Fatty's Pub and Grille Review

Its a fun casual bar with great food and a great space!

Fattys, I love your food,and your waitress are awsome

Wait for it..... POTATO SALAD!!!! Great lunch!!!! It was so good I thought it had bacon in it. It didn't but very good!!

The waitress I had was pretty good at what she was doing always asked if I was good and just had small talks but overall good spot
. Maybe the djs could get some help with mixing and blending when they spin then act like their at a 5000 crowd of peoples .. good music tho..

You know you're at Fatty's if you see a gold ceiling. It's a NIU/DeKalb institution.

Went here for my daughters basketball team champion celebration. We had a private room with a couple of Tv's playing sports. The waitress was very friendly and helpful keeping all the drinks full. The pulled pork and fresh fries were delicious. I want to come back to try the burgers. This place is very popular with the locals. Nice selection of brews, too bad couldn't have any with kiddos around.

Great meal...great service! It was a beautiful so we sat outside. Very nice!

Great food, love the cajun fried potato salad and the beer garden is really nice

Almost everything you order here is amazing. Definitely try the Cajun potato salad. It's fantastic! Sometimes when it's busy it can take a while to get a drink so order extra or a tall if it's really busy.

Food was pretty good but it's not first time visitor friendly. I walked in and what looked like a host station was vacant and no one around. I suppose you're just supposed to know to seat yourself. The staff were not very helpful and didn't really seem to want to make my lunch enjoyable. Oh and I asked for a side of bbq and was charged for it. Lame.

Fatty's is one of my favorite bars in DeKalb. They have incredible food and drink specials. The Cajun potato salad is a speciality dish you absolutely must have when at Fatty's. I can not resist their steak fries so I typically will get the half & half - half Cajun potato salad and half fries. The Cubby Bleu is my favorite sandwich. It is a grilled chicken sandwich with ham and bacon on top. I substitute the Bleu cheese for ranch dressing. You cannot go wrong with the Turkey Wendell for here either. Overall, you will have a great time at Fatty's!

Arrived at 11:15 on a Saturday (3/23/19). Was told it would be 45 min wait. We had a table of 11 but told them we would split into 2-3 tables. 1 1/2 hours later we finally got a table. But it wasn t until we told them how strongly upset we were. They insisted on seating us together even though we told them SEVERAL times to seat us at different tables. Also want to point out how horrible it smelled as I sat at the bar waiting for the table. Like stale beer and dirty drains. In need of a deep clean. Next, for the bathroom, omg....standing water (not clean) on the drain. But I will say the food was good and our waitress was amazing. I really should have left because if I was so disgusted with the smell of the bar and grossed out by the bathroom but we had no time to go anywhere else and I had a migraine from not eating. We always go to Fattys when we go to DeKalb, but that will not be the case anymore. Good luck passing your next health inspection. I could go in about how the management whined about what happened the night before but I won t. I m sure you get how disappointing this experience was.

Nothing to drop the rating. Service was good, good was great, and it was fast. Wish they would expand their beer on tap but that's the norm.

Incredibly overpriced and overrated. The claim to fame is the "potato salad" which is not potato salad anyway, and has a dressing that can be too acidic and ends up tasting vomity. The burgers are always too big and too dry; anytime I've eaten here I end up looking at the check and regretting not having gone to Culver's right next door instead, because I could've gotten more, better food for cheaper without having to tip or pay a credit card fee.

Fantastic food and unbelievable prices for quality and quantity of food

Food was delicious and the service is fast, even when busy.

Above adequate. Larger portions, n super fatty n savory.

Great for their food and drinks. Weekly drink specials make for fun times and, if nothing else, their Cajun Potato Salad is the best! I do't even like potato salad but theirs does it!

Great service.
Good food!

Loved this place, but it's the only place In town on a Tuesday.

Seems like the service staff doesn't want their jobs too passionately since they visited my table so infrequently and didn't make my drink correctly, even after explaining how to make it. The bar invested tons into a beautiful outdoor area, but no beautiful bar should be plagued with inadequate employees... Such a travesty!

Our server was horrible she didn't smile she checked on us once. I had to get a refill of water from the bar myself.

Great food and drinks. Can get a little noisy but not bad. One of the better sandwich selections around.

Mixed emotion. Usually their service is very prompt and their food is excellent. Went on a calm Sunday afternoon, not busy at all and their waitsaff was very disappointing-waitstaff was inattentive, the tables were unlcean, etc. The food was of their usual good quality. If you want the good food I would recommend ordering it to go and not dealing with the waitsaff.

They are a typical college bar, food is above average. Service can be slow on weekends but that is because they are always busy.

Do not know what else could have been worse, a real surprise after dozens of positive experiences here. New mngmnt? Training new cooks/servers? Don't know don't care. Not interested in visiting again.

I've been to Fatty's twice before I had a bad experience. That's the only reason I'm giving it a star. It's normal bar food and drinks. Nothing spectacular. However, I went there on a Wednesday night, only to be asked when I turned 21 upon handing the bouncer my ID. I have an out of state ID, and I am of age. He proceeded to tell me that they "give people 1 year to get a horizontal ID". I asked what for, he says that's just the rules. I asked how am I supposed to know those rules, I just started this semester. He said "we don't go around telling everybody". He then told my friends and I that we could not come in and to have a good night. Won't be going again, apparently the bouncers make up their own rules and don't really know how to check out of state ID's. Maybe get a scanner if there's really issues with fake IDs all the time!!!

You must try the Cajun Fried Potato Salad. It is fantastic.

This is your quintessential NIU restaurant and bar. Food is always good. The beer selection could be better on tap but the atmosphere and food make up for it. A must stop when you are in DeKalb to get the Cajun potato salad.

Great place to grab some delicious food for a good price. Perfect for a burger and a beer. Family friendly as well.

Found a spot for the Bloody Mary's!
Fried potato salad comes along as a side to burgers, and it is worthwhile to try at least a half order. I timed the main course delivery after the appetizer was set down. It was approximately 10 minutes to wait. This is good service. They have friendly staff. Try it out sometime!

Pretty much anything you eat here will be good. The potato salad is a staple and is a must try!

All you to do is get the potato salad and you will understand why this is a great place. The food is great.

The food is decent but the service is horrible. Been there several times and its always the same.

Horrible service. Watch out, they'll add their own tips on your tab and charge you for it. Check you account after going to Fatties.

We visited that restaurant with my friends yesterday the waitress was so rude I don t know wats wrong with her .we stayed waiting for the food almost a hour we ordered nachos salad 2 chickens burgers but the funny thing it doesn t Taste anything the nacho cheese is dry plus the grilled Chiken in the salad it was dry when I asked her if they grilled it at that time she said yes she thinks I m dome .any way it was Separate check every one pay for his own I give her 20$ she gave everyone the change except me when I asked her for the change she start acting crazy she She throw the change on the table with out saying no thank you or none of that all this we satayed for more then 2 hours just waiting there s not a lot if people inside so the waitress she bland with French braid and skinny she need to work on her attitude this the last time I m giving them my money it s junck

Really good bar food, burgers, wings and famous Cajun Potato salad. Decent prices, service was very good as well

A pub with delicious food (cajun potato salad anyone?) on their massive menu, lots of beers and drinks, and they offer trivia and live music from time to time too. Its proximity to NIU is great, but it can get really packed for that reason too. As one of my mom's favorite local places, I've been here quite a few times, and it doesn't disappoint.

They 100% water down their alcohol. Their whisky was way watered down. The waitress was great, but the bartender and manager were inappropriately rude and combative about service issues. I asked for a drink remake and I was denied. The fried pickles also suck.

Nice selection and great service, food was very good, I'll return!

The food we actully got was good. They forgot part of the order, I call no answer, I call again tell them what happen and am told "let me find out" left on hold for 10 minutes before I have to call again for no one to answer. I am very disappointed. Very poor customer service! We wont be ordering from them again.

I ordered online and they got my order wrong. I am now waiting over an hour to eat my meal. Regardless pf how good the meal is, i probably wont eat there again.

Molly's was closed
Came here.. Great time!

we enjoy the food and atmosphere everytime we go never disappointed

I'll go as far as 4 1/2 for this perfect, warm weather, place to visit.

Despite it being busy all the time, the food comes fairly quickly. If I had something that I wish was different, it would be to have another side of fries instead of the coleslaw in a meal (since I seem to be the only one who dislikes it).

Seems they may have changed chefs because the quality of the food was not as good as it has been in the past.

Good food and good service. One of my favorites in DeKalb.

Great food and service!! It is our favorite place to eat

First time there, the food was good service was great.

Always really good food. Cajun potatoe salad is a must. Fried pickles yum

Great beer list. Get the Fat Wrap! Potato salad on a burger...plus more potato salad as a side!

Delish. Everything was tasty and satisfying. Def get the potato salad! And they are cautious with covid regs which i very much appreciate!

Polite and helpful I am handicapped and they guided me to back room with a smile. Handicapped access to back room would be nice but not even so it was pleasant and like handicapped rest room

Great food. Great atmosphere. Gotta get the New York club.

Good food. Amazing place to dine out and upbeat environment.

Food was good bar food, server was great.. cleaned tables before and after every seating. Employees were masks and required them until you were seated. No 5 stars only because of trains going by in close proximity.

Great food and 90% great service. Everyone has a bad day. Love the variety this place has to offer.

Great bar and restaurant, miss this place since I've left NIU

Fantastic food and great service, The fried potato salad was amazing!

Good place for a drink and a (huge) bite in DeKalb.

Outside seating is a HUGE plus, indoor it feels like a regular bar with regular bar food. Nothing special, but I added another star because they had a cool Bloody Mary deal where you make your own and they supplied some decent quality Bloody Mary ingredients like organic Bloody Mary mix and shrimp/bacon