Willow Room - American restaurant in Chicago - 1800 N Halsted St, USA

Unfortunately I’m sensing a pattern with poor service after coming here more. The front of house in particular is severely lacking with uncommunicative and apathetic behavior. For example they went to sit us right in front of the door during a cold winter while 90% of the rest of the space was available. Upon request to sit somewhere where there won’t be a draft, barely any response was given while they awkwardly brought us to another table, but *would not* allow us to sit in a booth and couldn’t provide a reason as to why not. Also unfortunate since it was for my birthday. I’m not sure if the pay here is poor which results in this kind of service (pretty much across the board), training, or what the issue is, but I think it warrants some attention. Throughout a sitting it gets pretty grating and irritating. The brunch food remains pretty tasty, though I do think it could be refreshed a bit more often with new or updated items. The warm beverage situation seems a bit limited, as in there are no syrups for something like a vanilla latte, not even a sweetened latte (you do that yourself with the provided sugars), no chai tea. Would be great if they had these options to match the more robust menu. Interior is quite lovely. The interior is a bit upscale and glamorous with velvet booths, mid century globe lighting, wood furniture pieces, and lots of old vintage style quirky art on the walls.

Daniela is possibly the best bartender I’ve ever encountered. Her skills with drinks and her Knowledge is unmatched. I told her which spirit I preferred and she made me a drink I’d love. It’s very rare to come to such a gem with kind and fast service. I love it here.

Willow Room was a great dinner spot. I went with a group and we all split the burrata, which was delicious. I got the chicken as my entree and it was also great; others got the burger, lobster Mac and cheese, kale salad, and scallops, and each of us enjoyed our meals! The interior has a cool vibe with lots of artwork along the exposed brick. I will definitely be coming back!

So excited to have Willow Room back open! They’ve updated their menu with some new dishes alongside the classics. The ribeye was cooked perfectly and the short rib was pull apart tender. Arancini has been added to the menu and is the perfect appetizer, had a wonderful sauce with it! There’s a new cocktail called the Gin Blossom that uses lemonade ice cubes so the drink becomes more like lemonade the longer it takes to finish! Simply amazing.

Our group of four arrived at the time of our reservation and waited for about 10mins to be seated. The hostesses were very friendly. We ordered the restaurant week menu and everything went down hill from there. They didn’t have the some of the restaurant week menu options so we ended up getting double of the previous course (so two salads instead of an appetizer and salad). Our Caesar salad had no croutons. We asked for croutons and waited for 10mins. When the second round of salads came out…still no croutons despite croutons being listed on the menu. Our mains come, the lobster ravioli was terrible. I checked the pics online before coming here (from the restaurant and from previous patrons) and what we received was not even half of the quality or quantity. The ravioli was hard and i had 3 cut up pieces of asparagus, no Parmesan & barely any sauce. When our desserts came, the donuts had no glaze. We asked for glaze and was told the kitchen was closed (despite the fact that we’d ordered an hour ago and they forgot the glaze on our donuts before sending them out.) basically, every course, our dishes were missing a key component when brought to our table. Luckily Pete (our server) was able to scrounge around and find some for us. He was kind and pleasant throughout. Unfortunately it seems this restaurant can’t handle the capacity of restaurant week.

Breakfast was incredible. Fresh, high-quality ingredients. The decor, music and general atmosphere was trendy, comfortable and unique. Skip the coffee unless you're a fan of a burnt French Roast. Pancakes were off the charts!

It's casual style restaurant. Good for hanging out with friends or couple. I came with a 6 top table. We tried out most of the food from the menu. I would the food it's just ok, flavour is simple. nothing special. it's go a little sweet taste in most of items. But the services was excellent. The cocktails is good.

Came here for our anniversary dinner and it was a cool experience to witness. The food was a cool experience and the drinks were pretty cool. We got a chicken picante dish that was on top of scalloped potatoes and roasted veggies. The sauce was a good amount of salty and savory, wish there was more chicken to go with the potatoes an vegetables. The beef wellington was an interesting take that I was very excited to eat. I was trying to have no high expectations, but honestly I was pretty surprised how good it was. The meat was juicy and soft like butter. We also got some croquettes, that were not as they were shown in some pictures, but I think that's okay! The sauce was good as well.