9 West Division Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Cook County
Phone: (312) 335-8890
Fax: unknownWebsite: no website on fileEmail: no email on fileHours: unknown
Bar Chicago Inc - About Us
No Description Available for Bar Chicago Inc.
Website Description and Information
No Website Description Available for Bar Chicago Inc.
by Sung Panich on I am not the type of person to care too much about service when I go to a restaurant; the quality of the food is always what brings me in. It is only on rare occasions that bad service can ever cause me to lower my opinion of a restaurant, much less inspire me to never return to it again. Club Waziema is an exception. I love the food, but the service is bad enough to turn any customer away; and believe me it has many many times. But did I ever tell you how much I loved the food? After all, giving up Club Waziema was quite a sacrifice for me. I love the food. Unlike other people who have reviewed it, I do not believe that the food at Club Waziema is greasy. While it is true that the Ethiopian spice mixtures used to season Waziema dishes are a bit less potent than they are at other Ethiopian restaurants, the result tends to be that the food itself, the vegetables or meat, receives more attention. In the vegetarian combination, Waziema's flavoring enhances, rather than overwhelms the flavors of each vegetable. My friends and I are especially impressed with their collard greens. They are lightly seasoned, enough to make them taste delicious but still taste like collard greens - this is not always the case at other Ethiopian restaurants. Most incredible are the garlicky mushrooms. They sport a unique flavor, one so unique that I have long questioned what they are seasoned with. They stand out in the vegetarian combination and I have been told they are made separately. I have tried to find a recipe for them online to no avail, and it is because of them that I sometimes wonder if it were at all possible for me to end my grudge with Club Waziema's owner. But no, I can't go back! There are a number of reasons that I cannot return to Club Waziema, and as I said before, none of them have to do with the food. I always noticed on every visit that getting my food in a timely manner was as possible as having Jesus descend from heaven that night and confirm that, yes he did exist and yes the apocalypse is really coming. This is no exaggeration. But that's not all. What's worse was that I often didn't' get what I ordered. At first this only happened with my drinks. At one point I came to expect a lighter beer whenever I ordered a darker one. This happened despite any efforts I made to avoid such happenings. Even this did not stop me from going to Club Waziema. I did not stop going to Club Waziema until the kooky waitress/owner charged me for several things I did not order. When my friends and I ordered a chicken dish and a vegetarian combination, she brought out chicken with collard greens. When I asked her where the other vegetables were she told me that the chicken only came with collard greens and didn't know that I had ordered the vegetarian combination. The lies only continued. By the end of the night I had magically ordered two vegetarian combinations, one chicken dish, and an order of collard greens. Let's not forget the owner's new rule that chicken dishes must always be accompanied by an order of collard greens, an order of collard greens you have to pay for. While it is one thing to pull a fast one on someone, why try it on a regular? The owner knew that I had ordered these dishes over twenty times, and that these rules never existed any of those other times. Who did she think she was fooling? Despite my efforts to fix the bill the owner would not budge on the prices and my friends insisted that we just pay the bill and never return again. And that is exactly how Club Waziema lost five of its regulars in one night. I am sure they will lose many more.
by Thom S. on This place is beautiful... way too beautiful to be a cheesy lame night club it's only saving grace is that i have had good times there for special events like the SF Weekly awards and a handful of live shows (on weekdays - sans the weekend bridge and tunnel types)
