Sam’s on Harlem — Restaurant in Harlem Township

After making a reservation for a family birthday dinner, there wasn't enough room at the table for the amount of people that we reserved for, including two children. They only had 2-3 other booths in the front room, and it literally took us packing up to leave in order to get adequate seating. I felt terrible for the one, and only waitress on duty. Every time she came to our table it was visible that she was more upset. I don't know if it was only the owner there cooking or what, but to order a few simple meals, salads and pizza was apparently way more than they could handle. After the owner came out in a rage when we were trying to figure out how to sit he opened up a table on the side, knowing that there were 4+ families that had been patrons for many years that were beyond disgusted. The entire "experience" took over two and a half hours. The pizza was ok. The big salad was so drenched and soggy, it had to be from a previous party or something. There were so many fruit flies swarming out of it, that nobody noticed until after they started eating because they were hungry! I ordered chicken parmesan, but asked for Alfredo sauce instead of red, due to a sensitivity. (Never a problem at the other location or Nunzios). As people were finally getting their food he came to the table to ask me to explain again what I wanted and told me I'd be charged for two meals... At that point I just laughed and asked him to just bring my food ASAP, as I was also waiting to feed my 14 month old. Mine was last out. A pool of sauce..no chicken... I hated to even bother our poor waitress with it, but had her dig through my plate as well so he didn't have a meltdown. As I finished up the noodles and sauce, out came the chicken. We were told when we called for the reservation that cake was allowed, and we did order ice cream for dessert. Brought our own plates, forks, etc. Again, as we were about to serve the cake, the waitress came out in tears saying that we had to eat it elsewhere....oh, I could go on. The question is this really a restaurant? How do they go on like this? I sincerely hope that our gracious waitress has moved on, and we'll never spend another dime there. I drove in all the way from Michigan with a baby to celebrate a relatives birthday, and ended up learning a lesson. What you hear about the place is probably true, just don't put yourself or your family in the line of fire to boost the backdoor sales when they can't even...

Im not going to argue like a child with someone over the internet, especially the manager of a restaurant who should know better customer service skills than what I've experienced. If you as a customer would like to know both the type of food and type of service you'll get here, just read the review below and the rude response.

Literally the most sub par Italian food I've had in awhile. Making spaghetti out of the jar on a lazy night is better than this food. I got two spaghetti dinners and cheesy garlic bread (ordered at arpund 8pm) and it was $40 because they failed to tell me each freeze dried packaged meatball was $1.50! Not only that, but they got my order wrong and only gave me normal garlic bread after it took twice as long as they said on the phone for carry out, waiting for the order inside of the restaurant . I could've forgiven the amount of time it took (45min. For carry out spaghetti) If the food was even worth it. It wasnt. For the salad that conveniently comes with the dinner, I got half a box of grocery store bag salad with ONE slice of cucumber, ONE quarter of a tomatoe and exactly two rings of red onion. Pathetic. Plus, I could literally taste the metal in their sauce, no way on God's green earth is that homemade. A waste of time and money. Oh yah, and they turned the lights off on us WHILE we were in the building waiting for the carry out order. Rude. I called, but by the time I got home they were closed. Honesty even if they would've tried to fix it, I wouldn't want anymore of their food if that was the standard of quality.

I will happily alter my review based on the owners response. I did get there about 3-5 minutes after I placed the order. I did not expect to have the food ready right away and knew I would have to wait . But I was told on the phone that the food would take 20 min to be done and like I said, it took about 45 min. Also, I did call and did not have anyone pick up, so I assumed it was closed. My error, I guess no one picked up. I did try to call to "give you all a chance to fix the ticket" For getting the order wrong, but like I said, and what the response conventiently didn't comment on, was the poor quality of the food in the first place, let alone getting the order wrong. I do believe I got a call from the restaurant at around 9:50pm, which I didn't pick up on cause I didn't recognize the number...

I've always had great luck with Sam's, and I say luck intentionally. Because, every now and then, things done work out right.

Most recently, I ordered an Italian Beef late at night, 12:30. (I work odd Hours)

Now I'm. Not gonna say it wasn't tasty, or that it was tiny, but for the price I was charged, I could name 3 other places from which I could have ordered, and in the past have always received nearly, or more than DOUBLE the portion.

Now, we're this to be an isolated event, I would not post. But even during the daytime, even peak evening hours, I have never received an Italian Beef from ANY Sam's in the greater Rockford area, that is comparable in size to these other establishments.

The caveat is, that I cannot order from them when I am up late due to my vocation.

But my hope is always there. Because EVERYTHING else I've ever ordered from ANY Sam's, has been proportionally and tastefully perfect.

This long review of is basically my way of saying, MAKE A BIGGER ITALIAN BEEF!!!!

Everything else is great, speedy and friendly delivery, even late at night, tasty and fully topped pizzas...

But the one area, which I am a hugs fan of, the Italian beef, is lacking.

So in summary, order anything, anytime, BUT the Italian beef... unless you are on a diet, or are 95lbs soaking wet, because otherwise, it just won't fill you up.

Props to. Sam's for doing everything but the Italian...