Wildfire — Restaurant in Chicago

We rarely get a date night without the kids and were excited to eat at Wildfire to celebrate our anniversary. The environment was lovely and our server was friendly, however, the food totally missed the mark and our server and management failed to correct an unpleasant situation that quite frankly ruined our night.

My husband and I both ordered steaks. A gentleman dropped them off and didn’t ask us to cut into them to ensure they were cooked properly. Unfortunately, my medium steak was very medium rare and we had to wait a few minutes before spotting our server and flagged him down to ask him to correct the situation. Normally I would just eat it because I know how long it takes to mess with getting a steak fixed, but being pregnant, I couldn’t take the risk of undercooked meat.

Our server, Don, was very nice and apologized, then took my steak back to “put a little more heat on it.” It took every bit of 10 minutes to get it back, so I sat there watching my husband eat his meal.

Once the steak was returned, it was noticeably OVER cooked. Almost as if they were offended and wanted to show me they could add some heat to it alright. It was tough with zero pink in it (WELL done). Once again, I had to wait a few minutes for our server to come back by for me to inform him that I just wanted my original order of a medium-cooked steak. Once again, he apologized and agreed with me that they totally messed up my steak. I waited another 20 minutes to get a brand new steak. It was better, but my husband had finished his meal a long time ago. This was not the way we had hoped our anniversary dinner would go.

We kept thinking a manager would come by and apologize. We understand mistakes happen, but with a bill close to $150, we expect them to do something to make it right. Instead, they did nothing. Never saw a manager. When the server brought our check, there was no discount or comp either. No offer of a salad or appetizer to eat while they completely re-made my steak. No offer of free dessert or a gift card to come back another time. Instead we paid full price for a meal that was cooked wrong not once, but twice, and that took over an hour to get right. On our anniversary.

We used to love this place but the experience ruined our evening and we most definitely will never be back.

Even a place like Applebee’s would’ve done a better job correcting mistakes than this. Unacceptable for a restaurant of...

I've been here quite a few times. My consensus is overall the food and drinks are good to very good especially for the moderate price point. It is decently located. The menu is well rounded and approachable -something for everyone. Overall an easy win. I booked here many times when I made reservations years for my corporate team.

However that was years ago. My recent trips have not been as good. Last night in particular was disappointing. First of all they close early - getting there by 8:00 on a Sunday is hard, especially when service is delayed when you get there. I had to wait sometime for someone to wait on me after I seated, and then once I did the waiter and then the manager refused to charge my empty phone (I had a charger and was willing to assume any risk.) They finally did. It took some time to put my order in despite having to rush to get there. I ordered prime rib medium and it came out pretty rare, when I asked for it to be cooked a bit it it came out well done. I wouldn't normally ask for a replacement steak but since the steakhouse should know how to cook a medium steak I did and I got a very small portion. The items came out at different times and I had to wait quite a while and walk over to flag the waiter to get my drink despite ordering that first. Menus and different steak knives were left on the table and I didn't have a drink left when my replacement stake finally arrived and no one asked me if I wanted one so I had to eat without a drink. Finally when I was finishing my meal I flagged down someone to get another drink and I was given what I had which wasn't what I wanted - I wanted a glass of red wine to go with the dinner. Anyway the service was almost comically bad despite there being lots of employees walking around. And no eye contact or thank you when I cashed out. I still have a sweet spot in my heart for this place and I will probably (likely) come again because as I said above the food and drinks are good for the price point and the neighborhood and they do try. But customer service can be improved and the restaurant is looking a worn as well - they could really touch up the woodwork on the doors and tables. But if you're thinking do go. I think on a good night you'll enjoy it. Make sure you sit in the middle of the restaurant and not at one of the booths on the periphery so you get...

My boyfriend and I dined at Wildfire tonight and unfortunately could not be more disappointed. This was our top choice for dinner during our trip to Chicago as my boyfriend had been here in the past and had nothing but good things to say. We started with drinks at the bar while waiting for our reservation and unfortunately they were so strong that neither of us could finish either of our drinks. The bartender was slammed so we thought no big deal, we paid and moved to our table. Once seated, while extremely nice when he was around, our waiter was frequently no where to be found. Again, it was a Saturday night so even though it was a bummer we just assumed they were extremely busy, so no big deal we can be patient. Our food finally comes and this was where things went south. The sides were fantastic along with the salmon, but the 20oz ribeye my boyfriend ordered with parmesan cheese came without any cheese. We told our food runner (not our waiter, because we hadn’t seen him in 20 minutes) the problem, and he assured us it would be fixed. The steak came back 15 minutes later, now with cheese but unfortunately extremely well done instead of the medium rare plus we ordered. The food runner was unable to help us this time, so we had to wait another 10 minutes to flag down our waiter to explain the problem(s). He was extremely understanding, offered to redo the entire steak which was incredibly kind, but it took an additional 30+ minutes for the remake of the steak to come up- by then we were more than ready for the check and to get out of there. We were absolutely shocked that a manager hadn’t been notified or came over to speak with us about the situation. In an attempt to remedy everything, the waiter did give us a piece of cake to-go. As a perfect end to our evening, the problematic steak ended up making my (typically strong-stomached boyfriend) retch after we got back to our hotel… To sum, while our server was kind (and the reason this review has any stars at all) we are incredibly disappointed in our visit to Wildfire and will likely never...