The Packing House — Restaurant in Milwaukee

Our 5 friends went to the iconic Packing House to celebrate the 2 of us who had birthdays this month. We had been there about 3 months ago and the food and the service was amazing…. Then today was totally different. 3 of us ordered the special which was described to us as beef sirloin Wellington. When we got the Wellington it was a ground up hamburger in a pastry shell very disappointing I have never had a hamburger it was alway a steak wrapped in pastry. This had no flavor and we all ate only a few bites. When we got the bill it was labeled “hamburger Wellington “ the waitress never revealed it would be a hamburger patty. The main complaint at the table was the liver and onion order. My friend ordered it medium rare! The liver came to the table and the liver was well done and burnt around the edges. My friend notified the waitress who then went to talk to the chef, she came back saying the chef did cook it correctly and called it a medium rare meat. The waitress had an attitude while explaining what the chef told her. My friend asked to send it back. When the waitress left with the liver we all wondered if the chef would sent it back RARE …. And sure enough the liver came back swimming in blood and was almost RAW my friend said oh my the chef must really be mad at her for sending the dish back, the waitress came back with a manager and seemed to double team her saying the chef did the first liver correctly stated he is been a chef here for years and there stood the two staff members “shaming “ my friend about her opinion on her liver and how it was done They took back the liver again, the chef recooked the same piece of liver over, and boasted about how the chef put in back in the oven so not to dry it out. This new plate of liver was ruined and tasteless. My friend felt intimidated and didn’t want to say anymore she didn’t eat any of the liver and told us she couldn’t even eat it she added “ I am going to pay for it but I will throw it away when she got home. It was incredible seeing the staff shaming the customer who has a right to be satisfied with what she ordered , especially at the iconic Packing house. At the end of the meal when the bill came the waitress then (because it was tip time ) became more attentive and seemed to drop the attitude 🤔 umm. I know the 5 of us will most likely not return to the packing house and will tell at least 5 other people about our very bad experiences ….. all because the Chef and waitress was not professional and blamed the customer !!!!...

We visited The Packing House with a larger party and, while the waitstaff was fantastic (truly no complaints there), the food left a lot to be desired.

Appetizers: We tried the eggplant, which some did find enjoyable, others not so much.

Soup: The French Onion soup came highly recommended. The first bite or two was promising, but after that the flavor cleared way to salt and something I could not identify. Most of our table did try to finish it, but again it was a divisive dish.

Steaks & Seafood:

One person ordered crab legs, but they came out cold. To the waitress’s credit, she immediately rushed them back to be fixed. It did take 15-20 minutes to get a new order, the person sat there without anything for a while.

Another ordered the filet mignon, which was shockingly small. The waitress kindly offered to bring a second or add another steak, but it was declined just due to having to wait for it (this should have been caught before coming out - at least I would think).

Of the four ribeye's ordered, two were requested medium rare but came out rare, and one medium well that came out very well-done.

The steak au poivre sauce was very unpleasant with a strange taste—it looked like gravy, but it just didn’t work. The person who ordered it managed to eat it but said they would never order it again and regretted it.

Sides were also a miss. The rice was served cool (borderline cold), the fries were barely warm, and the onion strings—meant as a topping—were more like a full extra side dish no one wanted. The steak sauce was basically flavorless as well. I used my ketchup to flavor up my well done steak.

Dessert: Dessert itself was tasty, but there was a hiccup with timing. One person’s order didn’t come out until everyone else was finished.

In the end, we spent over $2,000 as a group, but most of us walked away saying we would not return in the future. The service was attentive and accommodating, but the food ranged from average to below average, which was incredibly disappointing for the price point.

I should add, again, the wait staff is amazing. We were checked in on often and asked how everything was. We are not ones to complain, so most of us ate what we could and just don't plan to return.

I do encourage others to try, perhaps we were there at a bad time or our party was too large to accommodate and they...

I will start by acknowledging that it was New Year’s Day and this might not be typical of the food/service at the restaurant because if it is always this bad I do not understand why it is still in business. I was with a party of 9 celebrating my aunt's birthday, 5 out of the 9 of us are from Racine and based on the good reviews we decided to check this place out. Unfortunately, our experience was terrible. 3 of us tried the lobster mac n' cheese which this place should be ashamed that they let get to our table. It is by far the worst thing I have ever been served at a restaurant. It had 3 pieces of overcooked lobster in noodles that were watery and under cooked beneath burnt noodles and breadcrumbs on top, with no cheese sauce. The waitress did not question why we wanted to send it back and made a face when we showed her the food. She offered to bring something else out, but after how inedible the first attempt was, I was hesitant to reorder. We decided upon the fish fry it was crispy, but lacked flavor and wasn't seasoned at all. Our party also sent back a filet ordered medium rare that was overcooked, the waitress asked if we could cut it down the middle and then acknowledged it was definitely overcooked and offered to bring a new one. At the end of our disastrous meal we just wanted to pay and leave. The waitress brought us the check and because we were a party of 9 they automatically added gratuity and calculated it for our meal plus all returned items. The waitress said it was a mistake and went to talk to someone about getting us a new bill, she returned with the same bill again said it was incorrect left and came back with an IDENTICAL bill. 3 times she brought us the same bill and kept admitting it was wrong. I finally manually added all the correct items on our bill and calculated the correct 18% gratuity and the waitress hand wrote it on the bill and we paid. It took over 20 minutes just to get a correct bill after already waiting for half our party to receive edible meals. Not once did a manager come to our table to apologize for the terrible food or the inability to get us an accurate check. As I mentioned more than half of our family lives in Racine and this could have been an option for family gatherings in the future, but after this abysmal meal, none of us will...