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| - It hurts me to write this review, because Hamilton Walker's was something I was really looking forward to. Loved the idea of a new local steak and seafood house. Yet it missed on almost every mark I can think of.
Walking through the restaurant everything looks great, truly an eye-catching establishment. Which other than the friendly staff, is all it has going for it. However, when I say friendly I do not mean well-trained. It took our server 10 minutes to take our drink order, another 5 to bring back a singular Diet Coke, and another 10 minutes after that to come back for our entree order. Very nice individual, probably needs at least another 2 weeks of training under a more seasoned veteran server. With all the opening push backs you would think that they would have the service locked down.
It was lunchtime on a Wednesday, right around 12:30. Plenty of open tables in the restaurant and nobody seemed too stressed. We ordered two 6oz Filets and one order of the Jumbo Grilled Shrimp, one steak medium well, the other steak medium rare. Salads came out at about the 20 minute mark, they were okay, but nothing to brag about. After 40 minutes had passed since time of order our server came to the table, followed by a manager, saying that they had overcooked the medium well steak, and they were working on a new one for us. (Note: we had been in the restaurant for 55 minutes.) The manager graciously offered to go throw a few coins in our meter, and we decided to wait it out. At that very moment however, I knew that the medium rare steak was sitting under a heating lamp, along with the shrimp. Sure enough the medium rare steak had been cooking while the medium well was being replaced and was now a perfect medium well itself. It was taken back to the kitchen, I was left to snack on the Jumbo shrimp which not only managed to be rubbery, but also filled my mouth with a charred, almost plastic taste. A properly medium rare was brought out 10 minutes later, I've eaten a lot of steaks, good ones, bad ones, rare to well done. I have never in my life had a piece of steak with such little taste. I don't know how the Chef managed it, but all I could do was laugh. We had been in the restaurant for nearly two hours, had both our steaks overcooked, and had never been more ready for the check. I served tables for 4 years, usually when things go that drastically wrong a manager comes to the table and sincerely apologizes, maybe even adjusts the bill accordingly. No such thing was done, paid twice as much as any of the local competition just so I could add a new champion to my "Worst Places To Get A Steak" list.
It was so hard to get angry, because everyone we encountered genuinely seemed nice. However, the chances of me coming back are slim to none. There are a number of better options in Champaign, and the list is only getting bigger. Would be very surprised to see this restaurant become a long lasting establishment if things keep going on like this.
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