Star Cinema Grill — Attraction in Bolingbrook

My partner, our two teenagers, and our youngest recently visited your cinema to see Jurassic Park. While we are accustomed to spending a significant amount for a family outing and had no issue with the total cost exceeding $300, I feel compelled to share our experience as we will not be returning to this establishment.Our issues began immediately upon arrival. We observed clear signage displaying ticket pricing, yet we were upcharged $1 per ticket. When questioned, the young man at the counter was dismissive and unhelpful, stating he had "no idea" why the price was different and that he "can't change it," even when we pointed directly to the prominently displayed signs. Another employee, seemingly on a personal call, interjected to suggest it might be due to an "upcharge for new movies," implying Jurassic Park still qualified. This initial interaction set a frustrating tone.

We frequent this theater for date nights and appreciate the premium pods. However, the service during our food order was equally problematic. A server brought out our drinks, but everyone received the wrong one. While understandable given the dark theater, when I clarified whose drink was whose, the server pointed to my drink on my oldest son's table, indicating I should retrieve it myself. I stated that I was already seated and wasn't going to get up, which seemed to be what he was prompting me to do. My son had already taken a sip from my drink by that point because it had been placed on his table. The server then took the partially consumed drink and sat it in front of me, leaving abruptly before I could ask for a fresh, untampered one. After hitting the service button again, I explained what had happened and finally received a replacement drink that had not been drunk from.

The sequence of our order continued to be an issue when desserts were brought out before our main food order. While the children were delighted, my partner attempted to explain that the menu indicated desserts were served after the meal and that he didn't want a brownie and ice cream before his food. The server's response was a curt, "That's the dessert," before walking away. We had to use the service button yet again to have his dessert taken away. It was only when our actual order-taking server arrived that we received an apology and an acknowledgment that he should have asked about dessert timing, and he took the dessert to store until we requested it later.

Despite these service mishaps, we did enjoy the movie itself. The seating was indeed spacious and comfortable, and the theater had a pleasant ambiance, which is why we chose it for our family summer movie outing. However, the final straw was the bill. After enduring what we considered unprofessional, frustrating, and even embarrassing service, we were presented with a receipt that included an 18% gratuity and then requested an additional gratuity. As someone who values and enjoys tipping for good service, this was particularly offensive given the experience we had just received.

As a business owner myself, I rarely write negative reviews about other businesses, but this experience was so profoundly disappointing that I felt it necessary to share. The lack of basic customer service, the pricing discrepancy, and the overall unprofessionalism we encountered was understated. We will not be supporting this...

My first experience at this theater was when we went to see Top Gun and sat in the premium seating. Everything was good on that visit, and we enjoyed the seating. However, today the story is very different. We went to see Avatar, which is a movie that is 3+ hours long. We were greeted by a server fairly shortly after finding our seats. I forget the young woman's name and it didn't appear on our receipt. My husband ordered a cocktail and I just had a glass of water and we placed our food order. He ordered the classic burger, which was a half pound burger. However, the burger he received was nowhere near a half pound, much smaller. I thought it was a slider at first. He thinks he got the mission impossible burger (1/4 lb burger) instead of what he ordered, but didn't realize until after he ate it. I ordered the cauliflower rice bowl with seared tuna. My husband's burger was served under 30 minutes. Nice! A half an hour after his burger was served and he finished it, I still didn't have my food. Hmmm? I pushed my button for service and our server did not show up but someone else. I told him that I was still waiting on my food and he asked what my order was and that he'd check on it. Another 15-20 minutes passed before I was served the wrong entrée by someone other than our server. The young woman who was introduced herself as our server, never came back to check on us, never asked to see if my husband wanted another cocktail which he did, or if we wanted to order anything else. And again, the movie was more than three hours long. I finally went out to the lobby and talked to a manager saying that I was still without my food an hour and a half into the movie. She claimed that it came out of the kitchen, but didn't look right so they sent it back to remake. I said just take it off the bill that this was ridiculous. I had to wait so long and now I was missing the movie talking to her outside at the theater. She offered to take it off the bill and still serve my food when it was ready. I eventually received my food. Toward the end of the movie the young woman who first greeted us as our server came by with the bill. My cauliflower bowl was on the bill. I took the bill from my husband and wrote on it that they should deduct the cost of my food for their incompetence in serving the wrong entrée and for delivering my meal extremely late. Our server came back in a huff and said she wasn't going to close out our bill and we would have to go to the lobby to pay. Once again, I left the movie and asked to talk to a manager outside of the theater missing more of the movie. After talking to manager #2, she removed the cost of my food and brought the bill into the theater when I said I was going back into the movie because I didn't want to miss the end of the movie, which turned out to be a moot point since I already missed the end when I walked back in the theater. I seriously doubt if I'll be back to Star Cinema after today's frustrating experience. I missed chunks of the movie talking to two managers leaving the theater to do so, sat without food for more than an hour and a half after everyone around me was served, was served the wrong entrée, and then had to ask for the cost to be deducted from the bill. I do have to say that the second manager did remove the cost and did bring the bill into the theater - so...

Found out about Star Cinema while scrolling thru Instagram. From the video I saw, the atmosphere and overall vibe looked great so figured why not go for date night with my fiancé to see the new Avatar movie.

Upon getting there…slight issue. The tickets I purchased online (premium pods) were let’s say seats F5 and F6. When we were given the printed tickets at the front desk, they were showing seats F1 and F2. Once we got to our theater, someone’s belongings were already in our seats. The gentleman who ended up bring our server, Anthony, looked at our tickets and temporarily removed the belongings that were there. The couple that was sitting there came back and there seemed to be a confusion as the tickets they bought online said seats F1 and F2… but when they received their tickets at the front desk, the printed tickets said seats F5 and F6. Neither of us thought to look at our actual printed tickets until this happened….because why would we…assuming the printed tickets should be the same as the ones being bought. Was this an issue? No, not at all. Just something to be included in the review. Assuming it was an internal error with their ticketing system as Anthony and his manager suggested…we just went to the other seats where our blankets were waiting in the chairs.

Food and drink service was great! As mentioned, Anthony ended up being our server in charge of our section for the evening. Very polite and we were able to do a drink substitute on one of their cocktails they offered…switching vodka for tequila. I asked if it was easier to put in drink and food orders at once (since I had seen reviews of people saying it took forever to get either or). He stated it was up to us, since avatar was a 3 hour movie…shouldn’t be an issue getting service. He was right. After placing just a drink and appetizer order..both came in less than 15 minutes.

The only other issue…and the main reason why the review gets 4 stars is my fiancé found a hair inside her drink. We both got the cherry limeade cocktail and the hair was stuck to her cherry in the drink. Definitely gross and we both briefly got turned off from drinking anything else. We called Anthony thru their alert system and he was at our pod in less than 5 minutes. We showed him the hair, he agreed it was disgusting and apologized for it happening and took both of our drinks off the final bill. We decided to get two more as the drinks themselves weren’t bad but we requested to have them made without cherries.

Other than that hiccup, the experience at the theater was great. Really clean theater and clean bathrooms as well. The food and drink service was great and I would say the seats were worth the $40+ paid.

As for the other reviews where people say service was terrible and took forever to get their food/drinks…I can only imagine they went on a weekend where they were either understaffed or theater was extremely busy because everyone around us in the other pods had very quick service as well.

My fiancé and I decided if there was another movie released soon worth seeing…we would come back here again...