The Hungry Mule — Restaurant in Lake Zurich

I found this place through google because we were at Lifetime Fitness and me and my friends were starving. Very convenient location right off of Rand Road but that’s where my good review stops. When we walked in we were not greeted, both employees taking orders seemed confused when we told them we are paying separately but eating in one table (not that complicated). After the order was placed (2 burgers and one gyros, my gyros came out almost within 5 minutes but the burgers took an additional 20 to 25 minutes to come out, by that time my gyros was ice cold because I like to wait for everyone to eat together. The burgers were tasty according to my friends but my gyros was almost burnt, loaded with onions and two old tomato slices and absolutely no gyros sauce (tzatziki). Very dry and tasteless, this is coming from someone who’s lived in Greece and knows good gyros. This wasn’t even edible. They gave us no napkins for the table and when I went up to ask for napkins and gyros sauce, the young gentleman seemed confused and he took a couple minutes to give me the items politely requested which should have been given in the first place. The food at this place is NOT CHEAP btw. Very pricey. Also, my fries were burnt and tasted like char and were rock hard. Tasteless basically. Lastly, something that bothers me a lot about restaurants since I’m a server myself, when I tipped the young lady who took my order (20% tip) she didn’t even say a simple thank you. The whole vibe of the place was depressing. I would not recommend this restaurant from my personal experience unless this night was way off of what they usually are and it was just bad luck for me. Best regards.

Addition: Reply to owners reply:

The owner or manager responded to my review and instead of acknowledging his/her establishment’s shortcomings, he/she decided to berate me and call my review fake, albeit telling me not to ever come back to their restaurant which is totally contradictory. Why would you tell someone who’s fake not to come to your restaurant ? Nothing, absolutely nothing about my review was fake. Everything I stated was 100% accurate and took place at your restaurant and that’s God’s truth. The very first step of every correction and improvement starts with acknowledging your mistakes and shortcomings or at minimum trying to understand your customers’ negative experiences. Nothing short of trying to humiliate your customer happened here with your response. You ARE correct, I did not ask to speak to a manager because you could hardly see anyone who was available and at that point I was pretty disheartened with my experience there and frankly just wanted to leave. Maybe I should have talked to a manager, I will grant you that (and my apologies for not talking to a manager) but to call my review fake is outrageous. Everything I said is 100% true, I even acknowledged that the burgers were very tasty, why would I say that if I wasn’t trying to be 100% accurate ? Because there is passion in my review, please don’t call it fake. Maybe you should teach your employees on how to treat their customers through these, as you say “very difficult times”. We are ALL going through difficult times, not just you and restaurants. That’s more of an impetus to THANK your customers when they come into your restaurant and spend their hard earned money and when they leave a tip to show their appreciation for fellow service workers. A little humility on your part would go a long way, despite my mostly negative review you can still win a customer by being humble. An answer can make or break any situation in life, and you certainly failed even with your answer to a simple, albeit negative review. Best regards...

I was there tonight with my husband, mother in law and daughter. My husband has posted his own review. We did have about a 30 minute wait to get our food for dine in, our food was cold. The person who brought out our food was the manager, and did seem flustered with the amount of delivery and togo orders. We let one of the young ladies know the food was cold, she took it back to have the order remade, and we asked for the manager. She returned to tell us the manager would take care of it. A young man from the kitchen brought out our remade food, both the young lady and the young man were stellar and much of the reason my review is 3 stars. I would like to say while the young man from the kitchen didn't have perfect English he was articulate, friendly and made me smile. He exudes the qualities of an excellent manager, and I hope he is or will be considered for a manager position.

The issue with the manager from tonight is simply this, he was in the weeds with delivery and someone forgot to run our food. It happens, it's not a huge deal, but don't tell me the reason my cold food took 30 minutes is because you had other orders to do first. If that was true our food would have taken 30 minutes but been warm.

Both my husband and I have been servers we understand getting slammed. I think either the manager tonight was having an off night or maybe just needs a bit of help in getting comfortable, he wasn't bad, it just felt like he was making up some story when just admitting in the delivery rush our food never got brought out would have explained everything.

Now the manager refunded the meal, and gave us a gift certificate for our next visit. We ate our food, so a full refund was more than generous.

I would not have bothered with a review but due to how frustrated my husband was with this experience and with his review experience felt that a more detailed review would...

yes the food takes extra time. I am 100% sure its because it is made fresh to order. People that want food fast.. go and get fast food. I also think the food is a fantastic value. This industry has taken a major hit during and after the pandemic. price gouging is real and don't forget it. you try and cook yourself a lovely roasted chicken with lemony rice pilaf with pita and a huge salad fit for two with nuts, fruit topped off with excellent cheese and a homemade salad dressing ( close your eyes and taste the difference. ) and spend less than 30 bucks. ( now do it for 100 people) Labor shortages and crappy lazy people that don't come to work may be another reason for the slower service. for god sakes stare at reels or check your emails or go only if you have a bit of extra time to wait. better yet make a plan in advance if you are on your lunch break. (Like use your phone) This food is delicious inexpensive and part of a dying breed that execute good food cheap. for god sakes read the other reviews and take note that the food is cold when you get it delivered. guess what it would be hot if you got off your ass and picked it up. Sorry to be so crass but I want them to continue so I can feed my fat face with good food instead of crap from chains. The atmosphere is not my style that's why I gave it 3 stars. Keep up the good work whomever you are... and thank you for putting it out during the crappy price gouging labor rat race times. get rid of crappy food delivery services that takes your money for doing nothing but keeping your food from staying warm. or perhaps only a food that travels menu only for delivery. rant and...