[David Jones]

I recently had lunch at a well-regarded, regional Mexican restaurant on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. The service there has always been wretched, but this was my third visit, motivated by what had always been solid cooking. (In many ways, the chef's restaurant has been modelled after his alma mater downtown - including the great food and the consistently horrible service!) On this visit, the menu was filled with errors and mistatements. The food wasn't at service temperature. The tortillas, which were topped with seviche (sic) were out of a bag, for sure. The main courses were over-sauced and they weren't made from the principal ingredients,nor prepared as the menu had described (U-15 shrimp blanched in unseasoned water and then tossed in a sautee pan to warm, instead of wood-grilled black tiger prawns).

My guest (a chef) and I just ate and shared our observations. I felt foolish paying $88 for what I was served.

What would you do in the same situation? The chef/owner was having a meeting three tables away.

well the easiest thing to do is not go back to any of their restaurants. But honestly, I feel that with a price tag of $88.00 I would have let the manager know the situation that you wrote about, They should want to know what is going on, stuff like this fires me up. I had a similiar situation like this restaurant in New York called Avenue(notice I am not afraid to say it because I don't care, it is part of my right as a paying customer to let others know what I think the place is like) The place was packed and we wanted to eat something and the manager said to wait at the bar. probably forgetting about us we approached him to let him know nicely, that we were still waiting patiently (a half hour), while others were being seated ahead of us, and he snapped and was very rude. I was enraged at the way he treated us after I was very nice and understanding. So I told him I did not want to eat here and I saw the chef/owner and I went up to him and told him what had occurred. He definde4d his manager, which I responded that I am a chef who wanted to taste you food and come to your restaurant and now I am leaving and will probably never come back because of the bad service. And that was too bad for him.

Hey David, Been there, had that. It's CRAP. I didn't feel the need to say anything for a few reasons. The city has embraced this place, as had we in the beginning. And I felt that it wouldn't make a difference to say anything. I just won't go back... My first two times there were great in spite of "wretched" ( I love that word) service and it's been downhill ever since. In spite of the unreliable journalistic praise, I think the public will soon join us in the boycott.