Wildfire — Restaurant in Lincolnshire

My wife and I have long had great affinity for the various Wildfire locations we have patronized and have long enjoyed the Lincolnshire site. That the food would arrive at our table meticulously prepared and in ample quantity is a foregone conclusion and the sponsoring cause of our repeated use. Less certain, however, is the quality of service which its waitstaff delivers, with wide variation correlated to biopsychosocial attributes of the server in question.

We've never really had any issues with the waitstaff prior to this past Friday evening, when we suffered through "Angel B" who must have been having a bad day. Years ago Erving Goffman reminded us that nobody is a "constant biography" so I'll give her (they/them whatever) the benefit of the doubt here. Surely Wildfire's recruitment and hiring practices are consonant with the excellent dish preparation it proffers. That said, this server's disposal of its duties warrants remediation.

From the moment we were seated, Angel's service was perfunctory at best, haphazard at worst. Did she bring the dishes we ordered? Yes. Did she do so with any modicum of enthusiasm whatsoever? Negative. While the bus person was extremely attentive and thoughtful, Angel was not. I noticed the other waitstaff members introducing themselves by name. Not our ebullient bundle of joy, "Angel B", who also varied from her/its colleagues' standard of care by failing to inform us of the nightly specials. Odd, as a gentleman (personal pronouns likely "he/him" but could be "they" ) collegue of our effervescent paragon of servitude, no more than six feet away and within earshot of the adjacent table, fastiodously described and explained the myriad specials available. Although a moot point from the get go as we had no intention, once seated and exposed to her blase demeanor, of spending any more money for lackluster service, it would have been nice to know nevertheless.

The litmus test and dealbreaker for us related to the manner in which "Angel B" delivered our check post consumption. I recall a time when the waitstaff walked to the table, handed the folio to the customer, made eye contact and thanked the consumer for visiting. Not our "Angel", who was either pre-occupied, untrained or completely impervious to the most rudimentary elements of service provision. Lacking both a salutation and conclusionary "thank you" when delivering the ample bill to us, both my wife and I were, at that point, incredulous that Wildfire either would be unaware of,or passively accepting of, such acerbic demeanor.

In conclusion, although a minor inconvenience, perhaps attributable to the server's bad day or episodic/acute life event at the time of our arrival, this demeanor will have a chilling effect on our propensity to return. Does Wildfire, or the server in question care? After all, I'm one consumer amidst thousands that have only laudatory comments for and appreciation of the establishment. People like Angel would, however, do well to realize that within a file mile range of this establishment there are at least five other restaurants that we'd be more than happy to visit in search of the somewhat elusive, shiny, happy, well attired, physically fit and non-lugubrious person "slinging hash" on the other side...

Service was not the best due to the Sunday crowd. They kept recommending the duck over what I really wanted. I tried the duck which was a big mistake. It was raw and undercooked to the bone. So I had this greasy undercooked almost bloody half duck that at the time of day should have been fully cooked and not that greasy. It was so raw that the poor quality stake knife could not cut the meat off the bone. That is when I knew that the duck was raw. The meat should easily come off the bone and be tender. If it was not that busy and our service to our table was not so bad then I would have switched it. I really didn't see our server until after I came back from the restroom and I wanted to leave but dessert was already ordered. So do not get the duck on Sunday unless you want to be sick with an upset stomach and acid reflux from the grease. It was also flavorless and needed a lot of salt and pepper as I thought it was going to come with sauce but only came with berries or cherries. So again don't fall for the special as it is just over priced undercooked poorly roasted grease meat they need to get rid of. Get what you want to get and don't listen to the server. I was really messed up on my anniversary and needed medicine from how much acid reflux and indigestion I had the rest of the day. UPDATE: The next couple of days I got really sick from the bad duck. Our anniversary plans got messed up and the vacation we were trying to have as I couldn't eat anything the next morning and the following days. My wife had a taste of my duck also and ended up with slight stomach issues but not as bad as I have as I think the meat is bad like expired or something else. So I think we got food poisoning. The sad part was we paid the extra 3% fee and left a good tip because how busy it was in cash. We did not even get any special since it was our anniversary like at least something fancy with the chocolate dessert that was ordered near the end of the meal. Like some sparklers or some type of writing with the sauce on the plate since it's 1930's themed. Again it was busy on Sunday but maybe the manager could have come by if the server was busy to say something to us. It would have given me the time to let them know about the duck and show him how tough and raw it was. This was the first time coming to a Wildfire as the wife saw one at a fancy outside mall and wanted to try the menu item she saw for our anniversary and the dessert. Maybe we should have gone to that one instead of this location that seems less of a fancy area as a getaway anniversary. Again AVOID THE DUCK...

EDIT 10/29/22: After writing my initial review I up’d 1 star because I wrote the management about our terrible experience and Matt the general manager personally called me within an hour. He apologized and tried to make the bad situation right.

Big disappointment at this Wildfire location. Pick another Wildfire location as the service here is the WORST! We’ve been to all of them and we live near the Schaumburg location so we usually go there. We were meeting friends who drove from Kenosha and we all especially picked this Wildfire location. The kitchen staff seemed to have it altogether but the wait staff didn’t and it was a really bad experience. It’s to be expected after Covid that service at any place isn’t going be top notch and it’s excusable to a certain degree. This was beyond terrible. Our waiter never explained the specials or encouraged to order any drinks which is a usual welcomed practice. He did ask if we wanted any appetizers and we asked if the bisque had any ham or pork products as we don’t eat that. He came back about 10 minutes later to take our order and I asked him what about the bisque? He said he forgot and would go ask. After another 10 minutes he came back and said no pork in the bisque. We ordered 2 cups and all 4 of us ordered our meal. After about 15 minutes my husband had to ask him as he walked by if he could take our menus off the table. Only 1 time did a bus boy come to refill our waters. It was not at all busy as this was lunch time. The kitchen server brought our lunches and also brought the bisque which were bowls not the cups. We told the server to take the bisque back as we were waiting for that before our meal not with the meal. The waiter forgot everything repeatedly, we had to ask for more water, pepper. Then to top it all off you we had a 3% fee on top of the worst service we ever had! I would not return to this location. It appeared this was common as a local guy was seated with his party and commented “If that’s our waiter we are getting up and sitting in another station!” He was re-seated elsewhere. When you’re paying a fair amount of money, this is not what anyone...