SCRATCHBOARD KITCHEN — Restaurant in Wheeling Township

I had such high hopes for this place after reading all the positive reviews.

First we will start off with the customer service. I ordered online for pickup. I received a text notifying me my order was ready so I went I picked it up. When I arrived they had my food ready but I ordered lattes as well and those were not ready yet and I was informed they will be making those at that time. Another customer came in about a minute or so after me and he was told the same thing. This is no issue for me as I assumed they wanted to make the drinks fresh so it’s not just sitting there in case someone takes longer to pickup their order. My issue is that I was watching the person making the drinks and she didn’t start making either of our drinks until at least 5 minutes after I picked up my order (they did not seem extremely busy as it was just me and the other customer in the restaurant). Not only that, she made the customer behind me’s drink first. In all, I probably waited 15 minutes to get my food and drinks, even though I received a text that my food was ready. No apology or anything at all from the employees.

Now for the food. I ordered the chicken biscuit and made it spicy for an extra dollar. The sandwich itself was bigger than I expect and tasted good. The issue I had with it is that there was absolutely no heat despite me ordering it “spicy.” Maybe I need to get it “dangerously spicy” but my thought was spicy would at least have a hint of heat. The chicken biscuit also comes with a “seasonal” side. The side was coleslaw. I was highly disappointed in this, as I was expecting a seasonal veggie, potatoes or something of that nature.

My wife ordered the English muffin, which she enjoyed. However, she said only enjoyed it slightly more than a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich.

Overall, I was highly disappointed. For the price that you pay for the food (especially breakfast food), I would expect better customer service and the menu to be more reflective of the actual product (actually spicy and “seasonal” side). During these times, I’ll gladly support local business but I’m just not sure this one sets itself apart from other local businesses.

Update: After writing the original review, the owner reached out and gave me a voucher to give them another shot.

The service this time was much better, although we didn’t get any coffee. I was in and out in around a minute.

After about a month after my initial review, we came back to see if Scratchboard just had an off day last time so I ordered essentially the same thing, the fried chicken biscuit sandwich (made spicy), but this time it came with crispy potatoes and OJ as part of a daily special. I noticed on their website, the fried chicken biscuit sandwich no longer says it comes with a “seasonal side,” which I appreciate as I feel like it is no longer misleading. My wife tried something different and got the breakfast biscuit sandwich.

The fried chicken biscuit was good like last time, however it still wasn’t as spicy as I was expecting. My wife thoroughly enjoyed her breakfast sandwich and said she would definitely get it again.

Overall all, this visit was much better so I am updating my review to 4 stars from 2. It was a nice gesture from the owner reaching out and the food was very good. My only complaint is the spiciness of the...

Willing to give this place another shot, this time outside and away from the kitchen. The waitstaff are absolutely wonderful here! Many appear to have been here for sometime, which is also reassuring. My last time here may have just been a one-off. Honestly though the waitstaff are so thoughtful and pleasant, and I could feel the usual cheery energy they carry. The drinks, however, were just ok today. The cold brew is usually strong, which I really appreciate, but today it tasted watered down. The matcha latte did as well, but perhaps just one offs. The bread with the eggs in purgatory also tasted a little stale, but the eggs in purgatory were wonderful! This place has so much potential, and I’d be willing to keep coming back.

Original review: Please do something about your manager from today.

We were seated by the kitchen, and a woman in a gray hoodie and yoga pants who I presume was the manager spent our entire meal hovering over the handoff plane on the dining room side screaming at the staff. All you could hear was “Biscuit! Pancakes! Lox!” echoing through the restaurant. I’ve been here many times before, and there’s usually an upbeat, fun energy from the whole staff, but today, it was silent in the restaurant, minus this manager’s shrills. The cooks all had their heads down, and you could tell everyone working was on edge. Not only did this damper my experience as a customer (I could barely talk to my husband over this woman’s voice), but imagine working in a fast-paced environment like a restaurant with your manager micromanaging every aspect of operations.

In addition to the yelling and micromanaging, the manager also felt she could be helpful to her team by also doing their jobs for them. We saw her reach over the handoff plane into the kitchen, practically laying stomach-down on the counter, to grab a ladle from one of the warming trays. To add to the health code infraction of her hoodie touching the handoff plane, we saw this woman rub her eyes with her hands, and then put her whole thumb into the inside of a bowl, which she then began filling with food that went out to a customer. She also had her phone out on the hand-off plane, and kept using it to text or something. For someone who’s supposedly in charge, and who supposedly thinks she can do everyone else’s job better than them, she sure isn’t familiar with the many health code violations she committed during our visit.

I’ve been here many times before, and the energy has never been this stressful here. I don’t understand why she felt the need to bark at her employees and do their jobs for them. They weren’t very busy, and we didn’t have issues with getting our food quickly. In fact, because this woman was screaming at her workers, we got our main courses almost immediately after our pastry board, which made me feel like she was just trying to get people in and out quickly. Someone please do something about this manager before all of the wonderful staff quit or the health department notices this woman touching her phone, her face, and the things that touch food, and this restaurant ceases to exist as a fun little...

*update: the manager(?) refunded the charge for the extra toast and gave me a 10 dollar gift card to their store. I won't be going back but I'll give the gift card to a friend who wants to try this place.

great ambience and very nice patio area. I made a reservation in advance and we were seated promptly. Ordered the dutch baby pancakes, lamb shakshouka, strawberries and creme french toast, avocado toast, and a side of potatos. Also ordered 2 lemonades, 1 cold brew coffee, and 1 medium roast coffee. Our server seemed friendly but it was extremely difficult to get her attention. We asked for a refill for the medium roast coffee and had to remind her after about 5 minutes. It took her another few minutes to return with the coffee. It seemed like she was doing her best NOT to look at our table. I also asked for a REFILL for my cold brew only to find out later (when I got home and checked the receipt) that I was charged for the refill. My "refill" coffee arrived about ten minutes afer my request. We were already finished eating by then. The lamb shakshouka came with 4 slices of toast and I thought it was nice and thoughtful of the server to give us 4 pieces since we were a party of 4. Found out that she had charged an extra 2 dollars for the "extra" toast that we never ordered or requested. By the way, the lamb shakshouka was her recommendation. We tried to get our servers attention to ask for a bill but again, she never glanced our way. Another waitress(?) or manager came to check on us..probably because we were trying our best in the politest way to get our server's attention..and she got us our bill and we paid, gave 20% tip, not realizing that our waitress had over-charged us. Our waitress came by right after we had paid and asked if we're ready for our bill...Seriously...they need to work on communication amongst the servers. The customers should MAKE SURE TO CHECK THEIR BILLS on the spot cuz they seem to like to charge you for stuff you didn't order. We won't be going back. There are plenty of other restaurants along that street in downtown Arlington Heights that have the same nice...