Honky Tonk BBQ / The Tonk — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

The food was great as I really enjoyed it. The flavor and seasoning was amazing. I was there a while ago I met the owner and she was amazing. I went again and the waitress was nice but not attentive. I went there and took my friend as it was her first time. She also agree that the food was good and service was mediocre. Fast forward to the charges:

My bill is $60.54 My friend and I, (2) people told the waitress to split the bill. I left a $30 cash payment in addition to $6 My friend put her credit card to be charged $30.54 (Laura, our waitress was told this and she acknowledged that this was understood)

My friend and I roommate together and showed me that they overcharged her card $11.57. She calls the location immediately and they said a manager would get back to her.

My friend said the manager (BETH) called her a day later and said that she is not in the office but has not forgotten about the situation. When she gets there and investigates she will call her back. So my friend email her the situation as the manager (BETH) asked.

Then she reads an email this morning and calls me over to read something I found extremely wrong of any company to do....

"Our menus state that any credit cards left behind will incur a 20% tip. This is a standard practice in the restaurant industry."

So if you accidentally leave your credit card in a restaurant table that gives the company the right to input a 20% tip? (my friend thought she had the card with her and she found out about 20 min. ago that she did in fact accidentally leave her card there).

The point is that the tip charge is a GRATUITY she had to EARN IT to get it. Which she earned $6 CASH tip that both my friend and I left on the table.

Let me get to the best part of this whole situation. The so-called "MANAGER" starts yelling at my friend and states that my friend is the one yelling at her. Meanwhile, I am listening to the whole situation. There must have been someone around the so-called manager (BETH) because she also started cutting my friend off and lying on her saying that she is cursing at her (when she was not cursing) and saying that she said the F bomb. My friend said something along the lines that she was now "PISSED OFF" and the manager said that was another curse word and she was insulting her.

That is laughable, now not only are we both disgusted with the waitress LYING stating that she did not receive her $6 cash tip, she received an additional 20% on my friends card (WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION) for mediocre service but now we are disgusted with the manager who was either making stuff up so that people around her can vouch for her, she has hallucination issues, or she has some sort of cognition issue.

My friend even congratulated her for making this unethical experience a review worth wild.

I am going to go over there in person with my friend and we are going to ask to speak to Laura and Beth and see what is going on. Meanwhile, we are searching for the owners number and my friend is calling her attorney first thing tomorrow morning to see if it is legal to incur a 20% tip on a credit card that is left behind.

Beth in response to your message below:

"I am uncertain how to respond to you (MY NAME IS LORENA CUENCA) and your multiple emails (You asked AR to email you and she responded), phone calls (She called ONE-TIME, our multi-line phone bill can prove that) and reviews. We refunded (AR CALLED HER CREDIT CARD COMPANY AND DISPUTED THE CHARGE YOU REFUSED TO REFUND) the tip for your server ($6 TIP WAS GIVEN IN CASH SPLIT BETWEEN AR AND I. FURTHERMORE, AN UNAUTHORIZED 20% TIP WAS CHARGED- ILLEGAL BY THE WAY), per your request, on your Filthy Pro 1 unsigned credit card (THAT CAN BE SIGNED BY AR IF NECESSARY) that was left in your server's book with $30 cash for your $60 bill (ONCE AGAIN, CORRECTION: $36 CASH. FYI- $33 WAS MY CASH PART AND AR PUT $3 CASH TIP + $30 ON HER CARD). You can retrieve your credit card with a photo ID at your earliest convenience.(MY FRIEND AR HAD TO PROCESS THE DISPUTE HERSELF)" Beth, Owner (UNETHICAL,...

Great place for food and drinks! They also have a pool table and dart board along with a few other games!! I love the spot and all the workserthere are so nice (Please tip them well).

Unfortunately, if you go while the owner is there, you'll see her belittle staff and she may talk down upon you.

I was playing a pool game when a wedding party came (we had no idea they were coming) and the owner told me they rented the room we were playing pool in, no big deal. So I start to pack up my things and one of the guys in the wedding party tells me we can finish our pool game.

I grab my stick, determined to be quick for them. The owner walked up to me and I explained the situation and she said "You need to leave right now" and I agreed we'd go to the back (it turns out that guy wasn't a part of the wedding party, just a part of the wedding). She then tells me I'm being extremely disrespectful and need to leave her restaurant.

She walks me out, tells me MULTIPLE times my mother would be disappointed in me?? I have no idea who this women is, or why she was so hellbent on ensuring I left her restaurant, but she was a disgusting human being.

Go, and if you see a older white woman who is degrading her staff and other people drinking/eating, please just leave.

Will be coming back!

Edit (Response to owner):

No one told anyone in my group there was an event and there were no signs saying otherwise.

We were all very confused when some random person (you) who didn't even look like she worked at the restaurant come up and tell us we had to leave.

I did not demand to stay. I was unaware of the situation. And the first few people in the wedding party that showed up invited us to finish our game as I was putting our pool sticks back.

If you would have been a reasonable person, we could have talked it out, but you insisted on being negative, nonapologetic, and rude. The women I was with were just as confused with your pittiful actions as I still am now.

Advice: If you rent your restaurant out for a wedding party, probably put up some kind of sign or block off the back section. Who would've told us that there was a wedding party back there in the first place? You're inability to properly prepare should not be taken out on...

It was Easter and I was taking my mon out for an early dinner. She wanted to go to Chinatown, but I told her I had been craving ribs for about a week so we decided to go to Honkytonk BBQ. We had been there before years ago and had some bad experiences but decided to give it another try. Bad idea. The waitress took our order without taking a drink order, we had to ask if there was a bar even though we were looking right at the bar. She brings a salad out after the ribs as though she had never eaten dinner before. The ribs came out and it was like pork jerky. It was like a dried out hockey puck. There is not doubt that these ribs have been sitting around under a heat lamp or something forever. I ate one rib and I couldn't eat any more of it. I told the girl and she has absolutely no idea what to do. No apology, no trying to make things right, nothing from her. I am fifty five years old and I don't think I have ever sent anything back in a restaurant. Probably a couple of times to have a steak cooked a little more if it was too red, but that was it. There was no manager to speak to for some reason. She told me she would give me a discount on the ribs that were inedible. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR YOUR MONEY ON THIS PLACE I can't believe the response from the owner of this restaurant, this is absolutely ridiculous. Not one word about the bad food, not one word about the bad service, not apology or asking how he can make it right, just an attack. For your information buddy, I was never mean,nor have I ever been mean to a server in my life. I am always nice to wait staff and I always tip well. I don't know what you were told, but everything you described about my behavior is completely untrue. You said I "came in angry," that doesn't even make any sense. why would I walk into a restaurant that I convinced my mother to give a second chance to and be angry? i can assure you, I was not. I do not wish ill will on people but if this is the kind of response you give for serving bad food, then you probably shouldn't be in the restaurant business. Your severs don't pay the bills, your customers do. You might want to think about that the next time you go on a...