Charlie's restaurant - forest park — Restaurant in Proviso Township

Never again. Let's talk about how everything from start to finish was done wrong: I picked up my son from a nearby boxing gym, he was hungry and we saw this cute looking place and parked. It was 1:30 p.m. on the dot as we approached the door, the restaurant looked empty so we were sure to look at the sign which stated they were open until 2:30 "365 days a year". We entered to find a table of 4, a table of 2 and a small table in the corner by the door with 2 elderly gentlman. A pale dark haired women told us to seat ourself, as there were a plenty! Before our coats were off this same woman approached and said " so do you know what you want or.. ?" 😶 Um.. "we'd like a minute a please", i replied. She forced a smile but was clearly in a big rush. She returned, clearly giving all bad, hurried and annoyed vibes. My son ordered eggs, over easy, and biscuits and gravy with an orange juice. I asked for cottage cheese and peaches. She replied "with raisin toast?" I thought about it and said sure. The food came back disturbingly quick and she ran off in her big hurry to do nothing, as there was nobody in the joint now but the "wrapping up" 4top and the 2 men in back. The over easy eggs were sunnyside up, beyond that, the food was fine. Although after only a few bites in she appeared and asked if she could bring our check since they close at 2? "You close at 2?" I responded. "Yes" . "Yes." "We close at 2. " Hmm. You see, had the door said 2p.m. and not 2:30 pm., we would have never entered. Why would I want a rushed 30 minute experience? This could have been solved by greeting us with this information . She instead chose to make a fool of herself rushing customers through her awful service. It gets worse... She brings our bill ( take into account this is all in a 15 minute time period), and it is $30. and change. My sons eggs and half a biscuits was $13, his o.j. $3 =$16 I'm looking down at my cottage cheese and toast and undrinkable watered coffee and boggled that it could be another $15? I questioned it and it seemed to jive with the menu but was so terribly turned off by this remarkably awful service I told her how I felt and did not leave a tip. No way. I'll tell you , this is the very 1st bad review I have ever given. I'll also tell you I am an extremely generous tipper! To a fault! I love to give. She is simply the worst, as i shall I tell you how it ended: While my son finished his food, she openly, and loudly laughed and told the story to the 2 men in the corner of how we came in at 1:39 ( nope it's was 1:30), and we expected blah blah blah ha ha ha, they all laughed it up. We were shocked. As we past to leave they all looked our way and she said with a big fake smile" have a nice day" as the 2 men joined in in. Ha ha. It's so funny to them to lose another customer, it's almost like they are doing it on...

Decided to take the family out to lunch today. Wanted to go somewhere local and kid friendly so after doing some research I went with Charlie’s and I wish I would’ve went with my other option of Fat Ducks Tavern. When we walked in the one waitress was on her phone, she didn’t even look up to make eye contact and she didn’t say hello just said “You can sit anywhere unless it says reserved” after finding our own table I walked up to her and asked for 2 high chairs she still was in her phone and still did not give me any kind of eye contact and just pointed to the right of her and said “they are over there you can just grab it yourself) I should’ve left then, I’ve served for 7 years and I would never start the first 5 minutes this way let alone treat any guest like a second hand citizen and like they did not matter. She then proceeded to rush the ordering process, deliver horribly made lemonade and a mimosa and the food was rushed, bland and overall unsatisfying. I spent $70 on a horrible mean and horrible experience. I will never dine here again nor recommend this restaurant to anyone. I don’t understand how they have 4 stars but please don’t be fooled.

I also should add she rushed the check process as well, stating to another customer she likes to be out of there at 2:15 sharp and it was currently 1:30. Horrible experience

Update: after seeing the response from the owner I still give this place 1 star. The waitress couldn’t have been over 32 years old and if she has been working for decades she should’ve known better! Again I’ve been in the service industry 7+ yrs and I would never treat any guest the way she did no matter if we close or not and my managers wouldn’t allow it either or for the food quality to come out like that. Clearly this restaurant values its employees over its customers and doesn’t care how their staff treats their customers. Definitely NEVER going back here and will tell everyone I know to...

This use to be my favorite breakfast spot until today , me and a out of town friend came to eat, I bragged to her about this place only to be disappointed the utmost, usually the owner speaks and tell you to eat where you want today he just waved us off , then a guys brings us a water pitcher it was dirty with food and it was particles floating in the water so we just set it aside, usually the waitress comes fast to your table today I waited for about 20 mins just order no one was hardly in the restaurant then when we got our food my friend had someone else's food hidden under her eggs and they had cheese slice that didn't melt and tried to say it was american cheese which they got mad because we didn't want the process cheese so waitress comes over and take the cheese as if we were going to run off with it, the silverware is so old it's spotted and scratched up so we asked for plastic the waitress came pass gave me the plastic and threw the napkins as if we were a bother, I truly loved this place and was disappointed at the behavior that was shown to us, we let the waitress no that we would pay for the bill and the owner ran and hid so that he wouldn't hear the complaints of this day at his restaurant when given the receipt the waitress walk off as if we were pheasants and she had had enough of us...this is not a place for color right now find you someplace else , go to Louies they have quality food and service and they are so friendly no matter what color you are. Today felt very Trump like attitude and the vulger stench of racism. And they never have to worry about me stepping into their establishment again ..I don't want to eat where I'm not wanted , I'm a bit broken hearted by this ,but this is the world we live in...