CoreLife Eatery — Restaurant in Normal

Just visited this place Sunday September 30 for dinner. They had a promotion going buy one Korean Bowl, get one free that we noticed through email advertising since wife had signed up for this on a previous visit she had made to the restaurant. I took my wife and daughter there and we both ordered Korean bowls, and a kids bowl for my daughter thinking that one of the Korean bowls would be free. Not the case. They gave us the kids meal free instead of the second bowl. I asked the staff about it, and cashier first said she made a mistake. Then she got her supervisor, and she said that it is correct how she rang it in. For this being a new restaurant, you would think that they would be overwhelming guests like myself.... Totally not the case. The supervisor was very rude and unapologetic.... If they maintain customer service like this, this chain will not last long in Bloomington/Normal (AKA restaurant capital of the midwest).

Now for the restaurant itself. It is beautiful. They did a wonderful job on this new construction, and the dining room was very clean.

Now for the Food. Food was served Subway style on a long line, with sneeze shield between you and the food. It was way overpriced ($10.95 for a Korean bowl?) For my wife, kid and myself to eat here with a buy one get one free, it was still a $29.00 tab. Was not impressed, my overeasy egg was over cooked, and the Korean BBQ tasted like mush. (Did like the purple rice).

I probably would have been more lenient on this review if the customer service would have just been a little nicer. You could look past so many flaws, if you are just nice to your consumer, and make things right. This coming from a family that eats our 2-4 times a week, and will not be returning to...

I am the most obnoxiously difficult person to feed because of dietary sensitivities that sound like I'm making them up--like, who has problems digesting rice? Or carrots?! Fortunately, I grow most of my own food and breakfast and dinner are reliable, easy meals because they come from my garden. Lunch is another story entirely.

I work for a firm that is routinely busy during the noon hour and I feel more comfortable sticking around whenever possible to ensure the transition from morning to afternoon client meetings is as smooth as possible...and someone is around to sign for packages. This means I either have to plan to pack a lunch (doable, but also very easy to forget while running around in a totally different part of the building) or order delivery. There are not a lot of healthy delivery options that cater to someone who's digestive tract gives nearly everything that isn't a pepper or vinegar the middle finger. There are fewer places with staff that actually pay attention to an order with lots of specific ingredient substitutions.

CoreLife makes my exact same bowl of spicy acid salad precisely the way I like, nearly every day, ACCURATELY, and has a rewards programme that lets me schedule my order at 2:00 AM three days beforehand if I know that Thursday is going to be particularly batcrap. I set it and forget it and can cancel if something changes and I have to work remotely or from one of our other offices across the state. I CANNOT EMPHASISE ENOUGH HOW CONVENIENT AND STRESS-FREE THIS PLACE HAS MADE THE CONCEPT OF LUNCH. Please do yourself a favour and place an order. Even if your intestines are unicorn-level problematic, you will find something you love, prepared with love, using the consistently freshest, healthiest...

We have been ordering from this place off and on since they opened, however we have had several negative experiences. Usually, our order is made incorrectly. So we’ll stop ordering from there for awhile and then try again… unfortunately, we did the same thing this evening except instead of ordering online, I went inside to place my order.

The customer service was SO BAD. It wasn’t bad because I was difficult, it was bad because 2/3 of the girls working behind the counter were RUDE and bitter at every exchange. It was as if they didn’t even want to be there or do their job. There were literally 2 people at a table inside at 6:40 PM ish, and it was as if I was bothering them. I asked for the steak to be “well done” and got it raw, then nicely asked the girl if she could please cook it fully. After a death stare, she proceeded to throw it on the grill and then back on the salad without fully cooking or even checking to see if it was to satisfaction. She just walked away. A different girl who had been on the grill prior then hopped on the register and also treated me inconsiderately. I am 9 months pregnant and had my very well behaved 5 & 10 year old daughters (who didn’t make a peep while we were there) with me who asked as soon as we got outside why the workers were so rude. We left quietly and will not be spending $50 dollars on salads for our family anymore for the kind of carelessness that goes into the preparation. Our business and hard earned money will...