Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant — Restaurant in Brookfield

I had a surprisingly bad meal and poor service experience at my most recent visit to Cooper's Hawk. The visit started out poorly as I approached the hostess station and found the hostess on the phone staring blankly at my dining companion and I with bovine indifference. This 1000 yard stare went on for several minutes, with her not talking, and neither was the person on the other end of the phone. Finally, another employee came over to check us in and get us seated.

My companion and I ordered the crispy shrimp appetizer. My entrée consisted of the miso glazed sea-bass and my companion ordered the scallops gratin and Parmesan crusted filet. The shrimp appetizer was extremely overcooked, no flavor of shrimp was present, only a taste of the burnt breading and the stale oil it was cooked in. Every component of my miso glazed sea-bass entrée had something wrong with it. The citrus butter sauce was poured over the tomato, onion and cucumber salad which was plated with the sea-bass. The cucumbers in the salad were under-ripe and of poor quality, and imparted a very unpleasant and bitter flavor to the citrus butter sauce. The rice underneath the fish had been overcooked to the point of mush, with no texture and it had soaked up the previously mentioned ruined citrus butter sauce. Unfortunately, the fish was even worse. My first bite detected on off flavor and an unpleasant smell. An ill advised second bite confirmed this fish was definitely not fresh and well past it's prime. Obviously the chef did not taste any portion of this entrée as nobody who had tasted it would allow it to be served. I left the rest of my meal uneaten. In fairness, my companion enjoyed the gratin scallops and Parmesan crusted filet, however, they did mention that the accompanying vegetable medley was both burnt and under-cooked.

Our waiter eventually decided to check on us and asked if I wanted my uneaten entrée boxed up. I said no, and he expertly removed the virtually uneaten 41 dollar entrée. He didn't bother to ask how the meal was; just dropped off the check and left. I would assume a waiter would ask if everything was alright seeing an uneaten entrée with no desire to have it boxed. However, given our reception at the hostess stand, I guess I should not be surprised by the waitstaff's indifference. Definitely not worth the 160 dollars I paid for...

We decided to come here for our first anniversary dinner because we heard that they had great ambiance and service. I wanted to like it, but our experience was really disappointing. We told the restaurant that it was our wedding anniversary, and our server never wished us a happy anniversary or asked if we were celebrating, even though the tables around us were asked if it was a special occasion. At the end of our meal, we were asked if we wanted separate checks. I’m not sure if it was because we’re two women, but it felt icky. The food was good, but not great, and we enjoyed our drinks. Unfortunately, the service was the worst I’ve ever experienced. Our server, Kayla (I think?) was super new, and I totally understand how difficult it is to work in the service industry. However, management should not have left her to work alone if she wasn’t prepared. We were never asked if we wanted a refilled drink, never asked how the food tasted, and never asked if we needed anything. After she took our order, a runner brought our meals, and we didn’t see her again until over an hour later when she offered to bring the check, which took another 20 minutes. Our food came from the kitchen quickly, but it took us nearly 2 and a half hours to get in and out when we ordered an appetizer, a round of drinks, and entrees. I could kind of understand if we saw her running around to help other guests, but we were just left with no service while we saw other parties come and go. We were willing to go to a higher end place to get great food and service for a special occasion, but this was a total let down. A manager offered to comp our drinks when she saw us looking super bummed out while waiting for the server to bring the check, which was nice, but we still spent nearly $100 on a disappointing meal. I wasn’t looking for a discount; I was hoping to have a special and...

Hands down best service at ANY restaurant we have ever dined at. Our server was Benny & he took extra time to read the names on our wine account. He noticed on his own that we had a birthday reward & surprised us with truffles after our food. I've never had a server call us by our names by remembering them after looking up our wine account.

Also, I was watching him with the other tables in our area, he was calling EACH guest at the surrounding 4 tables by name. I heard one guest say, "thank you, your service was exceptional, we will come back just to have you as our server."

He brought us a red wine sample that he thought we would like based off of our order-he was right, it was amazing! We ended up doing an upcharge to purchase that bottle!

After we had eaten some appetizers, he recommended the chef's special appetizer, telling us how much him & his wife loved it. It was the personal connection that he brought to our dining experience that made it so great. We ended up ordering that & it was amazing!

I always ask servers for their recommendations & I can't stand when they say "everything is great!". I was shocked when I didn't even have to ask-because that is my pet peeve at restaurants.

My husband & I just kept talking about how amazing he was, saying how he should be a general manager, or trainer for servers on to sell, interact, personalize & create relationships with the small amount of time you are with a guest.

We made sure to let 2 of the managers know about our experience before we left...turns out, he's a new hire! Go there & cross your fingers for Benny.

We tipped him 40%-he deserves a raise & sets the standard HIGH for...