Pinky's — Restaurant in Illinois

On Friday, June 14, 2024 I went with a group of ladies to Pinky's for lunch. We arrived around 12:30ish. The waitress did well by getting our drink order. She took our meal order as well. This is when things didn't go well. Everyone but two of us got the pizza specials. I ordered grilled chicken cobb salad. Around 15 minutes after she took my offer, I was told they didn't have any eggs. I said, "I would have it anyway". She brought everyone their side salads and that went fine. Then, around 15 minutes later myself, another lady who ordered pretzels and two of the ladies who ordered pizza received theirs. My cobb salad was not what I expected. It seemed to me that the lettuce had been soaking in water. It was not horrible but I would not order it again. The four of us that received our food tried to wait on the 3 who didn't get their food but it was taking forever. They told us to go ahead and eat. I had also ordered a appetizer to share with the table and I had stated it was for the table and I had to ask for plates for everyone. After we had been there an hour, they had still not received their pizza. When we asked about it, their response was they had 12 pizzas in the oven. I would think when we ordered the cook would have cook our food all together. When they finally got their food, they felt like they had to rush because we had been waiting on them for so long. I told them not to rush and ordered another draft beer. The one lady needed to leave and took hers to go. The waitress brought the pizza and she knew she needed to leave, but I felt they weren't very apologetic about the way our food was served and the wait between when we received our meals. When we got our tickets to pay, I had an additional beer on my ticket. It was for a can beer, which I didn't drink. Another lady had drank it. By this time I was irritated and said I would just pay for it because they would of had to change the tickets. Atmosphere was fine; Food was okay; service was not okay. I still left a 15% tip (a little less than I typically leave) but am second guessing how...

I want to give this business 5 stars overall, but I simply can't.

The first and foremost issue is the mandatory 20% gratuity for all parties, regardless of size. I could understand it if their prices were lower, but $15 for a patty melt and a literal sauce cup filled with slaw? Even if it's a double smash burger style, this is rural Effingham, not Chicago. Compounding the mandatory gratuity is the fact that you end up paying the gratuity on the total bill ‐ food, beverage, taxes, and 3.5% service fee for using a credit/debit card. I don't know anyone keen on having a gratuity based partially on taxes and fees, making the effective rate of gratuity closer to 22%. Lastly, when I was told the total for the bill, the gratuity wasn't included, yet was added later when the card was run. Considering the gratuity is mandatory, it seems it should be included in the total I was told instead of being omitted. This omission is the entire reason for my 3 star rating for service because otherwise, the service was very good.

Pinky's food and beverage quality was hit and miss, leading to my 3 star review for food. The drinks my wife and I had in their small bar prior to being seated were unique and very good. My patty melt was good and seemed comparable to a Steak & Shake or Culver's version, though my side of slaw was really small. My wife was disappointed that her Philly cheesesteak was on the dry side and barely warm when served.

The overall atmosphere is as expected for a bar and grill located on a lake surrounded by a subdivision. A very small bar with maybe 12 to 15 seats and a large, outside deck overlooking Lake Sara is the extent of it, with a notable addition. To combat cold weather, Pinky's has clear plastic domes that cover individual tables on their deck, which is where you eat. They appeared to be the size of tall 4 to 8 person tents, and their included heater kept us toasty. The domes are really unique and helped anchor my 5 star rating for...

Atmosphere Loved our experience here, laid back, relaxing, you get a beautiful view of the water, they have an outdoor seating area with live music and also a bar inside, they even tilted the umbrella for us when the sun was shining in our eyes, the wait staff is very sweet, we came here for our friends Birthday 🎉 which they give out little red velvet cakes topped with a sparkler, very special! There were actually about 5 other people who had birthdays that night, Food & Drinks The cocktails here are to die for, you have to try the adult Capri sun, it's delicious and fruity, they also offer Blue Moon (which is my bf favorite), we also tried the melted Popsicle, fruity but strong, and also the lakewater, very green and tastes of melon. We had the pulled pork sandwich, which is very good, It has a bit of spice to it though! Beach bum nachos were delicious and loaded with all sorts of toppings, the cotton candy cheese cake comes with a side of cotton candy, it was very creamy and delicious, we also had the funnel cake fries sprinkled with powdered sugar, they were so good we couldn't stop eating them all! We also spent our 4th of July here (technically the date was the 3rd of July) You can sit outside of Pinky's and have a wonderful view of the fireworks, the park on the other side of the area was much too crowded, but near Pinky's they had hardly anyone there so it was much quieter and less tense! Plus we could take cocktails out onto the porch/outside area.

It's an amazing experience but make sure to have a reservation or be ready to wait a little bit on weekends because they get busy quickly and have limited tables Another thing I would love to mention is that during the fireworks, the owner(I think he was the owner or the manager) allowed the whole wait staff and kitchen staff to be off the clock so they could enjoy the fireworks as well and I thought that was so awesome...