Queen Albert Diner and Lounge

After reading the reviews for this place, I wanted to come try it. However, we arrived on a Saturday evening and it was closed. There was a gate in front of the entrance and it was pad locked shut. Maybe they are on vacation? Better call first next time!

It’s all good at Queen Albert’s. Solid fun with all the karaōke yodelling, cat calls and whistles. Apps and booze were good enough to be «not-​be-​so-​good-​for-​you». I had the mandatory chichiron bulaclac and San Mig. Twas’ ok. As far as THAT goes… let’s just say you’ll need the alcohol to counter the fat of the chichiron.
Like others have said, you mainly come here for the dive-​y ness and karaōke… the ballads are so sappy and melancholy your love-​lost, inner 15 year will cry and want to stab itself with a fork; so keep drinking and singing and enjoy!

Don’t come here to eat. There are far better places to grab some lumpia, kare kare and pancit here in the Windy City. Had to get that out of the way.
DO come here to have an awesome time. I am not very partial to dive bars. At least, I thought I wasn’t. Turns out, I just need to be in the right one. Queen Albert (I kept looking for some Pinoy drag queens) is the perfect place to knock a few back, listen to some impressive karaōke, narrowly avoid singing karaōke, hang out with one of the coolest women in Chicago (the owner), and toss back some coffee patron shots on the house («because, son, you need to loosen up!»).
Yeah, like I mentioned, the food won’t turn you into a Filipino food convert if you’ve never had it before. If you have had it before, it’s serviceable but not the best I’ve had. It’ll fill you up, though. And, you’ll need a full belly because you’re here to drink and carouse! You can’t do that on an empty stomach. Well, you can, but you’re likely to wind up on Law & Order: SVU if you do… so, don’t. QA is a good timey bar. The tvs are set to Filipino programming and, by the looks of it, I need to go to Manila, stat. The shows were awesomely insane. There was lots of singing, costume changes with each set, people getting sawed in half, ambiguous genders, tricks being played on people, and lots of laughing at other people. It’s like someone read my diary.
But the tv is a distraction. You’re here to sing. And, just like in Adventures in Babysitting, ain’t no one get out of QA without singing the karaōke. Be prepared to bring it or get served. The regulars at the bar are no joke. At QA, you can do duo karaōke. That means HARMONIES! Yes! And, all the videos are of white women from the 1980s who are writhing on a beach in butt-​floss.
.genius! It’s a sensory overload. So, while you are trying to work up the guts to singing after the semi-​pros, take some time to order some drinks. Any drinks. They’re strong. Come here with a DD or cab fare. You will get lit. It’s okay. And, if you’re not singing… you need to take that up with Ate Belle… who is the most interesting woman in the world. Seriously. Everyone at my table wanted to hear more of her stories, talk to her and bask in her awesomeness. She’s created a fantastic thing at QA and she won’t settle for people not having a good time. She noticed that I wasn’t singing (none of my wheelhouse tunes were in the book), so she sidled up to the table with shots… that she set on fire… and commanded us to drink. When that didn’t work, patron coffee shots to loosen me up.
I might love her.
When my group left, we were already planning a night where we bring a lot of loud folks in to carouse, drink, sing and good time. It’s impossible to do otherwise. Those are the rules.

I passed this place dozens of times and never was sure what it was — beauty shop, nails place, restaurant? With a name like this, no one can really be sure…
And then one night, a friend wanted to walk down Irving Park rd and stop at all of the places in the ‘hood. He had passed this place on his way to pick me up so it became our first stop.
Surprizingly, I found the place enchanting. Small yet somehow roomy. Big screen TVs everywhere, my friend and I sat at the bar. We watched the videos made with blond ex-​Russian/​Ukranian women posing in cheesy videos.
My friend was offered the microphone to sing and he took it gladly (ham that he is) and sang along with the Doors via kareoke. As he is Mr. Blues, I found the whole scene laughable but was impressed they they didn’t embarrass anyone into singing. The bartenders sang kareoke too.
It was all good. I will certainly go back.
It’s a totally cool unknown bar.

Walking into Queen Alberts is like walking into another world. We came around 11 on a Friday night, and got a table large enough to fit our group of 7. It was awesome — this place does not have your average karaōke — this place loves it some 70’s and 80’s ballad karaōke.
We unfortunately did not sample the food on this visit, but be expecting a review of that soon. The owner, Belle, was so welcoming to our «newcomer» group. She even celebrated with us by taking (free) tequila shots and singing a song — none other than «Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You.» What a night!

Watched Pacman DESTROY De La Hoya here, and it was pretty much the perfect environment for it. It isn’t a sports bar by any means… it’s much more akin to any party at your Filipino uncle’s basement. Kitsch decorations everywhere, dozens of Filipino dishes on the menu, and San Miguel bottles in the back.
The entire place was on fire as Manny pummeled Oscar, and as we were drunk with glee (and San Mig) post-​fight, they turned half the TVs to karaōke! It’s a small place, so everyone was participating in the fun.
Here are the precautions: as I said, it’s small. If you’re going to come for a fight, you’ll want to come early enough and endure through the undercard. They’re pretty strict about keeping to the fire code, though I think the real reason they lock the doors is they run out of chairs and physical space. Also, the food took a while to come out, but that may have been because the place was more packed than it usually is thanks to the fight.
Other than the time for the food, the service is pretty good. Once of the owners actually bought us a round of shots (and some mango juice for one of the DDs), and sang karaōke to us/​with us. She also dropped off a couple packs of Halls cough drops on our table since they didn’t have any other candies… thanks Ate!
I’m happy to say that the food is worth the wait. The longganisa was nice and crispy, the tocino lacked any chewy fatty parts, the kare-​kare sauce was nice and thick, and the lechon kawali were nice and bite-​sized. If you recognize any of those foods, you’re probably someone who could be pleasantly surprised by Queen Albert.