Lockwood Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Chicago

Our experience of this restaurant began with the person at the front desk. When my husband and I walked up, the Host continued talking to a young woman standing at the desk and didn't even look up. It wasn't until I turned and asked my husband where we were supposed to go that the Host (who I later found out was actually the manager!) looked up and greeted us and then sat us.

The table we were sat at rocked like a dinghy in rough seas. The appetizer we ordered, the charcuterie plate, was described on the menu as being accompanied by whole grain mustard. When the server brought it to our table and described the dish, he was unable to name one of the meats on the plate. When I asked why there was no whole grain mustard, he came back from the kitchen a few minutes later with a little serving cup of dijon mustard and said the kitchen was out of whole grain mustard. If you are the chef de cuisine or a server at a fine dining restaurant and don't know enough to check to see whether all of the elements of the dish are on the plate before it leaves the kitchen, and tell the guest up front that something is missing and offer them a replacement before they have to point out the omission ... you are incompetent.

Then we get to my entree, which was the "Mushroom Pasta." There is not one good thing that can be said about that disgusting mess. Pasta was overcooked and pasty. The mushrooms were all one variety, all tiny sulfur tuft-looking, with bigger stems than caps, and a chewy consistency. I use a very similar mushroom in hot and sour soup, when there are lots of other flavors and the mushroom is not intended to be the only or even the dominant flavor. But in this dish? The mushrooms were the only flavor and they were bland and chewy. The "sauce" sitting in the bottom of the bowl was nothing but butter, not even brown butter, just butter. I took literally one bite and my mouth felt coated in butter for the next hour. The server did not even offer grated parmesan cheese, which wouldn't have saved this dish but it would have given it more flavor.

Of course I sent it back. And when the inattentive Host turned out to be the manager who came to the table, I understood why we were having the experience we were having.

My husband's entree, chicken breast, was good. A step above chicken breast you can get at Applebee's. Maybe.

Oh! And all of this happened on a Saturday night. The night when restaurants should have their best cooks and best servers working. Avoid this overpriced, incompetently-run restaurant at all costs. It only continues to operate because the gorgeous Palmer House lobby with fresco ceilings is its bar area...

This is a nice place to grab a cocktail but if you're staying in the hotel and trying to get room service or takeout it's literally easier to leave the hotel and grab something else. Last night I walked down and spoke with a woman at the counter at the restaurant. I tried to place an order with her and she told me that my only option was to scan a QR code and do it with my phone. I informed her that my phone was in a far-flung corner at the hotel and implored her to let me put in the order directly with her but she said that was not possible. I walked up to my room and realized that the required QR code was nowhere to be found, so I walked back down (probably 20 minutes of walking at this point) to scan it, then walked back to my room again to fill out the order. When I completed my order and submitted it, I got an error message that instructed me to speak with the folks at the restaurant. So, I again walked back down to the Lockwood to speak with somebody directly. Maybe 45 minutes have elapsed at this point. I finally flagged down a waiter, who requested that I have a seat at the bar and place an order with the bartender. I did this, only to have the bar tender tell me that it was "impossible" for him to put in a food order and request that I, again, speak to a waiter. Frustrated, I just left the restaurant and had a lovely, effortless, and fast meal at Miller's Pub next door (highly recommended). When I returned to my room perhaps an hour later I was called on the room telephone by the kitchen, who said they were trying to get a hold of me about my online order (the one that was submitted with an error message) that unbeknownst to me had been prepared and was waiting for me, and that they had been calling the room phone repeatedly. Obviously, I was next door eating during that time. I politely explained the situation and the order was cancelled. All told I put about an hour of effort into ordering takeout from these folks without success. I love the Palmer House but skip the restaurant, it was an awful experience. The food is decent (I've dined in before) but I have seldom experienced such sloppy and negligent service and I will certainly not be ordering from them again...

This is by far one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had in the city do NOT waist your money and time here when there are plenty of better dining experiences to be had. We got there later at night around an hour before they close. We were clearly seen by several waiters and it took over twenty min for any of them to a come over and take our order. I finally got tired of waiting and my bf and I walked up too the bar to ask if someone could take our order to wish he said “I don’t take order at the bar, someone will come to you”…..ok? Well we’ve been waiting here and it’s not that busy so where r the waiters at?

When a waiter finally did spot us, he would not stop bothering us the entire meal trying to take away food I was STILL CLEARLY EATING! He asked us if we wanted another drink then receded to rush us into finishing the drink after getting us it. We were eventually the only people with plates left (some were still at the bar). It would have taken one person 5min max to wash off the plates and silverware from our meal there was zero reason to rush us. Eventually my bf got fed up and asked the waiter to please leave us alone!

We spent about $200 so it was really infuriating to be rushed through a meal and offered drinks only for them to keep rushing us more. I messed up signing the bill so decided to just not sign it since I wasn’t going to leave a tip and for those who don’t know YOU ARE NOT LEGALLY OBLIGATED TO SIGN THE RECIPT IF YOU AREN’T LEAVING A TIP! The waiter demanded we sign it several times and when we refused the manager came out also demanding we sign it for his “book keeping” even though we explained to him we weren’t leaving a tip so the waiter has zero need to record this down anywhere since zero dollars were given to him. The only reason he brought the manager out and why the manager got argumentative was because they were trying to push us to leave a dip after the worst service we’ve ever had for a $150 + meal.

Food wasn’t great but the drinks and brownies were good…just not good enough to make up for being treated like we were...