Sun Singer Restaurant, Wine & Spirits — Restaurant in Champaign

There should be a sixth star for Sun Singer.... This place is soooooo good the review will be in two parts, first the restaurant... Followed by the wine and spirits store.... Sun Singer Restaurant has both table settings and a small 10 seater bar, I chose the bar, but you do you boo boo... you will not be disappointed either way. The menu might scare you into thinking this is some upper echelon boujie molecular gastronomy place, but nope...it's genuinely great food in an amazing atmosphere. The restaurant has a small deli counter attached so if you need to build a charcuterie at home, grab before you go out the door. The bar has top notch spirits as well as an extensive menu that boasts lobster and pot roast nachos, as well as a rarely found hanger steak. I'm a finger food type of simpleton so I sat myself down grabbed a Stella and built my own antipasti. F#@%ing amazing... absolutely delicious from start to finish. Served on a platter with enough room to build your creation, and presented with a baguette that was crisp on the crust and just enough chew to hold up whatever you choose to place on top. I also ordered the pork roast nachos, because WHERE ELSE CAN YOU GET POT ROAST ON NACHOS?!?!?!?!?! Sure the lobster piqued my interest, but I'm glad I picked the pot roast.... it was well balanced and looked oh so pretty. As for the rest of the menu, I cannot say anything turned me off, it all sounded well crafted and prepared. Now for the second part of this review, there is a packaged liquor store attached directly to the restaurant & deli... making this place the ultimate one stop shop for any pre-party or get together, if I knew wines better could tell you more about them because it looked like they had well over 1000 bottles... I can tell you they had a wine chiller... WHO ELSE HAS A WINE CHILLER?!?!?!?! The sommelier told me that it can chill any bottle in approximately 8 minutes, perfect to grab a quick bite, then head out with ice cold vino. My favorite side of the store was the whiskey selection, which has a wonderful bunch of bottles. Nothing I saw there was outrageously over-priced and everything was clearly labeled and ready to grab. 11/10 You need to eat and shop here...again and again. Food pictured is the antipasti, and then the nachos.... that last pick was a perfect nacho that was still hanging around well over half-way through completion....LOOK AT HOW PERFECT IT IS.... it's way prettier than your first born, tasted...

Update: I’ve edited my review down from 5 stars to 1. We’ve had a few bad experiences here in the past couple of years, which we overlooked, but because of our experience tonight, we will NEVER go back. We sat outside for 30 minutes, and when our server took our order, we waited another 50 minutes before I went inside and asked someone at the hostess stand for help. There was no attempt to make things right - just a quick “Sorry!” and a plastic bag with $100 worth of food in styrofoam boxes. When I got home, I realized that my order - a Chicken Club sandwich - wasn't even correct. It came with no sides. So not only did we pay $125 for food that arrived nearly an hour after we ordered it (I shudder to wonder what would have happened if I hadn't gotten up to ask the hostess stand, since our server continued to walk by our table ignoring us.) This was especially appalling because we've gone to Sun Singer so much that another server recognized us and said hello. Nothing says, “We couldn’t care ANY LESS about you!” than our experience tonight. Our loyal patronage has come to an end. We will never stop here again. If you’re looking for subpar service and you like waiting nearly an hour for your food to be placed in front of you, by all means, I’d sure recommend Sun Singer. In addition, we were told that the dining room was “booked solid.” Yet there were people who were sitting outside, who asked their server if they could go inside because they were cold, and they were allowed to continue their meal inside. We had a 3 year old and a 6 year old with us, but we were not afforded the same opportunity. The phrase “never again” just isn’t strong enough for what we experienced tonight. ** I love this restaurant! It's far and away my favorite in Champaign. Their portions are generous, their servers are a great balance of helpful and sincere yet respectful of your space. Everything is good. Even the times when our food hasn't come out right, Sun Singer is still excellent - they quickly fix their mistakes and apologize. Their wine selection is second to none. We've dined here for date night, family dinners, girls night, book club... You name it, Sun...

My husband and I go to this restaurant regularly, at least 3 times a month. We love the dining ambiance and the excellent wine selection. The food is also good, no complaints there. We were hesitant to write this review just because one bad apple shouldn’t ruin an otherwise good experience. However, when a customer is flat out disrespected on more than one occasion, the business should be aware.

The male waiter in the dining room has provided horrendous service to us multiple times . We let the first times slide because we wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt- As humans we all have our bad days, so we excused him from his disrespect and hoped to avoid him in the future.

However, on March 22nd we got to the restaurant (crossing our fingers to have another server but him, and unfortunately we were sitting in his section, the back wall.) When he came to the table, he did not introduce himself, he asked in a rude manner, "What do you want to drink?" I said I want a bottle of Fiji water, he was so rude replying “What!?”. I said flat Fiji water please… he then screamed at me, “yes but what kind?!”. At that moment my husband got upset and we told him that he is very disrespectful, so we left.

While we do have a slight accent, it’s never caused such a bad reaction in the past, as we are able to speak slowly and understand very clearly. Even if the server did not understand what I was asking him, he should have addressed the situation in a polite way, never with a bad attitude.

We had a conversation with the shift manager. My husband left his business card and we asked to receive a call back from her manager or the owner of the restaurant so we can complain formally (which we have not yet received, otherwise we would not be writing...