Bob Chinn's Crab House
Seafood restaurant · Wheeling ·
Huge seafood selection with crab legs & Mai Tais
Huge seafood selection with crab legs & Mai Tais
"A long-running seafood destination on a suburban restaurant row has been a Midwest favorite for decades, consistently drawing customers craving large, convivial seafood meals; it remained family-owned and marked its 40th anniversary while its founder passed away at age 99. The founder—who grew up in Minnesota and was raised by Taiwanese immigrants—was a colorful, complicated figure whose personality and story were inseparable from the restaurant’s identity." - Ashok Selvam
"Long a family-run Wheeling institution, the restaurant Bob Chinn’s Crab House—located at 393 S. Milwaukee Avenue—became one of the nation’s busiest and most profitable seafood-and-steak destinations after opening in 1982 (technically Dec. 24, 1982). Founded by Bob Chinn (who died last month at 99) and co-run today by his daughter Marilyn and granddaughters Carly and Maile Le Tourneau, the 735-seat restaurant is famous for its signature crab legs (ironically, the family admits they aren’t fond of them) and the World Famous Bob Chinn’s Mai Tai, which was even produced by a family-run mixing plant. Chinn was a hands-on, exacting owner—known for rules like “no CH and L-ing,” for confronting staff, and for fiercely protecting the name (including a 2001 court fight over a nephew’s planned restaurant)—and the place weathered scandals such as a dismissed 1995 harassment suit and a 2012 norovirus complaint without losing popularity. The business has evolved recently—adding social media, a reservation system after the pandemic, a computerized kitchen display to replace manual expediting, and renovations to the century-old building—and the Le Tourneaus remain committed to keeping it a single, standalone location while celebrating its 40th anniversary with monthly events and honoring Chinn with a memorial and museum walk-through." - Aimee Levitt
"I’ve lost track of how many meals I’ve had at Bob Chinn’s Crab House; for my family it was the go-to for birthdays and visiting guests. After Bob Chinn’s death I went to pay tribute and, aside from a memorial sign on the lobster tank, it was the same as ever — lunchtime meant no line and hosts now coordinate via iPads. I ordered a mai tai and enjoyed the complimentary garlic rolls drenched in olive oil and raw minced garlic. One daily special was opakapaka, a pink snapper flown in from Hawaii: buttery and falling apart at the touch of a fork, with a perfectly browned top for sweetness, a light hand of blackening seasoning that lets the fish and grilled smoke shine, and a tangy tartar sauce — I could have eaten it forever." - Naomi Waxman
"Opened in December 1982 with his daughter Marilyn, the Wheeling seafood restaurant Bob Chinn's Crab House grew into an enormous, enormously profitable institution known for its crab legs, garlic rolls, and mai tais. Within a few years it was one of the most popular — and one of the loudest (the Tribune clocked the dining room at 87 decibels in 1987) — restaurants in the Chicago area; after a 1987 remodel the dining room expanded from a 300-person capacity to 630 (it now seats 736), and Saturday waits could stretch to two hours because it did not take reservations for parties smaller than 10. By 1999 it was the top-grossing independent restaurant in the nation at about $25 million a year, and even in 2020 it ranked 30th on Restaurant Business Online while serving more than 625,000 meals a year despite average checks roughly a third to a half those of other high-grossing Chicago-area entries. Family-run — with children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews working there — Chinn himself remained a regular presence into his 90s, chatting with customers and coordinating staff via walkie-talkies; he personally arranged fresh flown-in seafood by driving to O'Hare to pick up shipments (installing tanks in the basement to keep crabs and lobsters alive) and kept the handwritten, photocopied daily menu and inexpensive dishware that contributed to its seafood-shack charm. Modeled variously after fresh seafood restaurants in Hong Kong or Joe's Stone Crab in Miami, the Crab House kept costs low by buying in volume from wholesalers and never really duplicated its success elsewhere despite licensed spinoffs and family attempts to copy the name." - Aimee Levitt
Melissa Clausen L.
Tana Tanakorn N.
Bigcatman S
Lindsay S.
Emma C.
Brad B.
John H.
Lili G
Chance S.
Chan M.
Valerie S.
Astrid B.
Stephanie P.
Jesus R.
Karyn M.
Tim F.
Karen W.
Howard L.
Simon K.
Nichole X.
Riley H.
Hanna S.
Alexis C.
Cori C.
Dorotka K.
Alex K.
Sheila B.
Frances B.
Christina E.
Sandra M.
Alex A.
Nick M.
Kristena R.
Kayla S.
Alan N.
Cindy L.
Karen D.
Mary M.
Ron W.
Marketland S.
Eugene W.
Alex L.
Consumer N.
Paul B.
E C.
Kimberly S.
Craig B.
Iris P.
Peg L.
Jennifer M.
Brian Z.
Oliver Y.
Dennis S.
Laura S.
Mary C.
Marcus D.
Jojo S.
