Milt's Barbecue for the Perplexed — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Reported to Chicago Health Department FOOD POISONING + BAD MANAGERIAL RESPONSE = MILTS

On 12/25/2013 I went to MILTS and wish I never stepped foot in the place. Not only did I have probably the worst food poisoning of my life, but also experienced the worst managerial response.

MILTS was a restaurant that I have always wanted to patron and heard great reviews from. My friend and I stayed in Chi-town during the holidays and decided to eat there for lunch on Christmas day.

I ordered the smoked chicken soup and beef brisket sandwich. The soup tasted like they just added liquid smoke, and not like an hearth smokey flavor. The brisket (where I think I got food poisoning) tasted off and I only ate 1/4 of the sandwich.

I noticed when I got back to the car that I started feeling a bit weird, but wasn't really sure what it was. It wasn't until hours later at the Evanston movie theater when I started feeling hot and nauseous, did I realize it was food poisoning. I actually had to run out of the theater to the bathroom to throw up. Keep in mind that MILTS was the only place I ate all day.

My friend took me home and over the course of the night and wee hours of the morning, I was on my hands and knees vomiting. I ended up getting a mild fever and had horrible diarrhea too.

Finally after I threw up everything in my stomach, did my fever start to subside and feel better. That morning I went to the doctors and got two bags of IV fluid for dehydration.

I thought it was imperative to alert the restaurant so no one else got sick, so I called on 26th. The host stated the general manager will contact me right away regarding the issue. I must say that the host probably was the most customer service focused during this whole ordeal.

The general manager called me the next day (27th) already in a defensive tone asking about what I ate and if I had documentation from my doctor proving it was food poisoning. I am thinking, "Is this place really asking me to submit a doctor's note proving I got food poisoning?" He even contested that you can't get a fever from food poisoning, which you can and symptoms range from diarrhea , nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and/or cramping, malaise (general uneasiness) and fever. The food at MILTS made me experience all of these symptoms. Does it make sense to anyone to have the customer submit documentation to a restaurant to prove that they got food poisoning? He stated that he could send me a gift card, but wouldn't refund my meal, which is just a complete insult and poor response. Why the hell would I ever want to eat there again. I just want a refund and didn't even ask them to pay for my $119 doctors visit.

The manager said the owner is out-of-town, but he will escalate the issue to him and follow up with me next week.

I have worked in a variety of food establishments from fine dining to country clubs, and never have I ever experienced as poor a customer service response as I did here. I reported my food poisoning to the Chicago Health Department and hope they follow up on this. I would hate for anyone to get sick and experience what I went...

WOW. I still cannot believe what happened last night. WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS PLACE?!?

At approximately 8:30 we called in a take out order with a nice courteous waiter named Ryan. We told him we were hoping to be there quickly, but we were coming from the South Loop.

When we arrived parking was, as always, a disaster. We eventually found a spot, paid and headed inside to pick up our food around 9:15. (TIP: Always pay for parking, they ticket here!!!)

Ryan was sweet & professional and took payment for our order.

My friend and I noticed that many tables were open and there were seats at both bars. We decided we would like to have some drinks with our meal, and asked Ryan if we could go eat at the bar and get cocktails. We would have probably each had a (VERY OVERPRICED MEDIOCRE) cocktail or split a bottle of wine.

He surveys the emptying restaurant, and like any sensible employee, tells us to go take a seat. My friend goes to use the washroom and I was about to take our bag to go sit down. What happened next was truly ASTOUNDING to me.

RYAN THE MANAGER comes up behind the waiter named Ryan and tells him (NOT US) "They absolutely cannot go sit at the bar, that is against our policy and you were wrong."

HE DOESN'T ADDRESS THE CUSTOMERS, IS RUDE, EMBARRASSES HIS EMPLOYEE, DISRESPECTS US AND DOESN'T APOLOGIZE.

His behavior was so distasteful and unacceptable there is literally no justification for it. His behavior was unprofessional at best AND after we were instructed to sit down, he should have stood by what his employee had told us. He then just struts away.

So, we politely tell Ryan the waiter that we don't blame him for the manager being incredibly rude and head out to the car. Being that we are headed pretty far away, we check the order and receipt to make sure everything is there.

As always, they charged us for BBQ Aioli sauce on our meals TWICE. (SERIOUSLY?!?) AND we only had their disgusting vinegar based ketchup NO BBQ AIOLI AT ALL. THE SAUCE WE HAD TO PAY FOR WASN'T EVEN THERE!

I go back inside and the friendly female bartender (who unfortunately lost our tips because RYAN THE MANAGER wouldn't let her serve us) got the correct sauces for me.

Milt's, you do know that treating customers decently and with respect is the best way to retain customers, right?

I cannot imagine why ANYONE who didn't eat Kosher would EVER frequent this overpriced...

I was disappointed with every part of my experience with Milt's. Our first interaction with our server was him coming to our table and saying "OK, have you had a chance to decide what you want?" This seemed rude, but making it worse was that he was checking his cell phone constantly behind the bar and seemed to be the only server working on a busy night - service didn't match the price.

We arrived hungry so we started with a basket of chicken tenders to dip in Milt's three sauce offerings. The tenders were so overcooked and dry that they had to be smothered in sauce to make them edible. We didn't finish them.

Not wanting to spend $50 on a half slab of beef ribs, I decided to try the turkey dinner. Smoked turkey sounded good. It seemed like it might have been ok until they threw the three slices of slightly overcooked turkey onto a grill and dried it out. Afterwards, it was covered in a gelatinous gravy that tasted like it came from their food service vendor. At a BBQ place, I would have loved it to be accompanied by BBQ sauce.

The "smashed potato" was basically a baked potato that was smashed into a mess on a plate. No one ate more than a couple fork fulls at my table - I was hoping for fluffy, buttery goodness and rather got something that looked picked-over and partially-eaten. Looking around the room, we weren't the only ones avoiding them. Green beans were the high point of the meal and they were just ok.

We all had leftovers but refused when offered a to-go box. For me, that's a first at any BBQ restaurant. Overpriced and bland, I'd say stay away unless you're really desperate for below-average...