Priscilla's Ultimate Soul Food — Restaurant in Proviso Township

Avoid at all costs!!!!!!!! I would NEVER ever order from here again. EVER! And I will tell everyone in my personal/professional networks to steer clear. I thought the Hazel Crest location was a disorganized, slow mess. But this Hillside location takes the cake. And no, I’m not talking about that overpriced, made from box mix cake they sell. 😒

I placed an online order and was given a one hour pickup time. I even got there late, because I know how slow they can be. My order STILL wasn’t ready. I waited and waited....then over an hour past the time my order was supposed to be ready, when I asked about the status of my order, I was told it still hadn’t been made yet. When I asked how much longer it would be, the response I got was “I don’t know”. What kind of customer service is that to someone who has been waiting an extra hour for an order??????? Or to anyone, for that matter. In this situation, their priority should have been finding out what was going on with my order. And getting me out of there ASAP. It really shouldn’t take two hours to put a piece of meat and two scoops of sides into a to go container. Eventually, the manager had to come out and get my order together. But overall, I waited two extra hours BEYOND the time my online order was supposed to be ready. Someone should have gotten the manager involved or done something long before the two hour mark. Especially when I kept inquiring about my order.

On top of that, I saw several people coming back in with orders that were incorrect or incomplete. And when you try to call to speak to someone, it sends you to voicemail, but the mailbox is full. So there is literally nothing you can do as the customer. After taking two hours to complete an order, the least you could do is make sure the order is 100% accurate. I’m pretty sure that this is the WORST restaurant experience I have ever had, and the worst customer service. If you can’t keep up with online orders, DONT OFFER ONLINE ORDERING AS AN OPTION. What was the point of me ordering online? It’s supposed to be MORE convenient. But if I was going to wait this long, I could have just came and stood in line and ordered with everyone else. Not to mention, we’re in the midst of a pandemic, so I figured online ordering would be the easiest way to minimize contact with others and get in and out quickly. However, it ended up being the opposite.

They’re so unprofessional, and I will never spend another penny of my money here, or at any Priscilla’s location. And I hope other people do the same. We’re spending our hard earned money, we deserve respect, timeliness and consideration at the very least.

The food is okay, but what I experienced just trying to get it overshadows the food for me. The fried chicken is usually good, the fish tastes like a lower quality fish than what other restaurants use. But the cake is box mix cake that they’re severely overcharging for. The portions of sides I got was a lot less than when I’ve gone to the Hazel Crest location. The CANNED yams, I’m sorry...I mean candied yams 🙄 are okay, definitely not homemade. And the mashed potatoes definitely aren’t homemade either. So yeah, there’s much better soul food out there and much better service. I’m done with...

My experience today was one of the worst I’ve ever had at any take-out business in my entire life. I'm not joking. I ordered my food at 12:30p and had a pickup time of 1:32pm. My order wasn't ready until after 3:30pm. I noticed others getting their food before me and had later pickup times than mine. First, the two workers they had upfront shouldn't be working a customer-facing role if they don't know a thing...literally...they kept telling customers that they “didn't know”. One lady said she doesn't know anything about online orders as she only takes in-house orders. The young man upfront was the nicest; however, he didn't have a clue about anything... absolutely clueless.

The manager was asked to come out to address the disgruntled crowd and she told the young man "no" and that she was handling orders in the back. The crowd grew very angry. She then decided to come out to get things in order. Once the manager came out, she was very rude and extremely passive aggressive. She told me to stop talking as I was explaining my issue to her and I then requested my money back. She told me that there were no refunds and said I have to take it up with my credit card company. Her mission was to get the "Grubhub/Doordash and the like” orders out first. I waited over 2 hours and her priority was those orders who came after me. Unacceptable! Another customer told her that they needed more workers and she said "y'all ran them away". What manager says these things?! She kept saying slick and disrespectful things to the customers. Again, very unprofessional!

Once she calmed down she asked for my information...they didn't even have it on their end, so she had to confirm it on my end to see if I ordered from another location. Once she noticed my order was placed and I had been waiting over two hours, she softened her attitude towards me. Then she retrieved my food and the prepper gave me the wrong order. Next, I was told that they were out of pound cake that I had paid for and did offer another desert, but I didn't want it. She offered extra sides, but I was so turned off that I didn’t want anything but to just get out of there. She did give me a large macaroni as there wasn’t any other deserts I wanted that I had paid for. Money down the drain as I didn’t get the desert that I had ordered/paid.

This was my first time at this location as I used to visit the Hazel Crest location that is now closed. I've spent a lot of money with this business and, after today, I'm no longer patronizing and have started to tell my family/friends/church members the same. As one who is very well-versed in business, I tend to give grace when service isn't up to par. However, this experience was the worst customer service experience with management that I've ever witnessed in my life. You never know who you're servicing ...I'll just leave it at that....

My husband and I drove in from out-of-town to visit some friends. We all wanted to support a black owned business and decided on Priscillas last night. Six new customers to this establishment. We got in line and was entertained and laughed with the two servers behind the counter; an older gentleman and a young lady. No one really explained to us how many sides you get with your order. So we chose two sides for our meal. I had the meatloaf with Mac and sweet potatoes and my husband had the Fried chicken with cabbage and sweet potatoes. The meatloaf was quite salty. My sides were good though.

Well we made it to the register and this older woman already had an attitude for whatever reason. We blew it off and moved on to our table. A young man came to our table and filled up our drinks. Now had we known that this is how the service goes, we would have brought cash to tip the young man. He did a good job. The cashier didn't ask if we wanted to leave a tip with the total. So we feel bad for not being able to tip him at the end of our dinner for refilling our drinks and clearing our table. (It's cafeteria style where you go through the line, pick out what you want, they hand it to you and then you pay for it at the end of the line.)

Now the reason for our low rating is solely based on the older woman that was the cashier. We had not realized after mingling and enjoying each other's company that it was a few minutes close to 8 pm when the dining room closes. Instead of saying, "Hello everyone. I know you guys are enjoying yourself but unfortunately our dining room is closing at 8 pm." The cashier walks up and says, "It's 8 and our dining room is closed." In the most rude way she delivered the message. We all just looked at each other like, wow ok. She then preceeded to stare at us from the register until we walked out.

Customer service is everything. The way you speak to your customers says a lot about your business and the culture it creates. All the other staff members were pleasant, cheerful, and cracked a few jokes here and there. She was the only one that soured the entire visit.

As a black owned business, you already have folks who will skip over your because you're a black owned business. Don't keep giving your customers the opportunity to put you in the box of "that's why I don't support black businesses now". Find someone else to run the register who is pleasant and knows how to interact with the customers. All the other workers deserve a raise or something for their top tier customer service skills.

Besides the rude woman, my husband said his chicken was seasoned well. The cabbage was a hit and the slice of double chocolate cake that we got was super moist and really good.

All in all...