Buddyz Pizzeria — Restaurant in McHenry

We're 3 friends in our 50's & get together every week for a girls nite out. The plan was for them to get there early, order our pizza so that it would be served just before or after I got there, as I got off work at 5 & had a 25 min drive to McHenry.we figured 5:30,- 6:30 to eat, before a craft class a few blocks down the street at 7. They got there a little after 4:30, were seated on the patio, explained to the waiter that we needed to make a class at 7 & would order right away for all of us. There were few customers. Around 4:45 they texted that they'd ordered & to text back once I was on my way, which I did. About 5:30, when I arrived there were 5 patio tables used & the dining room was starting to fill up. Our waiter was really nice, as he brought my soda I mentioned we had to be somewhere at 7 & he said no problem, our pizza should be up in a few minutes. About 20 min later, the place was really busy & we flagged down our waiter, asking 'where's the pizza?' He went to find out & didn't come back until just after 6, (I'd been waiting 30 min, my friends had been waiting at least 75 min) He told us 'there was a problem in the kitchen, but they've put another pizza in for you.' WHAT?!? Its 6 now & our class is at 7! But he said the pizza was already in the oven, so we decided to wait ( we were starving, I hadn't had lunch) figuring we could eat fast & take leftovers with us. He was there while we quickly decided & he asked if we wanted it in a box so we could eat some there and take the rest with us. Good idea. Lets do that. How long for a pizza to cook in a restaurant pizza oven? (One that was supposedly already in the oven when we were told) Apparently at least ANOTHER 40 MINUTES. During those 40 min, one of my friends went inside to find the waiter again & asked for 'to go' cups for the cokes & the check, as we clearly were not going to have time to eat anything there. For those of you counting, its now been an HOUR AND 10 min for me, TWO HOURS for my friends! No bill, no disposable cups, NO PIZZA! We had gotten up, left some cash for the drinks & were ready to walk out when a busboy showed up with our pizza. NO BOX. Our waiter was right behind with the bill &cup lids. He sent the busboy to box the pizza & gave us the lids apologizing, 'we're out of paper cups, here's lids, you can just take the regular Plastic glasses," Since we really WERE hungry, & were already running behind, I told my friends I'd put the pizza on my card & we'd figure it out later - so the waiter took my card to the register inside. The busboy brought the boxed pizza, but no waiter with my card. So I told my friends to take the pizza & drinks & get the car, I'd go get my card & meet them out front. Our table was right by the side door to the restaurant, so I went in that door & across the dining room to the register. No waiter & the girl at the register had no clue about our bill or my card! A blonde woman runs in the front door with the bill in hand, "Sorry, I went around the front with your bill, then saw you go in the back, " Nice friendly smile, " so did you enjoy your meal?" Boy, did SHE get an earful from me! She seemed genuinely concerned I wasn't happy. She made some mention of fixing things, but as I signed the receipt I repeated that we'd already waited over 2 hours & were late. She wanted my name / address/ phone , so I wrote it down & left. But that's not the end. When I got in my friends car out front, they were fuming, because as I went thru the restaurant to the register, they went out the patio gate to Green street with the pizza & drinks, & another waiter confronted them & ACCUSED THEM OF STEALING THE RESTAURANTS GLASSES! Yes, those cheap plastic Pepsi glasses that our waiter brought us lids for & TOLD us to take! Luckily the busboy stepped in & let my friends go, or that waiter would have had 3 sodas dumped over his head! The pizza was average at best & cold. That was early July. It's mid September & I have not heard from them; no apology, no coupons, no refund. I'm KEEPING their stupid...

I’ll start off with saying that I was super excited to bring my significant other to this Resturant as he was visiting town from a different state. Buddyz was symbolic to my family and me as we frequented this establishment for celebratory moments with my children sports as they grew up in McHenry.

I had not been to Buddyz since the massive resturant development on Green St and truthfully, I was so proud of their comeback and couldn’t wait to taste the breakfast menu.

What I was met with utter disappointment and heartbreak as I felt the level of disrespect and horrific service towards us. I hate to throw the race card in this review as I personally am a business owner myself and I understand how crucial these accusations are towards a establishment, but the reality is that unfortunately that was our experience.

We sat at the bar awaiting for someone to acknowledge us… granted, they were extremely busy and I extended grace but it took 15 minutes before the bartender made her way to us all whilst other patrons walked in after and were attended first. I let it slide. We placed our drink order (2 bloody Marys) and again another couple walked in and sat next to us and their order was taken right away. Not only did the bartender make their drink BEFORE mine, she poured Tito’s first and then the mix all while I sat there and reminded her that I had put a drink order in and was still waiting for it. She made my drink and only poured the premix while she made her way to another party that she clearly knew and made the Bloody Mary with the Tito pour… I sat through that and stayed quiet.

It took another 20 minutes before I had to flag her down yet again to put my food order in… the 2 parties who sat after us had already their food and 15 minutes later still no food.

We sat at the bar for nearly an hour before we decided to finally cancel our order. I wish I could justify this behavior because she was super busy but the reality was that she was extremely engaged with everyone else and the three short interactions she had was apparent that we were not welcomed in her presence.

My partner and I are interracial (I’m Hispanic and he is African American) and the discomfort from serving us was clear as day. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never experienced anything like this and what adds insult to injury was that once we made it clear that this behavior was unacceptable - she didn’t even have the decency to look at us or simply correct the situation.

Our concerns were brought up to the manager on shift and he did offer to give us a gift card as an apology however we declined it. It is in my opinion that loyalty cannot be bought and this type of behavior should always be held accountable.

So I say all of that to say this… Buddyz, although once upon a time your establishment was seen as a place of celebration for my family, I will NEVER step foot in your establishment again. You should be ashamed of yourselves with the level of unprofessional and disrespectful behavior you have allowed your team to display.

I hope that no one and I mean, people of color, ever experience what we had to that day because management actually rectified the...

Buddy you let us down. Around 12:15 noon my sister and I came hungry for the famously good pizza and salad bar. Seated right away without a menu. We waited. Only four other tables and only one eating food, the others finished. We waited for the menus for a number of minutes , and had been told by another server that our server would be with us. That’s fine. A few minutes passed and we got our menus finally. No server yet. . . He finally stopped by to say “I’ll be with you in a minute”. No offer to take a drink order. So we check the menu out. We are still thinking things will get better. Never had bad service here before. But we kept waiting for anyone to acknowledge we were there while our waiter conversed with the eating table, and proceeded to compute three other checks at a computer stand, go to bar and get something, talk to a few people, before heading to our table. Oops he thought of something else on the way to us. But wait-he headed our way, turned around and went to the hostess stand for something, conversed, started toward us, turned around again, talked to his mates and headed into the kitchen. Mind you these other two employees had seated us and handed us the menus. They all knew we were there! They hung out at the front hostess stand. Alas, we may not be young and pretty, but we always tip at least 20% and really enjoy going to new lunch places. We don’t hassle servers. We used to do the same job! If it’s truly busy we don’t mind waiting. But we were ignored for some reason. It was really weird. Walked out. Went down the street to the Green Pea Pod and had fabulous service and fabulous...