Spears Bourbon Burgers Beer — Restaurant in Wheeling Township

So I don't normally write a review but my experience here was pretty bad, 7/10/16.For those who do know me, they know that I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to food and I can eat just about anything.

I came to this place with high hopes and was excited for a good burger. They have grass fed beef and that's always a plus. I'm willing to pay an extra buck for a good burger and beer.

It started ok, waiter comes and gives our drinks and I got a beer. By the time our food came out I had finished my beer so I asked for a second beer.(you'll see why I mentioned this)

We get our food and it honestly wasn't too bad in terms of the burger. Here's where everything went down hill.. I ordered all three of our burgers to be medium and all three were well done as well as the fries being cold. I told our waitress who came halfway through our meal and all she did was going to "tell the kitchen". What could this possibly do for us? .. Wait for yet another burger for us to eat when we already waited close to 30min, meaning we would be here past an hour? But all she did was tell the kitchen and came back, apologized, and she offered to buy the drinks. (FYI I went on a Sunday so draft beers are 3$.) I can't say comp my meal so I just accepted and moved on. In the meantime, my second beer never came, I was in my final bites of my burger and the beer hadn't come so I asked them to cancel it. The other two people I came with weren't able to finish their burgers because it was too well done. Again, you have to know that we aren't that hard to please but the 70$ tab we paid was not worth the cold meal and the slow service. We were clearly finished with our meal and the check didn't come for another 15min. Funny side note, the beer I cancelled came after we told our waiter to bring the check. (Prob some miscommunication). The check: she said she'd comp the drinks, turns out she comped only my 1 beer which was $3 vs the $70 check. I'm not going to skimp out on tip even though it was poor service because I know what it's like to work at a restaurant and I'll still pay my money. I honestly wanted to talk to the manager but seeing how nothing could be done promptly, I gave up, left, and now I'm writing this review because the dinner I paid for was...

My wife chose this place because she thought I’d enjoy it — I’m a big bourbon fan. At first, the atmosphere was great. We were seated outside by a window where we could enjoy the weather and the fire. But that’s where the positives ended.

For a place that brands itself as a bourbon bar, the selection was incredibly disappointing. Most of the options were mid-shelf bourbons being sold at top-shelf prices. There were maybe two that could even be considered premium, and even then, one was just listed as “Booker’s” with no indication of which release. When I asked, the staff couldn’t tell me which one it was. That’s unacceptable for a place that claims to specialize in bourbon.

We ordered the gator appetizer — or at least we tried to. When it came out, the server placed it at the wrong table, right in the middle of six women’s drinks and conversations. It sat there for quite a while until our waitress noticed and brought it over to us. At that point, we weren’t sure we should even eat it, but we were hungry and gave it a shot.

Then came the entrées — and, again, they were taken to the same wrong table. My wife had to raise her voice just to get our food delivered to us. I had ordered the filet sliders, which were a complete disaster. The meat was so tough I couldn’t bite through it as a slider, so I tried eating it like a steak. But it was still inedible — chewy, rubbery, and full of this overwhelming gas flavor from the grill. It honestly tasted like I was eating propane. I managed to force down one piece and couldn’t stomach the rest.

As if that wasn’t enough, when I asked for a dessert to go, they again delivered it to the wrong table — the same table, unbelievably.

The waitress did the best she could under the circumstances and was clearly overwhelmed. But the kitchen, management, and service process were a total failure. We left in a bad mood, both frustrated and disappointed. What was supposed to be a fun night out turned into a complete mess. We won’t be coming...

Spears is a great addition to Wheeling. They have a good bar, a nice sized dining area, and a party room for larger groups. We try to go here quite often as the food never disappoints.

I usually get a burger hear as they have several and they always are juicy and delicious - almost near perfection in a burger in my opinion.

However, they do have many other option on their menu that are wonderful. Oh, and did I mention they have a bacon appetizer?

It's a cool place to watch a game at the bar, or host an event in their oak barrel party room. They also have a nice little outdoor area with fire pits (towers).

I've been here so many times that I can easily tell you all the things I've had and they're all worth the trip:

Appetizers Fried Pickles Cheese Curds Alabama Gator Smoked Chicken Wings Traditional Wings Fresh Baked Pretzel Bacon at the Bar - OMG - sooo good!

Burgers and Sandwiches The Classic Burger Wagyu Burger Angry Burger Bacon Coffee Burger Buffalo Chicken Sandwich Spears Burger Mini Burgers Filet Sliders Grilled Shrimp Tacos The Ghostburger Turkey Burger Jurassic Pork Elk Burger Apple Bottom Burger

Entrees (I normally get a burger or sandwich) Marinated Skirt Steak Smash's Mac Braised Short Rib

Sides Homemade BBQ Chips Handcut French Fries Mashed Potato Rice Pilaf Chipotle Corn (freakin awesome!) Mac & Cheese

Dessert Cotton Candy Bourbon Bread Pudding (really, really good) Apple Fritters Homemade Chocolate Chip Skillet Beignet Crossiant Donuts Chocolate Budino

I can honestly say that I've never had a salad there.

Everything is so so good. I can say enough about this place. Make a reservation to make sure you...