Carol's Garden Restaurant — Restaurant in Carol Stream

here's the poop. this place will give you soup and bread with pretty much any entree purchase. the soup is always sub par and lacks any real flavor. i'd been told more than once they 'put more veggies in the soup' for the beef veg. frozen veg. the broth tastes like canned tomato sauce. chicken noodle, noodles are mush, hardly any chicken. all in all, low quality soups seemingly from a can. it's included so you can't complain too much? but lacking food is lacking, included or not. the bread isn't bad but its frozen dough. more stuff bought in. there's a reason some of these reviews praise this place, as another reviewer said 'white and 40+' crowd have kind of lower standards for food than a newer generation. older people will eat slop cause it's cheap and they're lazy. free bread/soup is a draw for this crowd.

don't get me wrong - these are the reasons i frequented this place. i'm cheap and sometimes lazy. i would order their big sloppy burger for the value. here is the biggest problem of the place - the kitchen has absolutely NO consistency. once in a while i would get lucky, my burger would be cooked right, juicy, delicious. more often than not, i would get a dry, overdone burger. if i'm coming to your restaurant and spending 30+ dollars, i expect my main dish to be done right. to further the lack of consistency, sometimes the burger was cooked on a grill, others it was cooked on a flat top. you can taste the grill/see the grill marks or see the searing from the flat top. what gives? cook your burgers consistently at least as far as the cooking surface. this was ultimately what made the place a waste of time for me. please don't ruin my entree and then be upset when i send it back. i understand it's a waste of a lot of food and i always felt bad but you are here to serve food cooked to order. it's not my fault you overcooked my food. or the meat being pink still but being horrendously dry (smashing the burger as it cooks), you still ruined my burger. thanks for wasting my time. what should have been a 30 min in n out meal would turn into an hour ordeal between a missing server, how long food would take to come out, possible recook, etc.

the restaurant could be dead or everyone eating that you can see... but the food takes forever to come out. what gives? this is also a problem with the servers. some are nice then disappear, others greet you, take your order, bring your food, drop off your check. why poor service when i typically came in during slower periods? i would sit with a well done burger in front of me more than once wondering where my server was because my meat was rubber. im not gonna force down two patties of overcooked meat and then pay with a smile on my face. get your act together.

my wife has tried the pasta, the meatloaf, daily specials, the breakfast, a fair selection of the menu all in all and in the end about all they can accomplish consistently well is frying food. they can do that at a fast food place for cheaper. meat loaf was a rubber sole, absolutely gross and dry. pasta portion felt small and overcooked for the price, breakfast was a miss (dense heavy pancakes that soaked syrup up like a sponge making it even denser, overcooked eggs, etc). but if you want fried fish or something like that.. it was edible but how hard is it to drop something in oil and pull it out.

i decided after receiving one too many dry pink burgers (stop smashing the patties to cook it faster... you're ruining the meat) i was done. it was cooked to temp but dry as hell too many times. the old man who owns the place only speaks nicely/at all to the older clientele. so, as the other commenter said... if you're white and 40+, go ahead and go. enjoy your slop and free bread. if you expect consistent, good food despite your age or how you look, keep driving. there are better options all...

Man, I hate doing this because I've been going here for a while, but they really showed their true colors on Mother's Day. I took my mother here for brunch. I ordered the Southwest Skillet with scrambled eggs. It took about 45 minutes to get our food, which I understood, being Mothers Day. They were packed! Once I got my food, It had eggs over easy. Ok, it's not that big of a deal. I start eating, and it's not even the correct skillet. It had chicken and mushrooms in it. Nothing close to what I ordered. I'm not about to wait another 45 minutes for them to get my order right, so I eat what's in front of me. The server came and asked if everything was OK. I spoke up and said, "No, it's not. You guys gave me the wrong food, but I don't have time to wait for you to bring out the right food, so I'm just going to settle for this. She apologized and walked away. When she brought the ticket, NOTHING was discounted. When I went to pay at the register, I explained the scenario to the manager. He had a horrible attitude towards me. He said, "C'mon, it's Mother's Day. We're doing the best we can. You ate what we brought you, right?" He then applied a $3 off coupon. Big deal. No, I did not enjoy what I was served, I dealt with it because it would have made for a very uncomfortable situation to have my mother sit there for another 45 minutes waiting for my food! I understand that you're busy , but when you make a mistake, you take care of your customers. We frequent several restaurants: Red Apple, Mapleberry, Egg Basket, and Carol's Garden. This is the last time I will go here. Not because they got my order wrong, but because of how they handled it. Horrible...

Let me say this first i have been a waitress before and i except decent service when i got out just like anyone else that being said this is how my nihht went...As my boyfriend and I arrived we were asked by an older gentlemen how many, then as we were seated I said thank you and got nothing in return- felt like we we were being bothersome. The restaurant was busy when we arrived but it was the end of the dinner rush. It took over 5 mins for 2 soft drink orders. After placing our order it took 25 mins to get our food. I never got a refill on my drink even tho i had the empty glass at the end of the table. I ordered the Sat night special of prime rib med. the waitress asked if id like A1- said yes please, which it needed because it was totally freezer burnt 10mins later my boyfriend had to flag the waitress down after he say her doing side work. He said can we get the A1- she went oh yea (she forgot) at this point we are 45 mins into our dinner date and finally once she gets back we just ask for boxs and the check....now suddenly everyone including the gentlemen who sat us wants to kiss our ass. Im sorry but for 2 appetizers, a prime rib dinner and 2 drinks its was over $50. We could of gone to dennys spent half the money and had a...