The 101 Bar, Grill & Rooftop — Restaurant in Chicago

First, I’d to start by stating two things. I hate to have to make this review as it was a Christmas dinner, but that’s what makes it all the WORSE. Second, the host was fantastic! The champagne at the door while we waited a brief for our table made for a great start to our dinner. Unfortunately it was the highlight of our evening.

As I stated we made reservations for Christmas Day dinner. We left HIGHLY disappointed. The server we had would probably make a better busser/bar-back. His people skills were lacking. It was often uncomfortable to interact with him. It seemed like once he got off track the rest of the dinner was downhill. We sat, put our drink order in, one Mocktail & a cocktail. After waiting awhile for them & him walking past and realizing we didn’t have them, we noticed he actually forgot to put them in. We waited longer. Put in our starters. We ordered the barrata brulee, Brussel sprouts and a shrimp something w peppers. We LOVED the brulee, wished we ordered two. The brussels were meh. A few cooked great but the majority were just short of raw. We dealt with it. Ordered two more drinks.. again took awhile to get, as they just sat at the bar , although servers were there. Now to the worse part. We put in our entrees. I ordered the beef medallions with mashed potatoes and my husband ordered the salmon with mashed potatoes. Maybe 20mins past before the server came back to us and asks my husband if he ordered the chicken. He didn’t even put the order in! Also, my husband is pescatarian, so he obviously didn’t order chicken. More time pasts. Like, awhile. To the point the HOST comes over and asks us why aren’t we eating as the appetizer plates were long gone. Even she knew it was a situation. Server comes over, wants to “speak with us personally” apologizes, tells us he yelled at the chicken and offered us a round. We past as we were at our wits end. Boom! The food arrives. My husband’s salmon is undercooked. Like clearly undercooked. My medallions still had a pulse they were so bloody. Server comes over we tell him the salmon is undercooked, also that I wasn’t asked how I liked my red meat cooked. He proceeds to ask “how would you have ordered it” I tell him medium, medium rare. He said he put it in as medium, but why so bloody! Another server/manager came over and said they were refiring our order. We were done! At the point. We wanted the check! In come the check! They took off the entrees and the RESTAURANT FEE! You would think after serving not ONE, but TWO undercooked dishes we wouldnt be on the line for $100. Being as we are BOTH in the service industry, my husband himself having worked at a Marriott property himself, there would have been a better effort to appease guests who were visibly having a terrible dining experience.

The service team lacks a sense of team work. Empty cocktail glasses sat on our table. Our server walked past them. A server dropped off a dish and instead of removing them while getting us silverware he left them. I visibly watched another busser eye our empty glasses and just as he was about to ignore them, I had to stop him to remove them. Where is the teamwork?

Being that this was a Marriott property the assumption of decent, if not great service, made a fool of us. The manager was either not aware of what was occurring or just didn’t care to touch the table himself as he was on the floor. To have guests leave without rectifying the situation himself shows the lack of care he has and may be why the service was lacking. To be quite honest we were repeatedly wishing we had different server. The others were efficient and on their job. The guy we had made for an uncomfortable & unenjoyable dinner. He couldn’t write on his pen pad and listen at the same time. It’s like when his head went down his ears turned off, so we repeated ourselves every time he visited the table. Also why take an order with pen pad but take payments with the toast handheld? The Host & Atmosphere were great. We deserved our dining experience to be as great. ITS XMAS! Like to hear from...

Great location. Terrible service and food was just ok.

Disclaimer: this was at the main floor bar, not upstairs, I can’t speak to if that may be a totally different experience.

There were three staff members working behind the bar. The bar was not busy. Many empty tables both inside and outside though everyone seemed to be busy opening and closing refrigerator doors, not making eye contact with customers as if they were avoiding all requests. We ordered drinks and were never asked if we wanted food. We then flagged down the bartender to order food to have at the bar and a side of falafel to go. Our drinks took a considerable amount of time even though there were no other drinks to be made before ours, it was truly bizarre. When we finally got our food half an hour later (there was maybe one food order ahead of ours) he hadn’t put in the to-go order at all. It took a considerable amount of time to get our tab as well. While we are waiting for our tab, a gentleman had been waiting patiently for at least five minutes without the bartender looking up at him. Then I had horrific second hand embarrassment watching this man order the simplest drink of all time, Herradura anejo and soda, and this bar tender could not locate this bottle despite our team effort to point out the exact location “Three from the left on the bottom shelf! No! Tequila! Horseshoe! HORSESHOE!” The experience was so terrible I had to laugh at that point. Will never be back. Don’t go here. I get that it’s a tourist area but my god please figure out what Herradura is and look up to take an order every once in awhile. Oh and whatever you do don’t order the chicken.

Did I mention the gnats? They were more attentive...

I took my friend visiting from Texas to the rooftop yesterday, and it was hands down one of the worst service experiences I’ve ever had in my entire life. We sat there for over 30 minutes with no acknowledgment and even if the place was busy, Jose the manager didn’t make a single round. Not once.

And this is coming from someone who’s worked in the industry: I’ve served at 7 different restaurants, So when I say there was no excuse for how poorly we were treated, I mean it.

The bartender took 45 minutes to make a spicy margarita and only after I got up a second time asking what was going on… apperantly it took that long to let us know they didn’t have prepcesso to make a Hugo spritz. The server ignored us to fix someone else’s mistake without a single check-in.

And when I brought this up? Jose gave me a blank stare and offered no solution. Just completely dismissive.

This wasn’t just bad service it was unprofessional across the board. Jose should not be in a leadership role. The owner would be ashamed to see so much money poured into this space, only to have it ruined by staff that clearly doesn’t care. It was only after 45 minutes passed that I got up and said enough was enough.

The worst service from staff including management.

Do better, and please stop inviting me on my instagram to promote your...