Alchemy at Aldeen — Restaurant in Rockford Township

Where to begin, I was in Rockford visiting family being from Chicago I wanted to have a nice quality dinner like I can get in the city. I really had high hopes because the menu and website looked great. Arriving at the restaurant with my party we were ignored by three separate employees until ten minutes later when a seemingly bored hostess finally took us to our table, with barely saying anything. After being seated we looked over the menu and talked while we waited for what was probably 8 minutes without having a server come over. Finally a server arrived with water but no glasses and when we got glasses my friends glass was chipped, the server removed the glass and got another. The server was young and sweet but seemed to be very new to serving. We ordered some appetizers Parker house rolls and “house chips & crack” which were okay. Next, we waited for about 25 minutes before our entree order was taken. My friend with the chipped glass ordered steak frites while his wife ordered her favorite filet mignon, medium temp. The server informs us that the steak frites will be cooked to “chef choice temp” which first of all as a chef of 15 years myself, I have never heard of. While informing my friend of the chefs choice temp briefly says “so it will be medium rare, medium.” In which my friend replies with “perfect, med rare/medium is great.” After about 10-15 minutes our entrees came to the table which was less time than the appetizers. When receiving our dishes my friend with the steak frites is handed a plate with a burnt end of flank steak cooked to well done laying on top of frozen French fries. My friend was upset and kindly asked the server to remove the meal for the bill, but was told only $10 discount would suffice because he ate two bites of his overcooked steak and that’s all. We were shocked. I really wanted to take my friends out to a nice dinner and sadly we were very disappointed. Portions for dishes were insanely large in a bad way, flavor profiles way off, and if you can’t cook a steak to temp you shouldn’t be working in a restaurant with a steak special on Saturdays. Won’t be coming back. Sad that there are very few good restaurants in and...

Went here to celebrate a big milestone birthday with some close friends to only have the worst dining experience and leaving stunned at the unprofessionalism of management and terrible service recovery.

We spent close to $200 between my husband and I. I ordered the wedge salad as my entree and added a filet to it after asking the server to make my steak medium and asking him if it was sliced, to which he replied yes. My husband ordered the filet mignon entree and ordered his steak medium rare. When our food came out both of our steaks were clearly well-done. My “filet” that I added to my salad came out not sliced but looked like dry overcooked beef stew chunks. We are not ones to ever complain but being a special occasion we wanted to enjoy a nice meal, so we mentioned it to the server. The entire table was in agreement that our meat was overcooked. I was told they couldn’t do anything about mine because it is served in small pieces and they cannot make it any different, but was not told this when I originally asked if I could get it cooked to temp and was wrongly told it was a sliced filet. My complaint was simply ignored and brushed off.

My husband’s steak was taken back to the kitchen to only be returned and told that the thermometer was reading an accurate temperature (mind you this was after it was sitting at our table for 15 minutes) Even though you could cut into the steak and clearly see it was well done.

We were then especially appalled when A manager came out and took my husband to the kitchen to argue her point of the lighting being different in the kitchen and the steak actually being correct. It was condescending, absolutely a health hazard bringing him into the kitchen, and downright embarrassing!!! They cooked him a new steak and it came out so rare that it was disgusting. At this point, not worth arguing about anymore. Spent too much money on the worst food we’ve ever had. We never got an apology or were offered anything to make things better and were met with such unkind words. I felt anything but special on my birthday here. Worst service recovery, not how it...

I’ve been coming to Alchemy for over a year and have always enjoyed the food and atmosphere. Last Wednesday, my boyfriend and I decided to have dinner there. We didn’t have a reservation—though honestly, about 90% of the time we’ve gone, we haven’t needed one, we love in the neighborhood, and it’s never been an issue.

When we arrived, we were told the outdoor seating was fully booked, but that we could sit near the stage and order using the QR codes. That seemed fine at first, but once we got outside, we noticed that more than half the tables were empty. On top of that, the area by the stage was extremely loud—not what we were looking for.

We decided to check the online reservations and saw a table for two available, so we booked it and got a confirmation email. When we went back inside at our reserved time, we were told our reservation wasn’t valid due to a system glitch, and that they were fully booked. There was no apology, no alternative offered—it honestly felt like a slap in the face.

I’ve never been told a confirmed reservation was invalid, especially without any effort to make it right. It felt dismissive, especially since there were still several empty tables. The whole experience left a bad impression, and I’m really...