Updated October 2026. A Friday family dinner for four at Bob Chinn’s Crab House in Wheeling. The bill is at the bottom.
Emily picked the restaurant. That is the funny part, because Emily does not eat seafood. She has never ordered anything from the water at Bob Chinn’s, and she still really likes the place, for the chicken tenders, the french fries and a red velvet cake she had there once and loved.
So on a Friday, a little after five, the four of us, Vika, Josh, Emily and me, went out to Wheeling for dinner. We just wanted to go out together and enjoy each other’s company. Bob Chinn’s is an older restaurant and about as famous as a seafood place gets in Chicagoland. On its own website, the restaurant says it is “currently in the top 100 grossing restaurants in America.” I have been going to Bob Chinn’s for more than twenty years. Vika has been maybe five times, mostly with me, including a date night, just the two of us, before COVID.
Here is the honest version. The garlic rolls are still fantastic, the kids were happy, and our waiter was wonderful. Almost everything else we ordered landed somewhere between fine and bland. Thinking about it afterward, I said it out loud: at this point it almost feels like they are just working off the name.
Bob Chinn’s still looks like the Chicagoland legend it is
You walk in under a giant sign telling you to try a Bob Chinn’s world famous Mai Tai, past a seafood case on ice, and into one of several big dining rooms. It is a huge place, and on a Friday evening it filled up fast.
The garlic rolls are still the reason to go
Every table gets a free basket of rolls, fresh out of the oven and covered in oil and fresh garlic. We went back and forth on whether it is butter or oil, and I think it is oil. Either way, they are fantastic.
A pro tip from Vika: eat them with a fork and knife. Touch one for a second and your fingers will smell like garlic, and washing your hands and scrubbing under your nails will not get it out. You have to wait a day or two.
Vika personally thought there was too much oil and garlic for her. If you love garlic, you will be very happy. And if you are not a garlic person, you can ask for rolls without it, which we did for a second basket. They are tasty on their own. I think it loses a little bit of the point of the rolls, but they are still good.
The oysters were big and meaty, but missing something
We started with oysters, and they were good. Not the best oysters I have had. They were not as salty as I like my oysters, but they were full size, with plenty of meat in every shell. Vika agreed on the meatiness and the richness, even if it was not her favorite oyster either.
What surprised both of us was what came with them. The way we both remember it, the oysters used to come with a champagne and onion sauce. Ours did not, and we did not see it on the menu. They were plain, with cocktail sauce, lemon and horseradish, and the horseradish gave no flavor at all, even after I put quite a bit on. Vika said it best: the condiments were the disappointing part.
We split them with Josh, and Josh loved our oysters. He had a few of them.
If you are a parent wondering whether a teenager will go for raw oysters, ours went right for them.
The garlic shrimp tasted like garlic water
Vika and I also ordered the garlic shrimp, and they give you the option to get them peeled, which we did. I thought they were very bland. There was a flavor of garlic, but it was flat, and we both said the sauce tasted like garlic water.
Vika was harsher on the rest of it. She called it a very lackluster dish, said she could barely call that a sauce, and thought the shrimp were slightly overcooked. I don’t think they were, so call that one a split decision.
The one thing I did like: that sauce was tasty for dipping the plain rolls. Vika skipped that. She did not want to waste stomach space on bread dipped in garlic water, and honestly, I understand.
The lobster was fine, the crab cake was the letdown
For our main, Vika and I split the lobster tails stuffed with crab cake, with the hollandaise sauce on the side. You get two tails and two small crab cakes, plus two sides. We went with french fries and the garlic green beans.
The lobster was fine. It was not rubbery, which is very easy to get wrong when lobster is overcooked. The hollandaise was good, and the fries were great. Everybody at the table agreed on the fries.
The crab cake is where it fell down. I thought it was very bland and very thin. Vika called it a very small portion and very mid, and said it did not even feel like a crab cake, because she got no crab flavor from it whatsoever.
The green beans were good. I like mine a little softer, the way you get them at a Chinese restaurant, but these were crisp and still good. And to be fair to Bob Chinn’s, you are not paying an arm and a leg for the lobster. More on that at the bottom.
The Mai Tai tastes exactly the same, the cup does not
I had a Mai Tai, which at Bob Chinn’s feels close to mandatory with that sign over the raw bar. It tasted exactly how it used to.
What changed is the cup. For years they came in these really cool looking cups, Hawaiian themed, which made sense for a Mai Tai. Mine came in a plain yellow plastic cup. To be fair, their online drink menu lists a limited edition Tiki Bob mug with the Mai Tai, so it may be worth asking about. We didn’t.
Josh and Emily had the best night at the table
Josh got the cheeseburger. It is on the kids menu, but it was a regular, full size adult cheeseburger, and it looked good. Emily got the chicken tenders, which looked like chicken tenders, nothing special. But she enjoyed her chicken, and she is picky enough that she could easily not have liked them, so Vika was glad she ate most of her meal.
They both loved the fries, and both kids meals came with ice cream. There was no red velvet cake this time, but Emily still ended up happy with her meal off the kids menu, which, considering she was the one who picked the restaurant, was the whole point.
Our waiter was the bright spot
If there is one part of the night that worked exactly the way it should, it was our waiter. Vika called him lovely, and he was wonderful. Whatever we think about the food, service was not the problem.
Is Bob Chinn’s still worth it?
Vika’s verdict was blunt. To her, the whole experience was average, or slightly below average: the food, the drinks and the ambiance. There was nothing that stood out, not a single thing that makes her want to go back.
The comparison I keep coming back to is eating at Disney. You know the meal, either on property or right next to the park, where you pay $130 or $150 and it is not bad. It is not a meal where you say, oh, this is bad. But it is not good, and it is not worth the money. For a suburban seafood restaurant that has been around for a long time, you just expect more and better. I have been here a lot more than Vika, and I feel like the food used to be better before COVID.
Will we be back? I think we will end up coming back someday, and hopefully we won’t be as disappointed. It was nice that we went as a family, and as a family meal, it was a good night. But we are definitely not doing it again anytime soon.
So if you are going, go for the experience of the legendary Bob Chinn’s, the garlic rolls and the Mai Tai, not for an amazing, flavorful seafood meal. As I put it afterward: expect to be disappointed, but still, all right.
What dinner at Bob Chinn’s cost for four
Our check for the four of us came to just over $134. That was about $120 before tax, plus $12.35 in tax and a $1.18 line labeled F&B.
The lobster tails with crab cake, fries and green beans were $48, the garlic shrimp $16 and my Mai Tai $12. The oysters were $22. They rang up as an “Early Bird” item, and the regular menu lists a dozen at $28. We don’t know the details of the early bird pricing, and it is not posted on their website, so ask your server.
The kids were the bargain. Josh’s cheeseburger with fries was $12, Emily’s chicken tenders $8 and a kids soda $2.50, so $22.50 for both of them, ice cream included.
As Vika put it, for a little over $130 before tip it is not a crazy expensive meal, especially with the kids meals as inexpensive as they were. It just wasn’t anything she wants to go to again.
Bob Chinn’s Crab House location and hours
Address. 393 S Milwaukee Ave, Wheeling, Illinois 60090.
Phone. 847-THE-CRAB (847-843-2722).
Lunch. Monday through Friday noon to 4 pm, Saturday and Sunday noon to 3 pm.
Dinner. Monday through Thursday 4 to 8 pm, Friday 4 to 9 pm, Saturday 3 to 9 pm, Sunday 3 to 8 pm.
Reservations. Through OpenTable, linked from their website.
The hours are from the sign by the front door on the night we went. Their website lists slightly different weekend hours, so check before you go. The address comes from the restaurant’s website.
Are Bob Chinn’s garlic rolls worth the hype?
Yes. They are the best thing we ate. Every table gets a free basket, fresh out of the oven with oil and fresh garlic. Eat them with a fork and knife unless you want garlic fingers for a day or two, and ask for plain rolls if garlic is not your thing.
Is Bob Chinn’s Crab House good for kids?
Yes. Our kids had a better night than we did. The kids menu has a full size cheeseburger and chicken tenders, both with fries, ice cream is included, and both kids meals plus a soda came to $22.50. Emily, who does not eat seafood, is the one who picked the restaurant.
Is Bob Chinn’s still worth it?
For the experience and the garlic rolls, yes, at least once. For a great seafood meal, we were disappointed. The oysters were meaty but plain, the garlic shrimp and crab cake were bland, and I think the food was better before COVID.
How much does dinner at Bob Chinn’s cost?
Our check for four came to just over $134 before tip, with a lobster and crab cake main, two appetizers, a Mai Tai and two kids meals.
Does Bob Chinn’s have an early bird special?
Our oysters rang up as an “Early Bird” item at $22, against $28 for a dozen on the regular menu, on a Friday a little after five. It is not posted on their website, so ask your server what is included and when.
Do Bob Chinn’s oysters come with mignonette?
Ours did not. They came with cocktail sauce, horseradish and lemon, and a mignonette is not listed on the current menu. We both remember a champagne and onion sauce with the oysters on earlier visits.
More Chicagoland dinners we have written about: Sophia Steak in Lake Forest, Foxtail on the Lake in Des Plaines, Ostras Lounge in Des Plaines and Lou Malnati’s in Buffalo Grove.
This article is not sponsored. Nothing was comped by the restaurant, and we didn’t tell them we were going to write about them. Prices come from the itemized receipt on the night.
