Gina's Teardrop Cafe — Restaurant in New Lenox

It makes me sad to write this but I will never be back here. Food is great but the owner, Gina, is something else. I unfortunately had the worst experience ever AT MY BABY SHOWER that I booked here. When booking the "private" room, I was told that I would have a 3 hour party (2pm-5pm) AND I could come in a half hour early to set up. I was also told that the food & drinks would be set up buffet-style and however many people I was going to have would be what would be served and what I would be paying for and leftovers would be able to be taken home. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN AT ALL. I booked the room for 27 people and the night before 2 of my guests informed me that they would not be making it. I called the owner first thing in the morning since I knew this may be an inconvenience (I'm not ignorant). So, knowing that, it would've been ok if she would've just said no but she proceeded to make me feel bad on the phone and say that yes, she would accommodate me this one time. Mind you, she reminded me again at the end of the party when I was paying her. Upon arrival (1:30 pm), the not-so-private room was filled with people and they only had 4 empty tables available for us at the moment. She let us know that we could start setting up and then extra tables would be available once everyone left. This resulted in my family and I still setting up at 2pm when guests started arriving. From the time we walked in the owner was yelling at the staff with so much disrespect we could not believe it. This is when I knew things were not going to go so well. She rushed my family and I the entire time. Food was put out and tasted great but.. things went weird when she took what was leftover to the back. I still had guests arrive around 3ish and by then there was no food on the "buffet table". I asked for the food to be put back out and she loudly let me know that it was by guests' fault for arriving an hour late and if we kept this up she would be serving food until 4/5 pm (not once was it mentioned that my guest HAD TO ARRIVE AT 2PM SHARP). I asked, "well, what about the food you took to the back that I am paying for??" she said "there was a tiny bit of salad and maybe 3 sandwiches left." When she not-so-willingly brought it out all she brought out was the salad. By the end of the party, 5 of my guests had not eaten nor were they offered a drink (Mind you, I asked for pitchers of drinks at each table so her staff wouldn't even have to serve. She said yes to the pitchers on the phone but that never did happen). Aside from this, my cake and other pastries that she allowed me to bring in were taken to the back and put out throughout the event. Who knows if my entire cake was served and I truly do not believe that my 2 dozen chocolate covered strawberries were put out. Gina also just made it super uncomfortable by lingering around the whole time, even my guests felt rushed. Around 4pm, she proceeded to tell my mom "you can let her know to start opening gifts cause she's only got a half hour left. She knows that right?". My sister saw that I got upset at this and went to speak with her. My sister let her know that it was our understanding that the party was from 2pm-5pm (Obviously, we would clean up and be out by 5). She told my sister that "it was made very clear that the room was booked for 3 hours" and since I had arrived the half hour early (which she told me I could) then my party was over at 4:30 PM. We let her know that if that was the case then I would just take gifts with me and what I would prefer was to finish up games. My guests were even upset for me because they saw how uncomfortable she made me the entire 3 hours. By 4:30 PM we were cleaned up and I paid for my 25 guest party and who knows what she did with the food for my 5 guests that got nothing. I then went to the restroom before leaving and on the way out (she must've not remembered I was still in there) she was dropping "F" bombs on the employees like crazy over who knows what. SHE SHOULD NOT OWN...

I had them cater my baby shower. Don't get me wrong, the food was great. Everyone enjoyed it. However, for the price of $700 for a taco and baked potato bar (which I supposedly got a deal on). You would expect to be able to keep the food that was left over. Our MAJOR issue was when we starting to clean up we were looking for the left over food for our guests to take home. To my surprise the food was gone. They had cleaned up and took ALL the left overs with them. When I called to ask where our food was, I was told oh.. "I have the food at the restaurant. There was no refrigeration there and didn't want to leave the food out for 3hrs." I was completely dumb founded and was like ok. Gina told me she threw out the beans, rice and tortillas. So, part of the food that we paid for was now in the trash without anyone asking us what we wanted to do with it. Now, mind you where we had my shower at had a kitchen with at least 4 fridges they had access too. I was completely livid that all this food that we paid for would now go to waste. We were able to pick up the remainder of the food the next day. We ended up donating it cause we didn't want to waste it. My question is... What would they have done with the food if we didn't call and ask WHERE OUR FOOD WAS?? Then come to find out, this isn't the first time that she has done this. I would NOT RECOMMEND using them for any...

I'm giving it 3 stars because they do good things for veterans and their defiance of our absolutely horrible governor. Honestly, this most recent visit, though, was quite awful food wise. We did arrive after 2pm and they close at 3, but I ordered a simple cheeseburger and it was cold. Like sat around quite awhile cold. Cheese didn't appear to have melted it the slightest. It came to the table quick. Hot or even warm? Not even remotely. Wondered if it, in fact, was someone else's that maybe they didn't pick up. The meat seemed to be the frozen patty variety and that was disappointing for a small diner. My expectation was a more "homemade" burger patty. Cream of chicken rice soup loaded with onions...never experienced that before but I dislike onions very much so I guess that's a taste thing. My gf said her Monte Cristo was good. Seasoned fries were good. Her only issue was cold coffee. The staff was super friendly. Not one issue there..We've been there before and everything was good. Just an honest review if this recent visit. Going to be difficult for me to want to come back, but I might give them...