Hamilton Walker's — Restaurant in Champaign

My wife and I went with another couple to Hamilton Walker's to celebrate our 29th anniversary. The other couple was celebrating their 28th. The restaurant knew this. We had heard good things about this restaurant, so we were excited to go.

We found the restaurant was very nicely decorated. We were greeted by a gentleman as soon as we walked in. Our waiter, Byron, was very nice, knowledgeable and eager to please. He did a great job.

Now the food. I had the "simply seasoned" aged prime rib, a 16 oz. cut, for $30.95. It was tasteless. Now, for $2 more I could have ordered it with a couple different choices of crust toppings, or for an additional $2 more I could have included a sauce, which there were 3-4 to choose from. However, I thought ordering the prime rib, as is, would be fine! but I was mistaken. I would think for $30, you shouldn't have to pay extra to give a steak good taste. Anyway, the mac and cheese was good. As was the spinach salad with warm bacon dressing.

My wife got a half rack of ribs. I've NEVER seen her struggle with ribs like I did with the ones she was served. She said she could not get the meat off the bone, but once she was able to saw it off with a knife, the meat tasted good. She told our waiter and he said it was the first time he had heard someone complain about the ribs being tough.

Our friends said their entrees were good but not worth the prices. Oh, one of them ordered the sweet potato soup, but couldn't eat it. Very bland. We all tried it and agreed. Our waiter heard us talking about it and said it appeared the wrong soup had been brought out. He said it was lobster bisque. None of us thought it tasted anything like lobster bisque. The waiter brought out another soup and said that was the sweet potato soup. We all tasted it and it tasted the same as the first although it was a little lighter in color. No idea what was going on with that. It didn't get eaten either.

Anyway, overall the prices are too high for food that is "simply seasoned". I don't want to pay extra to get a good tasting cut of meat. The ribs are tough. The waiter and the nice young lady that seated us told us Happy Anniversary, but that was it. The bill came and no adjustment for my wife's ribs. No offer of a complimentary dessert even though we were too full to have any. Not the experience we were hoping for. Probably...

We tried HW's for the first time as part of this year's Restaurant Week. First and foremost, I'll compliment ALL of the staff. Everyone inside was welcoming, friendly, and not even in a shallow small talk way, but in a very genuine sense. The restaurant itself is beautiful and very well kept. It seems much larger than it appears from the street. As part of Restaurant Week, we dined from a limited menu. We both started with a ceasar salad. I didn't care for it much at all. The dressing was sour to my taste, and that drowned out the rest of the flavors. Even with a fair share of fresh ground black pepper on it. My wife wasn't as critical of it, though later in the meal, she mentioned that she wished she'd tried one of their soups instead. For entrées we again both got the 6oz sirloin skewer with green beans and mashed potatoes. We also ordered a side of macaroni and cheese from the regular menu. The steak was perfectly cooked, had a fantastic crust, and was, for me, the highlight of the meal. The wife said she found her meat to be too fatty for her taste. The green beans were well prepared. I'm not the biggest fan of them in general, but I finished my side. The mashed potatoes were all over the place from a flavor perspective. I don't understand their decision to serve a mashed potato dish with whole unmashed potato in it, but it completely undermined all the care and work they'd done in the rest of their preparation. One bite would be fabulous, and the next would be a bland, the whole center of the unmashed potato not having seasoning or anything. Not bad, but the potential is exponential. The macaroni and cheese was great. The choice of noodle was perfect. The sauce was creamy and had nice flavor. The stand out here was the bread crumbs. They added such a brilliant crunch and texture, quite good! We diverged at the final course with myself getting the bread pudding and my wife choosing the flourless chocolate torte with blueberry sauce . The bread pudding was just fine. The vanilla custard sauce did elevate it somewhat. The torte was a bit insane. It's rich beyond belief, like trying to eat a giant bar of fudge. A couple of bites was frankly overkill.

We really enjoyed the experience. The staff and the atmosphere are really...

Been to Hamilton Walkers twice now. First time was for dinner with 8 others about a month after they opened. Most recently was for lunch with the family. Couple of months gap between visits.

Both visits were disappointing.

The service was decent. They have a kitchen system where everything is put through on handheld tablets. This looks great but it also leads to confusion with the kitchen staff as we had errors on our orders on both visits. Order modifications get lost in the translation.

It just felt like an unrefined experience. The kitchen and serving operations should eliminate friction points for the guests. Get things right the first time. Instead of just asking if there's any problems there should be an offer for some sort of meal enhancement, perhaps fresh pepper or something like that. The guys dropping off the food need to know what comes with an order.

The portions for dinner are laughable for the price. For dinner I had ordered the scallops. $35. The plate that my 5 scallops came on could have held a Thanksgiving turkey and had the scallops lined up in the middle. No garnish. Just a big empty plate.

All of the sides are separate.

Lunch was a similar experience. Fish and chips were lukewarm and soggy. Steak fries should be hot and crisp. Friend fish should be hot and crisp.

I thought that my first visit was just a one-off frustration as I've heard great things. I figured I would give them a few months to see about getting things smoothed out. This most recent visit confirmed that Hamilton Walkers needs some refining when it comes to the pricing, menu, and service standards.

I will not be returning to Hamilton Walkers. Don't be fooled by the positive reviews. Only go if you're interested in servers stumbling around you, serving you small, lukewarm, overpriced food. Hamilton Walkers is nice to look at from the outside. The illision falls apart when you step into the...