Bar Louie - O'Hare — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

If only I'd read the reviews before allowing my son to talk me into heading down for the worst dining experience of my life.

You guessed it: it was not a busy time when I visited this place. The name on the receipt is Gloria. If Gloria, in fact, is the person who took the order, I have to admit, she left me wondering why she's even a server. I spent the entirety of the meal trying to find the kindest words that I could use to describe her and this experience, but I couldn't escape 'drab person' and 'horrendous'.

"Gloria" left us waiting for quite a bit of time after we seated ourselves (such that the sign directed). When "Gloria" finally approached our table, we informed her that we were ready to order - since a 20+ minute wait can do that to you!

"Gloria" gave her generic and very dull spiel oN dRiNkS! However, the robot lacked the ability to deal with someone who'd made up their mind in the time that it took her to even acknowledge the table that she curtly reminded me that she only wanted my drink order before giving in and taking the full order.

She seemed disturbingly bothered by the fact that I didn't follow corporate-robotics and orderrrr a sOdahhhh (no, she didn't make these sounds).

She also did the weak-server table add-on to hide the fact that she failed at selling two sodahhhhs to a party of two by adding our order to another table and then splitting our tab as ZeRo CuStOmErS. HAH!

Lady, I consumed a lifetime supply of bagged syrup, water, and carbon, and fake lemonade within my first two years as a server. I didn't want a SoDa, I simply wanted and NEEDED water. However, I would have ordered a cocktail but you were too lazy and complacent to even pretend to know how to perform the duties that you were hired to perform.

I've worked with, supervised, and even encountered many good-for-nothing-order-takers in my life, and I must say, "Gloria" is the worst I've encountered. I always give servers the benefit of the doubt...even you, but you blew it, Glo!

I ordered the That's My Jam burger with tater tots, but "Gloria" sent out fries because she was too busy seething about my disinterest in bagged syrup and carbon mixture. The fries were actually good (a bit salty), but good. Oh, and it took a while to receive my food.

The bartender 'ran her food' (server lingo) and obviously informed her of her mistake. Shortly thereafter, "Gloria" pushed a bowl of tots onto the table and gave a forced 'sorry' while in the process of rushing away.

I'd mentioned being dehydrated after a flight into town when I ordered water with lemon. The dolt didn't even offer a water refill. "Gloria" spent some time doing liquor inventory in the cabinet next to our table, and missed an opportunity to make up for being a worthless robot by failing to ask if we were fine, or even glancing over to see the empty water glass and taking the initiative to bring a refill (during her second time near our table). However, we didn't have an opportunity to ask for water because ole Glo was engulfed in counting bottles. Before that, she spent time laughing with other tables.

I was nice to Gloria and tipped the standard, but she's undeserving.

This place truly needs an overhaul. It's so bad that I felt compelled to ask for a manager to offer free training services, but I simply paid, wrote a note, and left.

This place isn't worth a return - it's so bad that we sent out for sandwich ingredients and water to NOT have to go through something so mindbogglingly pathetic for dinner.

I find it disturbing that this place has up to 400 unique opportunities - per day - to cater to Holiday Inn guests, but they are lacking in so many areas including, but limited to simple competence. They, honestly, need to be trained in all areas.

The manager of this place should be fired or demoted to host/hostess until they learn how to properly operate a restaurant, which includes vetting and properly training front-of-the-house staff and making rounds (restaurant lingo) to say the least. I only encountered "Gloria" and a bartender. I will...

Pro:

1. its next to the hotel easy to get food

Con:

1. the strawberry Lmn Sangria Pit .. Was recommend by our server saying the the number 1 seller. The drink tasted like you just pour premix and added fruits .. "think juice box"

2. food was very inconsistency.. I order the pasta and my other friend order the same thing.. My bowel has half the amount of pasta while the other bowel had more. My other friend order fish and chip and too much oil fry in beer battered.

3. Our server was ok but when she stop by our table and ask my friend if she wanted to box and she said no.. and you see a full plate .. didn't ask " did the food taste , if you didn't like it we offer something else"

4. your round table in the booth.. its too big there was no space to sit comfortable.. bring in smaller round table.

5. When I close out our tab.. I saw there was a 18% Gratuity when i ask the server said it been like this for a whole year and there a sign in the front.

So here our my thoughts for the owners: 1)If you post a sign maybe you should just have one message and putting next to the hand sanitizer and the other sign its just not clear.. Most people walk in and does notices, if you check the review from other people they didn't notice it when walking in And the sign have 3 different color. I didnt notice the sign.

2. Bar Louie .. COV-19 event is over and charging a 18% fee to everyone coming , Bar Louie , you file for chapter 11 bankruptcy and you have all your guest paying a service of 18% and you wonder what happen to your traffic?

Its a simple fix .. mystery shop go to every one of your bar and order food and drink and different serve. When food get better tasting and server service is consistence.. then you get back traffic.

Also when the server get gratuity 18% tip no matter how the service is ... You start losing customer...

Also remember in my order , we order beer and pitcher sangria and you know that's high margins. So can you explain why you need me to pay an extra 18% , when you already made beer tap margin about 200% to 300 % and the sangria pitcher was over 13% margin ?

I have included picture to show proof...

please note that i understand the agony it is to work in the service industry, so i would never leave a poor review if everyone was trying their best. i ordered room service for $39.15 for two people off of bar louie's website at 7pm and it never came, so we called the front desk. we were told that they would call us when the food was ready but we never recieved the call. it was already past 10pm and after waking up at 6am to travel to chicago from northern Wisconsin and walking a convention for upwards of 5 hours i fell asleep. the next morning i attempted to resolve it in person however bar louie opened at 11:30 and we had payed for plans at 11, so in person was not an option. i called at night once i was home and was hung up on three seperate times by holiday inn since bar louie apparently doesnt have working phones. the manager was unavailable so i was told they would contact me. i let about two days go by and called again, once again being hung up on three times before someone answered, played a dial tone recording for two minutes, and hung up again. when i was able to speak to someone they said the manager Taylor already talked to me and couldnt resolve anything (i did not recieve any contact from anyone from bar louie at this point). was told again they would contact me. i filled out a form on bar louie's website for a refund after the call, and left it for about a week and a half. i was not contacted by anyone during that time, so i called again today. i was hung up on twice and then spoke to a manager from bar louie that said they have nothing to do with online orders. sorry but how do you have a website that takes orders and payments and somehow have zero affiliation with it?? i don't have $40 to spend on nothing, nor does anyone i know. i dont understand how no action has been taken and im very frustrated because i have zero control. just be cautious and make sure you have the time and energy to make an...