My mom, my niece, and I visited Bourbon House in Oakbrook on Saturday around 6:00 PM. We completely…read moreunderstood that it was busy and that there would be a wait, so the wait itself was not an issue. Unfortunately, the experience from the moment we sat down until we left was extremely disappointing.
First, the soda from the main machine was consistently flat. After receiving flat soda multiple times, we eventually had to ask for refills directly from the bar because that was the only way to get a drink that was actually carbonated.
We ordered an appetizer, a pizza, and an Alfredo fettuccine with breadsticks and a salad with ranch. Our server was Marlo. The pizza came out a full 20 minutes before my niece's pasta. When her meal finally arrived, it was completely incorrect. Instead of what we ordered, Marlo brought chicken Alfredo fettuccine with garlic bread and a Caesar salad. My niece's entire order was wrong, and it had already taken 20 minutes longer than our food to arrive.
After we pointed out the mistake, Marlo did bring out the correct pasta and breadsticks--but it took another 15 minutes. By that point, my mom and I had already finished eating. My niece was essentially left waiting for her meal while the rest of us ate.
Then, when we received the check, we were charged for the chicken fettuccine Alfredo and an additional dollar for the Caesar salad, neither of which was what we ordered. Marlo did not come back to our table for quite some time, so I eventually went up to McKenzie to have the bill corrected. She fixed the charges without me explaining everything that had happened, which I admittedly should have done.
What was most disappointing was that, despite the incorrect order, the significant delay, the repeated drink issues, and the fact that my niece didn't receive her correct meal until my mom and I were already finished eating, there was absolutely no attempt to acknowledge or compensate us for the experience. Instead, the only explanation we received from Marlo was that "everyone is new." While I understand that people can be new and mistakes happen, that doesn't excuse the overall lack of communication or the way the situation was handled.
We left feeling both rushed and ignored, and the experience was unnecessarily frustrating. Mistakes happen in restaurants, especially when it's busy, but what matters is how those mistakes are handled. Unfortunately, we did not feel that ours was handled well at all. For the price and overall experience, I expected much better and left extremely dissatisfied.
