The Turf Room — Restaurant in Batavia Township

Date night gone horribly bad. We reserved a table near the fire place for a date night but soon realized the fireplace was the congregation point for all of the drunks. They were being loud and a noxious and our waiter said it was only going to get worse. So we asked four a quieter table and was promptly led to the back of the restraint too sit underneath the loud speaks. So much for quiet.

We were handed the paper menus only to realize they gave us a lunch menu band a dinner menu. Took them a while to locate another dinner menu while my date was able to review her menu. So, we ordered the MONTE CRISTO CROQUETTES for appetizer, house salad, under pressure chicken band the shrimp linguine. The waiter described the chicken as being a full half chicken that was pressure cooked for 2 hours then deep fried to brown it up. He said this particular dish is SUPER JUICYWell, I have a lot of experience with pressure cooking and this chicken was not pressure cooked. Deep fried, yes. Dry, well, overly dried for sure, no where near being juicy or tender as the meet did not want to come off the bone like something was pressure cooked. The chicken had only one flavor and it was , STRANGE. Couldn’t pout my taste buds on it but it was weird. My date even said it tasted strange. Was supposed to be a full half chicken instead I got a ¼ chicken and let me tell you, they must have chosen the smallest baby hen in the yard as there was literally no meat on it. They served it with mashed potatoes with no seasoning. In fact, noting had any season on it.

House salad. Insulting. I had three speaks of red onion and some lettuce without any dressing! No season! Tasted, blah but maybe the bunnies would like it…

Appetizer MONTE CRISTO CROQUETTES was supposed to have ham, bacon, Swiss and pepper jack cheese. INSULTING! They had maybe 1 if not two “specks” of ham and literally nothing else. Super dry, super tasteless.

My date had the shrimp linguine and the pasta was under cooked. The sauce, not like the menu described. No garlic, no season just tomatoes mushed up to create a tomato juice sauce. There was no garlic in the sauce! It was completely flavorless.

There was no salt / pepper on the table and the food was obviously prepared with no seasoning what so ever. I asked for some pepper and after a lengthy delay we were presented with a pepper mill. Well, surprise, it was empty! We had to wait for someone to come back to the table and when I told them the paper was empty, they looked at me in disbelief and started too take it apart to investigate for themselves as if I am lying. So we had to wait for a while longer until the pepper showed up. The food was horrible considering the price we paid. No seasoning whatsoever and everything was bland and boring. I did not finish my chicken because it had such a strange flavor to it. Later that evening I realized something was up as I started to burp up seafood. I did not have any seafood nor did I eat any. Best guess, they are using old oil to deep fry that fake chicken along with other seafood in the same bat. How insulting .

The drink menu is weird. Supper large menu and everything is $16. So if I want a shot of whisky, $16. If I wanted a large margarita, $16. Same a single beer, $16. I can make my own cocktails at home for a fraction of what they were charging. My guess, they push the dinks so you don’t mind the weird taste of the food.

Save your money and go to a real restaurant! Maybe one that is not afraid to leave salt and pepper on the table let alone, USE the seasoning themselves when making the food.

Why the menus? Sound like this place is a scam and changes the price of their food daily.

WAIT! I almost forgot! They added a 2% Admin Fee to the bill. The waiter said because of the rising cost of food, we need to pay an admin fee. Hello, there is a difference between administrative fees and food cost. You are hiding something. I don’t trust you.

Save your money and go to a REAL establishment like...

I can tell that you're paying to hide my review, or at least my photo that shows the ridiculous 2.8% fee. Well, let me tell you that while you may be successful in hiding some of the reviews you don't consider favorable, you can't hide them all. Take a look at huge amount of 1 star reviews, that should be a clear sign that you have to change the way you're running the business. Once again good luck, because I'll never go back until you start treating customers with respect and stop gaouging us with ridiculous fees. UPDATE: 02/06/2024 New rating ⭐

BEWARE OF GREEDY RESTAURANTS!!🤬

Greed has come to this restaurant!!! I can't believe that they are charging their patrons a 2.8% of the entire check to compensate themselves for supposedly high kitchen labor. Please!!! As if they're not charging enough for the small portions and all of the a la carte side options. Nickel and diming patrons to death is only going to hurt your business bottom line because people are going to avoid greedy restaurants. I wish them luck, they just lost me as customer, never again will they be able to steal from me. I have a suggestion for you!!!🤔 If you stop burning all of those piles of wood, you can save thousands of dollars and you won't have nickel & dime customers to death.🤷‍♂️

Old rating was a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This place is a great place to go and celebrate any special occasion. They have several rooms that can easily be made private for a more personal and enjoyable experience. The real wood burning fireplaces give you the illusion that you're on vacation somewhere in the middle of the woods. This establishment offers fine dining, slot machines and off track betting, just to name a few. The bar is beautifully designed in a U-shape, decorated with flagstone and ambient lighting, while displaying the great selection of spirits. I highly recommend the "The Seedless Martini" watermelon Martini, if you don't like watermelon, you really can't go wrong with any of the other Martinis. They are also big on wine and beer, most of the beers are from the big national and international beer companies, very few from the local craft breweries. I hope they add a few more beers from the local microbreweries in the future. The food is phenomenal and everything is a la carte. I can honestly say that I truly enjoyed every single food item that we ordered, even though they didn't get my steak right. I requested my steak medium well, and they made well done. The other small issue was their steak sauce. I'm not a fan of their in house steak sauce and wish they had alternative options, it just doesn't really complement the flavor of the steak. Instead, it completely over powers it, with a total different taste that doesn't even allow the steak to stand out. I ended up eating my prime ribeye by itself, since they don't have A-1, or any other steak sauce. The calamari, lobster bisque, creamy vegetable soup and the scallop carbonara are outstanding. If you're planning on visiting this establishment, I highly recommend that you make reservations. Especially towards the end of the night. I can't wait to come back and try some of the other...

Beware the small print and "admin fee" they add onto your bill after already overcharging you! We are locals who do our best to support businesses in the area. During Covid, we purposely ordered from Turf Room and its sister Hardware and tipped heavily (over 30%) because we want our money to go to local and stay local. However, all of the restaurants within this group have become 1) overpriced relative to the service and food quality they offer and 2) have added on extra fees that they claim go to staff but, quite frankly, I think are going to pay off other ventures. We have dined out across the world, including Michelin Star restaurants in multiple cities and countries, such as Lyon, France. We have no problem paying for quality and service, and no, we are not expecting Michelin Star trappings from the local joint down the street. We just want a nice meal and expect for the local place to understand their market and not tack on extra fees or charge out-of-line prices relative to quality, service, and portion. Examples of overcharging: my husband ordered a dish that comes with brussels sprouts. He hates brussels sprouts, and asked to sub out carrots. He was informed he could only sub broccolini. "Fine," he said. We typically try to avoid substitutions because we know they can be problematic, and we try to respect the chef and honor that there is a delicate balance with food costs. Then the waiter came to our table to say, that broccolini could not be substituted, so we said, "ok, we will just order a side." A side of broccolini costs - wait for it - almost $14. (Note: This place is in North Aurora, not Chicago). Also, my Manhattan was watered-down (and it was served up. Seriously, how do you do that?!) Whatever. But then, when the bill came, there was an extra fee of almost 3% tacked on that is supposed to go to support employee benefits. Let me just say that I think all employees should earning a living wage, and I would be fine if we did away with tipping culture and had transparent pricing in which employees were paid a fair wage. However, I do not believe for even one second this money is going to employees, particularly after this group opened a new restaurant. It would be one thing if the fee were transparent, but it is placed in extremely small font at the bottom of the menu (similar to the font small on legal advertisements). When the local restaurant is acting like slick attorneys to earn a dime, it's time to go elsewhere. This was our last visit to any restaurant...