Willow Room — Restaurant in Chicago

We were walking in the neighborhood on a Saturday evening after a play at the nearby theater and decided to give The Willow Room a shot. The hostesses greeted us in a very friendly manner and almost immediately had us a nice table in the window. The restaurant is well done in a visual sense, airy, old brick, lots of well placed and interesting art. There is also a dining room in the basement that I checked put and would certainly be a nice cozy spot for a romantic dinner date. Then...it went all wrong. We were given menus and water but no server addressed us for over 10 mins. Suddenly a food runner appears with an order of Burrata and sets it down and walks away. My wife tried to call someone over and they ignored us. So she began eating it, it was her birthday and we were hungry travelers. It was a great Burrata. A server comes to the table with a harried look about her and asks "did you order this?" My wife says, "nope, but it is really delicious and just put it on our bill". The server says nothing more and walks away. The runner appears at the neighboring table with another order of Burrata and another appetizer, the couple says they didn't order the Burrata but did the other. We looked at one another and knew something was not going well here. Finally our server comes, introduces herself and asks if we want to order. 25mins after seating. We order: soup and the trout special for my wife. I am out of sorts at this point, little sounds good so I order the shrimp/crab cocktail appetizer and a cheeseburger/fries that sounds like tasty and easy out. Fortunately, my wife is enjoying her wine and Burrata, the place has good energy from the patrons. Our server doesn't reappear for ages, the runner and another server top off my water and check on my lady's wine. L's soup appetizer arrives....as does my dinner. Server finally appeared again "I am soo sorry...I uh...didn't understand...I am not sure why this came out this way...do you want me to hold this for you?" um no. I will just eat it now and have my appetizer for dinner. She walks away befuddled and my wife and I are as well. Burger and fries are tasty, lots of fries, good bun, little bit light anf thin patties but they were delicious. L likes her beet soup very much. The trout dinner shows up. It is a very handsome and fragrant plate, a generous filet of trout. L is delighted. I am slowly eating so I don't out pace her. Server swings by if all was okay. I said yes, good food and whenever the kitchen has my appetizer done I will take it. (we hadn't eaten since 930am and had walked all day) We finish what we have and wait. Server asks if we want to see a dessert menu, we do just for kicks. We don't see anything too interesting at this point so we pass. Server floats off. 10 mins later returns with our check. No charge for the mistaken Burrata nor my never seen or heard from again appetizer I had ordered. We are just as confused as our server seems to be. If the restaurant had been a madhouse I would have understood a kitchen mistake, but even the couple behind us, who had started long before us, were just receiving their dinners. It had such good potential: comfy, pretty and a little sexy atmosphere. Nice tight menu with good options for dinner or even just sharing with friends. I hope it was just an off night for our server or the kitchen cause it is well positioned to be a great upscale...

Made a dinner reservation at 8:15 pm in the wine cellar for our anniversary here on 2/7. Got there on time, waited 20 minutes before a hostess asked if we'd sit in the main dining room (very loud so didn't want to), waited another 10 minutes before being seated at 8:45 pm in the right location. Waitress was nice, offered us a free cocktail for our wait.

We ordered the Beef Salad and Octopus as a starter, the beet salad was okay. The octopus was delicious but the portion was absolutely tiny, one small tentacle. We split it and got 2 bites each out of it.

For the entree, I ordered the halibut and my girlfriend ordered the schnitzel. The halibut was very dry and under seasoned, the asparagus also had next to no seasoning. Best part of the dish was the rice honestly. My girlfriend's schnitzel was okay, pretty dry and under seasoned but much better than the halibut. We got mashed potatoes as a side at the recommendation of our waitress and those were amazing.

After that we were fairly tired from being seated so late so we decided to skip on dessert. I think the waitress noticed we weren't very happy so she offered us a free dessert, we passed.

Overall the food was okay, pretty overpriced for the portions. Service was fairly bad, especially on the front end with seating. When making the reservation on OpenTable we noted it was our anniversary and there wasn't a single mention of it. Every other restaurant I've been to for an occasion has noted it. I wasn't expecting anything special, but some sort of comment would've been nice.

I can't really recommend Willow Room for the price and (lack...

When writing checks that your food and ambiance can't cash, is why there's a such-thing as trust issues. My partner and I expected a lot from this place, especially when they charge $50 per person for a cancellation. But when we arrived and were sent off to sit outside on a chilly fall evening, is when the decline in expectation started. After warning them that we were planning to leave if we weren't seated inside suddenly two seats became available. We sat at the bar and started with drinks, they were fine and the bartender was pleasant. We ordered the kale salad I ordered the cheeseburger (nothing else on the menu was appetizing to me) and my partner ordered the octopus. We agreed that the kale salad was great however there was a miscommunication on my order as I was given the salmon instead of the cheeseburger for which I had to wait an additional 10 minutes. My partner's octopus was cold to the point of asking for another one. (She has a high tolerance for error so for her to ask for replacement sends a very clear message to me that she was not happy with what they gave her.) After we ate we had nothing else to say about the food...By the end of the night it started to get crowded with people but it seems like this is more of a pit stop than an actual place that people go to dine giving the amount of young people that were standing to grab drinks and leave out once they were finished. I'm glad I had a chance to check this place out, but I'll pass on...