The Waterhole Lounge

• resultPass
• critical violations2
• last inspectedDecember 4, 2025 →
• address1400 S Western Ave, Chicago 60608

Is The Waterhole Lounge clean?

The Waterhole Lounge is currently Pass from Chicago Department of Public Health, from an inspection on December 4, 2025. Inspectors wrote up 2 critical violations — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads clean 😇.

What did inspectors find at The Waterhole Lounge?

These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on December 4, 2025, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.

• 🤒sick-employee policy not followedcritical
  Management, Food Employee And Conditional Employee; Knowledge, Responsibilities And Reporting
• 🤒staff working while sickcritical
  Procedures For Responding To Vomiting And Diarrheal Events
• 🪳pests in the house
  Insects, Rodents, & Animals Not Present
• ⚠️Toilet Facilities: Properly Constructed, Supplied, & Cleaned
• 🧹floors, walls, or ceilings grimy
  Physical Facilities Installed, Maintained & Clean

When was The Waterhole Lounge last inspected?

The Waterhole Lounge has 6 inspections on record going back to March 14, 2014.

The Waterhole Lounge vs Lower West Side

Lower West Side runs 80% clean across 699 tracked restaurants — 551 clean, 98 mid, 38 cooked.

Against the 699 spots Cooked tracks in Lower West Side, this one comes out cleaner than 20% of them.

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• ✓ Sabas Vega
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See every restaurant inspection in Lower West Side →

How Chicago grades restaurants

Chicago does not use letter grades. Every inspection ends in one of three official results: Pass, Pass with Conditions, or Fail. Pass with Conditions means violations were found but corrected on the spot or under a deadline — the restaurant is open, with homework. A Fail means serious violations went uncorrected, and it usually brings a re-inspection within days. Chicago also flags “priority” violations, the ones most likely to actually make someone sick. Cooked reads Pass as clean, Pass with Conditions as mid, and Fail as cooked, and shows the itemized violations behind each result.

Read the Chicago ratings guide →

Inspection findings and available history come from the authority’s published records. Cooked checks daily; publication can lag behind an inspection. Read the date on each result and check the official source for newer information.

Source: Chicago Department of Public Health via Chicago Data Portal. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated December 4, 2025. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.

check your own block 📸

Cooked covers 10 cities on official inspection data — see who's clean, mid, or cooked near you.