NorthStar Tavern — Restaurant in Bloomington

Just wanted to share our experience at North Star Tavern... HORRIBLE Experience!

We went for dinner, it was amazing!! Our kids were not on the best behavior. My son was crabby and our day was a bit sleepy. We ordered and our food came promptly. Service was great. We asked for our bill.

The owner, Jon approached and asked how everything tasted. We said great. My son is was crying. John asked if we needed a plate? My husband and I looked at him puzzled. Then he stated that we were ruining his menu. I was puzzled. Then I realize our son was eating on he menu Instead of the table. 🤦🏻‍♀️ He was angry and stood their like we were criminals. He was beyond upset. He had his arms crossed and looked like we had committed the worst crime.

My husband said it was a mistake and offered to pay for it. I was upset as a mom. It was an honest mistake and could’ve been wiped off. I mean come on... this guy must not have kids. He walked away mad and was talking to the waiters about us. So of course I approached and told him now unprofessional he was. We weren’t hurting anyone.

I apologized to our waitress and said we really didn’t think anything of it. My kids eat on the table all the time. He has pulled the menu close and has eaten on it. Wow what a crime.

She felt bad and apologized. Not her fault in any way.

Then the owner, John went to the bar and was taking to another table and pointing at us. He was very angry by a little kid getting food on his menu. Wow! I will never eat here again. This decision was appalling and unprofessional. I have 20 plus years in the service industry and I’ve never been treated this...

No longer customer friendly. Until this visit, it's been a while since we stopped by and since then they made up a new policy that will keep us away going forward. We literally came here because of a BOGO deal we had on Craftapped. That and we wanted some food. But upon asking about the BOGO, the very nice server spoke to her manager and turns out they made up their own strange policy on how they accept this deal. Every restaurant and brewery that supports Craftapped that we’ve ever been to honor the deal as-is, a simple buy one, get one. This place forces you to have a BOGO for yourself only, NO SHARING!! My gf and I only wanted one beer each, so we were denied. For real. We spoke to the manager, and she wouldn’t budge, which was also shocking.

We did order food and then we just felt weird complaining about her awful burger of the month (“The Maverick”) so we didn't say anything, but when we finished the server saw that it was only picked at and took that meal off the bill. That was nice, but even so, we left unhappy. The seasoning on hers and mine was odd, even though hers was mostly pork and mine beef. One seasoning to rule them all I guess! We did not end up getting any beer and don’t plan on coming back. It’s really too bad as we went out of our way today to come here thanks to that “deal”. My pretzel bun wagyu burger wasn’t great either, but at least I was able to finish it. This place needs a reset.

To answer the owner about Craftapped: Your custom policy is extremely restrictive and no other bar/brewery/restaurant we've encountered has done it your way. Oh well, you saved...

Good food but a little pricey for what you get. The rosemary paloma is scary delicious.

Update 09/06/21 - Sorely disappointed the last two times. Tonight the place wasn't even a quarter full and the server acted like we were a burden on her. They didn't have our favorite appetizer but she had to go and ask since she didn't know, so either a lack of communication or caring, she also left us sitting for almost 10 minutes before coming back to get our order. This time the paloma had so much mixer in it that the flavor was completely off. Our food sat in the window for over a minute. The server who brought it out didn't know who got what and the fries were cold leading me to believe that they weren't fresh and that the kitchen does a big batch at a time. My burger that was supposed to have a brioche bun had a pretzel bun instead, but nothing was communicated that they had to substitute it. The server disappeared until we were halfway done with our food and then she didn't even ask if we wanted anything else and just brought the check. During this whole time the pull tab woman, the hostess and another staff member were all openly playing on their phones. After years in the restaurant business I wonder if a manager was even there.

This was one of our favorite spots but it's going to be a long while if we...