A post of my email to Maria’s earlier today. You be the judge.

Hello, I’ve been to Maria’s in Schiller park 1-2 times a week since 2017 because I work right next door. I’ve always loved it, the service and food are great. I’ve literally spent thousands of dollars in your restaurant. I’ve dealt with the loss of your lunch service, which was devastating, your recent price increases, and even your inability to process separate checks (even though the most basic of establishments is able to accommodate this)!! Tonight though, I was told that our party could only process 2 credit cards. We had a party of six and I painstakingly spent ten minutes calculating what each person owed. We narrowed it down to 3 credit cards. Only by being a KAREN!! which I am normally completely opposed to being, were we able to get our 3 cards accepted. I don’t understand why, if your server is told immediately upon seating, you can not do separate checks. You are located in an area where a lot of people are coming from work, the airport, hotel etc. where it is necessary for people to be able to pay for their own orders. I have been a server and it’s not rocket science to ring things by seat at a given table. The fact that you don’t offer to do so as a more ‘upscale’ restaurant (over Red Robin, TGI Fridays and the like who can all accomplish separate checks) is frankly, stupid. Again, I love your restaurant and hate to be so harsh, but why are you trying to make it harder on your customers to come here? I am one more “we can’t do separate checks” or “take more than 2 credit cards” away from never coming here again. I will miss it so much and so will the other individuals I work with next door who have agreed will never come again if you don’t start making it easier. Guess we’ll pop over to the entertainment district instead.

All this being said, if you’re still reading and have no qualms over payment issues the Chicken Tortilla Soup is AMAZING but not listed on the menu (you’re welcome!) and the Camerones Gratinados and ceviche (weekends only!) are also phenomenal! Really, you can’t go wrong with the food, only their antiquated (lazy a$$) policies.

Read the bullsh*t below. This restaurant thinks because we can easily share money that we can/should also do math. Hope we can help them realize that this is a false assumption and that their servers are actually making less because all of us collective mathematicians fail to account for tax, change, etc. Who wants to whip out their calculator on a night out?