Red Star Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Rich Township

I never have been to this place, but decided to give it a try because I have heard about it and always drive past when going to Pete’s and they be packed. My first and last experience. Don’t get me wrong the music was nice I can admit but the overall experience was horrible. 1st we got there at 9:00 pm there was a $10 per person coverage charge when we walked in. The sitting was very scarce so we found a table to sit. One of the waiters told us we couldn’t sit there because there had to be 5 of us. Ok understandable. She moved us to a booth by the door and told us our waiter will be there shortly. 30 -35 minutes of waiting we got water. Another 15 minutes the waiter came and took our order and said she can’t take our food order until another 15 minutes because the kitchen was backed up. She took the drink order and it took another 20-25 minutes to get our drinks. Mind you still haven’t taken our food order. I look back and the cover charge sign they made was gone so now they not charging to get in. Finally she came and took our food order. I ordered wings with mild thinking it’s mild hot and my sister mild with garlic Parmesan Ranch. 20-25 minutes later our food came out. Now during this process we seen 2 older ladies come in way after us. Sat at the 5 seated table which was only them and got their food wayyy before we did. When the food came out I taste mine and ask the waiter to come back. I said is this mild sauce she said yes like Harold’s. I said the menu say mild so I’m thinking hot mild not Harold’s mild sauce. I tell her I can’t eat this I will get sick. She tells her manager and they take it off. Mind you the menu does not say mild sauce or say mild. My sister plate as posted is the Gaelic Parmesan ranch. Instantly I’m like what is this. So unacceptable. No checkup is everything okay nothing. She comes back 30 minutes later and ask my sister did she want a box. Absolutely not. I paid our bill negative on tip which she rolled her eyes about and had a straight attitude. We left and that was the first and last visit....

I wish I could talk about the food and the drinks and the overall great time my family and I had when visiting this restaurant for the first time. Sadly, I cannot. What I can say that was great was the music, as the MUSIC was the only part of this restaurant we were able to experience. While I recognize that Sunday is usually a busy time for any restaurant, what I cannot fathom is restaurants not having an understanding of how to maneuver through a Sunday crowd. We came and put our name on the waitlist at 2:39 PM. We were told that the wait would be one and a half hours for a party at five. No problem, we thought, we will wait. However, after about 80 minutes, we went back into the restaurant to check our progress on the waitlist and we were told, that our wait would be an additional hour. When questioned about why there was an additional wait time the staff member simply said “we just won’t be able to seat a party of five because we will need to push two tables together.” Why not just seat us at a booth? If the total time ANY party can be seated is 90 minutes (according to the sign in the front window), why would it take 2.5 hours for us to get a table? Moreover, the young lady at the front desk seemed ill equipped to offer any feasible explanation other than “Yeah, it’s going to be at least another hour” At the time the conversation took place I noticed that there were two empty tables that seemed available. Moreover, I recognized that “the five parties before us(according to the front desk attendant) had a check in time of 12:30 or earlier. I was still confused, if again the total wait time for any party to be seated in the restaurant is 90 minutes how there are there still people, according to her, that are still on the waitlist who had an entry time of 12:30pm and at that time it was about 4 o’clock. Wait another hour?….no thank you. We politely drove down to Redwood Restaurant in Olympia Fields and had a great dinner with...

This was my first visit to RedStar. A friend suggested it and I was impressed with the menu options. However, the experience was not that great. I noticed when we walked in that the music was playing at an unnecessarily high volume but I wasn’t too bothered by it so we stayed to dine in. My disappointment set in when my food arrived and it did not meet the descriptions nor the prices on the menu. I ordered the $10.99 blueberry (brioche) French toast and I received four very flat half cut French toast with a sprinkle of about 10 blueberries. They did not seem to be brioche bread at all and they were served at room temperature like they were waiting in the kitchen for a long time. Also, I decided to try the Mac n cheese, and while the presentation was great, the taste was underwhelming.

The shock came at the end of the dining experience when the waitress used an electronic card reader to deliver the total cost of the meal and charge my card. I decided to tip because I was unaware that gratuity was already included in my bill via the service fee. She did not mention the 18% service fee and the 1% dine in tax nor did she provide me with a check to see (visual learner) the total of my bill. Furthermore, this information was not listed on the menu or visible with signage around the door. Lastly, she didn’t offer me my receipt at all and proceeded with her next transaction. My friend became aware of the additional charges after she paid her bill and requested a receipt. I believe the restaurant intentionally employed dubious actions to not inform us of the service charge in advance.

I would not recommend this restaurant simply because the food is not great, the quality does not match the price, and the restaurant is dishonest about the additional cost of the dine in experience. Please give your money to a business that has quality food and is honest and respects the customer. This isn’t...