Region Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Barrington

We've been here twice in about a month and my first rating would've been four stars but after the second night I've got to drop it to 3. First time it was midweek, the second time it was on a Friday night. So the first time the service was pretty good as it wasn't full and we had no issues - probably in and out of there in two hours or so. This last Friday however it was longer than an extended baseball game. We sat down close to 6:30 and at 9:45 we were still looking for our check. Our server Elizabeth was very pleasant, very nice, but as it turns out slower than molasses. We probably didn't have our drink order taken until past seven, our appetizers served well after 7:30, the entrée was not served until 8:20 at the earliest and dessert at about 9:15. Now, we told her we weren't in a hurry but we also didn't tell her we wanted to be the first people in and the last people out which is pretty much what happened. Tables all around us were seated after us and left well before us. They of course were served by different people. Our first clue that maybe she was over her head for this position was that we ordered a bottle of wine and after about 10 or 15 minutes when it arrived it was not what we ordered, she went back got another bottle and again it was not what we ordered and finally after much coaxing and writing down exactly what we wanted carefully, she brought the correct bottle of wine. That should've given us a clue. Now as to the food - the special hot crab appetizer was tasty although a little pricey for a small crock of crab with some fried super inexpensive wonton chips. Steak tartare at $17 was a much better deal as it had crostini, a quail egg on top and just seemed all around heartier. We asked for a wedge salad and said we were going to split it, she asked if we wanted to have it chopped up in the back and we said no and we requested the dressing on the side. Of course, when it came out it was bathed, literally swimming in dressing, it tasted good but way, way more than we wanted in terms of dressing. Two of us ordered steaks after we saw the table next to us was delivered an amazing looking New York with a horseradish crust. None of this of course is listed on the menu and you either need to know it exists or hope that the server offers it to you if you happen to be interested in the steak. So ridiculous. Two of us ordered steaks with Boursin cheese on top. What came out looked like it was a regurgitated from a cat. It was not a pleasant looking application of cheese and certainly not enough. One of us ordered rare, the other medium rare. Of course, the steaks were fairly overdone. The tomato "confit" served with it was literally three grape tomatoes that had their skins removed and were cooked but other than that had no other interesting flavor. The spinach offered on top of the mashed potatoes was literally six or seven leaves that had been sautéed -quite the disappointment. The meatloaf special for the day was highly rated by the person who ordered that as was the special tuna. The Chicken Parmesan had absolutely no crispness to the crust it was kind of a soggy mess on top of polenta. The flavor was OK but it was so poorly presented it was a shame. Desserts on the other hand were amazing. Affogato with donuts was a very large portion - six round donut holes, but nearly doughnut shape and size, and the sticky toffee putting dessert was the bomb. The flourless chocolate cake was good but a little too complex in flavor with chili and some other flavor that didn't excite the pallet especially with the somewhat firm and sturdy texture of the cake. Had it have all been a little softer I think the whole thing would've gone over much better. So for five of us with tax and tip we spent well over $400 with two bottles of wine that were only $40 a piece. Needless to say we won't be returning anytime soon, I think people in this area are starved for good restaurants and give much higher ratings to restaurants that don't deserve as many stars as...

We went for dinner for our 5 yrs anniversary, the place is nice and food is good, except the Creme Brûlée it was too creamy in my opinion. I order Salmon which was really good. The reason I’m giving them two stars is due to their poor customer service, they need improvement (the Host was very nice, she greeted us warmly.) My husband first ask for a beer unfortunately the beer was sold out, then he opt for a cocktail drink called Good Vibrations which sounded very interesting- in the description it specify something with flaming fire, he ask the waitress abt it, she explain they light up the top of the drink in a flame! my husband thought sounded cool and fun so he order it. When the waitress came with the drink and a small lighter she try to light up the drink and the drink would not light up, she try several times then blame the AC vent on the ceiling above our table for the drink not lighting up, she said “sorry about that” left the drink on our table and walk away lol. If I was a waitress I would of said something like “one second let’s try a different lighter we are going to make this happen”- that was the whole point of the cocktail lol, or at minimum she could of said “so sorry about the drink not working don’t worry would be on the house” but nope we didn’t get any of those common sense responses. Then we order an appetizer, we were debating either for the falafels or the lobster Mac and cheese croquettes, since they both sound very good, we ask the waitress for an opinion on which to choose but she had no clue and seem to panic a little bit which was kind of odd! at the end she recommended the falafels- we were happy with the choice they were tasty! Not sure if the waitress was new or she lack customer service training with detail. This was our first and last time there. Like I said before, the food is good, so if you get a common sense waitress with a bit of customer service skills perhaps you would have a better experience...

Steer clear of the N.Y. strip steak.

I will begin by stating that the service staff at this restaurant and bar is seriously first class from busser to manager. Top notch. For those who feel a steak is a steak, please disregard…your meal will always be fantastic here. For those of you who are very picky like me regarding your steak, the news is rather bleak. Strike 1… The Stockyards meat brand (that they offer here because they agreed to post it on their menu and they think they’re getting a great bargain while their restaurant purveyors are molesting them on their paper products and cleaning supplies) is always hit or miss. Last night was certainly a miss. Strike 2…steak arrived mooing as opposed to medium rare. Really not that big a deal to me. Throw it back on the fire and correct the problem, which is exactly what they did and the manager professionally brought it back to me and made sure the steak was right before he left. Service 101. Strike 3…when a restaurant markets USDA PRIME steaks, then that steak integrity should be about as perfect as possible. Mine wasn’t. After the manager saw me cut into it after it was cooked more, I told him that the steak was fine, but there actually was about 1-2 ounces of vein (cartilage) on my NY Strip steak. There wasn’t a thing he could do to correct this. Vein steak is what Waffle House and Chili’s serve as their premier steak. If you like paying for and chewing on cartilage, I suggest you save some money and go there as opposed to wasting it here. There are so many local meat purveyors around this location that offer much better meat products. Not sure how much more the cost would be, but I for one wouldn’t mind investing a little more in a steak that doesn’t crunch when...