Star Cinema Grill — Attraction in Barrington Township

So, my husband and I went to this theater last night - privacy/premier seating. While the movie was awesome, the service left A LOT to be desired. Things started out great - got our drinks and nachos (with steak - SO GOOD), but then we ordered another round of drinks and dinner. My husband ordered pizza and I ordered the street fighter tacos. We got our drinks and my husband's pizza came out very quickly, but not my tacos.

15 minutes later, the fire alarm went off. This is obviously not any servers fault, BUT, there was NO communication from staff as to where to go, what the process was, or, once we were allowed back in, how long it would be before they started the movie again. In fact, we were standing near a group of staff outside when the (I assume) manager, approached the staff and had a quiet conversation that we heard the start of, which was, "Please go tell people..." The staff dispatched and not ONE of them told us a thing. Every single one walked by like we weren't there...my husband is 6'6" and I'm 5'10", so it's not like they overlooked us. They went to people standing 5' behind us and told them the message quietly, but no one approached us. The message was to move back from the building. Communication with the public/patrons can mean the difference between life and death. If it had been an actual fire emergency, the staff was completely useless (one of the employees was actually skipping around the front entrance) and people could have gotten hurt. They really need to train better on this.

A few minutes after the movie started again, we hit the service button to order more drinks (we abandoned ours at the bar) and I asked about my tacos. The waitress apologized and said they'd be right out. 20 minutes later, still no tacos. I hit the call button and she brought the check. So, I told her I never got my tacos and asked her to take them off the tab. She said she would and bring us a new check. Never saw her again. The movie ended, the lights came up, we reviewed the original check and...THE TACOS WEREN'T ON IT! This means that, TWICE, the waitress failed to put in my food order. Then, when she realized that there was nothing to remove from the check, she didn't come back to apologize or anything. Completely unacceptable! We still tipped well (because we're those people), but this was a hugely substandard experience. Also, my husband's pizza was just ok -he felt they should have left it in a few more minutes.

My mom drove over 3 hours to watch our daughter so we could, in the end, overpay for our date night

EDIT: my husband and I were talking about this night and, after the fire alarm, he went straight back to the theater (I went to the bathroom) and he said there were patrons sitting and talking in the room still. He was one of the first back, so this means the theater didn't make sure all the patrons were out. While people make choices, it's still up to the establishment to enforce the rules. Clearly, Star Cinema doesn't care about...

We REALLY wanted to like it, we really did but sadly will probably Never go again. When we got there the gentleman who gave us our tickets was very nice & friendly but didn't inform us on how things work. We were told since we chose a box seat we would get free popcorn. We found our seats and saw others ordering food stuff but the server Did not even ask us if we were ok or needed anything etc....nope. After all the trailers a blip comes on that THEN explains how things work but by then lights were about to be turned off. That is where I realized you have to press the service button...we did and after a few minutes a young man appeared...a coke and a milkshake... came out to be $16.24. We had to ask where the popcorn was after a while and were told there was a delay with the popcorn making....something wasn't working right. Our popcorn was not delivered until 30 or 45 minutes AFTER the movie started...no mention as to how to get salt or more butter and the bowls were small and just to the top...not brimming like in the pics. The milkshake was good but not really $9 good...although that is to be expected from a concession stand so not a big problem with that. The whole not knowing how things work as one sits there was the most frustrating part and then the popcorn without enough salt (mine) and his not enough salt or butter for his liking. Lastly....The chairs are ok. Believe it or not, I still think the most comfortable chairs are those on Classic Cinema 12 in Carpentersville (all screens except the BIG one...those chairs are different)....Here at Star Cinema the legs and back are together not independent of one another. The place looks very nice and the employees are friendly and you get service with a smile but for the price (not cheap) they need to step up their game and make sure to inform the patrons how things work starting from the ticket counter ...maybe should ask if first timers or if they need any information as to how it all works as you hand over the tickets. Also, your servers shouldn't just wait to be called for orders BEFORE movie starts...maybe ask those seated again if they need any info as to how it all works and so forth. Not once we're we asked if we wanted popcorn refills...I guess cuz we didn't press the button any more BUT the bill arrived like 45 minutes before the movie was over. All and all...very nice ambiance but not really the elevated experience we were expecting...

I decided to take my mom to star theater for Mother’s Day because she loved iPad when we got there we are greeted by a super super nice man at the ticket counter and we brought my mom over to the bar to get her a picture of blue moon, the bartender was super super nice and attentive. The problems started when we sat down at our theater. We watched a movie at 3 PM because we had dinner reservations and the theater was completely empty and hardly anybody was at the movie theater. This being said you would assume that our service would be great because it’s Mother’s Day and there was no way they were too busy to attend to people . However, it took us about 10 minutes after we press our serve. Or have somebody come over to check on us. we ordered popcorn because apparently the popcorn isn’t free here anymore, even though that was always my experience that I pick, an appetizer, and three entrées. The appetizer and the popcorn came out in a timely manner, and the entrées came out pretty shortly after once, the entrées came out we asked for a refill of our popcorn because we are paying $10 for a pretty small bowl of popcorn, which was considered their large size, I did not get refilled after we asked two different people if they could bring us the refill. My mom ordered steak tacos and I’m not exaggerating when I say that they tasted like somebody cooked them with fish which obviously sucks because my mom does not like seafood at all and even if she did who would want that, and this was supposed to be her Mother’s Day dinner server finally brought us The refill of popcorn after the movie had already ended. I asked if there was any way that they could take the tacos off the bill because I taste like they were cooked with my salmon tacos, and my mom had only taken one bite of her taco and the lady took the place and brought it to the kitchen and came back with a revised bill showing half off the entrée that we had barely touched and said that she could only offer us half off because we put “at it, which is ridiculous because if that was the case, why would you not have brought back the tacos so that we would have the choice of boxing up if we were gonna have to pay for any of it.

Overall terrible experience and i was so upset that this was on Mother’s Day...