Uncle Julio's Old Orchard — Restaurant in Niles Township

I had the WORST experience at this location today of all days, on my birthday. My family and I were practically thrown out of the restaurant by the kitchen manager, Michael. He would not give us his last name and kept saying he is the restaurant manager. He didn't sound like a restaurant manager nor dress like one [bald, Caucasian man in a white shirt, black apron]. But he was EXTREMELY RUDE and totally DISRESPECTFUL to me as the birthday person but also to my family!!!

For a family of 4 ladies and one gentlemen, this is how a restaurant manager is to treat customers at their restaurant??!!!

I had a reservation at 8pm and was not informed that their kitchen closes in an hour or that they need to close restaurant at 9:15pm when being seated at the table or when I had to change my reservation from the original time of 7:30pm to 8:00pm. Our server, Alex seated us and had some decency to be polite and let us know, when he was leaving the bill at out table since they were closing soon and that we can finish our meal while they cleaned up. There was only 2 other parties eating when my family came at 8pm. However, MICHAEL kept hounding us to leave when we are still eating our food. We had to ask our server, Alex if he could talk to Michael to let us finish our meal and dessert and then we will be on our merry way. Alex did say he will talk to MICHAEL about it.

The restaurant hours posted online had no mention of you closing early. Nor, did you servers mention this when we called to change our reservation time or when we were seated at our table.

I have to say this is the WORST experience and WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I ever received @ UNCLE JULIO'S STAFF.

I worked in restaurant business and this is not how you treat a customer!!!! Like how do you work in restaurant and call yourself a restaurant manager but you're rude, racist and disrespectful!!!! The food was cold, and overcooked. We couldn't get a replacement of a meal because the kitchen closed. My mother left hungry because it was too late for her to put an entree order in again. None of your staff informed us prior to coming in at 8pm or when we seated the kitchen closes at 9pm and 15 minutes later, Michael decides to walk up to our table and say, "you have to leave in 15 minutes". If that was the case, then why did you seat us at 8pm. Michael, the so called restaurant manager said, it was not me who allowed that to happen. Plus, he goes on to say, "I gave you an 1 hour and 15 to eat a meal". No sir, you didn't,.you gave us 15-20 minutes to eat and then told us to get out!!!

Why did none of your wait staff at the front who were chatting tell me or my family that you're going to close at 9:15pm so they can't seat us at the table??? We would have gladly taken our service to CHEESECAKE FACTORY. We asked our server, Alex, "if it's quite okay for us to finish swallowing our food before you kick us out of here?" He was like yeah for sure, take your time. Let me talk to my manager, MICHAEL.

No apology was ever given or service recovery to accommodate us in any way. We were told by Michael that we had to leave because it's a security issue!!! It's not like my family and I were not going to pay and leave but can we at least have a few minutes to eat our meal and birthday pinata for my birthday celebration.

No other restaurant has shooed me into leaving when they're closing. I had to pack the pinata and had to stuff the churros and fruit and chocolate into a to go box because Michael wanted us to leave immediately!!! So rude!!! Totally unacceptable!! I have NEVER in my life been treated like this for a birthday celebration (we spent $200 in food, the least you could have let us finish our meal in peace and joy) in Uncle Julio's at Orchard Place Skokie. On our way out, as we are putting on our jackets and coats, one could see that we are trying to leave but again MICHAEL comes back again and ask "Are you guys leaving yet?" SERIOUSLY!!! You can't see that we're trying to gather our stuff and leave? So you have to come and ask that question....

A friend suggested this place for her birthday. It surpassed my expectations. First the ambience looks much cozier in person - I think they’ve updated their chairs since some of the other reviews were written. We were initially seated at a 4 top table, squeezed between other tables, with a large group consisting of multiple infants behind us. I spotted a 2 top booth and asked the host if we could possibly move there. She and our server were very accommodating and we were much happier in the booth.

I asked our server how the skinny margarita compared with the regular and she liked the skinny much better so ordered one and my friend ordered the swirl. Both were good. I’m more of a beer person so I can’t really comment to compare the margarita. It tasted a bit sour to me and not too strong. Perhaps because it was the skinny? But tasted fresh. Overall good.

The free chips on the table are nothing to rave about. Thin but not greasy. Perfectly fine. Two types of salsa. One quite mild with a lovely flavor that I think I could drink. The other smoky and a small bit of heat but barely spicy. That worked for me since I don’t need spice.

I try to eat primarily plant based and fish so had planned to order salmon or black bean tacos but I smelled fajitas being brought to another table. I again asked our server her opinion of the chicken fajitas vs salmon and she personally loved the fajitas so I ordered them and was very glad I did. The chicken usually comes with a “Mexican butter” brushed on top but I asked for it on the side. It had white wine and garlic in it so it was less rich and yet more flavorful than I’d expected. Delicious! The chicken was already surprisingly moist but the butter kicked that into decadent. Excellent flavor and perfectly cooked. Came steaming hot with onions, green and red bell peppers. Nothing spicy. It came with tortillas (I chose flour), sour cream, cheese (seemed a blend of grated cheeses), mild guac. All delicious. I didn’t think I was hungry since we met early, but I cleaned my plate anyway since it was delicious.

They brought a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream with a lit candle for my friend’s birthday which was really sweet. I love vanilla and thought it was good quality ice cream. We also ordered the churros. I disagree with a review on Yelp that they’re better than the churros place in glenview. At least our batch was quite greasy and heavily coated in cinnamon sugar. Perhaps for some that’s perfect. Too greasy and sweet for me, although my friend seemed to really like them. Churros came with chocolate sauce and caramel which were both good.

I’d forgotten to bring a to go container so asked the server for something so we could take home the chips. She instead brought us a large bag of fresh tortilla chips and containers of guac and salsa. Maybe because we’d had a good time chatting with her. Maybe because it was my friend’s 65th birthday. Maybe because it was end of the night and they needed to get rid of food. Whatever the reason, it really touched us.

I highly recommend uncle Julio’s, at least at the old orchard Skokie location. If you go, ask for Josephine to be your server. She’s...

This evening, my 8-year old son chose to eat at Uncle Julio's for dinner at Old Orchard Mall in Skokie, Illinois. We were looking forward to a nice dinner after a long day. When we got there, half the tables were empty, but there was a 15-minute wait. We ordered our food. An appetizer, kids meal and two entrees. The food took forever to come to the table. We had eaten through two baskets of chips and no sign of the cheese dip I ordered as an appetizer. Alas our food arrived and my taco dish was freezing cold. The runner said she could take it back to be heated. I told her thank you and oh yeah, by the way, I ordered cheese dip too.

As she walked away with my food, she turned around and looked at my strangely. I kept watching as she made her way to the open kitchen and watched as she put the food down and spoke with another runner. They laughed about something. He turned around and sneezed on my entree and they laughed as they handed the tray to someone on the other side of the counter - I'm assuming to reheat the food. When I complained to my waitress, she said she will make sure that I would get a fresh plate. After thinking about it, I absolutely did NOT want anything from this kitchen. Those kids intentionally sneezed in my food. Who knows what else they have done in the kitchen. It is disgusting what they did. It is unhealthy and should be considered illegal. I think it is actually. BUT regardless, the floor manager came over and asked who it was. I pointed them out. He didn't call the kids over, they continued to work. The manager simply said he could get the general manager and that he doesn't know what to do as he has never dealt with a situation like this before since it never happens in this restaurant. My husband said he would speak with the general manager. We continued to watch the runners run up other peoples food and wanted to tell them to stop eating!! Do you know what these kids have done to your food!!

After waiting another 10 minutes for the general manager, he could only offer to comp our meal, and ask for us to come back. What makes him think I will come back, especially since he is doing nothing to stop these kids from continuing to run up other peoples food and they continue to work in the kitchen?!?!? It's disgusting. Absolutely revolting. This behavior seemed to be acceptable to the managers. The floor manager was at the host station as we left and he was talking and laughing with other staff members as the runners continued to work. He should have been in the back writing up those employees and firing them. This is, obviously, acceptable behavior to both the floor manager and the general manager. This is stuff you see on Youtube. I can't believe this happened at Uncle Julio's in my town, where I eat with my children, my family and their children, my friends and their families.

Do better and train your staff to do better. The managers should know better what to do in these...