Houlihan's — Restaurant in Champaign

I've been here twice. January 20, 2023 and March 20, 2023. Both nights were slammed because of concerts at the State Farm Center.

In January, we were told it would be 20 minutes for a table for our group of 5. They took down our name and phone number. After sitting in the entryway for almost an hour, we asked if we had been forgotten, because others who arrived 30-40 minutes after us were being seated. They had indeed forgotten us. We were rushed to a table by an apologetic host. Usually, after something this egregious, I'm used to smooth sailing. But it was another 30 minutes before a server came to drop off menus, and ran away without taking a drink order or bringing water. Things started to look up a LITTLE later, but I think spending 3 hours in a restaurant for a 30 minute dining experience is a little excessive.

Today I was told 45 minute wait, but I snagged a seat at the bar right away. My bartender, Kiyla, was friendly, attentive, apologetic, and doing a fantastic job keeping up with the concert rush. My compliments to her. However... I ordered a medium rare burger with onion, mushrooms, bacon, and pepper jack. The menu said it came with a side. I wasn't asked what side I wanted, so I figured it defaulted to fries. That's probably the only thing the bartender did wrong. When my burger came out at least 45 minutes later--but probably closer to an hour--it was far from correct. The onion was missing, but I was given lettuce, tomato, and pickle (every vegetable I DIDN'T ask for); the mushrooms, bacon, and pepper jack were correct; and there was no side. I took one bite of the burger and discovered it was well done. FAR from medium rare. The outside tasted like charcoal, and it was so brown inside that it was almost grey. I confirmed with the bartender that she had entered medium rare, and she had. Kiyla's tip did not suffer any as none of this was her fault. (Side note, I'm fairly certain the mushrooms on the burger were supposed to be sauteed per the menu, but the ones on my burger were raw. I'm not certain, so don't quote the menu based on me.)

I left feeling just as hungry as when I arrived.

I understand that I've only been there on super busy nights, but they are ALREADY offering a REDUCED MENU on concert nights to compensate for...

The restaurant itself presents as very nice, and I read the menu online before my sister and I came in for lunch. I was a little disappointed to be handed a very small menu that didn't have a lot of the things I'd seen online. We chose the shrimp avocado salad and the steak chimichurri to share. My sister also got a cup of loaded baked potato soup as an appetizer and a creme brulée for dessert. The soup was very creamy and hearty and was generously loaded with bacon and onions and cheese. Unfortunately it just wasn't that great. It was kind of sweet and tasted very heavily of celery. The salad was so incredibly bland. The "dressing" was chipotle mayo which they did not put a noticeable amount of chipotle in. The shrimp was bland, just boiled. The avocado was unseasoned and bland. Just absolutely everything in the salad was as bland as could be. It needed onion and/or flavor depth from a good dressing. It's kind of shocking that a $15 salad only has mayonnaise to dress it with. The chimuchurri steak got mixed reviews from us. My sister ordered it medium well, but it was served in slices that were perfectly mid rare (which i love but because we were sharing we ordered it cooked to my sister's preference). She was grossed out and ultimately only ate a couple of bites of the steak. It was well seasoned, but very tough. We had to ask for steak knives, which we thought was weird. The butter knife was not getting it done. At least a third of the steak was inedible gristle. I love some good steak fat, but this was gristle. This was a $30 dish, only served with "crispy Yukon potatoes" which were not fresh at all and completely rubbery. Not a single crispy potato on the plate. The creme brulee was over burnt but we kind of liked it like that. My sister didn't like the custard. I actually thought it was devine. The service was good, there's no problem there. We did not complain or send anything back and we tipped over 20%. We definitely don't see any reason to go...

Sharing and reviewing mostly because of the lack of communication we received, and also because the manager did not even acknowledge us.

To make a very long story short, I was in a group of 6 that chose to get drinks and dinner here last night. We sat at a table, but for the first 40 minutes we had to order for ourselves at the bar. We ordered an appetizer listed online. A different appetizer came out, and when I questioned it, they told me the appetizer I ordered didn't exist. Not a huge deal, but half our party couldn't eat it because of dietary restrictions. Another 20 minutes goes by and we finally meet our server. (Very nice, and we tipped him well because everyone was struggling that night from the looks of it.)

We ordered food. Half an hour goes by. Try to order more drinks. Those take 15 minutes. Another half hour goes by. And another. Finally some food starts to come out. 15 minutes later the rest comes out. Fries were hot and good, everything else was cold. Tortillas for our wraps literally crumbled because they were so hard. They were probably made about 45 minutes prior, and sat, waiting for who knows what.

I can understand being short staffed. I can understand a new employee ringing up the wrong appetizer. What I can't understand is how a manager didn't even talk to our party once. We saw him walking around, and at times just lounging and leaning, while his staff struggled.

Not even close to being worth the $200 that I spent (for 2 peoples dinner, drinks, and 1 round of drinks for 5).

We were the first people at the restaurant and just about the last to leave. What a joke of an...