Mr A’s Italian Beef

I have run across the owner several times and eventually decided to try out the place. Walking in I feel like I walked into the place as it was decades ago before I was born. For some places that’s a negative, but this place is pretty neat. I feel like I am enjoying food from the 70’s and for me that’s pretty cool. They only accept cash, so be prepared. Food is about average prices (compared to a rival Portillos) but the beefs are definitely higher quality. If you like beef, I’d say check this place out because you’ll probably really like it!

Please, for the love of God, do not go to Mr. A’s. I went there for much of my childhood and resented it every time my parents decided on this restaurant. The burger patties are about a quarter inch thick with stiff buns; the fries are either freshly fried and amazing, or old and refried; the hotdogs are average with cold buns; the beef sandwiches are so wet that they’re nearly impossible to eat; drink refills cost money; cash only, but there is an ATM; VERY POOR service from employees; bathrooms are poorly lit and desperately need to be cleaned and renovated; the floors are always mopped, but tables and chairs are sticky. Bottom line: this place had its glory days from the 1960s-​1980s but it has rapidly gone downhill since then. I recommend Portillo’s for a better hotdog, burger, or beef.

Never would come here again. Poor service. The place was dirty and Grungy. All the tables were filthy and I told the lady and she said under her breath that she had just got there ! The beef was soggy and fell apart couldn’t nearly eat it and the food was not even hot even tho they had just made it. Not to mention 50 cent refills ! Would not recommend waisting your money. Not to mention they are still in Stone Age and don’t accept debit or credit cards !!!

I have always like Mr A ‘s seems like they have had the most consistent flavor and juiciest beef in the burbs. The place was a hang out back in high school so they must be doing something right as they are still in business years later, Love the homemade hot pepper mix and roasted sweet peppers. Fries are fresh and plentiful served with the skin on just the way you like them a large will feed to adults no problem. I would recommend this place to any Italian beef lover very reasonably priced and great food … AAA+++

Talk about a blast from the past! When I was a little girl my Dad would take us to Mr. A’s for hot dogs… I swear the place hasn’t changed in 40 years.
I actually had totally forgotten about Mr. A’s until the other day when I drove by. I decided to stop in for lunch. I had the italian beef, fries, and a root beer. All pretty decent.
While I was eating though I imaged that I was back in 1976. It was quite the trip. If folks remember, little mom and pop restaurants is what was available. Maybe the food and service wasn’t always the best. but a family depended on that business to survive. Now we have franchises and mega chains that serves up the same food either consistently good or consistently bad and some CEO somewhere is making all the money. Times have changed… sorry I guess I’m just feeling a little nostalgic.
Decent fast food in an old time atmosphere.

UPDATE: I just went to Mr. A’s the other day and when I get Italian beef sandwiches from there I always ask for a box. The reason I do this is because the dipped beefs always leak through the brown paper bag. If they would just use the more expensive cushion foil instead of the cheap wax paper to wrap the beef sandwiches they wouldn’t leak so much.
ANYWAY, the box that they put my order in was a hot dog box. This told me the type and size of the hot dogs they use. They use a skinless Vienna hot dog (11 – 1). The skinless Vienna hot dog is a pure beef dog that many fine hot dog stands use. The real issue is the 11 – 1 hot dog which means eleven to a pound. The standard for a good hot dog stand is 8 – 1 which is eight to a pound. So u r getting a good dog but a very SKIMPY one. A ten pound box of 8 – 1 hot dogs gets you 80 dogs. A ten pound box of 11 – 1 hot dogs yields 110. Thirty more hot dogs! They charge over $ 3.00 for a hot dog. At least it comes with fries. The actual hot dog costs them about 45 cents whereas if they used an 8 – 1 it would cost about 63 cents. So that is an 18 cents difference per hot dog which is huge. They are making more $$ by doing this and customers are getting a smaller hot dog.
BOTTOM LINE: You are getting a quality Vienna hot dog albeit smaller than what good hot dog stands serve. And the beef sandwiches are as good as ever! They are not skimpy at all. They are bigger, better and cheaper than Portillo’s which I had recently. I still believe that Mr. A’s is as good as any beef joint in Chicago! My previous review goes into more detail about their Italian beef. They only charge $ 6 for an Italian beef and if you take advantage of their buy 3 get one free special it brings your cost down to $ 4.50 each which is a great value! That buy three beefs and get one free is an everyday offer and has existed for the entire 2 years that I have been coming here.

Seriously?!? What kind of place doesn’t accept debit cards! oh wait you have an ATM? That’s cute why doent I pull out a $ 20 and pay $ 5 in atm fees for a $ 6 meal just because you guys are too cheap to accept credit and debit cards! Lol wow. I can accept credit and debit cards through my phone and I don’t even have a business! How do you guys stay in business. I can’t be the only one who walked in ordered then walked out because I don’t carry cash anymore… C’mon mr. As get with the times. This business just left for good and will be going to tommys for my hotdog and fries from here forward. It’s a sad sad day for me to be completely honest but I won’t support a business that is so cheap. They won’t make things convenient for their customers and therefor I won’t be one of their customers. gg, nh and gl Mr. A’s. Your gonna need it with an attitude like that.
Keep in mind this is supposed to be a business. Generally business’s cater to customers not gouge them for ATM fees. Honestly their hotdogs are good and I’ve even stuck with them this whole time giving them 20 years to get with the times but unfortunately they refuse to update their system and therefor I won’t give them my business anymore.

No credit or debit cards. I was told it was because of cost. I think its more to do with the ATM machine with the really high up-​charge near the register. I left, I’m not going spend three dollars to buy ten dollars worth of food.
The next time I came in having cash in hand. Ordered a beef and some onion rings. Kid got a dog and fries.
The beef had a flavor I wasn’t familiar with. Maybe a family recipe I just wasn’t a fan of. Onion rings however were pretty awesome. Kid liked the dog. Then again, its a hot dog.
It will be hard to go back when there’s a Tommy’s like ¼ mile away. They like most businesses take CCs. 2 stars because of the whole ATM BS

Both my girlfriend and I got sick from eating here. We both had the Italian beef. She got a side of pickles and it smelled like window cleaner. That should have been our first sign to not eat the food. Never again.

Tried for the first time recently. Burgers were like those thin frozen burger patties, small in size and no flavor. Buns were stale. My friend ordered hot dogs, said they were ok. I thought pricing was high especially for the quality of food. Maybe Italian Beef is the way to go at this place.

We had Mr A’s beefs yesterday for the first time and they were fantastic. The beef was extremely tasty and the au jus was awesome. Will definitely be going back!

I asked for an Italian beef «dry and toasted with juice on the side» (I don’t like my sandwich soggy). Yah, these guys couldn’t figure that out. The sandwich still fell apart — FAIL! Maybe it’s the high school kids who are working here that act like they don’t care. This place really bothered me and I will not eat there again. Plus it’s an all cash joint which is kind of annoying. In this day and age you should be able to take credit cards or use Square instead — not these guys.

You have to get a beef here! They have home made gardinara that is second to none. Top a beef off with cheese and there is none better in McHenry county.

This place has been my family’s favorite place to get Italian beef for as long as I can remember. Italian beef is my dad’s favorite food, so it says a lot that this is my dad’s favorite place to get one.
The inside of the restaurant is dated, but it’s very clean. They’ve been around for a really long time, and it seems like they’ve never changed their décor, but it gives it kind of a cool flair. There’s quite a bit of seating to eat in, but it’s very quick to just grab something and go.
We usually just get Italian beefs with peperoncinis and sometimes fries with cheese dipping sauce (carnival cheese is my guilty pleasure). The beef is great. They’ll make it dry or juicy, however you prefer. They’ll dip the entire sandwich, if that’s what you want. My only complaint about the food is that the peperoncinis are served whole, stems, seeds, and all. It’s a bit annoying to have to take the stems off and cut them up yourself, especially if you’re just grabbing food to go. It would be nice if they could pre-​slice and deseed them.
Their prices aren’t unusually low or high, they’re just about in the middle. About $ 6 for a big beef sandwich. They only accept cash or local check, though they do have an ATM in the store if you only have a card on you.
The staff interaction has been a mixed bag. Occasionally, they seem exceptionally grumpy, and they can’t pull off the «I don’t give a crap» attitude like the workers at Alex’s in McHenry can. It can be unpleasant to deal with the cashier. However, I’ve ordered from really kind cashiers as well.
We just catered my brother’s eighth grade grad party (who gets an eighth grade grad party?!) with Mr. A’s. Twelve pounds of beef, 10 loaves of bread (five feet long), two buckets of au jus, two pints of sweet peppers, and a pint of giardiniera ran us about $ 180. The staff was pleasant when I went to pick it up, and even offered to help me take it out to my car.
Awesome food here at Mr. A’s. I’ve always wanted to try their pineapple shake, so I hope I can stop by again soon!

Had a beef there today and was the same as it was in high school.
Always good, now I never would go there for anything else, and reading other reviews, I probably wouldn’t try anything but the beef.
Yes, the décor is the same as it was 25 years ago. Get over it. You’re not there for the ambiance.
It was clean when I was there…

Disgustingly filthy bathrooms. They look like they have not been cleaned in months. Sticky floors, dirty toilet, pissed on seat and a moldy sink. Despite the nasty bathroom and unclean dining room, the beef is great. I was there at 3 pm today and was the only person there, yet half of the tables in the dining room were dirty. I have come to expect filth with Mr A’s, yet great food. I fear if I saw the food prep area, I would never return. If you own this place and ever read this… CLEAN up your restaurant. C-​L-​E-​A-​N up the place. If you do not know what this means, hire a cleaning company to come in monthly, which is once a month more than it gets cleaned now.

Ok, I’ll admit it, Mr. A’s isn’t much to look at. It’s sort of a 70’s throwback, meaning, I don’t think it’s been renovated since it opened. This is neither here nor there, however, since hole-​in-​the-​wall places tend to over perform in my eyes. What almost turned us off is that they’re cash only. They will also take local checks, but I’m guessing the number of people who actually take them up on that is pretty far and few between. I was turned around and ready to leave when my husband decided to just withdraw money from their in-​house ATM (which was also a weird concept to me).
Alright, fine, I’ll stay.
We each ordered an Italian beef sandwich. Watch out, any extra toppings apart from the beef and the bread are going to cost you. 2 drinks & an order of fries to share all added up to about $ 19, fairly typical compared to other places in the area. As soon as we started to order the food, a gentleman started making our order in the back, and it was ready before we knew it.
The beefs were a good size. The bread was fresh & soft, and I felt like there was a good amount of juice: the meat was moist and the bun wasn’t falling apart soaked through. The gardinera left much to be desired. I know it’s homemade, which was a plus, but it wasn’t flavorful at all, just some celery & sport peppers in oil with hot pepper flakes. I would most definitely skip this next time. The fries were piping hot, a little thicker than McDonald’s Fries, and perfectly salted.
The biggest negative of my meal was the iced tea that I ordered to drink. It came from a machine and definitely had a weird plasticy/​metallic taste to it that was not pleasant.
My hungrier half remarked that he liked the flavor of Mr. A’s beef better than Portillos and also said that he would come back again (with cash). As for me, I could take it or leave it.

We have been eating here for years. Best beef I have ever had. For those of you who ordered other things off the menu and didn’t like what you ordered, it is a beef place. We have bought beef by the pound for party’s, Graduations, and Holidays.
This place may look rustic but i assure you, you will get a much better beef than portillos.
Please note they do not take cash

Place looks real shady on the inside. Unfortunately for them, this is the only way for people to get their food — no delivery available.
Good news: their beef is fantastic! The bread they use is great, the beef has flavor and it’s served wet standard. The giardianera is great and complements the beef well and I’d also recommend mozzarella as they use the good stuff liberally.
Hot dogs are Vienna beef — nothing outrageous, still good.
Fries aren’t bad. Onion rings need more onion. Overall, beef makes this place a plus. Would recommend for that alone.

OK. so, I took my Dad here the other night so he could try Mister A’s for the first time. He always thought they were a sub shop.
We walk in and are greeted by the crabbiest lady ever! I’m sure she is one of the owners and we couldn’t have bought a smile! Clearly, she didn’t care about the customers. I guess it is evident in the amount of customers that were in the restaurant… and we would be the only 2! Last time I was here I really liked the beef, but for some reason my beef was flavorless this time! After this experience I will not be going back. It’s likely they won’t be around for very long if they keep treating their customers like crap!
I take everything back that I said in my previous review.