1776 Restaurant — Restaurant in Crystal Lake

Fine-Dining?! More like Inferior Dining...

Called to setup a reservation as well as understand what kind of vegan options there were. 1st thing that stood out was the automated system that was a bit cold and "off the mark". Would definitely suggest revising the voice messages and rehearsing or writing down the message you plan on delivering guests. Eventually got redirected to someone who was friendly, but seemed unconfident and unsure of what our options could be which was the 2nd thing that seemed a bit off. Overall she gave the general understanding that we did have options and it was possible to adjust, so we chalked the uncertainty up to possibly being new and decided to roll with the flow. She helped us set our reservation (which to reiterate updating the voice mail message, the automated system said was not possible to do over the phone) and we were excited about coming in. *To note - she did ask if we were visiting for a special occasion and had also let us know she added it in our notes that we were vegan so our server could be prepared which was nice to hear!

Cue our experience. We were greeted by friendly staff and seated immediately. Initially, the environment and atmosphere seemed nice and intimate. The restaurant was pretty dark along with much of the décor, lights were low and they lit a small candle at the table which was nice. A slight critique would be while I can understand the intent of natural lighting, it was a bit conflicting with ambiance (if you have ever sat in a dark room and had to face an open window, the contrast can make things a bit difficult to see) and also made the menu kind of difficult to read. Another suggestion is clean your return air grills in the ceiling, they are very dirty. Our server came soon after and was friendly and polite. She asked if we had any questions about the menu which we mentioned we were vegan. She left for a bit and came back with an ingredient list for the menu and explained the restaurant is very accommodating and understanding with different dietary restrictions (part of why we decided to come), but it didn't seem like the menu could really be altered much and there weren't many items to pick from. She explained that sometimes they can make a vegan bowl but all of the current ingredients were allocated for other meals so it wasn't available at this time.

We ordered Sunchokes (w/o the fondue), Leeks Vinaigrette, House Salad (w/ plant based ranch), Seasonal Salad, and (two) Mushroom Pappardelle (made with egg and we both decided to make the exception due to lack of options). The sunchokes were the best part of the meal, good flavor and texture. Definitely did not disappoint, and think they would be intriguing with the stilton fondue. The leeks were a let down as they were served with black lentils and chili which sounded great, but was served cold which only enhanced the lack of flavor. Salads were both pretty good, but why serve a heaping salad on a small plate?? The pappardelle was stunningly underwhelming and seemed like something you could order from Denny's. The pasta was different widths ranging from 1/4" to 2" wide and the thicknesses varied pretty noticeably as well which caused even further inconsistency. The texture was not good and some of the noodles fell apart in the consumme. Not sure if that was the intent, but I think I would equally enjoy a can of Spaghetti-o's as the dish was lacking in flavor and the consistency was mostly mush. I would be embarrassed to serve this. We decided to skip the dairy free dessert and leave. To note, we were not near the window but it was really cold. Other guests kept their hoodies on and we saw others put their jackets back on while dining.

Overall, although we came in with an open mind and we are glad we gave it a try, we don't plan on returning and could not recommend to others who are looking for a fine dining vegan experience. Maybe the current chef (owner of the now permanently closed Salt+) is a bit too pretentious and doesn't believe in adding many other flavors other...

We had a reservation for 6pm and arrived promptly on time and were sat right away. Once we were sat, our waitress took our drink orders right away and brought them out.

We sat around looking at the menu for too long. After about 35 minutes, the server actually came and acknowledged us for the first time after getting us our drinks. She told us the specials and asked if we wanted any appetizers. We ordered two orders of cheese curds and one order of the truffle fries. The cheese curds came in a small portion for the price and were flooded in sauce that didn't add much flavor. The truffle fries had no truffle flavor and had a single curl of cheese on top. We weren't impressed after the apps, but weren't super angry yet.

We had finished the apps and were just sitting chatting for quite some time. Then we had an employee come to our table and ask us if we wanted to order some more apps, to which we replied that we would like to order dinner. This was over 50 minutes after we had sat down. I had to ASK to order after 50 minutes. All while our waitress spent more than ample time with a few other tables of 2. While I understand parties of 9 can be daunting, but the service we recieved was absolutely horrible.

We ordered and waited some more. After being in the restaurant for over one hour and twenty minutes, before we even recieved food, I asked our waitress if we could get some drink refills on our soft drinks, to which she responded they were not free and she ran off. She kept us waiting for over 45 minutes with our drinks in front of us, without food, and refused to get us refills on our soft drinks.

When we first arrived, there were 4 other tables sat and the longer we were there, the more tables that were sat, until the entire restaurant was packed before we even got our food.

Once we recieved our food, a few of the dishes were mediocre at best to downright bad at worst. My boyfriend ordered the pork chop and he said it tasted like it had Lowry's season salt sprinkled on it, and it was underseasoned at that. The apple bacon chutney was underneath everything and was good, but hidden and difficult to get to.

I had the flank steak. It was nothing special, bordering on flavorless. The mashed potatoes were buried under the steak and were mediocre at best but the best thing on the plate. The butternut squash was very undercooked to the point it was crunchy.

My father in law had the special, a dry aged strip steaks and he said his was tough, chewy, and cold, and the brocolini was bearly cooked and almost inedibly crunchy.

We had two kids in our party and they said the corn dogs and chicken strips were "really yummy!"

There was a person in our party said that they had never recieved such horrible service there previously and that this was a complete anomaly.

Our experience was so horrible, that we will never be back. Our waitress guaranteed that. Had service been at least good or great, the underseasoned, bland food could have been overlooked. But I'm not going to pay over $60 per person for frankly bad food and...

My husband and I went here for his birthday, we were in town and after years and years of hearing good things and how special the menu is, we finally got to try it. What a huge disappointment. First off, the staff wasn't particularly helpful or friendly. The hostess didn't smile once, perhaps she was distracted trying to keep her boobs from falling out of her skimpy tank top. She didn't seat us with a menu or wine menu so then our server appears and asks us what we want to drink, and we have to ask for menus. We specifically came on Thursday which is Tapas night, he didn't ask us if we came for Tapas so I had to ask him for that menu also. While the server wasn't rude or mean, he just was slow and behind the ball when it came to giving us good service. So we ended up going with the two specials, a fish dish and my husband got the exotic game (buffalo, kangaroo). We ordered an appetizer which I can't even remember what it was it was that memorable. But then we waited 30 minutes for our entrees, so basically the kitchen had almost an hour to prepare our main courses, and mind you we ordered their specials so one would think they'd be prepared for those orders. My fish was a specialty dish and it should be for $40, but it came out sadly in a quarter inch pool of melted butter. The entire plate was a pool of melted butter then they placed the fish on it. For a place that boasts they use organic, local, fresh ingredients, I was surprised it didn't have any fresh herbs or just a little lemon juice but instead was bathed in butter. The type of fish is known to already be moist and wonderful, so it made me question whether the quality really was that good if they are trying to mask its flavor in tons of butter. My husband's food was good and well done, but the presentation was so-so. I have to say the most hilarious thing was that both of our dishes came with mashed potatoes and as a decoration of some sort, they placed a tortilla chip in the center. Yes, a Tostada tortilla chip that you can buy at your local grocery store for a few bucks. Not only did it make no sense, but it wasn't even pretty. We saw them on all the plates that were coming out of the kitchen, if you're going to use a chip then make sure it goes with what you're serving it with and maybe fry your own tortilla chips instead of opening a bag of chips that you bought at the local Jewel. So, in conclusion, was the food horrible? No, was it worth the $175 we ended up shelling out, no way. Just because they serve exotic meats, that isn't enough, it needs to be a complete dining experience. The staff, the ambiance, the food all combined wasn't excellent, it wasn't even great, it was just average. So, if you want to grab a beer and a burger, be my guest but look to this place for fine dining, or special occasion, it just...