Kettlestrings Tavern — Restaurant in Oak Park

Save your time and money! If I could, I'd give this place zero stars. Talk about horrible customer service. I've been in this industry nearly 20 years, so I perfectly understand what restaurants and businesses alike are going through right now due to Covid and employee shortage, however, the service (or the lack there of) we received at this place is absolutely unacceptable. We arrived right around the time they opened (11ish) and the place was empty. We had three adults and one child in our group. We were seated outside and were the first customers there. Shortly after, we placed our drink and food orders. The server brought out our water and drinks a few minutes later and that was the last time she bothered stopping at our table. We thought, no big deal. We know places are short staffed and they're doing the best they can. They had two servers working, so we thought ok, we'll just wait. Over an hour later, no refills or check-in from the server. At least three other tables, with much larger groups, that arrived well after us, were all served their food and multiple refills. When we flagged down our server and asked about our food, she simply replied "the order is being worked on". At 12.30, so 90 mins after arriving, we still didn't have our food nor was it anywhere in sight, we decided to get up and leave. They had the audacity to charge us for the drinks. Any decent place would've comped them without hesitation just to try and make up for the inconvenience but no, not this restaurant. It wasn't about the money, it was the principality. I've seen a few restaurants/bars on this corner and none of them survived. I'm sure this place won't last long. Don't waste your time and go somewhere else. Plenty of amazing places in the area that need and want...

I just moved up here a couple months ago. Some family decided to visit and I thought why not try this place down the street. I was completely embarrassed for making this selection. This may have been the worst dining experience that we’ve ever had. It seemed like the restaurant was run by children. We even made a reservation and still sat hungry waiting for a waiter to even come say hello. Finally, a waiter comes. We place our orders and not did things go south from there. The total waiting time was an hour 15. For 45 minutes we hear “your food will be out in one minute” periodically. Still extremely hungry, on a time crunch, and after getting teased that our food was coming out, we finally get our food. Meat was cold, buns were crusty, salad was flaccid. The prices seem a couple dollars more than what they should be. The only positive thing to come out of this was the Brussels sprouts. Those were actually fantastic and why this isn’t getting a 1 star. We now have an inside joke between us about how bad of an experience...

It was ok. Checked the tavern out last night with my daughter and her mother in law. Not really vegan friendly. They do have salads, my daughter has eaten here prior and said the salads are more of a side then a main..so for the price we decided on portobello burgers. They were out of portobellos. You could sub anything with an impossible burger, but I'm not a fan. Originally a carnivore who eats the majority of meals vegan, prefer taste over something that feels meaty. My daughter had to take the impossible burger..we were already seated with our drinkies... Did the kittlestring burger instead. Not the best burger I've had..nor the worst. Definitely bar food. For $16, did expect better. Was mostly bread with two thin patties..a small area of bacon jam and a small amount of mayo on the bottom. Burger was nicely grilled..didn't taste much seasoning. $80 got us 3 burgers, a glass of wine, a beer and a sparkling water. Bit pricey to be average food. Service was excellent and the outside area was lively. Good place to grab...