Momotaro — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Groups of more than 7 people:

I decided to have my birthday dinner at Momotaro because I’ve heard great things about it. Unfortunately, my experience here was terrible.

It started with their event planning team, which I had to email to book my table since my group was bigger than 7 people. I emailed them on a Monday evening and got a response the next day in the afternoon, asking for more information. I responded within the hour, but I did not hear from them again. Two days later, I decided to email the main email address and finally got an immediate response. I was informed that groups of 8 or more were obliged to select from a fixed family-style menu. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the food selections.

Upon arrival, our table setup was still incomplete. We were seated in front of the bar close to the entrance, with a pillar awkwardly dividing our group. When I requested a table adjustment, the server seemed hesitant, explaining that it will lead to space constraints and traffic issues, then said “there’s nothing I can do about it; we can’t move your table”. I understood the spacing issue that she mentioned, but I felt that my reservations were pointless because I felt as if I walked in and asked for a table. I thought there would be a better seating arrangement in the restaurant for us because I had made a reservation. My friend got hit in the head at least 4 times by guests and servers passing between our table and the bar. There was a mat on the floor in front of the bar that someone tripped over and used my friend’s head to catch themselves. It was a complete nightmare.

We ordered our drinks before the first course started coming out. Four out of the five first course dishes came out, and our drinks were still not served. The bar was not full, and the tables around us were already getting their second round of drinks. When I inquired on what the remaining time was for our drinks to arrive, I received a somewhat curt response from our server, in which she said “Okay, there’s (# of guests) of you here. It’s going to take time.” She looked frustrated; I’m not sure if the restaurant was short-staffed and she had too many tables. I only asked because I thought we would get our drinks before our next course started.

At the end of the night, we asked for the bill. Our server said, “No, I can’t get a final receipt; whoever booked it will get the final receipt tomorrow.” We asked the manager, and he was able to get us a copy of the receipt. Also, the final bill I received through email the next day did not itemize the drinks; it just had a total amount next to the word "beverage."

In conclusion, I would never want to come back here again, especially not for a big party. The food selections were okay, but I would have rather picked my own dishes to share family-style at our table. Some of my friends don’t eat red and white meat, so not all the meat options...

The service as in the servers are not one star. They’re 5. But the managers and the dumb hostess playing with cords not trying to help a customer that just spent $800 is a one star. The hostess was the biggest clown of them all and that’s saying a lot because management promised to pay for x and y just to hush everyone up (which didn’t work) and clearly never did. They never contacted anyone after the event, like “hey did you get home safe because we left outside in the freezing cold and you didn’t get towed until 1am?” Isn't that any easy gesture? You’d think for “managers” it would be.

You’re all pathetic. And a message to the managers directly, this would have NEVER gotten to this point if your trash hostess didn’t treat me like I was a homeless person coming in asking for dumpster left overs. NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Keep that in mind when you finish reading this and pretend like it didn’t happen and you just say to your self “just another unhappy person that couldn’t help himself” or “another spoiled person that can’t handle a normal life occurrence” I handled it all on my own WITH ZERO HELP from management. This is all taken to another level because you couldn’t manage a manageable situation. Congrats.

DO NOT VALET YOUR CAR AT THIS PLACE. Had to get my car towed and they left me outside in 10 degree snowing weather instead of inviting me in to keep us warm while they closed down. Awful managers, they’re literally only managers of the workers schedules and that’s it. Robot busy bee over paid title. My server would’ve handled it better than the “management” because she was a rockstar server. Zero people management from the managers though, comical. Not a chance I’d ever come back here after going for literally 7 years frequently. I will not hate on the service staff or the chefs and sushi chefs, they’re great at their jobs. This is management only, you’re pathetic. You’re robots. And you have no control. And if you have any brains you’d fire the girl hostess who looked at me like I was stupid when I asked for a manager because my car was getting towed because of the valet service messing up my brakes. which resulted in more than I’m even willing to explain seeing as how these idiots have taken enough time out of my life even just writing this review. We’re all aware it’s a third party service, doesn’t mean you have zero control. You’re using it for YOUR CUSTOMERS. Bar none dumbest management staff and hostess I’ve ever encountered in such a good and cherished restaurant by my family. Absolute shame and an absolute sham of a management...

Had an absolutely fabulous dinner. Our server Calvin was on point and very helpful. We started off with Kaki to Buri, nagima, and tsukune. The kaki to buri was delightful, the negima was on point, and the tsukune was absolutely awesome and probably my favorite. As a main i had the sake (Faro island salmon) which was absolutely fabulous, a karai tuna roll which was very good, and some tamago just for fun. I actually loved the tamago and mixed with a hit of soy was very delicious. I had a non alcoholic Miyota Precision with dinner which was very good. I would like to try some of the other NA drinks as well as they all sounded enticing. For dessert I had the MANEKI-NEKO which I could probably eat like 100 of and then die a happy person from indulgence. I seriously might just try to swing in here for dessert again if I can as that was probably the best dessert I've ever had anywhere, hands down. I will definitely return. My only complaint isn't about the restaurant at all, but the people next to us. Our server asked if they wanted anything else and they said no. He came back a short while later and asked them if theyd like the check and they took offense to this and started loudly making snide remarks to and about Calvin, to the point my partner and I had to hear it, because they wanted to apparently camp at the table for an indefinite period of time. I don't know how you can get through life and earn enough money to eat somewhere like this without understanding how restaurants work, but apparently its possible. Heres a tip: when you say your done the server usually asks if you want the check. They arent mind readers and theres no "standard" time of 30 minutes or something before they ask. Usually at restaurants like this its actually quite soon because if you're done, they need to turn over the table so they can earn money and so someone else can eat there. They need to do that so the restaurant can pay their employees and so they can stay in business. If you want to chill for a couple hours after eating maybe go to Dennys at 2am. Also: even if you're dropping good money at a place like this, you have no right to treat the staff like crap and loudly complain about imaginary BS to the point where other patrons have to hear it. You're then screwing up my dining experience in general and bothering me on a moral level as well. Maybe you should take all your money you think people should be impressed with and pay someone to teach you some manners and how to treat people. Hit me up if you want and I can work out a...