Chicago's Home of Chicken & Waffles — Restaurant in Oak Park

I don't usually write reviews but with the service and the food I received yesterday I had to write one. Yesterday for lunch me and my friend decided to stop by and get some soul food. We said we was not waiting on sunday lol we also decided to dine in since yesterday was considered a cool chicago summer day. When we 1st walk in we got greeted and sat down immediately. 1st green flag since I stated it was a Friday we did think it wld be a long wait but it wasn't and I was happy because I was starving. We sit down and a lady come to us and greet us and introduce herself and come ask us about ourselves and how our day has been and it really shocked me cause its on a friday, She's young and black and very professional. Sad to say but im not really use to that coming from somebody so young and pretty. Her energy was everything. She recommended what we shld try because we said we wanted to both try something new and when I say this lady didnt miss, I MEAN THAT!!!!! The shrimp and grits was so good i forgot to take a before and after picture lol she also kept checking on us made sure i stayed with water and pop. Home girl did her thing. But thats not the best part. Me and my friend liked her service so much we ask her to go get the manager for us. Not because we was about to complain cause everything was on point but so we can make sure we let them know they have a great employee and guess what, Our server..... was the Manager!!!! I said oh no wonder our service was top tier lol i was happy when i found that out cause Idk her but I know she did a good job at what she do. I just want chicken and waffles to know they manger Shaquila deserves her flowers. I love great customer service. Im the type that tip of your service, I love to feel like Im getting appreciated for spending my money, i gate to go and feel like a burden to someone who is supposed to be serving me. Chicken and waffles can definitely expect to see me again cause I cant stay away from the shrimp and grits now lol but i wanna rate my experience 10 out of Clean, Good food, Great atmosphere. Great...

We came here the day after Thanksgiving with a group of 6. We knew it would probably be packed so we got there the minute they opened at 11:30 and were the first through the door ahead of about 15 other people who came immediately after. We heard the hostess say there was only one server so we were happy to know we walked in first.

To our surprise, the hostess asked us to wait as they sat every single other person then sat us at our table. We sat and watched as they took the order of every single person in the restaurant - food even began to come out for other tables and our order had still not been taken. About 20 minutes passed and we asked the hostess what's going on since we were the first to walk in? She said with an attitude "it's not my fault she didn't listen to what I said, I told her to come to you all."

About 10 more minutes passed and we grabbed the waitress and asked if she could take our order - she said she was told to take all the "smaller table orders first," which makes ZERO sense as it was 6 of us and at this point about 20 other people in the restaurant. She took our order, but we are still sitting here as smaller tables are still getting their orders and food within a 15 min window. I'll also add that we are seated at the back near the kitchen and it's freezing because the back door keeps being opened for "deliveries" they say and they cannot close it. The time is now 12:27pm and we still have not gotten our food. The issue isn't a delay in the kitchen - as they are pumping out orders for the entire restaurant PLUS carry out orders we can see getting bagged constantly. It's a matter of being deliberately ignored because of our party size despite being the FIRST to walk in the door. I'll never come here again.

Edit to add: We received our food a few minutes after I posted this review. The food was actually quite tasty and very warm when it came to the table. Every order was correct, however I'll still never come back based on the service alone. Food was 4/5 stars. Service is still a 1 star so I am editing my review to be 2...

It's sad because I used to like this place too but I ordered carry out and also confirmed the order and had someone pick it up for me. The food was horrible, it wasn't even edible the chicken was rank, old, stale, shriveled up, dried up, and dark spots all over it so you can tell just by looking at it that it was old, and I know they sent it cold because it hadn't even sweated in the container or plastic bag. The receipt actually had the order taken down correctly and they still got the order wrong. Called back to speak to a manager and the guy said he was the manager and that he bagged the order himself and there was nothing wrong with it.

WHAT!!!????

To top that off they know it was a mess because they put a couple extra garbage pieces of chicken with it I guess to try to compensate for the mess of food they had the nerve to send and it's sad that a business would even assume that a person would want quantity over quality. Plus he didn't even ask or offer how could he make things better or thank us for the continued business, but instead wanted to go toe to toe with me so I hung up and said they just won't get anymore of my business ever and I want to make everyone aware of this before they spend a decent amount of money in this establishment and be pissed with the food and service. Terrible, horrible, incompetent management and customer service I've ever seen. We could not even eat the food so we bagged it back up and took it back and gave it to the manager and told him to eat it. It is also about the principle, we spend too much money in their to walk away with garbage and dog food, well the dog wouldn't even eat it. It saddens me that businesses are being left in the hands of the incompetent, unprofessional, and unfriendly people. How do I post a picture of this garbage for food. You know I had to get a snapshot before taking it back...