Cross Eyed Cricket Peoria — Restaurant in Peoria

Dear proprietor and neighbor, I very much appreciate your sincere and heartfelt response and your intention to look into this unfortunate interaction. I will make an effort to stop by this weekend for another visit. I am hopeful it will be a much better experience! I will introduce myself if you are there. Best regards, Debbie

I am a six month resident of Vistancia. On 11/7/20, a girlfriend visiting from Florida and I stopped for a late lunch. It was not too busy, but most of the seats were taken at the bar where we sat along the curved end. A small crowd was outside listening to music during the veterans fundraiser. Despite several passes where bartender, Casey, made eye contact and we had our hands raised for assistance, she intentionally ignored us. We waited nearly 20 minutes until we got the attention of her bar-back, a nice young man. We ordered drinks and eventually received them. After finishing them, we tried again for over 30 minutes to gain the attention of Casey in order to get our check and leave. I got up to use the restroom where I located her and personally asked her if she could prepare our bill as we needed to leave. I returned to the bar and still no check and still no Casey. She again made several more physical trips past us again making eye contact with us, and literally standing within feet of us, where we repeatedly begged for the check - again we were intentionally ignored. Her behavior was truly bizarre. I approached a young lady server with long dark hair at the food pickup counter. I explained that we needed our check and had to go and could she please ask the bartender to get it for us. She said, “Oh, that’s Casey and I have my own issues with her!”. I asked to speak with the manager and she said the manager just left. My girlfriend and I used to bartend together. We acknowledge it is a very difficult job. However, this person ‘intentionally’ ignored and mistreated us for no apparent reason. Neither of us have ever been treated this rudely or strangely in a restaurant before. As a result, my family will not patronize this establishment again nor will I recommend it to my friends and neighbors. It’s unfortunate, this restaurant has huge potential to be an extraordinary local eating establishment. If your own staff has ‘issues’ with Casey, what do you think your patrons are...

First time here and if I based my reviews solely on first impressions and service, I wouldnt be giving this place a good review at all....HOWEVER, the All you can eat Friday night fish fry was definitely a hit and the bacon burger was legit enough to actually concede and say, I will be back for another try with the service...the food saved them from me going off and never going back, so in this instance, they got lucky!!! When we walked in abiut 4:40pm, its a seat yourself type place = small local neighborhood bar and grill, there were no seats so we waited maybe 10 minutes before a couple at a table that sat 6 said we could share their table, we took them up on their offer...we waited and waited and then a gal came around and gave us menus and took our drink order and it took another 10 minutes to come back with those....THEN, we waited and waited and waited for her to come back and take our order, she concentrated on others including new people who walked in the door after usand kept telling us she would be right back (it was quicker watching paint dry)....I literally was going to leave but then here she comes. FINALLY, she took our order but we played the waiting game again but now with our food, over 30 minutes more just to get the fish and my burger, WOW! And then our food finally came, because we were annoyed and hungry but like I said, the service was less than desirable but the food saved the day. If you are looking for a good fish fry, this is high on my list and its all you can eat. I would suggest when they bring your meal out, order more fish then or you may be waiting awhile. The tarter sauce is very good! I will come back for the food and hopefully next time, the service will be much better. The place has fun vibes, with pinball some other games, a pool table, dart machine, and a shuffleboard type game and even a lotto machine and lots of tvs...plus, there is a nice outdoor patio too. Good food but bring a dose...

Update: The owner and manager reached out to us and made things right. From what I saw with my receipt that they sent back to me through text, it can be a honest mistake with what had happened in regards to the tip. They were able to work with us and make things right, so we will be going there one last time before our move :-). As I previously stated, we never had issues with this place until this experience. I'm just glad that they do read their reviews and make it right with their customers. Thank you. We've come here several times and it's been okay. Never had any concerning issues. When they are busy, they are busy and service can be slow, but it's manageable. This time around, the bartender at the bar made me feel unwelcomed and I waited almost 10 minutes before the bartender from the other side noticed that I've been waiting for awhile (she was a sweetheart). The other one continued to ignore me throughout the evening and even one customer noticed and loudly stated, "Boy, she sure doesn't seem to like you since she just walks past you." For another customer to notice? That's sad. At the end of the night, between my husband and I, I only purchased one beer and a couple of his drinks, I tipped at 20% being that the other bartender was very nice and took care of us.... however, the person ignoring me the entire night is the one who took our payment when I closed out. When my bank processed a couple of days later, more tip came out than I have put down... Thank you bartender for giving yourself a tip that you did not deserve!! I doubt we will be returning...