Tangled Roots Craft Beer & Kitchen - Vernon Hills — Restaurant in Vernon Hills

I recently came here on a Thursday night with a few other people and despite it being located in basically a food mall, and having recently taken over a spot that was another restaurant, and having a more famous cousin restaurant (Hangar Too); it did create an atmosphere that is different than it's cousin. The place is bright and airy with a slight industrial design. The tables are nicely spaced and despite a large group that was sat next to us, they didn't bother us and their noise did not offend.

While we waited for one of our party to eventually join us, we ordered Aunt Bee's Biscuits with the maple cinnamon butter and the strawberry butter. I was sold when I saw the maple cinnamon butter, so we tucked into the biscuits and I gotta tell ya, the strawberry butter was much more flavorful. The sweetness of both butters really added to the crisp, savory, and fluffy biscuits. Yes, you read that correctly: crisp and fluffy. If you ever go done south and order biscuits you'll know what I mean. However, once I tasted this biscuit, I wanted to toss the tasty butters aside and order up some sausage gravy as these biscuits give any found in the south a run for their money.

We were all torn as to what to get, but our server gave us some great suggestions and two of the four of us got the chicken parmesan sandwiches. These weren't your typical chicken parm sandwiches. Oh no! They were massive breasts of chicken on a french rolls looking like they were made for finger sandwiches at tea time. The side of vodka sauce for dipping was perfect to dip the sandwich in like a French dip. My two companions said that they've now been spoiled and want all their future chicken parm sandwiches to be served this way. One got the side of house homemade chips and the other got the mashed potatoes.

My third companion was recommended the Beer Can Chicken Salad and was blown away. He loved the noodles in the salad. There's a fast casual hot dog place here that puts noodles in their salad, but not like this. This took their salad to a whole 'nother level. AND, the rest of the salad was great, too. He thought he'd take part of it home and then just wolfed down the rest while awaiting a container.

I ordered their French Dip. And instead of fries, I ordered their white cheddar mashed potatoes (see, I came back to these). Let me start with the mashed potatoes. OMG! So good. They were lightweight with enough white cheddar for taste and creaminess. The potatoes were whipped to a slightly chunky perfection (at least how I like my potatoes to be mashed). They complemented both the French Dip and Chicken Parmesan sandwiches. My French dip was perfectly made sliced prime rib, horseradish crema, pepperjack (not provolone) and au jus with an additional side of au jus. The au jus was a little thicker than the brothy versions that typically accompany French dip sandwiches. And this was a good thing. It held to the sandwich providing even more prime rib flavoring. The roll was crispy and soft in the right places and I finished every drop.

None of us had room for dessert.

Our server was extremely helpful and patient as we waited for our fourth companion to take his sweet time getting to the restaurant. She'd stop by to refill drinks without asking and to chat us up when she wasn't busy helping other tables.

This is a gem in a sea of restaurants and hopefully will stick around awhile so we get the chance to return and try...

My experience immediately started with the waiter saying how much harder it will be for him now because we “switched” seats. And by switching seats he meant the fact that 2 additional people came, myself and someone else, and simply joined our group that it would now be more difficult because we wanted separate checks. The same waiter then mentioned to another person who had just joined that it would be so much easier if it were one check. Absolutely, it would have been but he already knew we weren’t doing that so not sure why he had to voice his displeasure again! Then my friend got her check and was charged for 2 drinks when she only got 1 and she was charged full price because she ordered TWO MINUTES before happy hour started. So when I questioned it, he sensed my frustration, especially after the other 2 comments, and asked if there was a problem. I then went into the issue and how rude it was to make 2 customers feel like a burden and then want to leave right after walking in. He denied having an issue and got a manager. The manager was worse. I get standing up for your people, but we were the ones made to feel as if we should leave, and we are paying customers. The manager then proceeded to say how busy the waiter was because he had two other tables. Ok, so clearly he could only handle 4 tables at a time. At this point I’m pretty heated because he’s making excuses for his employee who was in the wrong. He then tells us that he commends us for our line of work, but he’s really not liking my attitude. After some more words being exchanged he leaves. He then comes back to tell us that the Crumble Cookies we had would not be allowed in next time. Mind you, we were there for over an hour and a half by this point and we had the cookies for our other friends birthday. When he was explaining why I said not to worry because we wouldn’t be coming back. He basically brushed me off my saying that’s fine, but continued telling her why they aren’t allowed, which was BS because it’s not like we were going around sharing it with the other customers, and I’ve been to a billion places and they allow birthday treats. Finally, one of us said that birthday crumble cookies never allowed on birthdays anyway (meaning our friends shouldn’t have even gotten them) jokingly and the manger walks back over and says excuse me as if he were reprimanding us or like we were going to be afraid to tell him. I will NEVER return and will be letting everyone I know to stay as far away from this place...

One star due for perpetually changing surcharges described under "Service 4/5" below. Otherwise, the rating is 4/5, because look!

Food 5/5: Try the specialty burgers. For a heavy burger, go El Fuego, and make sure it's cooked well-done because it contains pork chorizo. For something a little lighter, do a Peppadew. The in-house chips are great and so are the unembellished tater tots. And note that any "pairing" language in a temporary "Burgers & Brews - Crafted For Summer" add-on menu does not include any beer in any of that add-on menu's $20 burger prices. Beer, like all other bevs, is an additional charge. Is the current add-on menu language misleading? Definitely. But some people don't dine here for beer. Beer was never before freely given with any burger, so don't expect it now. And the add-on menu is temporary.

Service 4/5: Waitstaff is very good to great. But there's something terribly wrong with bill payments here. When we first started using gift cards here we couldn't tip waitstaff with them; later we could; and now we can't again. There's also a consistent surcharge on credit cards and an inconsistent surcharge on debit cards. In any scenario either surcharge looks desperate and copies nearby competitor Buttermilk's line-item silliness. More and more area dining venues other than Lazy Dog have pushed that surcharge onto customers to annoy them enough into either cooking at home or -- ugh -- dining at Lazy Dog, however, so here as well as elsewhere, before placing any order, (i) ask for the payment surcharge and tipping policy; (ii) pay via debit card unless there's a surcharge for that as well; (iii) bring cash for tips or to avoid new debit card surcharges; and (iv) juggle sharp forks and knives blindfolded while hopping on your left foot.

Atmosphere 3/5: There's free wifi, which is needed due to nonexistent indoor LTE signals. Patrons here are gratefully well-behaved and considerate. And there are far too few restrooms here for a bar, the existing ones of which could definitely be better maintained during busier hours. That's even more reason to either not drink here or just visit...