The Reserve at Hartford — Restaurant in Town of Addison

We had seen MJ’s come up on Google when looking for restaurants, ended up in the area and decided to come for an early dinner. Tucked away at the end of a stretch of dead end country road, MJ’s beckons for you to enter as it appears in front of you. The interior is German bier-Hause meets Wisconsin supper club vibes. Cozy nooks and spacious dining rooms, a grand bar and all of the small-town Wisconsin feel are what you are in for. We came for early dinner, a large contingent of retirees were living their best life and didn’t batt an eye at the “young folks” coming in. It is amazing when you roll into a new place for the first time and are welcomed like family.

As for the food- my oh my, the FOOD! We started out with the stuffed mushroom appetizer. Fresh mushrooms stuffed with Italian sausage, smothered in gooey melted cheese and served with a side of some of the best marinara I’ve tasted. After our amazing server Sandy graciously checked on some allergens for me, I ordered the fish fry. I went for the 4 piece, hoping to have leftovers, which I did. Delightfully crispy panko style breading enrobed the firm and tasty cod. The waffle fries were out of this world! Anyone who says that Chik-fil-A has the best has never had these. Golden crisp and fluffy insides, a thing of beauty. My man ordered the Rueben. As a self-proclaimed Rueben connoisseur, he tried this at each place we eat. It was enormous. The marble rye was light and fluffy, the freshest corned beef piled high, and the perfect ratio of kraut and thousand island blanketed this masterpiece. His crinkle fries were oh so perfectly cooked as well. Even with taking half of our respective meals as leftovers, he decided that he needed to try the cheesecake. Made by our server herself, this mammoth slice of Heaven-on-a-plate was indulgently creamy, thick and rich, and had a graham crust for the ages. It too, had to get a to-go box as one slice was meant to share (and my allergy kept me from that).

Sandy offered great insight to the best dishes to try, recommended days and menu’s we wouldn’t have known about, and offered local insight on some other business in the area. Stellar service all around!

If you want a no-fuss place to eat with great food, hearty portions, prices that can’t be beat and a server that treats you like family, then...

Food was good, cooks & server did a good job.

Frustrating Experience, Too much competition in the restaurant industry to spend your money here on this kind of service. Told us it would be a 45 minute wait, we waited 2 hours just to be seated, and they defended the whole experience with “that’s normal here.” Then proceeded to make up excuses as to why it happened and why it should be acceptable and okay. No thank you. No accountability or care to be honest about whatever truly happened. Things happen, I can understand that, I can’t understand excuses and “this is normal”, rather than owning the mistake with an apology, and explaining what truly happened with honesty and sincerity.

Arrived, checked in, and received an estimated wait time of 45 minutes. (No problem that’s tolerable) Checked in after an hour of waiting and drinking at the bar, and they showed us which table was reserved for us, and informed us we’d be the next table called. Proceeded to go back to the bar and wait and listen to group after group be called to be seated, other than ours. Another half hour goes by, we’re still spending money on drinks at the bar, and we go to check in again and they tell us it will be 10 more minutes. It’s been an hour and a half at this point, if the 10 minutes held true it would have been an hour and 40 minutes to be seated. It didn’t, we had to ask the bartender what was going on and explain that we had been there 2 hours waiting, (the bartender, she did a great job) got Sandy involved, who did get us (5) free drinks, but that’s after we had already purchased 2 extra rounds of drinks from waiting much longer than told. Sandy made excuses, said yeah an hour and a half to 2 hour wait “is normal here”, well, why do you tell people it’s a 45 minute wait when they arrive then? Never owned the mistake, never truly told us what really happened, never apologized. Quite honestly, was very obvious, she just didn’t care.

Won’t be back, and would...

I've been here a couple of times. But this will definitely be my last. First off went and got seated immediately. Went to use restroom and I think they decided to shut the heat off in the bathrooms. Extremely cold in there. Then when we were ordering had questions and the waitress was Extremely rude on the answers. Her name was Sandi. We all placed our drink order went fine there. Ordered food and an appetizer and she basically came and set the appetizer down and immediately ran off. Even though a few of us wanted drinks again. Took forever to get her attention again. She was too busy talking to the other waitress there. And yes we could see her.

The appetizer menu is not correct. We ordered potato skins with sour cream and we got potato skins that were slightly burnt. And the "sour cream" that was brought out with it. Was not sour cream. It was more like a ranch. She said it was their version of sour cream. Then that needs to be stated on the menu. And she was quite rude about it when I asked her. We got our food. The food order was correct on what we ordered but unfortunately some of our meals were cold. And when we pointed this out again Sandi was rude. Took forever to get hot food and more drinks.

And the last problem we had is we had a larger party. We had 10 people. Now I know gratuity is added in most places with a larger party. But the problem was is when she brought the bill out she highlighted the gratuity and only the gratuity. And when we asked her to separate the checks she was extremely rude about it.

And I'm writing this review as a person who used to run a successful restaurant. Only quit the business because I was tired of having to constantly apologize to customers for service like this. And before you asked no we did not speak to a manager cause we could hardly get anyone to our table.

Definitely would not recommend this place especially if...