Coa — Restaurant in Oak Brook

My experience at COA (inside the Drake Hotel Oak Brook) was outrageous and downright degrading. I have never been treated with such blatant disrespect and contempt at any restaurant… especially one claiming to be “upscale.” After spending over $100 dining and tipping 20%, I ordered two tacos to-go for lunch the next day. What I got was insulting…barely any meat, toppings missing, clearly slapped together with no care. When I tried to return them, I expected professionalism. Instead, I was met with hostility and rudeness that made it clear: this place punishes customers who dare to speak up. Manager Graciela Arias admitted the taco was poorly made but dismissed it like it was no big deal. Then staff member Samantha escalated things by treating me like I was a threat, ordering me to “back up” while I calmly showed them the food. She accused me of “invading her space” and called me “entitled”.. just because I raised an issue about the poor food quality and I expected edible food. I remained calm, respectful, and polite, but they treated me like I didn’t belong there. At that point, I was scared to eat the food based on how I was being treated and I asked for a refund or gift card just to resolve things quietly. They refused, told me to “just take the tacos,” and made it clear they wanted me gone. I left shaken and upset, threw away the food and my money, and called General Manager Gary Goralski immediately after. I left a message and waited days and still no call back, no apology, no accountability. Let’s be clear: this wasn’t about tacos. This was about stereotyping, belittling, and trying to intimidate a paying customer. The staff was hostile, management was indifferent, and the atmosphere was toxic. No one should be treated this way. I urge everyone: avoid COA Oak Brook at all costs. Speak up, report places like this, and demand better treatment. I will never return and no one else should have to go through what I did….there are too many restaurant options where people are treated with respect...

I’m writing to share feedback regarding a recent experience I had at COA last night on 1/7/25. Unfortunately, my experience was far below the standards I expected, and I felt it was important to bring this to your attention.

Our reservation was at 7 pm and we promptly arrived and were seated right away. I should let you know that I had come to coa a few weeks before and really enjoyed the food and experience so I wanted to bring my husband for his birthday.

The issue that occurred in the evening was there were tiny bits of chorizo in the seafood paella that was ordered. We DO NOT eat meat for religious reasons so accidently eating that was a HUGE deal for us.

Now this is where my anger comes from and the purpose of this email: Since I had been there, I knew exactly what to order so when placing the order, I hastily ordered the queso’s fondue which had chorizo in it. When the dish came out, I was very apologetic and asked if he could be remade without the meat in it. They were kind enough to remake it( to my face) but I truly feel that I must Have either upset my waiter or kitchen staff because the chorizo and amount that was placed in the seafood dish was very much in disguise. If we didn’t pay attention, we wouldn’t have known at all since the texture of chorizo and color was very similar to all the seafood in that dish. IT WAS VERY CALCULATING and did not feel like a mistake at all. There also could have been a racist / tactical factor that went into this. It was an extremely distraught and horrible experience to have felt like this happened on purpose.

I understand that occasional mistakes happen, but the combination of these issues made my visit quite frustrating and disappointing. My husband was here to celebrate his birthday and it was completely ruined by the incompetence of your staff. As someone who has enjoyed dining at your establishment in the past, I was hoping for a much better experience and...

For what you pay, the food is not that great. I'm not sure if they had an off night or what but most of the dishes were pretty bland with the exception of the tomato dishes( I'll get to their faults in a second). We ordered gambas al ajillo and they were cooked well temperature wise but we couldn't help but think that the dish was just seared unseasoned shrimp dunked in chopped garlic and oil. As one of our entrees, we had the salmon and while it was cooked adequately and tasted fresh, we couldn't help but feel that we literally could have gotten this dish anywhere else. The rice that came with it was good, had some nice subtle flavors, but you cannot build your menu on the merits of side dishes alone. This brings me to the two worst dishes we had tonight, the queso de cabra and the chile relleno. Both dishes used a tomato sauce that I can at best describe as salty Campbell's tomato soup and the flavor overpowered the other flavors of the dishes. Not sure if that was the chef's intention and I'm just not getting it but to me the sauce tasted like canned tomato sauce. I can understand as a chef needing to cut some corners to make your dishes. I know some Italian restaurants do that but they usually use higher quality canned ingredients. If they did not use canned sauce then they need to figure out what ever is going on because it was not a good sauce. I could have attributed that bad taste in the queso de cabra dish as the sourness of the cheese but they used the same sauce on the Chile Relleno dish and it was the same disappointment. Whenever we go to tapas places, we order the queso de cabra and they usually prepare it the same way, Goat Cheese with the restaurant's tomato sauce. This is the worst one we have had. Don't even get me started also in how much of a soggy, sloppy, oily mess the Chile Relleno was. The vegetable and rice side dishes were good but overall not worth the price...