Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant — Restaurant in Ross Township

Had I chosen to dine in and not order my food curbside, I’m certain my experience would have been quite different. But I did not dine in, I ordered curbside. They advertise they offer this service and they have an entire protocol on how they're supposed to use this service per their website, their app, their confirmation email and even the parking space itself tells you what to do. This was my first time using the curbside service and I was so grateful they offered it. What I now realized after the fact as I’m writing this review about a month post-experience, but on this night my pelvis had in fact rotated and I had been walking more and more like I was crippled. I work in a hospital and had put on over 5 miles on my feet this day, my hips were killing me and I was limping by the end of my 14 hour shift. Hence why I ordered curbside….yesss.. I’d worked so incredibly hard to finish up my charting so that I could be there to pick up my food on time, and I actually was able to get tjere a few minutes early, scheduled at 8:30pm. Per their protocol, they tell you to text a # and give them your name. I sent this around 8:25. After sitting in my car until 8:50, I called them to find out what was happening. They put me on hold for over 10 minutes while multiple different people kept picking up asking what I was holding for. It was at this time I decided to wobble myself in there and ask to speak to a manager. Fun. So I did. Mind you now it’s past 9pm and I’m HANGRY and my body hurts. The manager rummaged through the back room where all the pickup/togo orders are kept. She was back there for a solid minute looking through everything and then finally finds mine. She asks me if I want the pretzel bread to just give her a couple more minutes to which I declined and stated I was shaking, I just wanted to leave and go home. After I get in my car I look at the ticket and realize my ticket was fulfilled at 7:20, which is right after I ordered initially. So my food is now almost 2 hours old. I paid almost $60 for this meal. Just a simple bottle of wine and gnocchi. And I’m going to be getting home and eating it at over 2 hours old, after it was thrown in that plastic container piping hot meanwhile plastic particulates leach into my food MEANWHILE I was sitting in my parking spot the whole time patiently waiting? This really ticked me off. At this point there was nothing they could do to make me happy. I walked back inside and asked to speak to the same manager and when asked why I’m explaining and the to-go guy was blankly staring at me, obviously not understanding my point. The young woman next to him who was running the register snaps back after I am working on my 3rd explanation of why I’m back there, she snaps at me that she’s “been too busy”. Oh. Wow ok. On a Tuesday in Merrillville. Right. Have you ever seen a Coopers in Chicago on a Saturday night? Sounds as though you have not therefore there is no comparison to your “busy”. It was also no comparison to my “busy”. I hadn’t eaten all day (should have taken the pretzel bread!!) bc I was busy being an extremely short staffed nurse at your local hospital. I cannot believe this woman whom I wasn’t even speaking to, clapped back at me as though my time is not important & that honestly she was busier than any/everyone. She didn’t acknowledge the amount of time I had initially waited, she didn’t care at all that the food wasn’t fresh (this isn’t fast food) and they were all perfectly fine with serving it that way. After waiting about 20 minutes for them to fire up a fresh meal, I’m completely ignored, I can see them whispering and eyes looking around, while I’m standing there in my dirty scrubs. The manager brought me my food again and ended up giving me an extra bottle of wine and a meal ticket “for free” which essentially will make this trip a wash. I think the manager thought if she could just throw some free stuff at me I wouldn’t make a stink but, little did she know that I am now in the top 10% of Google reviewers 🙃 Otherwise,...

The waiter took forever taking our order/getting us food but had the time to push their wine club on us, to the point of asking for my credit card before even taking our order which I found annoying.

The wine we did order was pulled straight from the bottle. There was no time used to air it, and I wasn't too happy with that. Plus, in watching the other tables, they poured entire bottles of red into these strange bottom-pouring dispensers and immediately poured it into glasses.

Now, a truly good bottle of wine will have some sediment in the bottom. Letting the wine breathe properly does two things: airs it out, obviously, removing some of the sting and lets the sediment settle at the bottom. That meant they were serving in a dispenser for show and giving these people wine with sediment floating in it. So their dispensers grossed me out as well as the fact these servers were completely oblivious to how to properly distribute wine.

I did go to purchase a few bottles of Nighthawk and the cashier asked about the wine club and I said no, but she pushed it again I got pretty pissed off and I said: "Considering every person here has shoved this wine club down my throat at least EIGHT times now, NO." She kind of laughed and said they all get kickbacks for the wine club. Hence, the obnoxious sales pitch.

With the handful of bottles I've opened from them, the corks were incredibly dry and would not pull out. (To be fair, the Nighthawk was the only one I liked. Paired with a bitter cheese and it's actually quite good, but not enough for me to join a club.) The cork may have started off fragile or dry, and this might mean the wine inside may be prematurely oxidized if the cork shriveled up enough to let some air inside the bottle.

The food was okay but terribly expensive. The backroom at the Hobart location is incredibly loud and echoes like a small stadium. All in all, it's a mid-scale restaurant, in a MALL, that likes to play off as a high-class winery. Sorry, but putting up dark paneling doesn't fool me, especially when there's a discount store next door.

I've been involved marketing for years and I know a gimmick when I see one. You want good wine? Go to Cafe Borgia in Munster. Lovely, elegant, prices are reasonable and it's served correctly every time. They also know their wines, they don't regurgitate garbage descriptions their manager made them memorize and they try them themselves because they give more feedback than, "Oh, it's good!" Or, they look up at the ceiling when describing the wine, meaning they've memorized some $20-jargon about a particular type that they themselves don't understand. At Cafe Borgia when the waiter/waitress talks you into a less expensive Shiraz because it's better tasting than the pricey one, I'm sold.

Yes, I am a wine snob and a cork dork. I go by taste, not brand or price. Cooper's Hawk didn't impress either of us. Overpriced subpar restaurant masquerading as a high-end establishment. Don't forget, it is...

I love Cooper’s hawk. It’s one of my favorite places to go with friends or even colleagues. My last visit had some positives and some negatives. I understand that with COVID there are certain requirements, and I was perfectly happy to meet those requirements without complaint. However, they didn’t seem to make sense. In the tasting room, they would not allow groups over 4, but in the restaurant, they allowed groups of 6. Didn’t make any sense to me but whatever. We had a group of 12, so we had reservations for two groups of six in the restaurant area and three groups of four in the wine tasting area. We were told that reservations were required for the wine tasting area due to COVID because they were only setting up a certain number of stations. No problem. We arrive a few minutes before four, 4 o’clock being our wine tasting reservation for three groups, mind you this was set up over a week ago. The hostesses were less than friendly. I approached them and told them that our party was here, and they told us that we had to wait. And then she just walked away. I waited about 10 minutes wondering what was going on and went back to the hostess station and asked why we have to wait when we have 4 o’clock reservations for the wine tasting room. She said that other people were in there, and we needed to wait until they leave. I told her that was unacceptable. I made these reservations over a week ago. I was told reservations were required for the wine tasting room which means that the people in the wine tasting room also had a reservation. Clearly they have stayed over their allotted time, and they should be asked to move to the bar or seated for dinner. Our first group of four was let in about 415, and I complained to our winetasting server, Roman. He diligently worked with one of the store managers to clear the wine tasting area to allow for the other two groups in our party. However, our last group did not get in until after 430. Cooper’s Hawk needs to work better at efficiently managing reservations and parties if they are only going to have a limited amount of people served at one time. Roman was a complete delight. He efficiently multitasked keeping our wineglasses filled and helped to get our entire party served and off to dinner in time for our 5 o’clock reservation. Then we had a lovely waitress named Leslie who handled all of us with a smile. Bill was correct, and she was adorable. Those two staff members deserve a raise. Your hostesses should probably be put back in the kitchen away from the general public. I’ll definitely be back as I am a wine club member, but I hope to be treated better by your greeters at my next visit. We ladies dropped a lot of money that night and followed all your rules, but we were not given the same respect & certainly did not feel welcomed...