Pinstripes — Restaurant in Northfield Township

I don't know who went to Easter Brunch at Pinstripes in Northbrook this year. (2025) We were a party of 41 and made our reservations 6 weeks in advance for a 1-3pm seating. We were also celebrating a 94th birthday there. The hostess staff told us to go stand "over there" and wait until our table was ready. Our entire party was there before 1pm. We stood and waited for 30 minutes for our table to be ready. We were not seated all together as a family but at 4 separate round tables only 2 round tables would be to moved together. It went down hill from there. When we were seated they brought a carafe of water and served us water. They left 1 carafe on the table for 11 people. We went to get in line and there were small amounts of salad but no dressing to put on it. There would have been lots of variety of food buy most were empty. The bacon was sitting in grease at least 1/4 inch of grease. Same with the sausages. What food was there was minimal. We went to our table and a waiter asked if we wanted something other than water. We ordered coffee and mimosas for the table. We finished our food and went to the food line again. To say it was packed was an under estimate. I got in line for waffles and fresh fruit. No fresh fruit, just yougert, bagels, croissants, salmon, and shrimp. No waffles! The man making them was only making two mini bagels at a time. When I got to the waffle area he had no waffles and said it would be a 10 minute wait for more. Ten minutes for a waffle! They had a make your own omelet bar, and carving station. Also a butcher station for roast beef and ham. They ran out of ham! The prime rib was raw in the middle, literally raw! The desert table has a chocolate fountain and various fruits and other other things. They has no sticks to use at the fountain table I asked the server for additional sticks, he left and never returned. We used tongs to put chocolate on our items. We return to our tables and after we returned still no drinks. It was 45 minutes later that we got our drinks. By now it's 2:30. This was all the fault of poor management! Not enough servers, not enough kitchen staff, no one to bring food to the buffet line. 100% will never ever go back nor will I recommend it to everyone. I don't even want the comment of it was Easter. Yes it was Easter, that was the point of us going out. It was management's job to make sure they had enough staff, food, waiters, everything! Did we talk to management? Yes, their response at that exact time was, "Well, you know it is Easter and we're very busy." BTW it was 45.00 per person plus tax and 20% gratuity which was over 50.00 per person. The management needs their ass handed to them and you need...

If I could give this place zero stars, I would. From start to finish, this was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had.

We arrived 15 minutes early for our scheduled bowling time, only to be told to wait. Fine, we were patient. But then 10 minutes past our scheduled time, we were finally told where to go—without a single bit of instruction on how to set up the lanes or anything else. They mentioned a waiter would come by, but it took 20 minutes for anyone to show up. And once the waiter arrived, he was almost never available. The screens at the lanes were flashy but super confusing to use, and there was no help in sight.

The bathrooms? Absolutely disgusting. I wouldn’t send my worst enemy in there. It’s clear they haven’t been cleaned properly in who knows how long.

Then it was time for us to head to the restaurant, which only made things worse. The waiter ignored us repeatedly, even though it was obvious we needed assistance. Worst service EVER. Once seated, we waited over 30 minutes for food, and when it finally arrived, no proper utensils were given. Water? Forget it. I had to physically go to the water station where the waiters were supposed to be getting water and grab it myself—three times.

We noticed other tables who arrived after us got their food long before we did. When our food finally came, we asked them to slice a cake we’d brought, and instead, they brought it to us whole and never refrigerated it, despite our specific request. The waitress was completely MIA the entire time. We had to hunt her down multiple times, and eventually, we gave up. We ended up getting our own silverware, water, and anything else we needed.

The staff situation is baffling. There were so many people working—especially at the front desk—but none of them seemed willing to actually help. Even during bowling, there were no waiters around, despite four employees standing around at the desk.

To top it all off, multiple times during dinner, staff tried to clear our plates while we were still eating. I literally had to stop them and say, “My food isn’t finished yet.” But when plates were empty, they sat on the table for another 30 minutes before anyone bothered to clean them up.

I provided dietary restriction information ahead of time, and even that was eventually ignored.

This place has so much potential, but it’s clear they either don’t know how to train their staff, or they have no idea how to manage or staff the place properly. It was just a hot mess from beginning to end. I’d much rather go to a traditional bowling alley and then head somewhere decent for dinner. Avoid this place unless you want frustration, bad service, and a complete waste of...

You guys did a good job this time so I'm giving you one extra star. You have no appetizers for vegans still, You have no dinner for vegans still. Either change your menu a little bit or put a sign on your door that says no vegans allowed. If I would have saw a little bit of effort from you on your menu, this could have easily been a 5 star review. I will be back and hopefully I can give a better review than 2 stars. The website wants to pretend like they cater to vegans but when you get there it says nothing of the sort on the menu like it does online. I said I wanted a spaghetti with marinara and no Dairy as I was pointing at the vegan menu online on my phone. They bring me a spaghetti and meatball and I told them I said nothing about meatballs. When they did give me my spaghetti correctly it was smaller than the size of a fist, so not only do they not cater to vegans They Don't Really feed them either. Also the persons hot wing next to me looked a little bit too Pink but what do I know about dead chickens. it was a good time but you can't make dietary mistakes and still have my respect. I believe a vegan menu at the restaurant would have saved the lives of animals. You guys did a lot better on the food and your website has a vegan menu now. If somebody says no meatballs, please give them an extra spaghetti. It's only fair because vegans are still being charged for meatballs. Also make your in restaurant menu more easy for vegans to navigate. For example, I don't know if your pretzel bun has egg or dairy in it or if your pesto has dairy in it. I had to get the family size spaghetti because I knew if I got the individual you wouldn't have given me enough food. Once you ask for no meatballs the family size is big enough for one individual vegan. Other than that, keep up the good work I hope to give you a 5 star...