Michael’s Grill & Salad Bar — Restaurant in Highland Park

Overall disappointing experience. The food took nearly 20 minutes to come out, when it did come out only one item was actually hot, and ordering experience was bad.

The whole experience was confusing. You enter the restaurant then get yelled at by 20 teenagers that the dining room is closed. Why they don't put up a sign on the door saying as much is beyond me.

So then you order outside at a window with no menu posted. Stood in line for 5 minutes before getting to the window and finally being handed a menu. While reading the menu, another lady asked for a refund for her order taking too long. That was my second red flag.

Finally ordered. Then the wait begins. 17 minutes later I walked inside to ask where my food was and wouldn't you know it, it's coincidentally done at the exact same time! What a coincidence!

I'm handed my food. Of the three things I got - cheeseburger, sweet potato fries, and regular fries - only the sweet potato fries were hot. The regular fries and cheeseburger were lukewarm. Could have returned it but didn't because I didn't want to wait another 17 minutes.

To be fair, the sweet potato fries were excellent - 10/10. Hot, well seasoned, perfectly fried.

The regular fries - 7/10. Knocking three points off because they weren't hot. They were seasoned though and fried to a perfect golden brown.

Cheeseburger - 6/10. Knocking 3 points off for being lukewarm, and additional point for not seasoning the beef. It was a very bland beef patty. You need to season your patties with salt and pepper.

Ordering experience - 3/10. Confusing. Not just me. Multiple people all entered the dining room to order and the teenaged staff had to keep telling them to leave. The owner needs to just buy a sign to hang in the window that says THIS DOOR FOR CARRY OUT ONLY.

Wait - 3/10. Took about 17:30 minutes to get my food, which is a long time for a fast food joint. I get that it's cooked fresh but a 1 raw beef patty doesn't take that long. Even if there are 50 beef patties ahead of me, streamline your process.

Overall, it's going to be a long time before...

So BAD!!!! I had not been in since ownership changed a couple years ago. What a nightmare?! The menu is now a fraction the size of the old menu, with many beloved items no longer available. The new owners made a common error: they neglected to focus on the essential culture of what they bought. The massive menu, mass of employees urgently filling orders, intense focus on service and quality despite the seeming chaos, was what made this restaurant an institution for so many years. Orders were never wrong and passionate employees virtually begged to help you. Gone in a flash. Worse yet, the new process is a mess, resulting in wraps and salads taking forever to make and still longer to deliver to the table (despite a mostly empty restaurant). Yes, after waiting forever to order the items for your wrap or salad, you now take a number and wait eternally for the food to come to your table. Looks like most of the old staff is gone also. Many seemed untrained and very unenthusiastic. A seemingly small thing, but when I asked for Tabasco or anything spicy to put on my sandwich, I was told that my options were solely ketchup and mustard. Really?? An iconic restaurant known for elevated excellent fast casual food where the customer could get virtually whatever he/she wants prepared however desired, now turned into a fast food burger and dog joint that looks like 1000 other places. I will never return, and predict that Michael’s will disappear in the...

Like many locals who have frequented Michael's for years, I was looking forward to the remodeling of the stuck in the nineties restaurant. Well.... their intentions may have been good but, in actual day to day functioning, confusing, frustrating and their prices have gone up! As you enter the restaurant, you're not sure if you should go straight if you're ordering carry out or do you take a left to the 2 registers by the wall??? I decided to follow my instinct aka "follow the crowd" and went left. There are 2 cashier's taking your order at the same time. UGH! So you are vocally competing with the other diner who is trying to order their meal at the same time as you are. You end up shouting and constantly saying "What"? Not good. One of my favs to get is the medium Greens Salad. It used to be the best salad value for $7.50. About one year before they remodeled, they raised the price of the salad to $8.50. Ok, no biggie. But, after the remodel, the new price is $9.50! I was a member of their frequent Buyer Club thru Spring Rewards but, they have discontinued that relationship. All my points, which I was super close to a $10 reward, got wiped away. The new decor includes an entire wall with a red, black and white mural with renderings of local amenities. It's only OK, could've done a little nicer decorating with slightly...