Mesler Kitchen | Bar | Lounge — Restaurant in Hyde Park Township

The food is unbelievably good here. Everything I've tried on the menu is great. The pasta sauces are wonderful. The braised ribs are from heaven. appetizer mussels were yummy. I have been here about 5 times over the last few months, and food and drinks have always been top-notch. The waiters are also very nice and competent. The place falls short on hostess and management service. I've been there on evenings when there are just a few people in the dining room when they are obviously not busy, only to have to wait by the front hostess stand for 10 minutes to even be asked if I'm dining here and need a table. Even though the website states the restaurant is open until 10 pm, on several occasions when I have arrived at the restaurant around 7pm to 8 pm the hostess tells me the kitchen is closed and looks annoyed that I am even asking to dine there. Last Thursday, it was 7 pm, and I wanted to take my family here to eat. Knowing they dissuade customers coming in towards the later evenings to eat, I even called their phone number to verify what time the dining room was open and was told by the guy that answered the phone the dining room was open until 9:30 pm, we drove 30 minutes and arrived at Mesler 7:25 pm only to be told by the hostess dude in front Sorry but the kitchen is closed. I explained that I called 30 minutes ago and was told by Mesler that the dining room would be serving food in the dining room until 9:30 pm. After some back and forth banter I asked to speak to a manager the manager also told us "sorry dining room is closed, but I guess we can let you order food and sit in the lobby area on barstools to eat" keep in mind this was 7:30 pm on a Thursday. I nicely explained to the manager that I called Mesler at 7 pm , was told dining room was open until 9:30 pm and we drove 30 minutes to dine in and not spend $200 to eat in hotel lobby on barstools. After he realized that we were upset about all of this, He was nice and then decided to let us dine in the dining room. I appreciated this, but it really should not have gotten to this point, and it put a bad mood and dark shadow on the dining experience with my family that night at Mesler. That's why I give the food and waters 5 stars but service and atmosphere 2 stars. I would give the hostess dude 0 stars if possible. For the price point of this restaurant they really need to train the hostess personnel better to deal with paying customers. Also, if they want to close dining room and/or kitchen ealier some nights they should be respectful of there customers and change the hours listed on there website so customers dont show up thinking they are open for dining until 10 pm when they are not and definitely let customers know who call and ask that they are closing early! Other than this, I really like this restaurant, when everything is going good here the food, waiters and dining room is an amazing gastronomic experience and I hope they can iron out a few of these rough spots, as is one of my favorite restaurants in Hyde Park and hope to...

I’ve been a Hyde Park resident and visitor all my life. I’ve seen many businesses on 53rd come and go. I was ecstatic to see that the Sophy Hotel and Mesler Kitchen opened up on 53rd for more food options. Unfortunately, I wish I had positive things to say about the service at this establishment. With a James Beard awarded restaurant right down the street (Virtue), it’s obvious the subpar service you receive at this restaurant. I’ve gone to this establishment numerous of times, and I always seem to have a problem with the service.

Two months ago when I came to this establishment with my friend, it took about 30 minutes to be seated with a reservation and another 20 minutes to be greeted by a waiter and it seems as if the waiters aren’t trained. I had to wait 30 minutes for the sauce that came with my fries and by the time I received the sauce, the fries were cold. My friend knew the manager, so through her, I was able to get another order of fries.

About a month ago I made a reservation for brunch only to still have to wait 25 minutes to be seated. What was unfortunate was that we were seated 25 minutes after my reservation and still had to wait another 20 minutes for our waitress to come over and greet us. When she finally came over, she told us that brunch ended in five minutes. I was shocked, considering we made reservations for brunch and were just about to miss it. I was also shocked to see a party of individuals who were walk-ins be sat and get their food order placed before my party, who made a reservation. Enjoy the food, but the service makes it difficult to want to return to this establishment.

Since I now understood that the service here is subpar, a week ago I decided to do carry out. Unfortunately, there was a problem with my carry out as well. When I placed my order over the phone, I asked for extra aïoli sauce only to find that there was not extra aïoli sauce when I came to pick up my order then I had to wait another 15 minutes for them to make “fresh” sauce. I also asked for my chicken sandwich to not have blue cheese and substituted for cheddar only to still find there was blue cheese on my sandwich. So, I spent $20 on a meal that I was unable to eat.

As a person who has worked in the food industry, it’s very disheartening to see so many of the staff be uninterested and unequipped to do their job effectively. I really wanted a better for this establishment and it took me a very long time to write this negative review. I hope that someone from management reads this and genuinely tries to figure out how to train their staff better so that patrons have a...

EDIT as of August 4, 2025: Many thanks to Mesler’s Food and Beverage Manager Ms. Harris for her fast response and resolving this matter. Ms. Harris replied not even a day later and provided the opportunity to have a better experience. I went to Mesler for brunch the following Saturday. The hostesses greeted us. BOTH ladies were very pleasant, approachable, and very sweet. We sat at the bar and the bartenders were on point. We weren’t rushed, and we enjoyed the DJ as he played a lot of Old School R&B tunes and ran into friends. I hope those who I had the first experience with last week follow the lead from those who worked Saturday afternoon as changed my mind. I will return in the future. Thank you again. Much appreciated!

Food was great. Our waiter Al was fantastic. The is I have, is the host Frederick and a young lady who worked there as well-I’m not sure what her position was. Our reservation was 7:30pm. The host wasn’t the most friendly person-very stoic and unapproachable. Fast forward to our party at our table. After placing our order for entrees and having served our appetizers and drinks, Frederick asked if he could move us to the other side of the restaurant because they had to mop and they were closing soon. We said no. Why should we? We had a party of six, we already placed our order, AND we were in the middle of our reservation. He didn’t like the fact that we didn’t move. We kept a menu for one quest who ran behind as he was stuck at work. My friend placed the menu behind us on a ledge. The host had an issue with that and had us remove it. Okay, fine. I guess as they were getting close to closing, Frederick and the young lady walked passed our table a couple times-I’m assuming they were checking on is to see how close we were to finishing up. The entire table felt uncomfortable. Then, the lights came on-they were turned all the way up. Our waiter came to take desert orders and we explained how we felt and asked if we needed to leave. He said no, made sure we got our desert, and when we asked if they could dim down the lights, he took care of it. I live in the neighborhood. There are a ton of great places to dine in the area. Our guests were from out of town. Although the food and server were great, the host and young lady really did not represent your business in the best way. To my understanding, your host was short with our friend who cane last. I’m hoping someone address this as this isn’t the first time I had issues at Mesler. I don’t come here too often, and the reason is because of the energy we ...