Lodi Tap House — Restaurant in Virgil Township

UPDATE: Since posting the below review I was immediately contacted by the manager, Eric, this morning. He apologized profusely and said our experience is not what they would ever want anyone to have. He said he immediately spoke to the waitress and said the next time we came the meal would be on them. When I told them we lived in a different state and if they would reimburse us, we would definitely visit again next time we were in town. But it would probably be some time. He immediately made arrangements to refund us in full, though we requested the waitress keep her tip. Through the entire exchange he was friendly and not defensive at all. The experience we had last night was not great, but today they well made up for it. And I did enjoy the rest of the pretzel tonight at dinner. It was just as good as it was last night. I am changing my score from a one to a four. It is very rare that you will see management go to such lengths to make sure your poor service does not happen again. ORIGINAL REVIEW: We visited for the first time tonight. When we got there they were very busy. It took at least ten minutes for the waitress to come to our table. Which was understandable for a busy night. When we ordered our drinks, my husband ordered a ginormous pretzel. We had been sitting there quite awhile before we were actually asked to order food. After another while we asked the waitress if she had gotten out pretzel order. She gave us a blank look at said she forgot to put it in. Once we finally got the pretzel it was amazing. And just like the menu said - ginormous. But then we sat there for another forty minutes before we asked the waitress if our salads were coming soon. We sat at the high chairs and they were extremely uncomfortable, so we were antsy to get out of there. She said it was next on their list to make. Twenty minutes later she came up to us and told us that there was a miscommunication with the kitchen and the salad would be right up and they were comping our food. Before she told us this we were actually just going to pay for what we had actually gotten and leave without our food. Ten minutes after that we finally got our salads. The Cobb and fried chicken. Both were like anything you could get at O'Charley's. Good, but not worth waiting over an hour for. When we got the bill the salad was comped, but not the pretzel. We ended up spending almost thirty dollars on drinks and the pretzel. We were there for two hours. My sweet husband left a tip, but the fault was 80% with the waitress because she failed to follow up the way she should have. Even after we asked about it. And I promise we typically aren't complainers. We always tip well, but this was a really bad experience. I personally feel all of our food should have been comped. Also a manager never came to the table and no one asked how our food was while we were actually eating it, once we actually got it, to make sure it was okay. I'm glad they comped the salads, but professionally speaking, a manager or owner should have come to apologize. It was really a shame because we drove thirty minutes to get there and were really looking forward to a rare nice night out...

Today we hiked ALL of the trails at Starved Rock State Park and upon completion of our trek we were absolutely famished. There was no real plan for how or where to refuel so we looked into the local fare. Lodi Taproom has got to be THE place to serve trail weary patrons. My wife was in dire need of a chicken sandwich, I know this because she expressed this sentiment at our 8 mile mark and just about every 1/2 a mile afterwards so I had to try and deliver. This establishment brought it! Along with house cooked French fries that were remarkable. We didn’t start with our amazing sandwiches though, for starters we had the cheese curds which were expertly fried in pub style batter and sprinkled with fresh green onions and served with a side of (I assume) a chipotle/ mayo secret sauce. We washed that down with ice cold micro brews that they had on tap, which were poured from railroad spike handled taps and listed on an industrial sign winched to the ceiling with a 1500 pound hoist. For my meal, the main reason I am reviewing this place I had a sandwich that changed my expectations of smash burger creations from here forward. It is currently the burger of the month but it should be a staple signature. I don’t often delight in burgers but this was greasy spoon ingenuity and excellence. Toasted bun, smash burger patty, pulled pork, macaroni and cheese and then pub style onion rings. All the ingredients were premium perfection. I cannot express enough how satisfying the meal was. Even if you’re not going hiking and you’re just looking for a great meal a short distance from I-80 this is a place you must stop. Shut the orange front door(after you enter for your...

Was excited to check this place out. We arrived before the lunch rush on a Sunday ~11:45am. We were only the 2nd table in the whole place. We were greeted quickly and served our beers quickly. After that, it went off the rails... As we we ordering the meal (chicken basket, shrimp basket, and a salad), another table came in and sat next to us. They ordered quickly, but after we did. The place then proceeded to fill up with I would guess another 30 - 40 people in the next 30 mins, all arriving and ordering after us. I had checked in on Facebook as we ordered, so it was easy to keep accurate track of the time. At the 45 minute mark since ordering we were antsy and asked our server what the status was, seeing that the table next to us and several other patrons had been served food. After checking with the kitchen and telling us our order was coming out next, we proceeded to watch as 4 or 5 more orders (placed after ours) were brought out and delivered to other patrons. At the 1hr mark since ordering, I got up and used the restroom and asked on the status of our food again. Again were were told it was coming right out. Again the next 3 plates brought out were served to others that arrived/ordered about 1/2 hr after we did. At this point, angry and not being served, we stood up and I summoned our server, I gave him a $20 to cover our drinks and voiced our concerns. His only reply was "thanks for coming in". Never got a "sorry", "I apologize", or any offer to make it...