Bar Siena — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

RACISM — LONG REVIEW ALERT

Never in my life have I experienced such disgusting treatment from both front of house staff and management. I came yesterday with a group, where one member did not have his ID, as he is visiting and his wallet was unfortunately stolen (which I explained). Keep in mind that I have lived in the area for 2 years and have worked in the area for 7. I have never once been carded there, and I look pretty young. He asked the waitress Meigen if he could show a picture to get a drink, in which case she said she could show it to the manager and it would be at his discretion. The picture he had of the ID happened to be expired, so I wanted to speak with the manager who was hosting and see if any accommodations could be made since the individual was 30 years old and we had never been carded before, and I mentioned this along with living and working in the area, being a server myself. He was extremely rude and short from the jump and even told me “I should know how it goes,” and said that they don’t allow picture ID at all, which directly contradicts what the server had said prior about being able to show him a picture ID. Obviously, this is allowed with other customers. Just not our FULLY black group. This was proved even further after I spoke with EIGHT different WHITE patrons in the establishment who expressed to me that they had not been carded AT ALL that day and frequented the restaurant quite often as well. However, if you couldn’t see this coming— the only other Black group in the venue was carded as well. After the first manager completely WALKED OFF while we were speaking (which I recorded), another member ends up speaking with a different manager, Sammy, who comes up to our table even more disrespectfully than the first one that I spoke with and speaks to us extremely condescendingly, and allows Meigen to fly off the handle and argue with us in front of him, stating that “we should have came prepared and it wasn’t her problem.” At this point, the entire group felt uncomfortable and the experience was ruined. ON TOP OF THAT, there was an added automatic gratuity to the check. The website mentions this being added to parties of 6, and we were a group of 5. Another very clear racist act, assuming we would not have tipped and illegally adding this to our check. With the experience we had with Meigen’s unprofessional, tactless remarks and Sammy’s infantilization of our entire group, INCLUDING literally getting extremely close to my face, speaking over me while I tried to have a civil conversation, and attempting to kick me out saying that he would call the police (!!) this has been one of the WORST and most disgusting, embarrassing, and blatantly racist treatment I have ever had. No one was loud or rowdy at any moment, and when bringing up these issues to Sammy, stating that the treatment was flat out inappropriate and racist, he replied with “That’s fine.”

DO NOT DINE WITH OR SPEND MONEY...

We came here for brunch over the weekend as the weather was nice and had some family in town staying around the area. The place was packed, but our waiter was on point taking care of us as well as knowledgeable about the menu. We ordered a few dishes off the brunch menu, including the breakfast pizza, breakfast sandwich, lobster roll, and the acai bowl. The breakfast pizza was phenomenal, and the breakfast sandwich was great as well. Lobster roll and acai bowl were just okay.

I will have to knock a star off as I was a little disappointed with the COVID precautions that were in place. We sat inside at the table by the front door, which is normally fine in any other circumstance, but when large groups of people walked inside to check in, they congregated by the entrance which also meant they were literally next to us at the table, not socially distancing. Look, I get it, everyone is tired of COVID but at least keep the entranceway organized. I was also surprised that they still were using paper menus, when most restaurants have transitioned to the virtual menu by QR code scanning.

I’ll give credit to Bar Siena as staff were wearing face masks, and they do have glass shields up between tables. I didn’t get a chance to explore their outdoor seating, but that looked okay as well. Overall, I thought it was a good dining experience. Would I come here again? Yeah, probably, if I couldn’t find a reservation at any other restaurant around the area. Bar Siena has that benefit where you can usually find a table/reservation here when all other places are filled up, which is a good thing. It’s usually not your first choice, but I would not be disappointed...

I would avoid eating here if you have a food allergy. My husband has a tree nut allergy, so I was initially impressed that two different individuals asked about food allergies within minutes of sitting down. After that was communicated, there was a free appetizer offered to each guest, I’m assuming for New Year’s Eve. Great, we look at it and think it may have nuts, so we ask our waiter who tells us no, there are no tree nuts in this item. We start enjoying the free treat and immediately, my husband starts having a reaction. Turns out there were nuts in the free item being offered. Extremely frustrating. Three different managers apologized and our meal was comped, but it’s not acceptable to communicate an allergy multiple times and even ask if a specific item has your allergen in it, and for someone to still ingest their allergen. That’s pure carelessness and lack of knowledge amongst the staff. The systems in place currently are clearly ineffective, and harm was caused. I would recommend not placing a common allergen in a free item being offered to each guest, especially when the individual assigned to pass out these items does not appear to have conversational English and is unable to answer questions like, “what is this?” It also seems that some serious re training is in order as far as learning ingredients in menu items and in adhering to policies when a customer mentions an allergy, like double checking if items contain allergens rather than just telling someone it’s safe for them to eat. It doesn’t matter if it’s busy, the extra time it takes to confirm, without a doubt, is worth it for (potentially) someone’s life. We will...