Big A's On the Riverfront — Restaurant in Saint Charles

I held my company holiday party at Big A's on The Riverfront this January (We always have our holiday party in January because we are a catering company and café and always busy in December). There were 31 of us. We reserved the private room in the back overlooking the river.

I have to tell you, I found Big A's just by a Google search of St. Charles restaurants and liked the look of the menu and the pictures of the place. I called and made an appointment to see the room and discuss the party and while I was there I ate of course to check out the food. I had a burger and it was very good. Tom, the owner and A.J. The bar manager both met with me and developed a menu to my liking rather than just make me choose from their standard banquet menu. I was very impressed.

Party night came and I really wasn't expecting a lot to be truthful. I figured it was just a bar and grill and with a buffet menu of filet, chicken Modega and pasta, vegetable and salad I really was expecting the food to be average at best. I was more concerned that the service wouldn't be very good and I resent paying an added gratuity if the service is mediocre or not good. Not only was I thrilled with all of the food, but Aubrey our server for the evening was beyond exceptional. Simply the best I've ever had. She made us all feel as if we were at a 5-star restaurant.

As I said the food was really, really good. We had platters of assorted appetizers which, while they were the typical bar fried foods, Big A's somehow does them differently. They were great!

Big A's is clean and attractive unlike some bars that seem dark, dirty and dingy. The Riverfront Room, where we are is a great place to host a dinner or party.

Smoking IS allowed in the front room, so if that bothers you, skip Big A's. Since several of my employees smoke (including me when I've had a drink or two) we loved the fact that we didn't have to go outside to smoke.

All in all, after 6 years of holiday parties for my staff, this was by far the best! We will be...

Only salads for veggie options! And they're terrible! Don't put salads on the menu if you're not going to do it right. I was extremely dissatisfied & frustrated with my experience here. I came on a Sunday day.

I ordered the spinach salad, add extra lettuce. What came was chopped up white lettuce with some of the 'spinach salad' ingredients. My server had got it wrong.

The server then brought me the ingredients of a salad. A dumped bag of spinach on the plate, huge chunks of cucumber, tomato lined on the side, a 1/4cup of pizza mozzarella cheese to the side & dressing to the side. 😱😢 I had to pick out molding, wet & wilted spinach, de stem the remaining spinach. The mozzarella was awful it's clearly pizza cheese or something, it was not any kind of mozz that should go on a salad.

I wasn't even able to dress the thing well because it was served to me on a plate. I never asked for dressing on the side either.

This was both the kitchen and the servers responsibility. She thought it was good enough to bring to me, she didn't make me feel any better and didn't ask me if my second salad was any good. When I had initially told her my order was wrong she didn't accept responsibility &/or apologise, she enforced a back & forth about what happened. I was forced to explain that even if this was what I wanted it wouldn't be good enough because the lettuce is the sad white ends of the lettuce.

The waffle fries were good.

If it was up to me I wouldn't have paid for it or tipped on it but my...

Came here by recommendation of friend that they had a good burger. Evening I arrived was the All Star MLB game so a crowd watching that.

Was greeted by waitress within 1min of entry. Found a seat and ordered beer, waitress asks if I wanted a menu. Took a bit to read what all was offered, had beer before being done.

Atmosphere was difficult for me due to hearing problems (wear aids). With the baseball crowd murmuring and the loud music being played, really had trouble hearing/understanding waitress, the initial look on her face caused me to apologize (I had answered incorrectly) and later i explained my difficulty. From this point she did not appear unhappy and treated me well.

Burger was great! Mushroom/mozzarella with fries, just darn good and perfectly cooked to order. Waitress recommended the bacon/cheese but im not a bacon burger kinda fella (I know, Wha?!?). After 2 refills and burger gone, cashed out at $35.

Burger was good enough to go back even though draft is 50cents higher than neighbor. Atmosphere issues prolly wouldn't be there for me if normal week evening, just had the extra people there for baseball but, music was typically loud (per this genre of eatery).

Do recommend trying as my hearing situation may not be yours. Again...