Hickory Grove Restaurant — Restaurant in Alton

Two weeks ago, I would have recommended this restaurant. Now, after two separate bad experiences in a row, I will never go back and I will never recommend this restaurant to anyone. Two weeks ago, I went in with my family of 6. The owner said he would pull two tables together, and we were happy to wait. A server came over a few minutes later and said there was a table set up for a party of 6. I told her that we weren’t the party it was reserved for, but she insisted it was okay. She explained that the party had called two hours before and then never showed up. So, we sat down. About 5 minutes later, the owner came over and became very irate. He said that the table was for someone else. I explained to him that the server told us to sit, even though I said we would wait. He became even more frustrated and stormed off. The server apologized to me and said he is just grumpy. Every time he would pass our table, he would stare us down. Tonight, as we were approaching the doors with only 4 of us, he saw us and immediately said something to his host and stormed off. When we came in, the sign said to seat yourself, so we sat in the booth right next to the front door. The host brought menus over, but ignored us when we spoke to him. 15 minutes later, we were still sitting there with no drinks and the host just staring at us. I overheard the servers talking about our table, and saying how we would have to wait for drinks. We decided to leave right then and there. We ended up going to The Round Table, where our server got our drinks before we were even seated. It’s sad, because we really...

Being of African American descent. We are easily offended when everyone around you is being served but "YOU". So I'm looking around we get there way before all the rest of 4 tables eating before us. I quietly say to my husband "why haven't we been served". We were here before them. A waitress literally was walking by with Bionic Ears and replied "you ordered a grilled pork chop and that takes longer. I say to my husband was I talking to her or you. How rude!

Finally we get our food literally 30 minutes later I'm so upset. We packed up our food and get to the register to pay and I say I think we should be compensated $5 off for our extended wait. They call the manager over, the waitress came over and basically the manager said NO! I said you just lost a customer we won't be back!

Grilled, fried that's no excuse for our breakfast wait time. You don't treat your customers with disrespect especially when they are of a different race....or for that matter any race be cognizant of this in the future. Also teach your waitress not to butt into someone else's conversation when they are not talking to her! Rude and disrespectful staff and whew...

While the service was great there were a few things that were very upsetting during our recent visit. I asked the waitress if I could get some smiley fries with my grilled chicken wrap. She said yes I can do that for you. When she brought out my lunch there were only 4 fries on my plate! I asked her if that was an order of smiley fries and she stated yes and asked me if I would like another order. When I asked her if I would have to pay for another order. She also stated yes. I asked to speak with a manager. I wound up talking to the daughter of the owner who was very nice. However, she proceeded to tell me that first of all there are supposed to be no substitution like the one the waitress made and didn't tell me and two 4 smiley fries is all that comes in an order. While, I completely understand that inflation in this country has been ridiculous, you should still be fair with food to payment ratio. Also, they didn't even try to compensate for anything! All I can say is just be careful when ordering your food here and make sure you ask before you order because apparently that's the only way to know for sure what you...