I had a lot of time so I wanted a nice place to sit and have a good meal and a nice drink. I had asked a guy at the information desk if he had any recommendations for vegetarian/vegan places, and he recommended Wicker Park. Said they're known for their sushi but also had other good options.
I want to say it right from the beginning, although my food experience was terrible, the customer service experience is why I'm writing this review.
First of all, there were no menus, you had to use a QR code to do everything, from ordering to paying. I understand this might be convenient for people who are in a hurry, but what it also created was an environment where you got absolutely zero customer service. I literally was sitting in front of two bartenders who were chatting with each other and neither of them acknowledged me in the least. I kept looking for an opportunity to even just say hello and ask for a glass of water, but literally neither of them would even look at me. So finally I just decided to check out the menu on this QR code. I ordered a beer, edamame, and the roasted vegetable sandwich. After I put those things in, finally one of the bartenders came over with the beer. As he put it down, I thanked him and asked if I could also have a glass of water. He looked so annoyed and kind of huffed when I asked this. Maybe he was already planning to get it? How would I have known that when I've been sitting there for over five minutes and no one has so much as said hello to me. Plus, in my experience in over 20 years in the restaurant industry myself, generally the water comes before the other beverage...
The edamame came first. It was fine, like those steam-in-a-bag ones you get at the grocery store with a little bit of salt just on top. Then the sandwich came, and I could tell even before I picked it up that it wasn't going to be good. Firstly, when I read all the ingredients in this roasted vegetable sandwich, like sun-dried tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, and artichoke hearts, I assumed it to be a cold sandwich. I probably would've figured out this information if I had had any service whatsoever. Anyway, what I got was a warm, soggy sandwich, that when I picked it up, the bottom of the bread had already been soaked and was disintegrating, so it wasn't a sandwich at all. The cucumbers were soggy and flimsy, creating a gross texture, and the bread was mush on the bottom. On this QR code, there weren't many options, but one was if you wanted to add things like extra cucumber or tomato. I paid an extra $.75 to add extra cucumber, but there was no extra cucumber, there was literally one slice on each half of my sandwich. It was also supposed to come with an avocado dip on the side which was absent. They give you a choice of kettle chips or coleslaw, so I chose the chips thinking they might be in a bag. The chips came on the plate instead, and were extremely stale. Had a single person asked how things were, I would have said something, but again, literally not one bartender or server asked anything. You also don't get cutlery at the place settings, only wooden chopsticks. I gathered you could ask for them when I saw servers getting them for other tables, but they were all plastic wear, so I chose to stick with the chopsticks to eat the vegetables that had fallen out of my soggy mess of a sandwich. A busser finally came to take the plates away, and again, so one said a word to me after that either. I finally paid with the QR code, ~$43 mind you. I tipped $5, but frankly am mad I tipped at all given I literally received zero service. And again, as someone in the industry, you really have to mess up for me to tip less than 20%.
I say again that although my food experience was bad, that's not why I wrote this. I am so afraid that restaurants are going to move more and more towards this complete lack of service and interaction. Even at the airport, dining is never just about food. This time I was on a work trip, but I took a flight from DC a few months ago when a family member passed suddenly. I was I my way home after the funeral and my flight had been delayed many hours, so I really wanted a place to unwind and have a good meal and a glass of wine. I ended up at Legal Seafoods in DC's Reagan airport. The whole staff but especially my server was SO NICE, it literally changed my day and my whole travel experience. He checked on me often, always smiling, making a joke here and there, just so warm. Of course, he had no idea what I was going through, he was just a great guy who was really good at this job. I thanked him profusely but he'll never know how healing he was for me that day. But Wicker Park? The very opposite. I would absolutely never eat here again or any place they are associated with. And I am posting this review on multiple sites so that maybe, just maybe, they will hear what I am saying and fix these issues. The whole business model needs a complete overhaul. read more