D.L. Mack’s — Restaurant in University Park

This was our first visit to DL Mack's and, overall, we were pleased. As a sister restaurant to Hudson House, we expected great service and quality ingredients and we were not disappointed in either of those areas. Cocktails were excellent- one of the best lemon drop martinis we've ever had! Nice wine selection as well. For a starter, we had deviled eggs. They were full of flavor but had a hard, rubbery consistency, which led us to think they had been too chilled or were a day old. For entrées we had the Asian salad, which was very enjoyable, but had a lot of kale. The Ceasar salad with chicken tenders was very disappointing. The Salad came with very large pieces of romaine, very little dressing, and giant croutons that were just hunks of corn bread - not crispy at all. But the most unsuccessful part of the dish was that the chicken tenders were cut in huge chunks and placed at the bottom of the salad, so the once crispy chicken arrived mushy and cold under the giant romaine leaves- SO odd. As we ate the chicken, the coating literally fell off due to it being drenched in liquid. A definite fail. On a much brighter note, the pizza was absolutely delicious and one of our favorite items. The pepperoni was the small variety and it was cooked until crispy on top. The crust was thin and also super crispy, and the other toppings (jalapeños, spicy ranch, and assorted cheese) were a great combination. Definitely a winner! We'll most likely be back for more pizza and cocktails. Hopefully, they will address the issues with the salads...

Let me start this out by saying this would be a 5 star review if it was solely based on food and service. I enjoyed some amazing espresso martinis and a pizza.

That being said I was extremely disappointed when I paid my $160 bill plus $30 tip with cash and was turned down due to their no cash policy. Which is no issue with me having a card but when I asked why this policy existed I was told it was because of the clientele they serve and that even their sister restaurant Hudson House which I also enjoy has the same policy. I find this extremely disappointing suggesting that they do not serve a poor clientele. Despite it being 2022 there are still challenges that exist with getting a bank account based on legal status, or previous financial history, or even tourists who’s cards rarely work while on vacation being travelers checks to pay. It’s not even advertised upon entering. The excuse that it’s not your clientele being located in highland park is pretty offensive. Your staffs reply is a representation of you. Credit card processing is ~4% meaning that this business is choosing to lose that on every transaction just to make this discrimination possible. Cash has 0 fees associated with it and is a convenience to some people, instead they are choosing to exclude and inconvenience a class of people, including upper class that chooses to carry cash. To restate, they are choosing to lose -4% to inconvenience all cash users but also social and racial classes, people with complicated backgrounds, tourists and people with temporary...

This place isn't that great. My server didn't make the experience much better than the food. My server was talking to a friend or off duty coworker at the booth next to me the whole time I was there. I felt uncomfortable for wanting to interrupt her for things that I needed. I ordered 6 different food items and only 2 things really satisfied me. The mozzarella sticks were small and skinny, but weren't bad. The wings were tiny, but delicious. The sauce that they are tossed in is perfect! The caesar salad was different, tasted more like a house salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing and the croutons tasted like cornbread. The cornbread croutons were actually delicious though, just caught me off guard. The pizza is nothing special, but the garlic knots are pretty good, the chicken tenders look better than they taste. The tenders are presented nicely, but they're actually pretty bland. The spaghetti and meatballs were by far the worst thing we tried. The meatballs were overcooked, dry and bland. Spent $125 on this food and was highly disappointed, plus we had to tip on mediocre service. We always tip 20% or more and we felt guilty tipping 18% for the first time in a while. We almost tipped 15% but felt too guilty as...