Recess — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

I had a very bad experience here and I was deeply offended by the way the staff managed the issues that arose during our experience. We had a 7pm reservation and arrived just in time to make our 15 minute grace period. (GM said we were 15+ late, LIE #1) We were originally to be seated outside, which was fine when we realized that we would have to wait a bit longer to get an indoor table. (It was -4 outside). We were standing inside the main area which is the size and style of a warehouse and felt very socially distanced, large and open. We were then offered a chance to order drinks, which was nice! The moment our drinks were arrived we were kicked out of the restaurant and forced to wait in a tiny vestibule.(GM said we were asked to wait outside, LIE #2) It was very cold, especially with fresh ice cold drinks in our hands. In addition to it be ing freezing cold, there were tons of people waiting in this area. At one point I counted 15 people in this tiny room. It felt like the restaurant was trying to "follow COVID rules" inside of the restaurant at the expense of the health and safety of their patrons. When I went inside to ask to be accommodated in a more safe and comfortable location the hostess staff was very dismissive and offered for us to wait outside in negative 4 degree weather as our only other option.(note, I asked before an option of outside was suggested) The lack of an attempt to solve the problem and the lack of care was extremely offensive. I could not even drink the drink I ordered because we were in a tiny vestibule with many people so I did not feel comfortable removing my mask to drink my beverage. Having us order drinks and then kicking us out is what was deeply offensive and felt like a scheme by the restaurant to 1) force us to stay at the restaurant. 2) run our bill up higher. It did not feel accommodating in nature at all. That entire situation was shady. It was also very shady that the hostesses "forgot" to seat us and thought that we had already bee seated... this could be why the GM thinks we were seated promptly... We were not. Ask your security staff who came into the vestibule to ask us what was going on because we had been waiting there the longest. When we went in to check on our table, we were asked if part of our party had been seated and then told that they forgot to seat us. They scrambled quickly to prepare our table and seat us. Very suspect.. The ceiling dripped on us at the table. (I told the manager and we told a staff member passing by that helped with the table, we moved it on our own, LIE #3) The experience once seated was fine. Our waitress was kind and helpful. The experience with being seated and our arrival was so offensive and was not handled by any of the staff in a helpful way. The manager that I spoke to thought it was appropriate to take a round of shots off of our bill. That was almost more offensive than the horror of the experience of being forced to wait in that awful, cramped, dark, and crowded vestibule. (The GM is trying to pretend like they told people to wait outside bc of COVID, but that is a lie, they told us to wait there and every other patron who did not have a table ready at the time of their reservation.) I had no interest in pursuing this matter further.. this is the livelihood of those who work there, but don't try to lie to save your butt, because we can take it there. I have pictures and recordings... so stop. We were not expecting to eat for free, but I very calmly explained all of the issues to the manager and his assessment of a fair resolution was to give us a 9.2% discount on our meal felt like a complete slap in the face. I did not want to get upset or loud or disrespectful but I felt very dehumanized in this experience. And we still tipped well.. I am disheartened because this restaurant really offended us. I don't trust that you all care about the health and safety of customers and it's honestly sad. The GM replied with LIES and was very defensive, which makes...

My friends and I got starters as they had it listed on their website that during happy hour, the starters are 50% off. When the bill came, they charged us full price, even though we ordered before the happy hour was over. We asked about the discrepancy on the bill and the waitress, Anayely, tried gaslighting us into thinking we ordered the food after happy hour, even though my girls and I ordered our happy hour drinks and starters all at the same time, promptly at 5:48 PM as listed on the merchant copy, which is before 6:00 PM. Despite the food being pretty good, the service was terrible. After the waitress did absolutely nothing to fix the bill, the manager then came over to say we’d have to pay full price for the starters, saying that what was on their website was “from 2 years ago, so it’s old”, despite there being no other updates to their promotions online since then. If that offer is no longer valid, it should not be up on the site anymore to falsely bring people in for happy hour promotions. It’s also not the consumers job to gauge how old something is on their website, if it’s still on there and nothing else has been added, any person would believe that that offer is still ongoing today. The manager then brought out the plastic placard with the happy hour deals displayed on it saying that those were the only current offers they had. So glad that advertisement was put on our table when we were sat to read over the happy hour deals… oh wait— it wasn’t. There was nothing on our table that described any of the happy hour promotions, and the waitress failed to disclose any of the happy hour information to us when she took our order. Overall, we were very displeased with how they handled that, they took no accountability for their mishaps and offered no solutions to us except for that they’re going to update the website to take that 50% off starters down. We’ll see if that ends up being true. My friend was a regular consumer there, but after tonight, none of us will be coming back. Plus, the music is WAY too loud, I could barely hear my girls talk without having to put my ears close to their face to figure out what they were saying. Do...

Went to Recess yesterday and had a TERRIBLE experience customer service wise. I went up to the outdoor bar and ordered a "Mood Soda" from the non-alcoholic options and even pointed it out on the menu to the the bartender because they couldn't hear me. They ended up giving me the "Mead" drink on the menu that was listed right above the drink I ordered and it contained alcohol. I didn't really notice until after the first couple sips because I wasn't really paying attention to the can the drink came in. Sometimes NA drinks really resemble the real thing. I had also just finished eating minty candy so my taste buds weren't as acute.

After a few sips I started reading the can and notice it contained alcohol. I wasn't even mad since it was an honest mistake on both our ends and easy to resolve. So I went back over to the same bartender and informed them that the drink wasn't what I ordered and asked for them to bring the menu back out. I pointed to the drink I asked for and said it and the bartender kept saying and pointing to the wrong drink because it was right above the one I wanted. Eventually I got him to understand I was asking for the drink below it and I asked for a new glass. To which he then said with an attitude that he would let me have the non-alcoholic drink for free this time but next time "just read better." As I was responding that I did read what I wanted correctly he walked away waving his hand saying "yea whatever, whatever." I left the bar but then went back and asked him to get his manager. He went and told his manager. His manager came over and ultimately said he needed to get his bartenders side of the story too. I watched him walk over to the bartender, talk to him for a bit and then just leave. The manager never came back to me to apologize or provide an update, nothing. I was not taken seriously at all nor treated with any type of real decency. Also yes, I am a Black woman and I was by myself. I have a hard time believing they would treat other patrons as such. The blatant disrespect and unprofessionalism...