When my family and I find a place that we can all enjoy, we tend to visit pretty often. Union House Kitchen is one of those places. I originally wrote about them in 2014 when we popped in for a visit. If you’re in our Foodie Facebook group or read this site pretty often, you probably know that my youngest son has quite a few food allergies so often times I will feed him prior to dining out and bring allergy friendly food and snacks along with us. There are times though that local restaurants can totally handle his allergies, Union House is one of those places for us. If you’re dining out with allergies, I’d give them a call to discuss your specific needs first and mention it again at the restaurant.
Although they’re under new ownership since the last time I wrote about them the latest owners did share with me they chose to stick with customer favorites like Shrimp and Grits while expanding the already massive beer selection. I’ve even noticed that from time to time they run specials to help customers save a few bucks like their popular Kids Eat Free Thursdays and Happy Hour deals. I find it easiest to keep up with their current specials via the Union House Facebook page.
Here’s one of the dishes I posted on the @eattheburbs Instagram page. Follow along on Instagram for more.
You can also read about our first visit below.
This article was originally posted in Oct. 2014
Good Food and Beer – Union House, Winfield
Recently my family and I decided to grab a bite at Union House Kitchen in downtown Winfield. We were celebrating b-days and wanted to try something new and I’d read about the shrimp and grits at Union House so off we went. The restaurant is located in the cute little downtown section of Winfield near Vanilla Sugar Bakery and around the corner from Gnarly Knots Pretzels.
Service was great, our waiter was very responsive and made good recommendations. They have a kick ass beer list, I was able to get my favorite Ale, Not Your Father’s Root Beer by Suburban brewery favorite Small Town Brewery in Wauconda. I don’t usually like sweet drinks but I love root beer and was introduced to Not Your Father’s Root Beer at World of Beer in Naperville and I’ve been a total fan girl for years now. Enough about my Root Beer obsession let’s talk food, the food at Union House is served small plate (tapas) style and meant to be shared. I’m all about sharing food, so I love the small plate concept and wish more restaurants would do it. We ordered a variety of things, housemade bbq chips, scallops, sliders, fried Brussels sprouts and shrimp and grits. There wasn’t one bad bite, everything was absolutely delicious. Of course as with anything, there were some favorites.
Some of the tastiest dishes in the Chicago suburbs
- BBQ Chips – Well done and Crispy, with a great houseblend seasoning
- Fried Brussels Sprouts – Fried perfectly, some crispy bits and some nice tender pieces in a beurre blanc
- Scallops – Rare, with a skillfully done sear on top of a winter pesto and carrot ambrosia
- Sliders (Country) -Well seasoned sausage topped with sunny side up egg tucked inside a Gnarly Knots bun w/maple cream cheese
- Shrimp and Grits – Heavenly, that is all.
My favorites were definitely the shrimp and grits and the Brussels sprouts, but others at the table felt that the Sliders and Scallops stood out. I was also lucky enough to get a bite of the Lobster Mac & Cheese, that is absolutely packed with Lobster. Usually Lobster Mac is just a name, at most restaurants it comes to the table looking like a bowl of noodles in a white cheddar soup with some random Lobster looking seafood on top, this my friends was not that. It was a creamy, cheesy mac with chunks of Lobster claws and tails. After tasting it, I regretted not ordering it.
The absolute best part of our meal was chatting with our neighbors at the next table who were both totally into food and were just as excited about the stuff coming to our table as we were about the things they ordered. Two friends out for a bite to eat, I’ll call them Thelma and Theodore (after my spiked root beer and moonshine cocktail I didn’t have enough sense to find out their names) were two amazing people. They chatted with us, cooed over our kids, and even offered me the first scoop of the aforementioned Lobster Mac and cheese, I tried to say no but Thelma insisted and politely told me that she does what she wants. It didn’t take too much arm twisting to get me to try it because after all, Thelma was a little older than me and I was taught to respect my elders.
We really enjoyed the laid back vibe at Union House Kitchen, it’s a hidden gem in Winfield, good beer, good food, and a friendly family running the place. We will be back soon. Hopefully they will have the 50/50 burger next time, 50% bacon and 50% beef, yes such a beautiful burger exists in the suburbs of Chicago.
So if you ever read this Thelma, THANK YOU, thank you for Agnes, my guardian angel and please please, drop me a line so that we can keep in touch and talk about all the cool places to try in Winfield.
Union House
0S050 N Winfield Rd, Winfield, IL 60190
(630) 456-4188
