Farren's at The Inman — Restaurant in Champaign

UPDATE: I originally gave 5 stars, I'm leaving that review below, along with an update.

I've heard more than a few service related complaints recently and I strangely enough had something similar happen. The gist of what's going on here is they have a table policy that ensures your whole party is ready and present when you get seated. Blackdog has a similar policy but they seem to be a tad more understanding situationally.

Instance 1: a friend was celebrating their birthday and not allowed to sit down or order drinks at the table while waiting for people to arrive and was made to feel unreasonable.

Instance#2: we weren't allowed to get an extra chair for a buddy traveling from a couple hours away.

Now though this is understandable from a management standpoint, the way it's being executed appears flawed. I just couldn't believe I hadn't experienced that before. They don't follow the Olive garden slogan, because when you're here, ya don't feel like family. Or friends. Just another customer, with a wild idea of asking for an extra chair. Some places are understanding, here they are not. This ain't an employee blame, so don't get mad at them. This sort of cold shoulder behavior comes from the top. When it comes to food, the burger really is phenomenal. Fries have been cold/lukewarm my past 3 times going since the new location opened.

I want you to go here, enjoy the food, but go with yourself, a buddy or significant other. If coordinating a party of 3 or more, look elsewhere. They won't be understanding of the situation regardless of what it is, and we're only human, this issue will keep coming up. Scheduling a night out is hard enough, I don't recommend rewarding their tough love attitude with your party business. They can keep their policy and just improve common sense about it. I trust they will with the amount of negative feedback I've been hearing.

I'm not lowering my score as the food has stayed consistent since the move and I highly recommend it. Support your local businesses.

Original Review: One of the very best burgers in the world, incredibly tough to beat the flavor and quality they're packing here. If you're from out of town this should no doubt be one of your first stops. Only problem is you have to take the whole family, because telling your wife and kids you went without them will cause you a world of hurt. Spicole and the Russell have my highest...

Hostess was extremely rude, and then was followed by mediocre service and food.

Checked in at 5:57 with the front for a party of 8 on a Saturday night. I was told it would be a 45 min wait, so I gave them my number for when our table was ready. I was told I could sit at the bar, but I asked if I could leave and was reassured that was ok because I will get a text when our table was ready.

6:53 I got two texts saying the table was ready, as well as one at 6:55. So I immediately walked over from Hounds Rest (across the street), while the rest of my party was closing their tabs.

When I got to the restaurant, I went to the front of the line, and saw the hostess was both checking in people and seating people. So I waited while she sat two different parties before she got to me. When I told her I was here to check in, it was 7:00 and she told me because I was 5 min late, my table was given up. I was standing at least 3-5 min waiting to let her know I was there. She then became extremely rude, and said she had been trying to tell me my table was ready. So showed her my texts with the time stamp saying it had only been 7 minutes. She argued with us for at least 5 minutes before offering to sit 8 people at a 6 person table. We agreed due to having a larger party on the weekend and was worried there would be another wait if we sent somewhere else.

After she sat us, she whispered to our waitress and pointed to our table. Our waitress was very nice, but only took orders for drinks for half the table. Once the second half finally ordered drinks, it then took about 15 min for them to get theirs. Unsure if her performance was related to what the hostess said to her.

For overall horrible service we received, a meal of burgers and fries cost $17, and the food was not worth the price tag. Old...

Compared to all these reviews, we must've gone in on a really off day. First off, my girlfriend asked for a water, and I ordered a beer. My beer came, her water didn't. We politely asked again for it. Then a different server came and took our appetizer order. We asked again for the water. Appetizers arrived: Mozzarella sticks that were still cold in the middle and house made chips that were COVERED in salt. I did not mind the chips, though they were a bit bland. The excess salt was eventually overpowering, so I went up to the bar to get that glass of water myself. We asked 3 times and I still had to get it myself. We both ordered burgers because we had both heard that they were the best in town. I ordered the house-cut fries to go with it. where the chips were buried in salt, the fries had NONE. and the burgers... jeez, i have pretty low standards for burgers, and those were the worst burgers i've had in a LONG time. Murphy's and Legends had better burgers, and that's saying something.

You want the best burgers in Champaign-Urbana area go to Jurassic Burger on Green street or Black Dog in Urbana. Both places you, your dates, and your friends literally moan at the juicy deliciousness.

The burgers we had at Farren's had some flavor, I guess, but it was bland and they all washed over each other. I had a bleu cheese sauce that tasted like straight ranch dressing watered down, bacon that was flavorless cardboard (no crunch), and the beefcake itself was dry. The only good thing on it were the portobello mushrooms.

And usually when I have an off meal at a place I'll give them 3 chances. This time, I can't even give them that. It...