The Reserve — Restaurant in Joliet

I will admit that when my wife suggested a restaurant in a casino for our ninth wedding anniversary I was more than skeptical.... after all its Joliet, not Las Vegas or Reno. I can safely say that I was proven very wrong in this case.

Now, I want you to understand that I very rarely give five stars out of the gate. I will usually visit a restaurant a few times before that happens. But I was close with the Reserve.

The parking was a bit sketchy given that it is the East side of Joliet, but you can valet and that takes care of that issue. The host (Adam) was very cordial on the phone and put us in a very nice secluded booth in the corner. The wine list was not the greatest.... however on Wednesday the wine is 1/2 off so take that for whatever its worth. I got a nice bottle of Justin Cab and was very happy paying 35 for it.

We we extremely lucky to have Joan as our waitress. She was attentive, funny and turned out to be a veritable encyclopedia of Joliet restaurants. She has worked at some of Joliet's most long standing establishments like Al's Steakhouse and Merichkas. She was a highlight of the evening, thanks again Joan!!

Now, the food was definitely something special. The filet pops were small... but very, very good.

The highlight of the night was the bone in ribeye with the garlic crust..... Easily in my top 5 steaks of all time. The steak was seared to a perfect slight crust on the outside and Medium on the inside. The Garlic Crust was a perfect compliment although I don't know if it was necessary, that's how good this steak was cooked.

I will be...

We were really looking forward to eating at the Reserve restaurant at Joliet Harrah's. It was Valentine's day and my wife and I invited our youngest son to join us and another family. It started fine, but the server was very uninterested. We ordered a wedge salad and asked that the chop it up. When it was brought out, it wasn't cut, so we asked the server and she said "you never asked, but we can if you want". Very nasty. We asked and she had it done. Then my son (who just turned 21 and was excited and going to Harrah's for the first time) ordered the 18 ounce prime rib, when the server brought it out, she spilled the aujus juice on my son's khaki pants. She didn't apologize or anything. When she came back to bring my steak, we asked her for some club soda or something to clean it up, she seemed annoyed. During this time, the other family, had ordered a medium ribeye. It came out almost raw, no huge deal, we asked to get it cooked more, again she seemed annoyed. She brought it out and it was still not done. Finally we asked to see the manager and the manager explained that she was generally good and wasnt a bit empathic towards out dinner. We stressed that we didn't want anything taken off our bill, just wanted to let them know how bad of service we received. She didn't seem to care, And even told us that oxy clean should take care of the new pants? Crazy..... What made it worse was the server can't back and literally yelled at us and called us liars. Needless to say, we won't...

Despite the menu being significantly paired down within the last three months with fewer (meaning little to no) fish/seafood and chicken options, the red meat mammal meal was delicious. I enjoyed the perfectly charred medium rare filet mignon with a side order of mushroom ravioli (to share, but could have eaten the whole thing, delish!). Everything was perfectly prepared, from the homemade chicken with rice soup (which we enjoyed with a little squeeze of lemon), to the sides and desserts. Vicki, our friendly server, ensured the courses were served with the perfect amount of digestive time between dishes. Thanks Vicki! And a shout-out to Virginia at the bar who mixed a perfect Old Fashion with some enjoyable back-and-forth conversation while we waited for our reservation time...