The Red Lion Pub — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Tl;dr the waitress who worked the evening shift on Saturday, July 5th between 9:20–11:20 p.m. was rude, rushed us, and then accused us of dining and dashing after we had already paid our bill.

Story:

We unfortunately had a really disappointing experience here tonight. My husband and I came in around 9:20 p.m. and had a drink each (one beer, one cider) and shared poutine. We stayed for approximately 2 hours or thereabouts.

From the moment we were seated, the waitress (old woman in her late 70s working the Saturday night shift) was visibly irritated with us. We were both dressed respectably, weren’t loud, and didn’t ask for any extras or anything special or additional. We sat at our table and talked quietly among ourselves, sharing stuff on our phones.

She came over 2x after serving us: once to ask if we needed anything else (we didn't) and the second time to clean the table and take away my bottle – while I was still working on my cider. My husband then paid the bill. This had to be around 10:15ish, maybe 10:30. We stayed more afterward because they don’t close until 2:00 a.m.

There was another older couple in the room with us, but they left about 10 minutes before we did. We finished up my cider and decided to leave as well. We got out the door and then hear “HELLO? HELLO?” yelling after us. The waitress ran out after us and accused us of not paying our tab. We told her we already paid, and she said she “couldn’t remember because we were there for SO long” (again, not even 2 full hours and there were plenty of other people there far before we got there and still there as we were leaving) so we told her to check the bill and she made us come back inside to check to see if we paid. We did pay. Like 45 minutes earlier. She half-ass apologized to us and my husband, who is too nice for his own good, told her it was ok and no worries.

It is not okay, and I do worry. We did absolutely nothing wrong, we didn’t come in with an attitude, we weren’t dressed badly, we weren’t loud, we weren’t rude, we weren’t bad customers. But we got an attitude all night from this woman who clearly had a problem with us from the start. I heard her say goodbye to both other couples who were in the same little room we were as they left. And all she could do to us was accuse us of dining and dashing when we hadn’t done anything to deserve that accusation...

If you want to feel like you've teleported to a pub somewhere in the middle of England, this is your spot. Amazing transformative decor. I've been here a few times, specifically for the burger, which I think is solid and a nice departure from the typical Chicago smash burger. It's a bit on the pricey side, but to be fair, it's on par with many other sit-down places. And it's convenient for me because it's a neighborhood joint. Burger patty is thick, cooked to requested temperature, and the burger is overall flavorful. Fries are solid as well. Not the best you'll have, but a nice medium cut with good flavor that pairs well with the burger. Service is typical, but not overly friendly. I say that in part because once I sat at the bar and accidentally spilled most of my beer before my burger came out. Completely my fault. Bartender was quick to help clean it up, but he used a rag that was sitting in a bucket of chemical cleaner and the countertop smelled strongly of cleaning solution for the rest of my meal, which took away from the experience. While I had no expectations, it would have been nice if he offered to give me a little bit more beer to enjoy with my burger (I didn't want to order a whole new beer). Again, not required or expected as it was my fault for spilling, but that's the difference between 5-star and regular service. I'd go back. Cool...

Sorry to say my experience was very disappointing. But then my visit was under somewhat unusual circumstances. We were a group of about 10 coming in after a special church event early afternoon, Super Bowl Sunday, in a snow storm. Except for one couple we were the only people there. Everyone else had gone in and ordered before I arrived, as I was searching for a place to park for quite a while. One of our party mentioned to me that the waiter was "surly" at first. But I was not there at the time and could only notice that his manner improved the closer we got to tip time. Most everyone ordered eggs of some sort, which did look delicious. But there was a long wait before the first 2 orders arrived and equally long waits between orders arriving after that, which came in groups of 2. Since I was late I only ordered 2 margaritas. However when the checks came the gentleman who was paying for his 2 drinks and mine was surprised to find how expensive the drinks were. He said he should have told them to use the house liquor, as they had used the most expensive instead. (I know Patron was used in my drink. And I didn't really enjoy...