Brü Grill & Market — Restaurant in Lake Forest

My boyfriend and I came here to try out the restaurant, as it appeared to be a upscale restaurant with impressive reviews and food. We were disappointed.

It began when we asked our server what was on the cheese and charcuterie board. I'm a huge connosieur of cheese boards. Our server started to list of the brand names, but not the cheese types. We asked what the seasonal items on the charcuterie board were. We got the response of, "I don't remember what they're called, but you know the small orange spongy looking things?" I can only imagine he was referring to kumquats, but who knows? We decided to pass on the board since we weren't entirely sure what was on it based on the answers we were given.

First up, the appetizers brü and crü. Described as pretzel bites with cheese dip and a mustard fig dip. I give it a 1 out of 5. The mustard fig dip does not factor into this rating, because I hate mustard, so my opinion is biased in that area. The pretzels were more like bread stick loaves, cut diagonally long wise. They didn't have the pretzel taste to them. The cheese was surprisingly lacking in all departments. It tasted bland with no taste. My boyfriend, who also dislikes mustard, was okay with the mustard fig dip, but preferred the cheese.

Next up, entrees:

I ordered the Brü burger with an added egg and the garlic parmesan cheese fries. The burger was your run of the mill burger. Tasted good and cooked to my requested medium. The fries were on the salty side, making them difficult to enjoy. The burger itself helped bump up the rating on this restaurant.

My boyfriend declined to rate his plate, which was a sausage platter he saw in pictures and was intrigued to try. He declined rating because he didn't read the description and realized all his dips were mustard. (I told him that's why I didn't order it, because I saw all the dips were 3 different mustards. Yuck. Lol). He did have to heavily salt the potato salad that came with it because it had no flavor. And he realized, from his first time having sauerkraut from this dish, that he did not like sauerkraut. I did try his potato salad, and it was a bit bland, but there was a bacon smokiness to the flavor, which I agreed with.

On to dessert:

It did not help the rating that our server deserted us for 20 minutes after taking our dessert orders, never once checking on us or letting us know what was taking so long. Then, from across the room, when he happened to make eye contact with my boyfriend, he makes hand gestures which we think may have meant that our desserts would be right out? Then a new server appears and let's us know she would be taking care of us for the rest of the evening. (Thanks, server 1 for telling us you were leaving)??

My boyfriend got the Brü cake. We were planning to just share 1, but he wanted this cake which sounded like it would be soaked in whiskey, so I was uninterested, thus, we both ordered our own desserts. The cake was actually not soaked in whiskey and tasted rich and was actually okay. The ice cream that accompanied it, however, was awfully whiskey-flavored.

I ordered the chocolate cake with Chantilly cream. The ice cream which came with it was supposed to be vanilla, but the flavor was so creamy, it's difficult to think that it was just vanilla. The cake was super sense and heavy, but surprisingly not overly rich.

Our overall impression of this place was very unimpressed. The food was mostly okay or unpleasant, and the service was... I don't want to say awful. But it wasn't great. We probably won't be coming back.

Side note: unrelated to the rating, the atmosphere was completely not what we were expecting. The reason this doesn't effect the rating is due to the fact we made assumptions. We had thought this would be a nicer upscale venue where we could enjoy a nice quiet dinner. Instead, we were surrounded by a live musicians doing not so great renditions of pop music and screaming children running amuck on the grounds of the restaurant as if this were Chuck E. Cheese. Not what we...

Wish I could recommend, but can’t.

Good things… ambience was fabulous. Drink list is great. Our servers for our first visit were fabulous, second visit was fair at best, and the couple selected for our party of 30, hardworking and helpful.

Bad things… It really comes down to the manager/owner, Matthew Pannek. I think everyone else’s experience and reviews have this covered, but I’d like to add that he was unresponsive to 3 weeks of calls/requests to discuss planning, and then YELLED at me in voicemail and again on the phone in the very first communications I received from him a week before the event. Aside from his claims that he was going to be losing THOUSANDS of dollars by accommodating us, he said he would make sure this was a night to remember. He was right—for the wrong reasons. When we arrived, we were astonished that an evening of heavy hor’s doev’res and open bar was set up to be a dinner service for 32. When asked about an hour before the event, he was further argumentative, unaccommodating, and accusatory, and dismissed our requests that the table be broken up as unreasonable. (Hmmm… I’m pretty sure with the appetizer menu discussed and predetermined, side food station, request for high-top tables in the planning stages, discussion of individual table setup/décor, open bar, and final guest count (30) that I’m not the one that got this wrong. Yet… somehow this was made to be my fault.) Unfortunately, the table situation didn’t get fixed before the guests arrived because they “were now in heavy service time and didn’t have the time to fix it.” (Embarrassingly, this left some guests asking if it was supposed to be a dinner event instead of cocktails).

Next, the food is good, but definitely not consistent. To preface, I requested many dishes dairy free and visited the restaurant 2x in the weeks prior to the event to test dishes so that the menu would be easy, tasty, and agreeable by management/kitchen well in advance of the event. In fairness, I requested sliders on special bread, and they accommodated—thank you. However, I didn’t find them to be very good, moist, or warm at the event, but maybe the change in bread was the reason, so I’ll take blame for that. The sauerkraut on the first visit was excellent, but for the event was merely shredded cabbage with no dressing—cold, dry and crunchy. The German potato salad on the first visit was AMAZING, but for the event was dry and lacking in flavor. The speck & blue flat bread on our first visit was very tasty, but for the event was sparsely laid with ham and missing 2 ingredients: onions (cooked in oil instead of butter), and thyme, leaving a practically naked piece of flatbread. Additionally, we instructed the staff that we were aware of the cost concern and to “keep the food coming”, but the food table consistently stayed empty through the night, resulting in a MUCH lower cost than we anticipated (Not too worried about costs, after all?)

My initial interest in Bru stemmed from the claim that it is “America’s 2012 Top 250 Restaurants”, and fortunately, my initial visit was a very good one suggesting that was an accurate assessment. Having been a couple times more, received inconsistent food and service, and now having done some research on the management/ownership, I am more led to believe this designation was awarded by Urbanspoon more so due to the owner’s career history with Fuddruckers and Brinker International, than it is an accurate assessment of this establishment. In spite of these things, the event was a success and guests were very professional and kind about the time they had. I wish my experience throughout the planning and during execution had been as great. My recommendations – Sausage platter (if they fix the sauerkraut and potato salad), garlic fries, and a beer. But, that said: don’t host an event here until the manager can hire himself an event...

I had an awful experience here, but the owner was kind and made things right. Despite the experience and due to the way he handled things at the end of our meal, I would like to go back and try their brunch.

The hostess at the front needs to be trained or fired. She didn’t greet us, gave our table to another party that was a walk in (I made a reservation for Father’s Day). After she realized she gave our indoor table away because she didn’t greet us or check us in, she asked the male host to ask us if we could be seated outside instead.

I said okay as to not cause a fuss and help them out since it was busy. They sat us outside, didn’t give us kids menus (we had a 3 and 6 year old-clearly kids), and then proceeded to ignore us completely. We saw family after family eat and leave before we even got drinks. The hostess saw us sitting there for over an hour without any drinks or service, yet she never apologized or tried to get a waiter. No. Instead, I had to hunt down the male host numerous times and tell him that we had zero people helping us. It was also cold outside and no one turned on the heater for us.

When we were still waiting almost 2 hours without food or even an appetizer to make up for the mistakes, my dad found the owner. He brought the food out himself and made it right.

I’m pretty disappointed in the experience, especially because we were trying to help them after getting screwed over with our table. The hostess never acknowledged her error and we saw her leaving that night around the same time and she was laughing and talking about how busy it was. Clearly, she did not get in trouble for the chaotic experiences I saw everyone else have as well. The front desk was a hot mess as soon as we arrived and it was obvious the hostess was in over her head.

I’m leaving for the most important trip in my career in a couple of days, and I am now sick because we sat outside in the cold for 2 hours, thanks to her “service.” We would have gone elsewhere to eat, but there were no other reservations available, it was Father’s Day so we still wanted a nice meals for my dad, and we had 2 hungry kids.

My advice to the owner, get new front desk or give them some serious training in customer service and running the restaurant. They are going to hurt your business if...