Burger Bar Chicago — Restaurant in Chicago

When I write a review its strictly based on 1. Service 2. Quality of food 3. Presentation of food 4. Ambience.. where do I start 😒.. this was my first meal of the day.. it was 6pm I was so busy I didn't have time to squeeze 5 minutes to stuff my face with popcorn or something and that would of been better than all 4 of suggested reasons for review. I came to this location expecting to have a good experience and meal and those good wishes was as good as it was going to get ☹. We came in as a party of 5, the hostess asks if we had a reservation which we did not, she was super friendly and got us a table within 2 minutes or less, things were looking good. The waitress approaches our table as were sitting and explains the menu, you scan the QR code through your cell phone great! I thought keeping up with covid guidelines. She come back 5 min in and asks kindly with no smile if we are ready to order drinks which we were. She comes back non friendly and drops off our drinks 🍸 great! The beginning of a horrible experience 😒. We order our food, its so loud in there im raising my voice to be heard and thats okay still, its part of what they created to be part of the ambience which is fine. The problem the waitress not friendly. I smile and I get a serious look everytime.. jeez.. moving forward with the food.. the wait was insane, I read a sign stating they were short staffed which I understood okay will wait longer than anticipated its fine. 30 min pass 40 min pass finally I ask the waitress about the food all in we waited an hour or slightly over.. the food comes in im super excited.. I hadn't had a meal all day!! Omg! The wings were soooo hard with no flavor! It needed salt 🧂. I had 1 thinking its just me im chewing the food, im trying im really trying to find good. I am really.. I go in for the second one, bite slower, im really trying to extract flavor from the sauce, it was basil honey barbecue, I mean i could hint something, something was there but without the salt it was hard to extract those flavors.. on top of that the wings were over cooked. The texture was unappealing.. it was dry and difficult to chew, this chicken would of been better served shredded as chicken soup. The burgers we ordered were dry. The only enjoyable thing was the fries. The presentation was good i would recommend smaller plates to make them look fuller and more appealing. My sons wings were really dry 😕 he didn't eat them. Lets talk about the restaurant and children. Its kid friendly they do have a kids meal and a changing table in the women's washroom. I didn't see any high chairs but I'm sure they do. Changing topic let's talk about covid and cleanliness.. for starters the tables are extremely close together when I got up to check out the washroom my diaper bag tapped into people thats how close all the tables were, washrooms are dirty, tables felt sticky. Moving on to ambience its good there's a theme, a bar in the center or the restaurant.. service not the best. Food disappointed 😞. Pricing for 2 kids meals 3 adult meals was it worth 120 for 2 orders of dry wings, 2 burgers 1 being kids meal and another chicken kids meal.. for Not so much.. presentation was good, but thats all it was after that a good presentation. Perhaps one day will give it another try.. maybe in a year or so hopefully things will change. I don't like writing reviews like this but I have to be honest in my personal experience and this is how the...

Friendly staff (for the most part) but terrible service. Server stopped by right away and took our drink order, so it seemed like a great start. Note, it was NOT a busy night in the restaurant, they seemed well staffed. Our server brought half our drinks but forgot about the rest. We waited 10-15 minutes and then I tracked him down to inform him we were ready to order and we were missing drinks. He eventually stopped by for our order, but first he took the order of another table who arrived after we did. Anyways, we finally received our drinks and ordered food, then waited for about an hour, watching as food came out of the kitchen.....for everyone else but us. This included a few tables who were seated after us. I would have asked the waiter for an update, however he never stopped by to check drinks or give us a food update. So we grabbed the manager when she was walking by. We simply asked for a food update, no complaints, just for an update. She was friendly and returned a few minutes later saying it "would be out soon" and "there was an issue with the food/order printer" in back, apparently our order was impacted by this. Funny, b/c nobody else seemed to be having issues, but then again, I don't work there so okay, got it. About 12-15 minutes passed and the food came out. One burger was raw so we sent it back. At this point we were fairly certain that they forgot our order and made up the 'food printer" excuse, and then rushed our food through, hence it being raw. The other two burgers were "ok" at best. The server eventually apologized after we respectfully gave him some feedback, but at this point the damage was done. The manager never stopped by again. I hate to speculate, but I guess she didn't want to be bothered by the situation anymore, despite the fact that she was not visibly busy. I was eating with my spouse, we have both been servers years ago, so I feel like we empathize in regard to how difficult it can be in this industry. However, this particularly night the restaurant was not busy and the communication (after issues were identified) was terrible. We understand things go wrong, but just fess up, correct the action, and simply communicate. Don't make the customer ask all the logical questions. Maybe we just caught this place on a bad night but I wouldn't waste my money here again. They had multiple opportunities to help make things right and did not. Again, I feel like I have a high tolerance for missteps since I've worked in this industry. The difference here was that they never stopped the negative trend and things only got worse, even after they were well aware of the poor service. I would have let a lot more "slip" had the place been swamped, short staffed, etc. However, there were servers standing around at various points, and the bar itself was...

I visited Burger Bar Chicago for lunch this past Sunday, August 31, and unfortunately, the experience was very disappointing.

We checked in with the manager, gave him our name and phone number, and he said he’d call us when our table was ready — quoting about 30 minutes. After 45 minutes of waiting, I decided to call the restaurant and walk back, only to find out that our table had been ready for a while. The manager admitted he couldn’t even read his own handwriting and had failed to contact us.

Once seated, things went downhill. Our server greeted us with a rude attitude and zero patience, especially when we mentioned we had a flight to catch and needed to order quickly. Despite putting in our orders right away, 30 minutes passed with no food in sight. When we asked the server for an update, he said it would be another 10–15 minutes.

45 minutes later — still no food. At the 50-minute mark, I approached the manager, who went to the back and finally returned 10 minutes later with our entrees. At no point were we informed that the kitchen was severely behind, which would have allowed us to make an informed decision.

The manager’s demeanor when we expressed our frustration was dismissive and unhelpful. While he did end up comping the meals, the overall service was chaotic, slow, and poorly managed.

To make matters worse: • My fountain drink didn’t arrive until the food came out. • Our server never checked in on us after taking the order. • Nearby tables were also frustrated — the one next to us had been waiting just as long, and another table only had drinks after an extended wait.

I rarely leave negative reviews, but this was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in Chicago. Between the mismanaged waitlist, poor communication, and lack of attentiveness, I cannot recommend...