Beat Kitchen — Restaurant in Lake View Township

My friends and I were so excited to go see a concert by one of our favorite artists at this venue. We drove 2 hours from to Chicago from out of state, and once we arrived we were one of the first people in line, but we needed food. We went inside to try and get dinner before the concert as we had several hours beforehand to kill. 3 of of us were over 21 but one of us was not. They told us our friend could not eat inside and had to wait outside until the doors opened for the concert. We asked if we could eat outside so our friend could be included and they said yes. We scanned our tickets and got our wrist brands for the concert, with them not being the friendliest towards us in the building as we were just trying to ask questions. We went outside and waited about 20 minutes before the waiter came to take our orders, he took our orders and half way in they came out and said they were out of an ingredient for one of the meals that was ordered. The lady who came out was very nice but the waiter we had before who took our orders was not the most friendly. He was very short with us and tossing things around and we could tell he did not want to take our orders or be there. The lady waitress was very apologetic when she came out and was the friendliest to us there. She fixed my friends order but by the time the food came out we had waited over an hour after they took our orders and left, and we had lost our placement by getting good spots upfront at the concert by how long they took to get us food when we could have just ate inside to begin with. We understand polices and rules but we tried to give them business and it took so long for our food to come that we were in the back of the room for the entire concert. We shoved our food down and tried to go inside but the line was still large. I calmly went up to the guy and said to him we had already checked in a long time ago and got our wristbands and tickets scanned which he was the one who did so for us. so I asked if we could go in and explained to him that we already had everything checked in. Instead of talking to me calmly back he raised his voice at me and yelled “give me 5 minutes buddy” and walked away very angrily. We understand there was a lot of people there and I’m sure the venue was stressed but that is no way to talk to a customer who is just asking a simple question. When multiple more people walked in who were getting their wristbands and tickets scanned. (Like I said we already had our tickets scanned and wristbands.) we were trying to go in fast after shoving our food done and my friend had a cup of their water they gave us outside at their tables. It was clearly filled with water as it was their trademark cup they served us. She was going to bring it in as we really had no time to sit down and have a proper meal and she was thirsty. Instead of calmly explaining to her that she couldn’t bring it in because he didn’t know what was in the cup that was their OWN trademark cup they served to us with water in it. (She also had an orange wristband on that proved she was over 21 in case they thought we were underage drinking at their own restaurant with what they served us lol) he instead very aggressively raised his voice and was very disrespectful to me and my friends. She then calmly said okay and walked over to the curb and dumped the water in the street as we were very much in a rush to get good spots at the concert. When she dumped the water as they said we couldn’t bring it in, I was watching him and he rolled his eyes at my friend and again was disrespectful. We then went in and for some reason had to scan our tickets AGAIN. when we had the concert wristbands on and we were late to getting in the room and getting good spots. So we had to stay in the back of the room for the concert for one of our favorite artists that we all intentionally took off work for to come and drive from out of state 2 hours to get there as early as we could. Again we were one of the first people there and for us to be the last in was very disappointing. We will not...

My wife and I used to live a few doors down from here and came back to visit during a Sunday afternoon to bring our 4 year old. Including us, there were 3 parties inside and 1 outside. Pretty slow.

My 4 year old is learning to tell time and likes to tell us the time from her watch all the time. You'll find this is relevant for our visit.

We walk in. No greeting. After a couple minutes, we just pick an open seat and sit down.

We wait for service. Nothing for 10 minutes. At least we were able to look at the menu on our phones while waiting. I see the bartender/server is serving the other 2 parties, so I just kept waiting for her to make her way over. I finally give in and walk up to ask one of the two bartenders for service. She says she'll be right there. She was not "right there."

5 minutes later, she comes over to take our order.

15 minutes later, I flag her down to get our drinks. She says she forgot (how?) and then takes another 5 minutes to get the lemonade and soda. It took more than 30 minutes just to get drinks on a very slow day serving only 4 tables with 2 bartenders.

50 minutes later, we are regretting our decision to come here. Our server finally brings us our food. The food is okay but not worth the wait. We were very hungry and ate very quickly.

My 4 year old has been supernaturally patient this whole time, but she wants to leave now. So do I. I ask for the check and a box for my daughter's leftovers. The server first had to close out a party of 6 before us. This process took another 30 MINUTES! My wife and daughter ended up walking to the park down the street while I waited for the privilege of paying for this overpriced, inconvenient meal. This girl must have had difficulty with basic arithmetic or was way too high to do her job because 3 parties (10 people) ended up standing around watching her plug away at her calculator. After all that, she was only working on the party of 6! The other checks weren't even done yet. It took her another 10 minutes to get my check, run my card, and sign.

We used to frequent this place and recommend it to friends....

Honestly, I hesitate to write this review because this feels like a spot l'd actually be a fan of, if the interactions (and lack thereof) didn't bother me to the extent they did. I was recommended this spot by one of the antique owners a few doors down on the street, so my hopes were up. I enter in and it's got a great, chill ambience. However, no one greeted me. Glasses were out on the bar counter and couldn't tell what seat was open. So I sat down at one of the spots and continued looking around while waiting for the bartender's attention. There seemed to be a few staff who went behind the bar, and eventually had one address me asking what l'd like to drink. She poured my drink (and actually made a good suggestion on adding soda water to it) after a few minutes and we had a quick discussion, and said "that'll be $10," but that was it. No one else spoke to me and staff kept coming out of the woodwork, but they just seemed to want to talk to each other and they looked to prepare for something. Some random dude came up to me saying "are you here for the event or just for a drink?" Or something along those lines. It was honestly a very weird and abrasive experience. I had the money out on the counter for some time, thinking she'd come back and finish the transaction, but she didn't. So l address the male bartender, mention l'd like to pay my tab. He was a little off putting too, seemingly very distracted and not attentive at all. I paid my tab and left.

All of it was just... not what I expected for a place like this. I told a couple locals about the experience, and they were shocked, since they send people to this place often and have had good experiences overall here. I think the key point for putting this review out there is to address the concern of an experience that could have easily been better. Just be attentive to your guests and nice. It's really not that difficult. I'm not asking you to kiss my a** but dang, don't make it seem like I'm inconveniencing you by being a quick patron in your establishment. I'm really not that difficult...