Satay on Diversey

Tried this place last week because the menu looked intriguing while we were on our way to Penny's.

Was disappointed to find out that Post-It Notes were the secret ingredient of the night, as I found one swimming at the top of my bowl of soup. it had lots of smeared ink on it and looked to be the waitresses order for the kitchen.

Needless to say I won't be returning to Satay anytime in this lifetime.

what did the restaurant do to compensate you? was the staff apologetic when you pointed out the problem, or did you get an "it won't eat much" response?

The server did apologize (but no manager visit), took the dish away, brought me another one, promised it wasn't the same bowl with the secret ingredient removed, and deducted one-half of the price of the dish from my bill (less than $3). I barely touched the second bowl.

Mike, sounds like they responded in a pretty good way to an unfortunate situation : they apologized, replaced the dish, and gave you a discount. Now, there may be a host of other reasons not to return to Satay, and though I haven't been, I can imagine several food-related ones, but the handling of this one doesn't sound particularly egregious. Just my two cents.

Agreed!!

I have had mixed experiances at Satay. Twice I went had really great food and service, once I went and had very bland, boring food.

I will give them another chance at some point, but they are not high on my list. I suspect strongly that they are a case of a restaurant that has "on" and "off" days (and/or times) - probably best during the week instead of on the on the weekend (bad meal on the weekend, good meals during the week when they were quieter.

Last autumn wife #1 and I tried Satay because I believed high ratings and glowing reviews on the Reader site. (That should be a lesson to me.)

It was the worst meal we had all year. They had uneven service and, excepting the namesake satay dish, bland tasteless food misdescribed on the menu. The following is from my notes after that meal:

10/28/03. NEVER AGAIN. The Satay was OK with a nice sauce. Otherwise food was bland and flavorless despite fresh ingredients.

Noisy. Clean, including bathrooms.

Menu titles misleading. Server's English poor - it was difficult to get answers to questions about dishes, especially with the noise. As a result we ordered based on the menu - a big mistake.

Dishes to avoid: 1) "Spicy Crazy Wide Noodles. Bland-raw undressed veggies atop noodles with brown sauce. Definitely not spicy. Akin to having noodles and gravy combined with an undressed salad. 2) Hot and sour soup - it should be called sweet & sour soup.

My wife had something called pineapple shrimp boat, but it was difficult to detect the shrimp.

When we left, our tums were fairly full but we craved something with taste. Unfortunately, Torre's Italian Beef was closed. I should have looked for a White Castle instead. So we went home, where I opened a can of tuna, put lemon juice on it and at last had something tolerable.

P.S. Shannon, it was a week night, so that doesn't fit with your theory.

George,

That's a shame - I wonder if they have simply taken a big turn for the worse. Almost a year ago I did have a very good meal there - interesting dishes, lots of flavor and obvious care - making even a standard dish surprising (Mongolian Beef). However the last time we ate there, about 3 months ago, it was much as you describe - bland, dull and very disappointing. I was hoping that it was just a busy night on the weekend but your experience seems to point to something worse.

Oh well, guess it moves much farther down my to return to list.

Shannon

I've eaten only once at Satay, last fall, and was stunned by just how fresh and simple the preparations were. I can't call them "authentic" or any of the usual Chowist laudations, and it may well have been a rare good evening for them, but I'd give them a second try.