9 Oaks Grill — Restaurant in Oak Park

1st time visitor. The host (a young woman) was pleasant & hard working- I tipped her on my carryout based on her service. The cook was completely incompetent, a blunder machine who relied on the host to explain the orders to him a min of 5x each order. My simple order...a dbl burger, no cheese take out with strong emphasis on no cheese. I received my order in a tied carry out bag.. I believed that even this cook couldn't botch an order in writing that read burger no cheese. Upon arrival to my destination, I discovered a burger layered and caked in horrendous American cheese. I took pics...text chatted with the mgr. She refused to give me a simple refund though I offered to bring the disgusting product back wholly in tact. She told me not to do so but thanked me for the photo and texted I was entitled to a meal (that didn't have to be a burger meal) to compensate for the poor 1st impression & horrible meal outcome. I agreed to that as a fair resolution. I stopped in the next day, ordered a meal and when quoted the price, I announced the comp meal I was promised, it turned out I was speaking to the person who gave the assurance, the 'manager'. Instead of living up to her word...now out comes a calculator and a furrowed brow look in trying evaluate how much she was going to attempt to charge me for this 'comp meal' she had unsolicitedly offered me. I made it clear that I didn't intend on paying an additional red cent and I went back to my original petition to just return my money for the uneaten ill prepared burger. She flatly refused pointing to a handwritten no refunds sign under the register. She then reluctantly & begrudgingly said she would honor the meal she promised in writing. Then I see whispered words with the inept cook near the back of the shop. As anyone I'm sure can relate, I certainly wouldn't have felt at ease consuming anything (not even 1 bite) from that place at that point. So I left, beaten out of my money on an obvious unforced & undisputed error by her staff. The lesson for anyone reading this is to learn what being a manager means. Namely, assessing situations and determining best practice solutions. Not reading (auto pilot style) a silly no refunds 'policy' sign taped under a register. Simple logic tells anyone that sign is (or should be) geared toward curbing patrons from eating half to 3/4's of a meal and then saying, I don't like it and I want my money back. It was not meant to arrest common sense. I received an ill prepared meal and sent photo proof and offered to bring the untouched product back for a full refund. Even Charlie Brown (without help from Linus or Snoopy) would have been able to determine the best and right thing to do in that instance. Instead, this 'manager' would have grudgingly given me a meal worth $5 - $7 more than my refund request if I had continued in that forced travesty of an agreement to let the guy who ruined my original meal have a shot at my next meal knowing that I spoke critically of him. P.S. please see the inane response to this review from this 'manager'. Notce, no apology, notce she quotes a $24 steak w/sides as if that is a jaw-dropping price 🤣 but doesn't quote it in comparison to my total original meal cost. As I stated, appox $5 -$7 difference in price which is certainly accounted for in the ruined initial meal, and the time and effort it cost me to be forced to return. Additionally, there were no stipulations put on the 'comp meal' I was offered. If I wasn't going to be allowed a single meal of my choice, then you are doing nothing for the customer. Sad thing is, this 'manager' truly doesn't get it. Pathetic is the only word that fits. She knows everything in my review critique is 100% factual! Whether something was done to the food or not on the 'retry' isn't the issue, my comfort level is. She had a chance to square a situation knowing her staff was completely wrong and she found a way to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory. Check every aspect of your carry out if giving this place a try. Last...

I have never been to this restaurant before so this is my first experience and it wasn't great. I've only recently started cautiously going back to dine in establishments since quarantine and have been mostly very happy seeing people really following the rules. Here, however, I only saw one person properly wearing their mask. All of the cooks were wearing them under their noses. One of the servers kept loudly criticizing the cooks, which felt awkward. Our table clearly hadn't been cleaned prior to its being seated because it had food and water rings where the glasses had been. No biggie. Simple oversight and I carry disinfectant wipes but still, I think we should've left when we realized that. Also, 2 oak park police officers came in and were not wearing masks and one of them got up and walked right up to the window to the kitchen, leaned on a food prep surface, just to playfully razz the cook,who was trying to do his job, about them running out of ranch. This isn't a critique about the restaurant but a complaint about the cops who not only didn't wear masks but walked around the restaurant without them for no reason. All of the safety hazards aside, the food was terrible. I've never had such bland food. It head zero flavor and bad texture. I ordered a hot turkey sandwich. The bread was a little stale. The turkey was flavorless. The gravy somehow had less flavor than the turkey and the mashed potatoes were indescribable. My husband got a omelette and said it was pretty...

Update: Decided to give them another chance and BIG MISTAKE. Calling in my order they almost always get it wrong and then blame me. It happened on a dine in gave them a break for a min. This time however, I will never return. I was double charged and refused a refund because its not showing up in their end but my end clearly showsaa double charge. 60.00 for some nasty eggs, meat and soggy toast😒 I will never return because y'all don't value customers who patronize your business for years!

I have been coming here for about 7 years. Past 8 months or so I have been ordering carryout. I am not sure what her name is, but one of the young ladies has a HORRIBLE attitude. She does not make eye contact when talking so how am I supposed you're talking to me? Then she rolls her eyes and gets an attitude, like what do I want? Obviously I am here to pick up a carryout, you see me a few times a week! The other girls are nice but she doesn't need to work with customers with that nasty attitude. I never said anything because I give people the benefit of the doubt but it happens EVERYTIME she is there. So I stopped ordering, they just lost a customer she needs to be retrained...