Nick's English Hut — Restaurant in Bloomington

If I could give a negative star on the service of one person, Zeke, that destroyed what should have been a spectacular evening. Zeke is possibly the rudest service person I have ever encountered and it was not one single incident but consistently rude behavior the entire evening. The Bloomington South Class of 1983 had a wonderful 35th reunion at Nicks in 2018 and I hoped for more of the welcoming and friendly service I personally had come to know from the 37 years of happily going to Nicks. Zeke single handily trashed that option from the moment we started to the last folks tolerating his foul nature.

We had maybe 100 people attending with all spending significant dollars and time in Nicks last night. Clearly Zeke has zero interest in a positive or even neutral customer experience. From the beginning he made everyone I spoke with, feel like we were an intrusion and not wanted.

The rest of the staff were good but unable to overcome what was coming from Zeke, who I believe was the manager that evening. The new bartender trainee, Chelsea was stellar, but again one person crushed that.

I cannot speak for the entire group or our organizers but I can say that I heard from many that they had the same experience and we all discussed changing all future events to another more friendly establishment.

In talking with other townies today about my experience, several said they knew exactly who I was talking about as they too had similar experiences. Clearly not just one “bad day”.

I know I will no longer be spending my time or money at Nicks until this issue is resolved. I will also make sure I let all of my local family and friends of our atrocious experience. I am very disappointed and sad to remove Nicks from my short list of Btown icons that I have always highly recommend over the years.

For their own sake and for Bloomington in general I do hope that ownership/management resolves this issue.

~ btown born and...

I used to love this place but lately the food has been trash. The fries I ordered were soggy with grease and cold, and the chicken was frozen in the middle the time before that. They offered to remake my chicken tenders, but I said no because I don't want to eat meat that isn't fresh. Why would I pay for that going out when I can just thaw out chicken at home, which I never do, because I always have it fresh! Plus, I used to love the biz fries but the last time I came the sauce was nasty! It was separated out and had a consistency and temperature of something that was sitting out all day under a heat lamp, which is not what you want from mayo! Have some standards! Don't think I'll be ordering food here again, which is a shame because I came here for my birthday TWICE. The way they carelessly handle food is bound to get somebody severely ill. I'm seeing a lot of one star reviews lately too, so this place is definitely trending down. Get your act together Nick's! I expect better from a place that's been around for over 90 years! I've never been mistreated by workers here, actually I take that back because the quality of food the last few times was an insult! They have the breading right, but people don't want to pay for nasty, unfresh fries and biz sauce which is supposed to be the Hallmark here, and chicken that's been sitting in a freezer for six months! And don't offer me a free meal, because I won't eat from here again! It seems another user, "L D" also had food delivered cold, so this seems to be an unacceptable...

I love Nicks, I love the food and the atmosphere, and the tradition. BUT I have never been to a restaurant with such consistently awful service. Truly just the worst. My last visit will definitely be my last, I have no plans to return. Went early in the evening in the middle of the summer and wanted to sit outside. The party in front of us was told their wait would be about 5 minutes, and we were told ours would be about 10. Well they got seated but we kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting. When I asked how much longer it would be (after 45 minutes) the host snapped at me and said I shouldn’t be asking and that he never told me it would be 10 minutes. Then the manager approached my group and just out of no where said “do you really have to sit outside” to which we responded yes, it was a nice evening and we were wary of sitting inside due to covid. He continued to yell at us and roll his eyes and storm off. The poor waitress was running ragged all over the place, and she decided to just seat us herself. I understand that most places are short staffed right now, but it was this girls first night on the job and she was alone while the manager just stood around watching and vaping. This is not the first time I’ve had horrible service at nicks. I’ve waited 2+ hours just to get a drink, then another hour for food. Sorry this is such a long review, it’s just so disappointing that a Bloomington institution can’t get it together enough to treat both their staff and...