J. Alexander's Restaurant — Restaurant in Oak Brook

Given that J Alexander’s isn’t a Michelin star restaurant the food once had great quality until my visit on Nov 20,2022. My fiancé and I were out dining and still celebrating our anniversary. Upon arrival we we’re seated right away. We order calamari, roasted chicken, fish of the day & an old fashioned totaling $92.45. The calamari was great freshly prepared with a nice portion size, the old fashioned was good and so was the preparation of the fish of the day. Yet my chicken was cold after digging into it, compared to the sizzling fish on his plate. A manager was walking by and stopped to ask and I informed her. She apologized and removed the plate taking it to the counter and passing it back into the kitchen. Food service 101 NEVER accept food back over the counter to correct….. the dish or item must be made fresh. They warmed the chicken up via microwave and added a fresh serving of mashed potatoes to a clean plate. Given this world we live in and how we all have gone through COVID and everything else why did the manager think this was ok? All the while seeing this from our table, which was right at the front of the dining room looking into the kitchen and my fiancé saw it all. My plate was return by the manager standing at the window; by sliding it on the table from the corner and saying enjoy before walking away. Never once properly approaching the table correctly to again apologize for the matter. In that moment I was beyond heated as this never should occur. I examined the chicken confirming that it was indeed the same piece as the initial order ( due to how how I cut into it). So I now have reheated microwaved chicken, that’s dry which I hate because it creates a rubbery texture and smell & no utensils for the next 10-15 mins after the initial tall slender management walked past at least twice with no acknowledgment. My waiter comes and notices after serving his other tables, apologies and ask if anything else is needed and I informed him that the dish had grown cold again and I no longer wanted it. He apologized and took the matter to a new manager and she instantly apologized and went to remake freshly everything. Much appreciated, right? Nope because I get my fresh plate and there was a surprise in the mash potatoes. At that point there was nothing else I wanted from their kitchen. Dessert & champagne was given for our anniversary; with the bill! The bill was never an issue to pay, as I was more concern with tipping my waiter than I was for paying for a meal I couldn’t enjoy. I believe it’s safe to say that was my absolute last time dining there, a very disappointing experience from management &...

My wife and I went to J. Alexander’s to celebrate our anniversary. It was easy to make a reservation on Resy, and we were seated immediately when we arrived. We had just spent a week traveling and we had eaten at many restaurants. This made it easy to see a difference between mediocre, good and great food and service. J. Alexander’s was clearly great this day. Our server, Luke R. was fantastic. Starting with something very simple like immediately providing us with straws for the glasses of water he poured. Throughout our meal we never had to look for him and he promptly delivered anything we asked for. We asked to wrap up our remaining spinach queso appetizer and he included a fresh bag of tortilla chips. My wife had asked for additional horseradish for her prime rib and it was delivered with the entree. When she asked to have her remaining prime rib wrapped up, he included fresh cups of au jus and horseradish. I had their pork chops that are better than the other local steakhouses for half the price, including Perry’s. I also couldn’t finish my meal and had to get the rest to go. Luke provided a cup of the glaze for the pork chops along with the container. Since we were celebrating our anniversary, we received a piece of their delicious carrot cake for dessert. Knowing we could not finish our entrees, Luke delivered the cake in a container ready for us to take home. We were amazed how he anticipated our needs and made our experience extremely enjoyable. IMO, many of these things are small details that should be expected from a server, but typically weren’t provided during our week of travel. In one dinner, Luke helped us forget about that week of mediocre service. J. Alexander’s is one of our go to places for dinner with friends or our celebrations. Their prime rib is my wife’s favorite and never disappoints. Their fish entrees are always tasty and as I mentioned earlier, their pork chops are the best. Their side dishes like orzo, green beans or asparagus complement their entrees well and it’s always a tough choice between their french fries or garlic...

WARNING: My girlfriend and I have been wanting to try this restaurant for a long time so we made a reservation for a Valentine's Day dinner back in January. When we arrived we were blown away by the atmosphere inside and all excitement was quickly shut down when we were walked to the "patio" and sat in a cold, empty, loud tent. Definitely not the setting you want if you're looking for a romantic experience. After being sat I went to the front to ask if we could wait for the next available table inside and was told it's only possible if someone else cancels their reservation. SO HOW DO THEY DETERMINE WHO SITS INSIDE OR OUTSIDE!? We made it clear we preferred to sit inside and were willing to wait for the next available indoor table. Nowhere during the reservation process did it ask if we preferred indoor or tent seating, so if that isn't an option that you choose, how do they decide which reservations get to sit inside vs in a tent?? If it's first come first serve then we should've been allowed to wait for the next open indoor table even if we made it clear we did not want to sit in a tent. This was very disappointing given the fact that we made our reservation nearly a month ahead of time and it seemed to not make any difference when asking for a favor like that.

What made it even worse was that there were 3 more couples that were sat in the tent after us as we were finishing up our meal (all who were visibly as disappointed as we were when they realized where they were about to be sat). Each of them complained to the worker/server who sat them and all of them were eventually moved inside.

I guess the point of this review is if you make a reservation and don't want to sit in the tent, call ahead of time so you're not caught off guard like we were. If you do go here and you're sat outside, they'll move you inside if you complain enough. I guess I didn't do enough complaining in person and now I'm taking it out in this review. As our first experience there, it was enough for us to not...