My wife asked me where I wanted to celebrate my birthday. I've always had extremely positive experiences at an Andersonville favorite, Lady Gregory's. Sunday was not one of those days. The weather was brisk with a negative wind chill. We arrived around 1:30 pm after walking several blocks. The hostess greeted us with a smile and showed us several tables before choosing one by the front windows off the street. Our server, Javier, came to our table and pulled up a seat and leaned in to hear and take our orders. Since it was chilly outside I opted for a hot drink, Irish Coffee. My wife ordered a glass of LOS DOS D.O. CAVA, Spain. The Irish coffee arrived at our table tepid. Not an auspicious start to our meal. I ordered the Irish coffee because we just came in from the cold. A hot drink was what I needed to warm my chilled bones. I was able to get Javier's attention and I asked him to please warm up my drink. I assumed since it was a coffee drink Javier would make a fresh pot of coffee and redo my drink to heat it up. He did not. When he returned several minutes later the glass was slightly warmer, but the coffee was still cold. Very disappointing. We ordered an appetizer and soups to start our meal. We chose DEVILED EGGS made with
Thai chili oil and garlic chips. Outstanding! This is always a favorite of ours. My wife ordered a bowl of Cavalier Nero. It's made with a lite chicken broth, mixed vegetables, and lightly seasoned. My wife enjoyed this soup special and was pleased when it came to the table steaming. I ordered the French onion soup. Wow! This soup was a cold, soggy mess. I've had this soup here in the past. Today it was flavorless, cold, and the broth and onions were soggy. Very disappointing. For our entrees my wife ordered the classic burger with bacon. The classic burger was topped with lettuce, pickle, tomato, ketchup, and caramelized onion. The burger was cooked medium rare and came with fries. The caramelized onions were a cold glob on top of the burger. Next time she will ask to substitute raw onions in lieu of caramelized onions. The French fries did not taste fresh. The fries tasted stale and had probably been sitting under a heat lamp for a while. Which is ironic because they were cold. I ordered my standby favorite, chicken pot pie. The chicken pot pie was prepared with roast chicken, onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, peas, chicken cream gravy, and a pastry crust. Again, my entree was not hot. Extremely disappointing. The pot pie was tepid and soggy. For dessert we ordered another round of drinks and cobbler with an extra scoop of vanilla ice cream. I ordered an Old Fashioned made with bourbon, demerara, and bitters. It was better than the Irish coffee. My wife ordered a MAPLEWOOD SON OF JUICE a Juicy India Pale Ale made locally and canned in Chicago. The cobbler lacked flavor and was colder than the ice cream that it was served with. The interior of the dessert should have been piping hot, but was cold. The crust had a slight butter flavor but somehow didn't add anything to the apples, or vanilla ice cream. The vanilla ice cream was served cold and had a pleasant vanilla flavor to it. The only thing on the menu served correctly today was the two scoops of vanilla ice cream. My wife mentioned to the server it was my birthday. He stated "you should have told me earlier". Overall, I cannot recommend Lady Gregory's. In the past my experiences have always been positive. Today my experience was negative and highly disappointing. Also, a 2.90% universal service charge was added to our bill. Yes it is stated at the top of the menu; however, there is no indication what the charge is regarding. Is it a charge for using a credit card, or is there another purpose for this charge? The bill, including a 20% tip and 2.9% universal service charge came to an astounding 180. I understand there is a premium price to dining out. I get that I chose to dine here. However, the unwritten contract between the restaurant and customer is they provide a high quality of food and service and in exchange I pay for that quality. The quality and service were not present when I dined at Lady Gregory's today. What a shame! To quote Tony Robbin's, "Customers are willing to pay a little more for the assurance of quality and reliability". Today Lady Gregory's did not live up to the "assurance of quality and reliability" regarding our dining experience. read more