Eddie Merlot's — Restaurant in Lincolnshire

What an absolutely horrible experience. I'm writing this is a warning to others, avoid this place. Let's start with a waiter that shouldn't be at McDonalds much less an "up-scale" restaurant.

Zero communication between the waiter and staff or kitchen. Asked for bottled water, the "water-guy" comes over and literally spills tap water all over my leg as he pours the water sideways. When my wife tells him we asked for bottled water he gives us a look and pours the water from the glass into the pitcher and spills water again! No apology. 20 minutes go by, and we finally get our drinks. Then has asks if we want to order, the ladies order two salads, and us guys order two soups. We also each order our dinners. 10 minutes go by - salads come out. Drinks are empty, no waiter to be seen. The ladies wait 5 minutes for our soup which have not come yet. They both got Caesar salad, and both hated the dressing. I tasted it, nope not Caesar; it was like some vinegar cream sauce from Walmart. Another 15 minutes go by and out comes the soup. Still no waiter to been seen. Now a guy shows up with one of our dinners! We promptly refuse it and explain we just got our soup! He leaves, no waiter. Another 10 minutes...

I've now been at the restaurant for 1 hour and 15 minutes, 1 drink, a wet leg, and a soup later... I flag down a woman looking like a boss - I ask for a manager. She asks what is the problem. I explain above. She says "we need a reset". She will get us some drinks.

Apparently the reset meant we got some other tables drink order. They come out with 1 drink for four people, so we explain that's not ours. Now another guy comes over and says he is the manager and has two drinks. One looks correct, the other not so much. The ladies were drinking martini's - he has a cocktail glass (one) with a tequila drink which none of us ever ordered. The ladies both declined that and asked for what they had previously as that was what they wanted when the first lady came to "reset".

Now we see our waiter, he comes with one drink again. Shakes it pours it, and gives to my wife. I ask where is the other drink? He says "oh I will go get that". Drink arrives.

Now food arrives.

Jambalaya - ok. Steak #1 - pretty bad, rubber in fact. no we didn't complain or send this back. Steak #2 - good. Scallops and Shrimp - Had better at Red Lobster. Scallops were in fact rubbery. Lobster Mashed - Overcooked, like literal glue, and the lobster meat was chewy. Au gratin potatoes - Decent Brussel Sprouts - Good.

In the end they comp'd us our drink order and dessert. No follow-up, nothing.

This is why people are not going out. This has nothing to do with price, or value. The service was horrible, food was meh, and when a customer takes the time to explain to management what has happened one would think from the "reset" things would be perfect and service would have kicked it up a notch.

7pm reservations sat immediately, we left at 10pm due to service. Tired, hungry, and sober.

If you are the owner, you lost out on drink revenue, (on date night we usually have 5-6 cocktails p.p. ) a turned table of four, and four people who will never be back here, due to totally incompetent management and staff. What a mess, and on Valentines...

My family and I went here on Christmas Eve, which was my first time ever coming to this restaurant. Before coming here, I reviewed the menu and learned that this is not a cheap steakhouse. It is very pricey in fact. The prices of this steakhouse match the prices of some of the nicest steakhouses in Chicago. With this knowledge, I believed that the service would be in alignment with their high prices, but I was wrong.

The first annoyance was that our appetizers took over 40 minutes to come out. I understand that this is a very busy evening for them, but that is just a long time. We ordered our food, and I ordered a NY Strip Medium plus. I told her I wanted it to be a little pink, but not bloody or super red. My steak comes out, EXTREMELY bloody and rare. It’s purple on the inside. I sent the steak back, and told her I wanted it more cooked. The picture below is AFTER I sent it back the SECOND time. It came back STILL super red on the inside. At this point, it already took awhile to get our food, and after sending it back the first time, it took 20 minutes for it to come back out. Everyone was already done eating at that point, and all of the sides were cold.

When we were ready to pay, I told the waiter just to take the steak off the bill since I wouldn’t be eating it since it was too rare and it was too late to take it back at this point. All she said was “no problem” and took my plate. She didn’t even offer to make me another steak to take home or apologize for the inconvenience…TWICE! Not to mention, when everyone at the table got their food, none of the sides came out. We asked the waiter multiple times where the sides were. They didn’t come out for 20 minutes until after we got our meals!!! The waiter didn’t even offer to comp any of the sides. Everyone was basically done eating by the time the sides came out.

Not to mention, the food was cold and the price of the food was ridiculous for the quality. The Brussels sprouts were mushy and not cooked correctly. The au gratin potatoes were diced into these tiny pieces and were drenched in butter… gross! We wanted to order mashed potatoes but I guess they were out of them…. The Mac and cheese had a weird texture and wasn’t super flavorful, just drenched in butter and cheese.

Overall, the food was not good compared to how expensive this place is. You’re better off taking your money to RPM or Mastros where the food quality is impeccable and the service matches up. The bill was also $750!! What a...

It's rare that I have an experience at a restaurant where I feel the need to immediately write a review unless it's a bad one. But I felt the strongest urge to share my experience with the angel of an employee of Eddie Merlot that is Raven. I'm a bit of restaurant snob and I haven't been to Eddie Merlot in a long time because I felt it no longer met some of my expectations and I preferred to dine in the city. My husband and I can't go to restaurants far away when we're dining with his grandma since she's older so we needed to choose somewhere close to home, and decided on Eddie Merlot simply for convenience. The experience was really average for the most part. Our waitress was a little standoffish but I think that was just her personality. I was telling my husband I didn't know if I would want to come back but then Raven came and brought us our dishes. In our short interaction, I was stunned at how pure of a person he was. I am saying this in all honesty, I think he may be the kindest and purest soul I have ever met. Everything he said was with such love and bright energy, I very literally started tearing up. I kept watching him as we dined and he was working so hard and did not smiling for a second. I literally have never seen such a hard worker in my life. I asked our waitress his name and she said it was Ruben but turns out his name is actually Raven. I later asked different busser to ask Raven if he could stop by our table and when he stopped by, I told him how thankful I was for his service and great energy. Unsurprisingly, he replied again with such purity. He said he loves his job, the restaurant and that he's grateful to be able to help everyone. When I got back to my car, I actually sobbed. Of course, on my way out, I asked how to reach out to a manager to give feedback on how great Raven was, and the hostess let me know the manager was available there at the restaurant so I was able to share my adoration for Raven right then and there. Truly, I hope Raven is being put a manager track or some kind of track for a promotion because he is an absolute gem of a person that cannot be replicated. To be honest, this would technically have been a 3 or 3.5 star review without Raven, but with Raven, it's...