I would be lying if I said that Five Roses Pub in Rosemont was our first choice for dinner, but when you don’t make reservations anywhere on a Saturday night, and assume that you’ll be able to just walk in and get a table, you’re kind of left with whatever options are available.
After trying at least 3 other restaurants in the Rosemont entertainment district, we were finally able to find a table at Five Roses Pub… although there was still a 30 minute wait. Which was totally fine, because all the other restaurants in the area were 45-90 minute waits.
There was a group of three of us and we were just looking for somewhere to eat and enjoy a few drinks for the night, so really, anywhere that we ended up would have been fine.
Five Roses Pub Restaurant – Rosemont
Five Roses Pub is an Irish Pub that serves up delicious drinks and a variety of traditional Irish meals… which made me a little worried.
I’ve been to a number of Irish pubs over the years, but most of the time it’s just to drink. I’m not a huge fan of Irish food, or Irish-style food, so I was a little concerned when we ended up here.
The decor of the restaurant is nice, it definitely has that Irish pub feel to it. There was a live band playing on the stage, which was awesome because they were playing covers of a bunch of 90’s music. And the music wasn’t so loud that it was hard to hear your conversations, which is always annoying when you’re trying to talk to the people in your party while eating.
We ended up sitting at a high-top table a few feet from the bar after about 30 minutes of waiting, but there was plenty of space to wait around the bar, and we even got to talking with another guy who was hanging out doing a Rosemont pub crawl, which is apparently a thing. They drive in once a year from Rockford or somewhere, get a hotel room in the area, then have a nice steak dinner at one of the restaurants nearby, and then they walk from bar to bar drinking all night. It actually sounds like a lot of fun…
Anyways, it only took about 30 minutes to get our table, which didn’t seem very long at all considering how crowded the whole area was, and we immediately ordered drinks.
Food and Drink
I don’t think anyone ordered anything fancy, in terms of drinks. I had a Tito’s and soda, and I’m pretty sure the other guys had old fashioned’s. The drinks were fine… a little on the strong side, but that’s never anything to complain about.
When it was time to look at the menu, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to eat. We were supposed to go to Bub City that night for BBQ, so that’s what I was really looking forward to, but since we ended up at Five Roses, I was thrown off a bit.
Of course there were the obvious choices, like flatbread pizza and burgers, but I wanted to step out of my comfort zone a little bit and try something I wouldn’t normally order… plus that first strong drink had already made me a little tipsy, so fish n chips it was (pictured at top)!
I never eat fish… like ever. The last time I had fish was when were down in Florida in early 2019, and that was just because I didn’t want to eat yet another burger. So for me to order fish n chips at Five Roses was a huge deal.
The fish n chips consisted of battered Atlantic cod, served with cole slaw, fries and tartar sauce.
Let me tell you… it was absolutely delicious.
I didn’t try the coleslaw (because I only like coleslaw from KFC, ha!), so I won’t comment on that, but the fish itself was outstanding. I liked it so much that I actually ordered fish n chips when we went out to Yardhouse in Glenview a week later… although Yardhouse fish n chips weren’t nearly as good, but they weren’t bad.
The breading on the fish n chips at Five Roses was perfectly seasoned, very light and flaky, and the fish didn’t taste like fish and almost melted in your mouth. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I absolutely loved it.
I also remember that we got the calamari as an appetizer and it was spicy as hell. To be fair though, it does come on a bed of spicy cherry peppers, which is why we couldn’t figure out why some of the calamari was spicy and some wasn’t… we thought it was the sauce, or the breading… but it turned out to be the peppers. So while the calamari itself was good, if you can’t handle spiciness, or don’t want your calamari to be spicy, I would suggest telling them to leave the spicy cherry peppers out of the dish.
As far as the other meals that were ordered at the table, one buddy got a burger and the other go the Reuben, and I don’t recall hearing any complaints from either of them.
Overall though we had a great time at Five Roses Pub. It definitely wasn’t our first choice for dinner that night, but I don’t think any of us regretted ending up there. I do think that we probably all regretted going over to the casino after we ate though… not because we lost a lot of money, but because we did a lap around the casino floor and then questioned why we were even there, and left… it was just a waste of time.
We did end up heading over to Edison Park though and grabbing one more drink at the Edison Park Inn, which is an interesting place…
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