Hackney’s is a Chicagoland institution.  Started in Glenview in the 1920’s, the family-owned restaurant chain currently has three locations, two in Glenview and one in Palos Park.  Sadly, the locations in Wheeling, Lake Zurich and downtown Chicago have closed.

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Today was our first lunch at the Palos Park location and we left the restaurant both happy and sad.  Happy to be having lunch in an old school institution, but sad to see that it is starting to decline.

The restaurant itself is in a spacious old building and has a huge parking lot – with lots of handicapped spaces.  We walked in to find a friendly greeter who could not seem to decide if she wanted to seat us or answer the phone.  We were escorted to the back of the restaurant and a nice window table.  Along the way, we noticed we were the youngest people there by about 15-20 years.  The ambiance and décor were both nice, but the entire place could use a little updating.  At a minimum, a good and thorough dusting is required.

We ordered our drinks, Guinness for Tom and Smithwicks for Theresa, and looked over the menu.  The food options are plentiful and feature several signature classics including the Hackney burger and the French-Fried Onions.  Guy Fieri raved about the burger on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2007.

We decided to start with house salads, share a half order of the onions and then share the Mini-Hackney Burger appetizer.  The food took a long time to come, but when it did it was pretty good.  The salads were fresh, and the homemade croutons were excellent.  The French-Fried Onions, invented long before the Bloomin’ Onion, were hot, greasy and delicious.  The mini-burgers were a bit of a disappointment.  They were actually a single burger, cut into six pieces and served on somewhat stale homemade mini buns.  The taste of the meat itself was great, but we couldn’t get past the buns.  In the future, we will go with a more traditional burger or something else from the menu.

Hopefully Hackney’s will put a little elbow grease into the dining room and will continue to prosper.  We need more local restaurants in the area and are always interested in hearing about your favorites, so please give us some suggestions!