Stonewood Ale House — Restaurant in Schaumburg Township

Stonewood Ale House FAILS, overall, and particularly in personability. I am being generous with two stars. I did not completely hate the place, but I am not at all pleased with my experience. This review is about the restaurant management team, general atmosphere and ambiance, and the overall service and the food, for my visit on Saturday, 01/27/24, after 6:00 p.m.

I am no stranger to the Food & Beverage biz. Stonewood Ale House is not in the league with the big boys, not even of those being in the same classification as American fair, tap room, brewery or brew house, ale house, etc. I've been a bartender, cocktail server, hostess, server, banquet server, trainer, and cook, for different types of F&B experiences. I know what quality is, in F&B service, and I can recognize where and when quality is lacking, from the operation, to the GM, throughout the kitchen, at the door, to on the floor, plus bussers, and at the bar and bar area. Stonewood FAILED, overall, on 01/27/24, but I recognize that poor quality is typical for Stonewood Ale House. They ruined my birthday get-together with my sister. Next similar bar experience I'll choose Westwood Tavern.

Management including the GM - I entered and I saw two of the (3?) White male managers just standing around at the host stand. One wore an Oxford with a tie. The other appeared to be the GM, wearing a Polo-like shirt. I stopped, as I could recognize that it was not seat yourself. I didn't observe seating for the bar room & bar. The two (White) male managers stood there and ignored me. Not even an acknowledgement of my presence was shown. Five seconds in one manager left the host stand. About 30 seconds of my entrance the male host came hurrying back to the host stand to greet me. That's not bad. What is poor quality is that I had to prompt communication with the GM, who'd been standing closest to me. I said to the GM, 'He seems to be the only person trying to greet me. What are you, his observer?' I was being intentionally facetious. My impression had been made within the first three seconds of my entrance. The (non-White) male server was only okay. He has a good demeanor and overall good personality type for his employment choice. I waited about 5 minutes for my other party, in which time our server checked in with me. Once my sister arrived, he checked in again. He was fine, until we made our orders. Stonewood has Lite beer, from Miller, listed as Miller Lite; yet it has Miller Genuine Draft listed as MGD. Miller named it's original light beer, 'Lite.' Miller Genuine Draft is not named MGD. Lite Beer, from Miller, is THE ONLY light beer that is so aptly named what it is, being 'Lite,' the BRAND name. No other beer has that distinction. Not Coors Light, not Bud Light, which is aptly named Bud Light and not Budweiser Light, etc. Do you catch my drift? Look at the packaging. Why that lesson? The server was confused when I called out Lite, for my order. It was delivered without a glass, for better service of bar items, or a frosted mug or glass for great service.

He got our orders wrong. My sister ordered the brisket sandwich on the regular bun that it is served on. She received a corned beef sandwich on bread. I ordered the roast beef sandwich on the same bun and with fries. I received the sandwich on bread and with chips. We returned our orders, but the kitchen insisted that they served brisket, which is a juicy brown meat. She received a dry reddish meat--corned beef. My sister noticed that they lightly toast the bread in butter, but they fail to inform of that. I have a food allergy. I asked if it's butter. The server asked the kitchen then returned saying that it is butter. I sent it back for the second time. One of the (3?) managers delivered my plate WITH FULL ATTITUDE AND ANGRY DISPOSITION. He looked at the table but not at me. I thanked him and he DID NOT acknowledge me. No room for management arrogance and attitudes - The food is only so-so. The kitchen failed. The server is not fully knowledgeable, plus he failed...

This establishment is clearly under new management... We (party of 4) were in the area for a Christmas light show and decided to go to our "good spot" in the area for a nice relaxing dinner. Upon arriving you could tell they were understaffed as most restaurants now a days are but the establishment did not seem busy so not a big deal or so we thought. We had to wait quite some time (10+min) just to get acknowledged and place a drink order then 20 min later appetizers arrived but no silverware until we walk up to host table to request silverware. Furthermore, Upon requesting a drink refill on a white Russian and having it come half empty and warm, my husband expressed dissatisfaction and asked for a manager. What a mistake! Long story short the management needs training in customer service skills. We spent 200.00+ and it is concerning to me that this individual seemed very confident in his dismissive attitude to not care about the way he was treating the customer. I am a business owner myself and just want to share this in efforts to avoid the "real owner" further disappointments and or loss of business due to poor customer service due to the lack of employee management skills. I've been a big supporter of this establishment for many years because I like the ambiance but I will definitely not be back here due to disrespectful and immature attituded of the "alleged manager" on duty. Please get better people to manage your establishment; someone that cares maybe? and is actually on the floor!

Best regards, Maria

Total Check$ 213.01 check#3580...

Terrible experience! I hope I don’t get food poisoning tonight :(. My softball team and I came here after our games. My pork chop was completely raw. I asked for it to be medium, and it was barely rare, at best. Now I understand mistakes happen, but after I told the server I felt uncomfortable eating it, he insisted to tell me that he “works in a hospital and I’ll be fine.” My teammates sitting at the table even told the server, hey look this is raw and not edible.

Next, the manager came over and offered me something else to eat, since it was getting kind of late, I asked for it to go, and he said “no that wasn’t part of the deal” so I told him ok I’ll just eat the Santa Fe chicken entree here, and he just grinned, shook his head and walked away.

When my new entree came out, nobody apologized to me, nobody asked me how it was.

You think that if a customer says multiple times that they don’t feel comfortable eating something, that it would get taken off the bill. Nope, not at all. On top of that, they charged a 18% service charge! I’ll be very curious to find out if the service charged is assessed on every customers bill or was this just ours.

To summarize, the server plus a manager we’re snotty, rude and my team WILL NOT. Be returning here. I run a couple other softball teams in the schaumburg area and will tell them to avoid this place after games. So disappointed. Thank you for sending me home with raw food in my stomach, gosh I prey I...