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| - Oh, Houlihan's. I try SO hard to like you. I really do. I've always had good experiences at Houlihan's in other towns, so I was excited that Champaign was not only getting one, but that it would actually be located on the south side of town near my home instead of the urban blight that is North Prospect.
But sadly, my experiences there have been haphazard at best. One time the food will be good and the service atrocious. Then the next, the service will be friendly (if not terribly professional or well-trained) and the food will just be downright BAD.
I had a really exceptionally good lunch experience about a month ago--best server I've had in any Champaign restaurant in a LONG time--and the food was really good that day, too. (I'm sure this young lady would not take a plate out of the kitchen if it didn't meet her exacting standards, so I give her partial credit there, too). But then a couple of weeks later I stopped in with my son for lunch on a Sunday and had a pretty bad time of it. (The lettuce in my salad had been frozen and was limp. The iced tea had that 'old' oxidized taste. Blech. His burger was cooked to the consistency of a doorstop.). So sad.
Consistency is what gains a restaurant success. And the chef and the front of house manager BOTH need to have incredible expectations and hold their people to that EVERY SINGLE DAY. Furthermore, they need to train, train, train, and train so their people know what those expectations are and how they can meet them and exceed them.
I'll keep going back, of course. I want this place to succeed. I want it to represent Champaign-Urbana to all the people who stay in the hotel or attend a conference or cheer on the Illini at a game. I have hope, because there is SO much potential. Houlihan's has all the ingredients to make a great, fun restaurant. They just need to have the right people putting together the recipe.
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