answer sheet up to get checked, the guy felt it was appropriate to criticize my handwriting. He later apologized, but the entire experience at this mediocre place left a terrible taste in my mouth. Speaking of taste, the fried pickles were terribly greasy and just overall poorly made. If you're someone who likes being treated with immense disrespect and likes overly greasy and poorly made food, then this is the place for you! Good luck to you Embers, because some serious changes need to be made to both your food and staff if you want to stay in business! read more

Food is eh. Drinks were good. Service sucks their rude and inattentive. When we walked in they just pointed at the bar and said sit at the bar. Well we wanted a table i guess that wasn't an option. The bartender was annoying with his passive aggressive responses. Go somewhere else read more

This was my first visit to this restaurant, and the ambience was quite nice. My first impression was how large and spacious the first floor area was with a large bar, several booths, and a couple pool tables. I did not go to the second or third floor but from what I've seen on the website, they both looked nice. Bonus points for a roof top patio. The only negative about our booth was the table. Top was a bit sticky. The service was very good. We had no complaints, except that my waitress brought me water instead of Sprite. But that was quickly remedied. And when I asked for a new bottle of ketchup, she brought me a new bottle of ketchup. So new, in fact, that I had to unscrew the top and remove the seal! Not a dealbreaker, but worth mentioning. We had two appetizers: the pretzel bites, which were pretty standard and deviled eggs with smoked salmon on top. The deviled eggs were OK. My wife had a fire station burger, which was advertised, in all capital letters, to be very hot. It was not. Otherwise she said her burger was tasty. She also had a side salad. I ordered the classic burger to be cooked medium well. It was not. It was more like medium rare. I had tater tot's with my burger. So overall, we felt like it was an average experience, but we'd like to visit again to try something different on their menu and visit the rooftop patio. read more

If you like loud atmosphere and fairly descent bar food this is your place.

The beet salad is very good! Our server was nice and friendly. Food service was a bit slow...but we were not in a hurry. We would return. read more

See all

I am writing this review on behalf of my parents. They dined at the restaurant today after a long day of driving from NY. The staff at the restaurant could not have been more kind. When they found out my parents had traveled from NY and chose their restaurant they were so gracious and appreciate. They made my parents feel like VIPs. They ordered pretzel bites, a burger, and the pulled pork. Every item was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious. The staff really went above and beyond to make the end of my parents long day perfect. Would definitely stop here again if passing through. read more

I go to Lewis University and one of my classes got cancelled last week, so I swung by for a late lunch. I ordered a Bloody Mary which was flavorful and also came with bacon, #baconForLife. I also ordered a grilled chicken sandwich which was cooked perfectly and broccoli cheddar soup as my side. It was more than enough food for me! It was an awkward time of the day so the place was pretty empty, but I think the bartender would've given me the same awesome service even if she was busy, she was great! If my class gets cancelled again I know where to go, but hopefully when I park on the side of the building it will be shoveled a little Better so I don't put on an embarrassing show for the people at the red light again... read more

Horrible service, Cold food and they processed the groupon wrong . Would not go back. It was like pulling teeth to get the server to come back to our table . read more

Not sure how anyone can rate this place higher this place stinks! Food: nothing short of just greasy junk or reheated foods. Drinks: watched bartender continuously dig a rocks glass into ice to scoop ice. Very dangerous if that glass breaks. Service: No matter how busy the place is we always have slow service. Nothing more unprofessional watching servers clowning around on the floor. My wife and I love the look of the place and we have tried to like it but after three attempts we finally gave up. Hopefully they can improve as Lockport is desperate for some better restaurants. read more

Sat at the bar on a Sunday evening - just happens that I was a bartender for 20 yrs and I was with 2 ex-servers.. I have never been treated so rudely by a bartender. The bar had 5 other people - when she finally got to us she was horrible - I cancelled the drinks before she poured them........ Never, ever again would I go to or recommend Embers to anyone..... read more