Dearly Beloved — Restaurant in Chicago

I hate that this is my first negative Chi review

I think I'm the only one in the city that's not a fan of this place, and I really really wanted to be!

My girlfriend set up a reservation for me the weekend after opening night for my birthday, and we were excited to see what the hype was about since this is a NEW restaurant and we're coming just a week after opening.

Upon seating, we were not given water. Okay, sure, perhaps they'll arrive once we order. Since this is a new place, we asked the waiter for cocktail suggestions. My friend ordered the "Waiting For The Moon" drink while I was still indecisive and asked to come back in a few minutes. Her drink arrived and it looked small, but cute. She takes a sip and makes that "ew" face. I tried a sip and it was incredibly strong, like straight alcohol. I'm not a sommelier, so I prefer cocktails with a good alcohol balance, nothing too overpowering. When the waiter came back, I asked if they had any sweeter, fruity, and lighter options, and he recommended me so many different ones that were more milk-based like cacao or horchata ingredients in them. I got a bit overwhelmed and just asked for a mocktail instead with alcohol-free champagne. I couldn't help but feel judged by the waiter for that choice for the way he said, "it has no alcohol in it" because yes, I know this, sir. As a result of the mocktail, it tasted fine.

We ordered the pasta rose dish, vinegar chips, and the potato potahto. I was disappointed by all of them, I hate to say. The pasta was very bland and thick, the vinegar chips were fine but the sour cream was so thick I had to use a spoon to scoop some and put onto my chip otherwise it'd break if you dip, and the potatoes, well.... they're potatoes so they tasted fine, although I would've liked them just a bit seasoned or salted. And as all of these cocktails and food was on our table, we still did not receive any water.

Above all, my friend made sure to make note on the reservation that this dinner was for my birthday and if a little sweet treat can be served after our entrees. Nothing arrived.

Overall, I don't think I'd come back to this place. You can also tell the staff is still learning the ropes as we were also given random dishes that were not our orders. The only upside to this place is the interior. It looks so beautiful and so different, probably the best scenery I've seen yet in the city! So aesthetically beautiful, but as someone who doesn't just go for aesthetics, I'm a big foodie, and I left the restaurant feeling so dissatisfied and disappointed, especially for the hot spot that it is. I think there's room for improvement as it is still such a new place, so I only hope they get...

Me and a group of 10 friends came in on February 22nd, and over the last week I've thinking about if I should post how the experience went. As someone who has spent the last 12 years in the industry and managed multiple James Beard award winning restaurants I generally don't like to leave negative reviews, but that being said the service we received that evening was the worst I have ever experienced.

To start off, when we arrived the host was visibly flustered when given our name and party size, and we were told it would be a 20-30 minute wait for our table (that was reserved weeks in advance and that I confirmed we would be coming in for on Thursday). 45 minutes later we were finally sat at 2 coffee tables with 4 love seats that could barely seat 8 comfortably. At this point it was fairly obvious that our reservation had been lost, and when we asked the server if this was just somewhere to wait while our table was being prepared, we were told that this "was a completely normal dining setup for a party of 11 and that there was no other table for us."

This was followed by the first round of drinks taking almost an hour to arrive, only one out of 11 of us getting to order food, and half the group getting missed on the second round of drinks. When I brought all of this to the managers attention he was dismissive and said he'd see how soon he could get a better table put together for us, but it being over 2 hours after our scheduled reservation time at that point we just took the bill and left.

The whole experience was quite a shame especially because the night was a special celebration, and we only came in on a recommendation in the first place. With this all being said I can easily say we will never be returning to Dearly Beloved and I will not be recommending it to any friend, family, or peers in...

As a cocktail nerd, I could not have been more excited to spend time at Dearly Beloved. I had plans to drink and dine for multiple hours with a large group. Unfortunately, the whole experience failed to live up to expectations.

When we arrived, the person who made our reservation and confirmed twice (for 12), the staff proceeded to seat us late at a group of couches and tables for 8 and had 4 of our group sit on uncomfortable stools, and the staff behaved repeatedly as though our reservation was lost. When asked for chairs, the staff were initially remiss to do so but eventually got chairs for the rest of our group. We voiced our frustration with the seating arrangement, as the place we were seated clearly wasn't configured for 12, and the staff requested we wait to see if a 12 top meant for dining opened up, but with no estimated time.

It took 15 minutes to receive water and an hour between our reservation time and getting our first round of drinks. Additionally, the staff continued to inform us that we would "get a change in seating, to just give them more time." We eventually left after two hours, when only half of our group had gotten a second round of drinks, without dining. Only one person in our group had a chance to order food.

Dearly Beloved has a really evocative atmosphere but the service was truly lacking, and I do not have any plans to return. This is a real shame, as the drinks were truly wonderful. The poor service really soured...