Mr. Brown’s Lounge

I came on my birthday and the food was good don’t get me wrong, but the service was HORRIBLE! We walked in and there wasn’t anything indicating if we should wait for a server or seat ourselves. There were at least 2 tables empty but hadn’t been cleaned. We had to go to the bar and ask for someone to clean a table to sit. When our waiter finally came to us after about 10 mins of waiting, we asked for a drink list (since when is there not a drink list at a restaurant/​bar?) when he came back with the wine list another 15 mins later, he never came back to take our order. Finally we had to go back to the bar to order drinks and when the bartender brought our drinks back, we had to order with her. This was really bad service with the waiting. If you are going to be a restaurant and bar then you need to hire the wait staff to adequately care for the customers. After waiting about 30 mins for my steak it was really good, but honestly, I could have gone somewhere else in that time and would have gotten better service and my food quicker in the time that I was waiting for the bartender or waiter or whomever was on the payroll to pay us some attention. The steak was great but I’ll never be back again.

My girlfriend and I went to Mr Brown’s Lounge Restaurant to celebrate my birthday. We had a great time. Candance our server was great great great and excellent. She answered all of our questions and described the food exceptionally well. Candance was attentive and informative. Everyone in the restaurant checked in on us and made sure we were well attended. The food was great and the drinks were wonderful. I will go back and ask for Candance.

Candice the bartender… Horrible service! Never offered me a water. I had to ask for one when my food came. She just stood behind the bar talking to the oasis machine guy about frozen drinks! A server too my order at the bar. Also never asked me if I wanted a drink. Food was tasty but the bun was meant for a 10oz burger and came with a 3−4oz chicken breast. Looked bad. All n all I won’t be going back due to the service.

Mr. Brown’s West Town location makes a mean jerk chicken. Unfortunately, this location is wildly inconsistent. .Food and service. I’m almost certain the jerk sauce today was cut with A-​1 steak sauce. Pass on the jerk Ceasar salad. Order the jerk dinner or wings.

I’m a big fan of «jerk» spices and this place delivers.
It was definitely on the «spicier» side compared to other places I have had. Their sauce blows buffalo wild wing jerk sauce out of the water.
Chicken was moist and plentiful for my plate.
Plaintains and rice were decent, not exceptional.
Only gripe was during our dine in, it took Over 30 minutes to receive the food despite the server telling us 15 minutes (cook to order).

SOooooooooOOOO good!
Great downtown location! Perfect Vibe! The reggae band was AWESOME! & the food & drinks were great! We had the oxtails and they were super tender and delicious. Staff was nice and attentive. Would definitely visit again!

I’m torn between giving this new location 2 or 3 stars. I’m only giving it 3 stars because the Venue is nice, the band played well & the food was good. However, the service was horrible. There’s a huge sign at the entrance that says wait to be seated. I stood there for 10 mins waiting for a hostess to seat me. There was a waitress serving the booth by the door, she had her back to me the entire time. She didn’t greet me. After 10 mins, she says you can sit wherever you want. That was my first issue. Secondly, 75% of the tables were dirty, 25% was taken. You do the math! I mean really dirty, an 8 top had dirty plates that sat there for at least 30 mins. So, yeah I had to sit at a dirty table. During those 30 mins (third issue), nobody came to our table to clean it or serve drinks. By this time, I’m very upset, ready to go but my boyfriend picked the location so we could celebrate & hear the live band. Fourth issue, after waiting so long to be served, I took it upon myself to just go to the bar to order drinks. «I’d like to 2 drinks, one will be…» Bartender interrupts me «are you eating as well?» I said «yes, but our waitress hasn’t been to our table for at least 35 mins so I want to order our drinks» Bartender «well, why don’t you just wait on the waitress, she’ll come over. «At this point I’m beyond annoyed, I told the BF, if she’s not over here in 5 mins we are leaving. She arrived but 45 mins had passed and we were just ordering food & drinks. I will say the drinks were very good but no one should have to wait that long to be seated & served. There we only 4 other tables being served. Only 1 waitress. My advice to this establishment is to keep a hostess at the door at all times or remove the sign that says wait to be seated, hire more wait/​cleaning staff & offer customer service & time management training to their staff.
Sorry for the lengthy review… But that’s what Unilocal is for!

I’d been wanting to try this place for a while. The menu online was different from the menu at the restaurant. They failed to disclose that some items on the menu were seasonal. There was only one waiter working and there were quite a few guests. I ordered the tilapia sandwich and thought I’d get a filet that had been grilled and seasoned with jerk sauce. Instead I got a fried fish sandwich that was over priced. I was so disappointed in the service and the food. I’m sorry I cannot recommend this restaurant. Ja Grill is much better than this place. I was told to try the other location. Maybe I will.

We had the goat & jerk chicken special. Both were good. The room is nothing special. I don’t know if I’d go back.

Best Jamaican food I have ever had. I would eat here every day if I could. The jerk chicken is beautifully smoked and spicier side. The oxtail is outstanding. Really good patties and coco bread. The restaurant is new and very clean. The staff is super friendly.

Went here for some coworkers’ birthdays. Got the jerk chicken sandwich. I did not care for it at all. The flavors were not complex at all – just the jerk flavor, nothing else. The chicken was a little rubbery. Service was good, but that’s about it.

This my second time dining at the downtown location. I’ve enjoyed myself each time. I always take a seat at the bar… the cocktails are delicious. The MBL Mule is my favorite.
The staff and atmosphere was extremely welcoming. The bartenders were friendly, attentive and knowledgeable about the menu. That’s definitely a plus in my book.
The food was really good. I’ve tried the island mac & cheese, the meat patties, and and the po’ boy sandwich. Love it! Great flavor in dish. I will definitely go back to try other dishes. Plus there’s live music on the weekends after 10pm and drink specials throughout the week. Fun place, great atmosphere and really good food.

Our waiter was very friendly, that’s the only good thing about this place. The food seemed like it came out of a microwave.

I was here before and had a decent experience. Even though the food and waiter was slow.
My recent visit was not good. I ordered the jerk wings. When I opened the wings, it was BLOODY and pink. Not just a little blood and a little pink either. I told another waiter because I had not seen mine in a while. He brought the chef out (which I found odd). The chef told me they were smoked for a long time and grilled so it’s ok for there to be blood and for it to be pink. Then he looked at me crazy when I didn’t want the good.

My one issue is that the chicken sandwich I ordered had really dry meat. Everything else was on-​point. Now, maybe the problem is that I didn’t order one of the entrees, but my appetite wasn’t too large at the time, and the prices of those items made me feel that the portions would be huge.
I shared some sides with my sister, and they were tasty. The wings were especially nice. Very spicy. Memorably spicy. «Get extra water» spicy. It was fun. The waffle fries were also good!
I enjoyed the rum punch. I think the best one I’ve had to date was at a place in London («Dub Jam» if you visit), but this was refreshing.
I’d go again, for dinner, and order one of the more traditional caribbean items next time. But probably not for lunch.

Mr. Brown’s is a great addition to the Hard Rock. Keep your eyes peeled as you walk down Wacker because the storefront is small and easy to miss. It’s a very casual and relatively small restaurant, but it’s got a ton of personality. The walls are covered in brightly colored ads and there’s really good reggae playing. There is a small patio with limited outdoor seating, but it’s not the sunniest spot. The service is very friendly, but laid back; no one will rush you out of your table here.
I went for lunch, and had jerk chicken wings and cabbage. The wings were fantastic! *If you don’t like your food too spicy then ask for your sauce on the side. The wings come with pita bread, and you want Jamaican bread you have to pay extra… The cabbage was cooked perfectly but had no seasoning, which was sad. I didn’t have any cocktails but they have a pretty cool drink menu. I’d definitely go back for drinks and more wings.

I bought my dad here for Father’s Day because he loves jerk chicken (I do not but decided to put my dad first for his day!) the place was easy to find, the service was good, the food was great and they totally exceeded expectations. While, I don’t like jerk chicken I found everything else to be very delicious. I ordered the ox tails. Very satisfied and my dad loved it! They had old school sports on TV so he was in heaven.

Came here for lunch recently as I realized they had recently opened a short distance from my office. I am a big fan and former frequent visitor of the Chicago Ave location in Ukrainian Village (I even got a review of the day for it back in 2010 lol). We and my entourage of 4 came over and it was quite empty especially for a place attached to the Hard Rock hotel. They have an outdoor patio on the side but we didn’t do it because the weather looked a little spotty.
I figured I would get something different in this location as I always get the jerk chicken. I went with the jerk chicken sandwich which was pretty good… a nice healthy piece of chicken on the bread to say the least. Make sure you get the jerk sauce to top it off. It comes with fries and you can substitute with waffle fries for $ 2 extra. The island mac and cheese is still good and you get a big portion of it which is awesome and worth the $. The girls that work here are really nice. My only issue with this location is that the service was a bit slow in terms of getting our food out to us while were on our lunch break
On my 2^nd visit, me and my buddy sat outside as it was a bit nicer in terms of weather. I ordered the island mac & cheese along with rice & peas and he ordered a jerk burger. We were the 2^nd occupied table outside, but more people came after we sat. We noticed we were the only people that had not been served and we had been sitting well over 30 mins waiting on our food… most that came after us had been served. I would imagine our non complex order would not take so long to come out and it would have been nice to have something removed from the bill, but it was not. We were offered free sodas in which in my opinion does not cut it for our whole lunch break to be blown.
I really hope they do well in terms of opening up tourists to Jamaican/​Caribbean cuisine as there really isn’t anything like this or really have been on the mag mile which usually serves up your usual chain restaurants or american/​safe cuisine offerings. They need to get their act together in terms of timeliness if they are gonna play with the big boys in the loop.

LOVE Mr. Brown’s Lounge on Chicago Ave, so I was excited to see another location opening downtown. The food is the same… excellent!
The service is very friendly and helpful, but a little slow. It has a somewhat less island feel than the other location, but is more modern and spacious. They do have live music on the weekends (but not reggae).
Just a heads up if you don’t like spicy. Ask them to put less seasoning. Their Jerk is pretty spicy, but delicious!

From start to finish I was thinking nothing but WOW. The thoughtful execution beginning with the décor, cocktail list and food menu really glimmers with a truly unique touch. The service was gracious and really fit well with the chill authentic Jamaican vibe they’re aiming for. I can’t wait to come back when the lights turn down low! Extra points if you get that reference. Well done MBL!