D'Agostino's Pizza and Pub River Grove — Restaurant in Leyden Township

Today I was having a business meeting at this location. The host was friendly and got waters for us right away. There was maybe 2 or 3 guest in the dining. Our server, Munro greeted us politely. Did not introduce himself but was tentative. I ordered bruschetta for the app and the cordon blue grinder for myself and my business associate had ordered a Philly cheesesteak sandwich.

We received our appetizer promptly. And short after came our sandwiches. Mind was closed and seemed fine. A little dry from the lack of adequate sauce…. But my friend’s Philly cheesesteak was open faced loaded with large over cut green peppers which covered the skimped meat on the sandwich. I wish I took a photo because it was the most sad Philly I had ever seen, full transparency. The peppers were large and wide covering the spaces where the meat did not saturate the sandwich. I got the waiter who not only took the plate back once, but twice to the kitchen without making corrections or adjustments to the order. We asked for more meat on the sandwich. The cost wasn’t an issue. Upon returning from the kitchen the first time, he brings back the sandwich we sent back and explained how the meat is pre-weighed to 6oz. I said “ok. So is it weighed in the bag?” He responded yes. My friend and I both say “so the weight of the bag is included?” He says yes. So the bag itself weighs an oz on its own so it’s 5 oz at best, and a 6oz steak that isn’t shaved would have covered this whole sandwich.” He started getting defensive and said “well I watched them weigh it to make the sandwich.” At this point I just ask him to send a manger over because I’m going to argue how much meat weighs when #1. I weight my food for WeightWatchers. And 2. I don’t care about how much you pre weigh your meat - it doesn’t fit on the sandwich you’re serving, and why doesn’t this restaurant care about presentation as guest satisfaction?!

And then the cook stared to cause a scene. It was a whole unnecessary production that cost the guests time, energy, and them money in the end. Who’s winning when you are doing the most?

Then we had a young lady come over after cleaning booths, I’m not sure if she was the manager. But she came over to co-sign on the meat being pre- weighed and then said “I did see the sandwhich and there was a lot of bread without meat. But it’s pre-weighed so I could like cut down the bread size for you so it fits.”

I literally could not believe this was real life. 25 years in hbd serving industry - I could not fathom working in a facility where people were allowed to run it this way without repercussions. Unreal.

Anyway 25+ minute into the future she got her food. Mine was cold by this point. I’m not letting her watch me eat—and at the end of it the young lady did take the sandwich off and added more meat to the sandwich. But holy hell. All of this so that you can argue a point?

And if that’s your SOP for your menus, then you should use language in your menu to alert the customer “6 oz of cheesesteak, mostly green peppers, and be prepared to have a quarter of your sandwich to be just bread.”

Terrible experience. Where’s the actual adult manager to run this...

We came for the special Santa/reindeer event and were very disappointed. We usually go to the Wrigleyville location (and went for the same event there last year) & recently tried Park Ridge, we love both. After dropping the ball making reservations at either of those locations, we decided to try River Grove.

The River Grove restaurant is beautiful. However, I was surprised to be seated at a high top with two small children and when I asked if there were any “lower” tables, I was told no and that I would have had to specify when making the reservation. Fair enough. I’d never been to this location and was unaware this was a possibility. Not a huge deal.

Our server was very quick and attentive to start, but we didn’t see her after our food arrived and had to walk around to find her to get our check. In our experience at the other locations, the pizza is served on an elevated tray to allow table space. However here, we had to make room on the surface of the table, which with our appetizers, drinks, and kids meals made space very limited. Again, not a huge deal.

Most disappointing of all was the event itself. Having been to the same event at the Wrigleyville location in 2018, we had high expectations. There was no balloon artist, at least not that we saw in the 90 minutes or so we were there. Not the end of the world. However, when Santa started to walk around, he walked into our room, stopped right near our table, looked at us with my twin 4 year old boys BEAMING with huge smiles and walked past us to the next table. He stopped and talked with them, took pictures, and not once did he come back to even say hello to my kids. Thankfully they didn’t seem to notice, but we were very disappointed.

Overall, the food was very good as we’ve experienced at the other locations. The event itself was just a big let down for us particularly because we had last year to compare it to. The service was just okay at best. We will stick with Wrigleyville...

On Friday 12/3, we placed a huge order for a gathering: 24 Chicken Tenders 24 Bosco Sticks 1 Greek Salad 1 XL Vegetarian Pizza 1 XL Meat Lovers 2 XL Greek Pizza 2 XL Cheese Pizza

On Saturday 12/4, 10 of our guests reported that they were vomiting and had Diarrhea, 2 of those guests went to urgent care due to the magnitude of the symptoms. Urgent Care said it was food poisoning.

12/5- We called the restaurant, Mike, General Manager, was rude and dismissive and said that in the 7.5 years that they were opened, no one has gotten sick, “if you can provide a doctor to tell me it was my food then so be it.” The only food at this family gathering was the order placed from D’Agostinos.

However, there is a first time for everything, instead of being helpful and investigating or perhaps cleaning the restaurant, he proceeded to “well what do you want? $25, $50, $100”. There are ten people sick a full refund should be done. I proceeded to ask to speak to Mike’s boss where he said that it would be Scott who he is located at the Addison location and told me to google the contact information. I am still waiting to hear back 12/6 at 9:50 am.

D’Agostinos please train your staff to be helpful and compassionate, this is not an event that should be taken lightly. It is 10 people who have food poisoning.

Public Health Department complaints have been filed

12/7 UPDATE

Ana- General Manager of all Locations was able to speak to us and apologized for the situation. She is being diligent and conducting an investigation with clients and vendors to verify if this situations is siloed or not. This is an example of how situations should be handled. Glad that at least the management at the top knows how to handle these situations. Ana also will be providing a full refund in the...