The Bar on Buena — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Went there for lunch after a long walk along the lake, unplanned and not intending to drink. The bouncer, instead of just saying "we won't be able to serve you alcohol because you don't have a valid ID", or deciding to not let us in because of the ID, decided to let us in but keep explaining the law to me. He not only assumed that I didn't know the state laws, but also went on to explain something I never asked. He never checked with me if I knew this legal clause or not. Worse part was he took a derogatory tone and eye contact instead of a casual conversion tone. Later on he yelled at my friend while my friend was eating to put his mask on and quoting him: "because we're trying not to die here". Finally, as we were leaving, he started to explain the same law to me AGAIN. I would have much rather preferred to not be let in because I didn't have a valid ID, instead of being insulted for not having one due to life circumstances he knows nothing about.

All I had done was walked in a place that was open and could serve food.

Also, I normally put on my mask when the staff approaches for their psychological comfort. But, just FYI, the particulate matter that left our mouth and nose while we were eating with our mask down is going to stay in the air for quite some while, even if I pull it up for a second. Doctors recommend keeping a mask on the entire time you're indoors - so then opening a restaurant for dine in won't really be possible if we were trying to avoid the spread. In fact, doctors also recommend putting the mask aside when you're eating to avoid touching the mask repeatedly and getting other germs on it. Something I think the restaurant industry should know, but understandably is not made aware of.

I could tell this bouncer was scared about something and projecting that on me. I hope he resolves whatever is going on...

I was harassed and made to feel very uncomfortable by one of the waitresses here today.

After coming here and really enjoying this bar last night, I returned with a friend during brunch hours to ask to use the restroom as I urgently needed to do so and was still around in the area. The waitress pointed me towards their mutiple restrooms and thanked me for asking.

It was to my surprise 5-10 min later to hear loud, repetitive bangs on the restroom door. After asking what was happening and receiving no response, followed by more bangs, I raised my voice to ask again - to which the same waitress replied that I had to leave as there were “customers waiting”. (My friend in the bar recalls seeing no one waiting for the restroom.)

I was stunned and finished up as quickly as I could. I walked out of the restroom to motion to my friend for us to leave and turned to see the waitress glaring at me and waving her hands - motioning to shoo me out of the bar.

I walked out of the bar and turned back on the sidewalk to see her standing outside the door glaring at me, maintaining her shooing motion. Not often am I left in tears from something like this but I cried on the sidewalk out of feeling so shocked, embarrassed, and unwanted.

I wish I got the name of the waitress who treated me this way but after everything I just wanted to leave as soon as I could. I’m sure this place is great the majority of the time but you’ve got someone working there with an intense ego problem. As it stands I don’t feel comfortable coming back to a place that I‘ve felt so unwanted in.

TLDR: Don’t ask to use the restroom at this place. You’ll be told that you can and then get harassed...

Food poisoning, food poisoning, food poisoning. I and two of my friends all got it here on SEPARATE occasions. My suspicion is that their food prep area is to small to properly keep uncooked meats away from the other foods. I've been here dozens of times due to the convenient location for meeting up with people. It looks nice at first, but after awhile the cracks start to show. Despite us being regulars the waitstaff (bartenders excluded) was generally pretty rude. Service was never good. You usually don't get what you ordered. I have years of experience in food service and am generally forgiving of people forgetting things or making mistakes here and there. But it's so bad a BoB that it's kind of a running joke. Like, you frequently have to flag someone down for napkins or silverware. A couple times I asked if I could get my burger on a plate instead of in a basket, because I needed to cut it up with a knife. They told me they can't do that because that would give them too many plates to wash. One of the managers walked around chomping gum, which is a huge no no in the industry, and just kind of nasty. The food itself is hit or miss. When it's good it's really good, and when it's bad it's really bad. Place always smells like disinfectant, which makes it feel more like a trashy bar than the cozy neighborhood bar that it wants to be. I wish there was a nice pub in this location, but...