Sullivan's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Naperville

I would start by saying me and my family had the absolute worst experience here. First of all, I would like to think the world has evolved past racial discrimination but this place definitely reminded us that it hasn’t as much as we think. On walking into the restaurant, the hostess at the was very lovely, welcomed us and took us to our table. Later on our waitress came to take our order. I had ordered a cocktail and had asked my sisters to order the same drink to try it while she was there. The waitress asked me for my ID which I was shocked about but I didn’t have it so she said she wouldn’t serve me. Moved past that and ordered a juice. She then went ahead and took other peoples orders at the table, ID’d some of us but didn’t ID some others at the other end of the table, but then circled back around later to ID people that were OBVIOUSLY IN THEIR 40s and 50s. lol. Only to notice “some other tables” were not being ID’d but wines were being served shortly after they sat. Two of My sisters ordered the same drink as well but one had asked for hers to come later. When the drinks were served one of them didn’t like hers so she gave it to my other sister so she wouldn’t have to order the same thing again. The waitress had come back to our table to bring more drinks and I’m guessing from seeing the drink in between myself and my sister assumed I was drinking it. She didn’t ask us anything about it or say anything but gave nothing but fake smiles. A little later this man walks up to our table, I’m assuming the manager and straight up asks only me for my ID. I was very confused so I said I didn’t have it. Then he goes to say I can’t be drinking because I am underaged. I was so shocked, I’m a 29 YEAR OLD WOMAN!!!! Which I stated and offered to show him a picture of my ID. I proceed to say well I wasn’t drinking. My sisters and I all had a sip of each others drink as people do. And he says, “Well you can't do that and grabs” the one drink my sister had and walked away. Again I say, I had sipped their drinks but only that one drink was taken from the table. I want you to know, that the drink was very much full and when the check came, they charged us for it.

This experience was only one of the MANY THINGS that happened that evening. Our waitress spilled a drink on our table which poured on our mums. And when our server had come to take our orders, he didn’t greet anyone, literally walked up and said “what do you want to order” we were confused, the first person placed her order and he moved to the next person, she said she needed a little more time and he rolled his eyes, walked away and didn’t come back till about 15 minutes after. Mind you, there are like 8 people on the table. But he just left. Everytime he walked past our table he had an expression of disgust and would roll his eyes EVERYTIME!!!! And this was all before the above experience with the waitress and the manager. For the waitress, I really hope you got employee of the month for that taunt you pulled. There’s a reason I’m able to dine a so called “high end restaurant” like this. BUT I’m just gonna say, if you’re a person of any sort of color, please don’t expect to be treated as anything better than your skin tone. Absolutely disgusting. There are too many reviews on here about the discrimination here, I guess we should’ve done our research...

I really don't want to be that guy. We live in an age of unprecedented tolerance, an age where the racial animosities of a bygone area, while not forgotten, have fallen away from the minds of most. So progressive are we that when I patronize a business with thoroughly unsatisfying customer service, I typically look to any factor but race as a possible explanation. Poor management. Overworked staff. Insufficient training. Anything but old fashioned racism.

Alas, there are times when the evidence is simply too overwhelming to ignore, and the culprit can only be race. In those instances, I have no choice but to be the guy who lays the charge of racism at a business' feet.

I came to Sullivan's tonight with a party of 6 (including me), 3 Black men and 3 Black women. We were seated in a bustling space with approximately 7 or 8 other tables. Other couples. Families. Friend groups. We had a real cross section of folks around us. It's worth mentioning, in light of the night's events, that none of the other patrons in our area were Black.

Our waiter was a very polite young man who did not neglect the rudiments of quality customer service: he smiled with a very affable demeanor, was willing to assist my party in selecting our meals, and was fairly accomplished at building strong rapport with us. You would think based on those qualities that our dining experience would have been a stellar one. It was not.

The word of the day as far as my complaints are concerned is DELAY. You see, our waiter, superficially nice guy though he may be, was incredibly inattentive to and slow to respond for our table. We placed our orders, and it took a full 20-25 minutes before we received our drinks and complimentary bread. The appetizers took about an hour to come out, and the entrees took yet another hour and some change to reach us. Dessert was served piecemeal. First we received forks. Then, a half hour later, we received our slices of cheesecake and Key Lime pie. From start to finish, we spent a total of 3 hours in the restaurant with only about 45 minutes of that time spent eating and enjoying our meals. This alone is abysmal and would discourage any reasonable man from ever patronizing this establishment again.

But we must not forget the racial component. Literally every other [non-Black] table in the area received their food and drink within reasonable spans of time. No more than 10-20 minutes elapsed before an order was fulfilled and hot plates of delicious food were served to eager guests. There were even patrons who came in AFTER us but who ate and left BEFORE us. I'd never witnessed service so blatantly lopsided.

I won’t bother going into detail about our waiter’s blunder in putting the wrong changes on the wrong divided bills or double charging some of us. This was my first and unfortunately my last time...

I've been hearing great things about this restaurant for sometime now. Everyone raves about how amazing their steaks are & the restaurant proudly displays their awards from Napervilles Best Steak for multiple years in a row.

We came here this past Saturday to celebrate my birthday. I need to note that Ms. Madisyn is a wonderful waitress. Very personable, honest & great at her job. I was pleased to have a waitress like her for my first experience, she truly made it that much better.

We started off with their Beef Wellington bites which were amazing. Great flavor, not insanely crunchy & that sauce took you to flavor town. After we finished our app, we waited about 20 minutes for our French Onion soup & our salad. The wait time was perfect because it allowed you to digest your food so you can finish your second course.

Baked French onion is my all time favorite soup. I wasn't too sold on this one. They won me over though with the amount of cheese that's added but the broth was very light for this type of soup. Not much flavor but again, that cheese was thick & melted perfectly. The salad was okay, the dressing was a balsamic but a very light balsamic. Wasn't over powering at all. Not much flavor with the salad, bland tasting. I recommend maybe adding cranberries to it to give it some citrus or flavor.

Lastly, we ordered a Tomahawk. This tomahawk is why I am only giving a 4 star review. It was cut perfectly, cooked to desire but the size was way too small for a tomahawk. I hate to compare restaurant in reviews but, Entourage, another Naperville hotspot, their tomahawk is big enough to feed 3+ people. This tomahawk could have easily fed one of us. We got the tomahawk because typically it will feed two people. But this, I was shocked for being a raved steakhouse that it was this small. It was the same size as a standard ribeye. Very disappointed for $98.00 this was what we got.

We paired the tomahawk but the suggested Garlic mashed potatoes per reviews. It paired wonderfully. We also got a side of the beef Wellington bites sauce for the steak & that combo I highly recommend.

We ended our meal with a birthday Banana Foster pudding. It was decent, nothing too memorable, though. I'd say the highlight of this meal was our appetizer & our service.

At the end of our meal, Ms. Madisyn took our photo & printed it out in a frame for us to take home. That right there is a great marketing move. I will forever remember this experience solely on that. I've never been to a restaurant that does extra touches like that to make you feel special.

I will be back someday, but definitely sticking to their $49.00 deal I saw on their menu or just ordering appetizers. Their tomahawk is not worth the price for what you get. There is...