Atwater’s Restaurant — Restaurant in Geneva Township

Sorry for the long review, but this restaurant deserves every word of praise, please read. Atwater's is a beautiful and quaint restaurant situated in the equally beautiful and unassuming Herrington Inn and Spa right on the Fox River. From the minute you walk in the staff is courteous and goes the extra mile to make you feel as if you were a guest in their own house. With a small and seasonally changing menu, every visit must be a surprise (though this time was admittedly my first). Utilizing a well skilled kitchen staff, Atwater's puts together a menu I can only describe as perfect. Tonight I enjoyed the Joe's French Martini which was a well balanced hand crafted cocktail. Before we (My girlfriend and I) ordered our starter, we were provided a treat of smoked salmon, goat cheese, and grapefruit put together on a slice of crusty bread with balsamic vinaigrette that was a gastronomical marvel which set the tone for the rest of our dining experience. We then started with their special for the night, a Potato Chowder as the Soup du Jour, and to say it was fantastic would be an understatement. As a main, I had the USDA Prime Delmonico Steak Au Poivre while my girlfriend had the special for the night, a Wagyu New York Strip. Both were incredible and I was left truly speechless by my first taste Wagyu steak. While we did not have any dessert because we were beyond satisfied with the meal, the check did come with complimentary chocolate covered strawberries. From start to finish Atwater's crafts not just a dinner with top service, but a truly all encompassing, blissful experience.

Special shout out to the wait staff. The hostess was polite and understanding considering we had to push off our reservation twice tonight due to weather, and she even remembered my phone calls from earlier in the night to do so. In addition they placed us next to the fireplace of the small yet beautiful dining room. Finally, our waitress whose name elludes me (if the restaurant knows and sees this, please give her credit) never skipped a beat to check in or provide polite, knowledgeable, attentive service. She brought the experience together. 10...

Took the whole family to Atwater’s for a special holiday dinner last night. The food was great, the restaurant beautiful as usual but the service was absolutely horrendous. We had reservations for 7 at 7pm and even confirmed that with them on the phone. When we arrived we were kept waiting for 25 minutes as were apparently at least one other party. They offered us complimentary drinks while we waited but by that time we were hungry not really interested in drinks but ordered drinks anyways.Once we were finally seated we sat another 20 minutes without menus until the waiter came to take drink orders and we had to tell him that we had ordered drinks 45 minutes ago out in the bar and still hadn’t gotten them and please could he get them and also bring menus. After another 10 minutes he brought the drinks and when he did they were wrong. Our appetizers finally arrived an hour and 20 minutes after our reservation and they were delivered to the wrong people. The French soup was bland and unappealing. Our meals did not arrive until 8:45pm, a full hour and 45 minutes after our reservation and were delivered to the wrong people. We ordered cappuccinos for dessert and 10 minutes later we were told the espresso machine was not in service. When the waiter brought the bill at 9:30pm he said that he comped the coffee and desserts but he forgot to credit the drinks that were supposed to be complimentary. It’s nice that the restaurant comped things to try to make up for the poor service but when we take the family out for a special dinner and to a place advertised as “fine dining” we expect a pleasant and enjoyable experience. We never heard an explanation or apology from...

My wife and I had been here several times before and the experience was exceptional. So we thought it would be a very nice place for our 40th anniversary dinner celebration. I called the day before and asked to speak to the manager. I told him we were coming in and would appreciate a nice table and some special attention. While he seemed to be either too busy or too indifferent to my request, he said they provide a (gratis) celebratory dessert. When we arrived, we did get a well situated table and the ambiance was quite elegant. The server only had 3 or 4 other tables to care for. While the server was not inattentive, he was slow to get to us. But there are three things that irked me. (1) My wife ordered beef but asked to swap potatoes for the rice - server said 'sure, no problem'. She received the rice. When pointed out, the server brought out a side of potatoes. (2) We overheard that the table next to us received potatoes, not rice. Obviously, either the kitchen or the staff mixed up the orders. Either way, the server did not have presence of mind to get that right. Later, we overheard him offering to comp part of their meal for the mistake. No such offer was made to us. (3) Despite what the manager said to me about a celebratory dessert, no offer was made or dessert provided. I'm not going to embarrass myself asking. Atwaters knew this was a special dinner for us, as I called and we mentioned it to the hostess on our way in. All that said, even the food was not up to the standard we have seen in the past. When I'm spending more than $250 for dinner (for two), I expect better than average service and better than average...