Granite City Food & Brewery — Restaurant in Schaumburg Township

The food is great. Very large portions, and very delicious. Maybe a little pricey, but still very good. You can’t beat the cost of the flight for beer either. Very good.

I am only giving 3 stars because of the service. I have thought long and hard about writing this review, and honestly am very regretful I didn’t say anything the day of, but here we are.

We had an older woman as our server. I can’t even remember her name… maybe Tammy or Denise. But older woman with white hair. I think she truly ruined our experience there overall. It wasn’t my first time there, but it was my friend’s.

My friend and I ordered Bloody Mary’s on Sunday, so she asked for our IDs. She kept commenting about how she couldnt find the birthdays on our IDs, and we were laughing with her about it. Then she takes me friend’s ID & says to her “There’s NO WAY you weigh THAT much!”…. We were both so taken aback. I immediately tried to reassure my friend, and hype her up like “yea totally! You look great!” Because she was obviously uncomfortable & getting red in the face. When she walked away we were both just so surprised. We didn’t know what to say or do in that moment. My friend felt very insecure, and it made her very upset. This is now Thursday evening, and we were there Sunday, but neither of us can stop thinking about the situation. It was so wrong of her to say that and so disrespectful. When is it ever ok to comment on someone’s weight? You cannot find the birthdays on our IDs but could immediately find how much she weighs? So uncalled for.

Both my friend and I were servers in the past, so typically we are very laid back about our experience when we go out because we know how hectic the industry is and can be. So when we ordered the nachos & then a meal each, you would think that our server would mention how much food this would’ve been for just 2 people. If you’ve ever had their nachos, it’s a very large plate. We were both unaware of this tho. The server brought us our food then made a comment along the lines of “A lot of food there for 2 people”…. So not only has she made comments about my friend’s weight, she KNEW it was going to be too much food for us & didn’t think to suggest or recommend anything different. That is very poor service in my opinion. She insulted us, then made sure we racked up a nice bill for her to get a higher tip. Just very wrong & I think she may need a little more training on how to speak to people & make recommendations to customers who aren’t aware of menu items. We were planning to hangout and have more drinks too, but decided against it due to the service we received. This experience has made me very hesitant to want to go back there or recommend this place to anyone else.

I wanted to share our experience in hopes that this can be rectified with your employee & she does not provide this type of service to anyone else...

We were so excited to find a Granite City. The one near us closed years ago. We love the Sunday Brunch.

Sadly, this location did not live up to the Granite City name. We did not try the carving station or omelet station because no one appeared to be manning it. That may have saved part of our disappointment.

The menu was scaled back from what we remember. I pulled up the online menu from this location, and it was missing items.

The food that was present was sitting for too long or didn't have flavor. The table with the breads was missing the variety of scones, and the one type they had was soft. The fresh fruit was a mangled mess, not the beautiful arranged fruit slices we were used to. It was the one good thing we all liked. The carrot (spice?) cake was dry and flavorless. There was no salmon dip or cheese ball with crackers. There was no soup or chili. The mini muffins were unappetizing as if they came straight from a cardboard box from a warehouse store.

The food on the hot food table was old and just warm. The staff did check several times to see if items were empty and once checked the flames underneath. They did not check temperature once while we were there, nor did they replace the food with fresh. Even our favorite item, the cheesy hashbrowns, were not replaced once they had separated and sat in a vat of grease. I tried some from the top of the batch, but it was not good. What happened to the creamy, cheesy hashbrowns you are known for?

It was about this time we realized we hadn't been served any caramel rolls. We flagged down our waitress, who told us she was waiting on fresh rolls. She returned later with cold hockey pucks swimming in caramel. Either she took them off of someone else's plate, or they weren't out of the freezer long enough. The ones we used to get were hot, airy, doughy, tall, and had a lovely glaze of caramel. We used to fight over them. Today, we left one on the plate and only took a few bites of the ones we had.

I don't know if it is the quality of the brunch that has gone downhill, the restaurant chain, or this location. It truly was a disappointment. I strongly suggest the management hire a secret shopper to visit so you can determine the breakdown.

Our waitress was a disappointment also. I know we ordered the buffet, so we are on our own except for drink refills and plate pick up. She did those ok. But when we wanted our check, it took 20 minutes to flag her down and just as long for her to come back for our payment. At one point, we walked to the front to wait for a hostess to see if we were supposed to pay upfront.

Today was a sad brunch. I am not sure we will try a different location or not, but I can guarantee you we will not be back to this...

Went for the Lighter Side!!

I stopped into this CBG location while on business in the area. I had heard about this chain of Brewpubs from my fellow foodies and Beer Lovers. Low and behold, I had booked the Hyatt House not too far from this location so off I went. I wasn't looking for a heavy meal as I had just gone to Casa Blanca in East Chicago for lunch that day. I was looking for something on the lighter side, and I have to say I was not disappointed. This location was near the Hyatt House where I was staying. I was able to accomplish everything I set out to do, have dinner in a really nice venue, drink some light beers and have a light meal.

The Schaumburg location is a really nice spot. The venue has a very woody and rustic feel to it. The decor is modern and this place screams Beer!! There are brewing related items all over the place like barrels on display, and the bar is full of shiny taps. I did sit at the wrap-around style bar and was able to catch some baseball as there were many TVs scattered throughout the bar. I sat at the bar and was served fairly quickly and the bartender created a very nice flight of lighter beers for me not only that, he recommended some dishes for me that were great matches for my flight and still fairly low carb.

My food was a nice surprise, I started with the tangy Asian Glazed Shrimp, which are jumbo shrimp lightly-breaded, flash-fried, sweet and spicy glaze with a side of Asian slaw. These little shrimp packed quite a punch in terms of flavour. Despite the glaze, I was still able to taste the shrimp. it was a nice little starter. Next up was from the 'City Lites' Menu and was a very flavourful yet light main course. The Shrimp Fried Rice is succulent jumbo shrimp tossed with sesame-fried brown and cauliflower rice, carrot, peas, and egg. Finished with green onion and zesty togarashi seasoning blend and only about 550 cals. It did not taste like something from a light menu and was actually very filling. The meal and the beer and the service were very good and the Schaumburg location is a really nice venue. I would...