Goddess and the Baker, Wacker & LaSalle — Restaurant in Chicago

PROS:

CONS:

Let me start by saying my wife and I went to this cafe/bakery because we heard that it was good from some of our friends who are local to Chicago. Unfortunately our friends have been deceived. Right off the bat I want to say that the establishment was clean and organized so this was a pro. Now lets talk about the prices and the quality of the food. Just to be fair we did not have all of the items on the list but the the items we did have did not show must progress. My wife ordered a chicken salad which was not prepared well and looked like it was just thrown together literally. SEE PICTURE. The chicken tasted like it was previously frozen and had a gelatinous texture. The lettuce was brown and wilted which shows that this meal lacked in any detailed thought. My wife said the best things on this salad was the blue cheese crumbles and crisp. To top it all off this salad salad ran us $15. The menu said that this salad came with grilled chicken. Look at this picture and tell me this is not false advertisement.

I ordered a Turkey bacon egg croissant for $11 and this too fell short. I am not 100 percent sure but, but the eggs tasted like bagged eggs.

After we purchased our food we went outside to eat which was enjoyable due to the busy streets and Chicago weekend traffic. At various times a restaurant worker came out to check on us which was another pro.

Unfortunately our experience was marred by the lack of food quality and preparation and since this is one of the companies major service offerings it hurt their rating. An intangible service that the company lacked on was customer service at its counters. I have been to many other establishments in Chicago and can say it is all not just the culture. The girl and guy standing behind the counter acted as if they didn't want to be there or serve us and it showed.

The cons outweighed the pros at this establishment and I cannot get over how pricey the bland listless food was and wonder why it was this bad with they location of this establishment.

Suggestions:

Use fresh ingredients (not fresher) the kale on the salad was old and not even close to appealing. This is hard to do with kale even with it being blanched.

Prepare the chicken as the description says on the menu. When you look at this picture you cannot tell yourself this is grilled. More like pre-grilled.

If you want over priced sandwiches and salads this is your place. Dont let them tell you its great, make them show...

It is really sad to see such a quality establishment overrun by incompetent, rude, and careless trash.

I spent $14 on two juices for my girlfriend and I this past Saturday (7/30) around 5 PM. After waiting in a larger than necessary line due to otherwise engaged (texting, chatting amongst each other) staff, we were directed to a cash register. Meanwhile, there was a gigantic pool of god knows what being sloppily squeegeed behind the counter and over my shoes. Zero apology. Absolutely disgusting! The young ladies cleaning up the mess were too busy laughing about some pop star conversation they were having to realize they were spilling the mess all over my feet.

After paying for our two drinks, we went to sit down. After about 10 minutes to go by, we look over to see this overly staffed restaurant carelessly laughing, texting, and chatting. We then asked if we could get our drinks to go.

After a rather rude encounter, the cashier walks us over to the juice area where there were, I kid you not…10 receipts sitting there! Mind you there are about as many customers in this store as staff. Our drinks (premade, mind you, super easy take about 30 seconds to make…I watched her) were still not even close to being prepared. The cashier proceeded to fill the entire glass with ice and carelessly throw ingredients in, visibly perturbed by us asking to get our drinks to go.

The other staff behind the counter then shouts/talks down to me in a VERY terse tone “YO WHAT YOU ORDER?” I am extremely polite. Not quite sure what the drink was called, she rolls her eyes at me and shouts in my face “the apple?!” When I said yes, she laughed at me due to the fact I was a male ordering this drink. Are you kidding me?! I am the customer! I did nothing wrong was completely nice and you have the audacity to treat me like this?!

These $14 “juices” were so haphazardly put together it made my heart hurt. I spent $7 on this drink you careless degenerates. Have some respect. There was so much ice in my girlfriend’s drink that she couldn’t even get the lid on!

I could not leave fast enough. This completely soured my taste for your establishment.

The original Goddess would be so ashamed.

Let me repeat, your staff is ruining...

It's five years past the worst of the pandemic, yet this business refuses to accept cash for even minor purchases such as a $3.00 bottle of water or a basic coffee.

My mother, who spent some of her most significant formative and new-family years here in Chicago, always advised me to watch my budget carefully and to live "low on the hog," which means the opposite of "high on the hog." She "put her foot down" at ridiculous or exhorbitant concepts of expenditure. She might shop once or twice a year at Marshall Field's, but would have NEVER condoned a credit card-only business that demanded credit cards for items of daily consumption lower or more minor than fine dry goods, watches, jewelry, etc. These days, those are usually purchases above $150-200.

United States currency is LEGAL TENDER within the borders of the United States. Many people who reside and are citizens of of foreign countries choose to accept greenbacks although they have no obligation to do so.

After handling currency, I make a point to wash my hands. I am fully vaccinated against COVID and various other things. I get my annual flu shot, usually in October.

This business seems to prefer that customers receive credit and debit card bills with a large number of minor transactions rather than to treat customers with respect and accept cash, especially for small transactions below $20.00. It seems that the management prefers that their clientele is nickel-and-dined for a percentage of each transaction by the banksters for small items that could be efficiently handled in cash, which once again is LEGAL TENDER within the borders of the United States.

Chicago was once known as the "city of big shoulders" for the heavily-muscled workers in the meatpacking district and in other industries. These people probably purchased Model A's and Chevrolets on installment plans, but hardly financed their morning cup of coffee and snack.

I did not star the food, since this business refused to even let me test the food with a small cash purchase such as a cookie...