Bub's Burgers & Ice Cream — Restaurant in Bloomington

I want to start this review by saying I think the food at Bub’s is amazing. One of the best burgers in town, if not the best in my opinion. The fries and chili are also very, very good. I give it three stars because the service is the slowest I’ve experienced in a long time.

I’ve been to Bub’s twice in the past month. I went a couple of weeks ago with my boyfriend on a Friday or Saturday night. It was pretty busy, and it took close to 10 minutes for them to even greet us at the door and ask how many were in our party. I wouldn’t have minded waiting 10 minutes to be seated, but 10 minutes before even acknowledging us as wait staff looked at us but continued walking by is pretty crazy. But I chalked it up to it being a busy night for them. Our waitress that night was very nice and attentive, and it seemed like all the wait staff was plenty nice.

I was so impressed with the food that I decided to go there again yesterday thinking the waiting to be seated thing was just a fluke. I was on my lunch hour at work and arrived at around 1:25pm. I was not greeted for 4-5 minutes, again, as wait staff saw me at the door waiting, they walked passed me without asking if I had been helped. When someone finally did greet me, the waiter had a tray of stuff and asked if I’d been helped, I told him no. He said, “Okay, let me just drop off these milkshakes and I’ll come and try to get you seated.” I said that was fine and waited for him to return. Another 2-3 minutes passes, and as I’m waiting there is a man and woman sitting at the booth adjacent to the door. The woman is looking around impatiently, no drinks or food on their table with their menus at the end of the table to signal they are ready to order, she turned to the man after looking around and said, “15 minutes and we still haven’t had a waiter take our order.”

At that point I went ahead and left and had lunch somewhere else. The man and woman were in office casual so I could tell they were there on their lunch hour, too. Makes sense, right? A burger place is thought of as a fast-paced environment to enjoy a quick lunch. While no one was outright rude to me at Bub’s I’m incredibly disappointed in their staffing strategies. It’s clear they do not have an appointed host/hostess and they have not trained their wait staff to appropriately fill that role since they do not have one. Customers should never have to wait that long to be greeted or have their order taken. It’s unprofessional on a lot of levels. I don’t know if the pandemic has had an impact on their staffing abilities, and I want to be sympathetic to that, but any kind of explanation (“Sorry, we are short-staffed at this time and you may experience a longer wait time today, is that ok?”) would have been appreciated. I will likely return to Bub’s, but I know only to return during my leisure time as this is not a good place to come for...

Hit or miss. When they hit, they knock it out of the park. Unfortunately they miss more often than not.

First visit: How delightful! My family and I left on cloud nine. Everything about this place made us happy. From the chilli to to the waffle fries to the homemade pies, everything was perfect. The burgers are obviously the main focus and they don't disappoint. Best restaurant burger I've had in a long time. Every table had uno cards on it. My family had so much fun. We can't wait to go back. Special mention should be made for Nora. Such a bright personality. The entire staff seemed to be on point but Nora is something else. We are grateful that she took care of us.

Have to edit my previous post. Took my family back two more times and both times it was a complete train wreck. The only reason I give it two stars is because we had a great experience the first time. Good food is meaningless if it's not consistent and there is no service.

The second time we went we waited at our table for over 20 minutes before being greeted. I wish I could say our experience improved after that but unfortunately the food was mediocre at best.

The third time had a calamity of errors, from being told that they ran out of milk (so no milk shakes), to the food coming out wrong or not at all. Milkshakes did miraculously show up 20 minutes after ordering and receiving other beverages. Where they got the milk I have no clue since I specifically asked if there was a chance we could have milkshakes for dessert if they went to the store and was told a flat no. The server was as confused as we were when the shakes showed up. Since they completely messed up our food order we were told they would fix the error and remake the burgers but they did not. We were served the same burgers (one had a bite missing), as if we wouldn't notice. We never recieved our fries or the second round of drinks we ordered. The server blamed the kitchen but the point is I wish we went somewhere else. Completely wasted our evening choosing this venue. Bloomington has a lot of great consistent restaurants to choose from. This is not...

Racist.

I have noted, on several occasions, preferential treatment by the staff for white or white-passing people over people of color. One dine-in experience I had, I visited alone and ended up waiting 45 minutes for my burger and fries while the tables around me with 4-6 white people each (who arrived at the same time or after I did) all got served first. When I eventually got my order, the waitress made some lame B.S. excuse about how my burger was hiding behind another order and was overlooked. I was not offered any compensation or discount. Another time, I ordered takeout from here. I came to the restaurant and went to the takeout counter and waited patiently for the hosts and servers buzzing around to attend to me, all of whom were avoiding eye contact with me. A white guy comes in about 10 minutes after me, walks up to the host table and is immediately served. So I walk over to the host table and manage to get a host to retrieve my takeout order. As he's doing that, another host comes over to the table and asks how he can help me. I explain I am already being helped and he says "Okay, can you wait over there then?" pointing to the takeout area I was standing at previously. Apparently me occupying the area in front of the host table for less than 5 seconds was intolerable for them, preventing them from getting business from other valuable customers. How rude.

If you enjoy supporting racist businesses, then by all means patronize this restaurant. But, if you are like me a person who does not support racism and stands with people of color for equal and fair treatment, Do Not Support This Restaurant. Bloomington has no shortage of delicious burger restaurants (FARM, Elk, Big Woods, Upland Brewery, etc.). Support one of them instead. As a bonus, your food probably won't be oversalted...