Reality Bites — Restaurant in Bloomington

Last night was my lovely wife's birthday. She asked to go to Reality bites for dinner so I made a reservation for 4:30 I mentioned please make note it's my wife's birthday and the hostess whom answered the phone was enthused and informed me we would get a free desert. When we first arrived the bartender who greeted us; if you want to call it a greeting, was distracted and aloof. They sat us and we were THE ONLY CUSTOMERS IN THE RESTAURANT. Fair enough. I proceeded to order a Macallan 12 year old single malt scotch and noticed that when he went to make the drink there was hardly anything left in the bottle. When I received it it was clear and obviously mostly soda water. I did not complain. Next we ordered two 16 OZ steaks, baked potatoes and green beans. They served all of that on a plate made for TAPAS. The potatoes were clearly hard as a rock, completely under cooked and not edible. Half of the green beans were not fit to be on the plate and looked horrible and the steak was a cut that was subpar or something I could get at a chain. Next I asked if I could have another drink. The waitress went in the basement and retrieved another bottle of the Macallen and this drink was correct. So obviously the bartender was simply just too lazy to go get it the first time and make it correctly. After an extremely uncomfortable quiet dinner I was asked if I wanted desert, again absolutely no acknowledgment of the fact that I had requested that it was a birthday celebration. I just politely asked for the check. It was about $104. They Charged me $12 for each drink. In summary the people there treat customers as if they are a distraction. There is no attention to detail in the food or drink preparation and they fraudulently try and pass themselves off as a higher end dining establishment. On the way out I was thanked by a gentleman that didn't even look at us once the entire time or notice the obvious issues during the meal. I ghosted him and walked out. With so many restaurants in Bloomington Normal, my recommendation is try one that actually cares about what they do. It's your money and you deserve better than the lame experience...

4/8/22 So I'm going to start with the good part first. The bartenders were nice and the drinks (old fashioned) we're very good and made to perfection! I ordered the goat cheese balls as an appetizer and they were absolutely amazing!

So I ordered the filet which came with vegetables and mashed potatoes. The fillet was fine and nicely prepared and the vegetables were piping hot. Then, I take a bite of the mashed potatoes and they were literally refrigerator temperature cold. Like you could not achieve this level of cold just by leaving food sit out. I don't think I've ever had this happen before at a restaurant as it was like they literally forgot to warm them.

So I'm sitting at the end of the bar where all of the servers are coming and going getting drinks including the person who brought my food. Not one single person ever asked me if everything was okay or if the food was right. Not even the person who appeared to be the manager said anything while he stood next to me on two occasions.

I ate my steak and vegetables and left this pile of stone cold potatoes untouched thinking that an observant manager or staff person might see this and inquire, but no one did. Eventually a hand came from nowhere and just grab the plate and whisked it away!

I will also add that this was near closing time for the kitchen, but like I always say, it doesn't matter whether the restaurant just opened or whether it's getting ready to close, the food should come out the same. Most of the let down with this experience was about the lack of communication customer interaction. This was the first experience so I will definitely give them a try again...

Alright. Here we go. Before coming to this place I had passed it multiple times. I always looked forward to one day actually going, well yesterday was that day. I was excited to try it out. Let's start with service. Our original waitress was new, so she didn't know anything about anything on the menu. I understand being new can be difficult, but when you don't even know what the restaurant you're working for is serving you are no help to anyone, carry a cheat sheet or something. Memorize it. Idk. Anyways the food. The food was meh. We started with the goat cheese balls and the bang bang shrimp. The goat cheese balls were good, but they weren't quite there. The balls were huge. The ratio of breading to cheese was not ideal. Smaller balls would be ideal. Lol As for the shrimp, it was weak I could literally go to Kroger, get frozen shrimp, throw it in the oven and dip it in spicy mustard and it would be the exact same thing I received at this place. I also tried the bacon wrapped dates which were far too wet and far too burnt. I then tried the smashed chickpea sandwich, while it was okay, again it just fell short. Not a lot of flavor. For desert we got cake bites and brown butter cake which was really good. I have zero complaints about the desert. Ya'll can absolutely improve and I will probably eat there again in the future and give it...