Kuma's Corner: User Reviews

This place sucks and here's why... First of all, if you decide to wait 2+ hours and pay $14 for a burger and fries, you will be treated like crap. The staff doesn't care about your business and they have the attitude like "we don't have to care about the customers, we will be busy anyway." After you get attitude from everybody working there, you will be hit with a bill that's ridiculously overpriced for a frozen-then-cooked burger. You can get a lot of burgers at Burger King next door for $14, and they at least will say thank you for your business at BK.
If you want to be brainwashed like everybody else, then go there. If you don't have ratty hair and clothes and tattoos, you will get dirty looks from everybody there (customers and staff) who does. It's only a cheeseburger.

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First off, I went there on 4 different occasions to try this place. Every time the wait was approx. 2 hours so I left. Finally, I went there today (Thurs) at noon and got in right away. I'm really glad I didn't wait 2 hours to eat at this place. I went with the Kuma's Burger, no cheese, so I could get the simplest burger possible. I removed the fried egg before eating. I wanted to taste the meat, not all the varieties of eccentric toppings that hide the flavor of the beef. I was not that impressed. For all the raves and hype surrounding this place, they serve a pretty bland, mediocre slab of meat. Yeah, it's big. But so what. I don't care how big or what toppings you add, if it doesn't start off with a killer piece of meat, it's not a great burger. I've had so many other burgers around town at little dive bars that are so much tastier with a little mayo or ketchup and mustard, nothing else. And most for a lot less $$. The wait staff was friendly enough, although i could definitely detect a bit of a "tude" a couple of the times when I tried to get in when they were busy. Whatever, it was okay, and In my opinion, not great and not worth a 2 hour wait. One side note, my wife ordered the mac & cheese with pancetta and sundried tomatoes and it was amazing. I've never like mac & cheese in my life and there's was arguably the best I ever had. If only I could say the same for the burger.

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Like many others, I have finally spent my last penny at Kuma's. I live in the neighborhood and have been coming here since it opened but it has gone down hill fast and they won't see another penny of mine. If you're smart, you'll listen to all the bad reviews and ignore the positive ones (many of which seem to be posted by the owners or staff).

First, the food. Let's not mince words--it's a burger joint. They "used" to make decent burgers. Nothing magical, but decent. So the menu has dozens of burgers on it, many with slightly odd combinations of ingredients (most of which don't work and are just for effect), and they give these burgers colorful names associated with heavy metal bands. Ok, no looking past the bs, let's boil it down again--it's a burger joint! Nothing more. Most of the burgers are gimmicks. It is hard to improve upon the classic style of burger. Many have tried over hundreds of years across the U.S. There is a reason that the simple variants on the cheeseburger (possibly with or without bacon) and the standard fixins is the standby at 99& of restaurants across the U.S.--it's the best despite hundreds of thousands of chefs experimenting with it. Also, it ought to be the standard by which you judge any burger joint. Kuma's was, and is, all hype. All fancy packaging (at a huge pricetag) and no substance at the end of the day. Despite this, is just around the corner from me and I have been there easily over a hundred times. I also say that it is not even in my top 10 for burger joints in Chicago. There's basically little else on this menu but burgers, so it is not worth travelling any distance at all to go to Kuma's if you've just want a burger and you've got some place close by.

Second, the "restaurant". The "restaurant" is a closet. It is very small and easily exceeds what the fire marshall ought to deem safe nearly every evening. The ambience? There is none. If anything, it is an exceedingly negative atmosphere. They blare ridiculously loud heavy metal all the time so you can't even hear anything else. Both myself and most who frequent here get a headache if we stay longer than 45 minutes. On that note, you will wait, and wait . . . and wait. There used to be no wait. I, like many others, am clueless how this place took off and became fashionable--it's so not! But back then there was no wait. Now? If they tell you it's 10 minutes, that means an hour, 20 min = 1.5 hrs. Not worth it anywhere, let alone a burger joint.

Price: Always been high, now even higher! Who pays around $10 for a burger? If you drink alcohol too, be prepared for sticker shock when you get the bill. Huge markup.

Staff: This one is the dealbreaker. Kuma's has easily the most obnoxious, rudest staff I have ever encountered. The older lady who controls the cooking is beyond rude and the ego of most of the staff is incredible. It's a burger joint. There is no kitchen, just a tiny grill and the rude staff delays to milk your wallet 4 drinks.

Stat away,

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I loved kuma's the first few times I went there. Lately they have been extremely packed leading to them getting full of themselves. The food quality has gone down and the service is the worst I have ever had. Last time we were there we waited an hour and a half for our food. We didn't even say anything our waitress acknowledged that we had been waiting that long and would tell the manager. NOTHING WAS DONE!!! they ignored the fact that everyone in the place was pissed off about bad service. Our bill was over $150 because of how much we drank. They will never see my money again. It's one thing to get popular. It's another to get arrogant. I hope that as people stop going there and the money stops rolling in, it will be a wake up call for these guys. The food used to be great. I miss it!

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I started going to Kuma's just right after it opened, during a time when you could wander in and get a table at any time of day. Back then I was super surprised by how great the food was, expecting the typical divey bar fare. I was initailly happy for Mike when his place started doing well, though bummed that my wait became longer and longer each time I went back. Now I can say with all certainty that they suck. The fast fame has gone to their dyed heads. They think they're the coolest and hippest people that walk the earth. I went there last friday. Knowing it would be a long wait, but hoping it would be less so because it was early. Upon arriving, I was excited to see 4 empty tables in the garden and one inside, though strangely, a small line was forming outside. We were told that our wait would be 20 minutes, and though that seemed stange with all the empty tables, we agreed. It was 2:45, and our friend had to bolt by 5 so I thought we were in great shape. Not quite. It took OVER AN HOUR to finally be seated. and when we were, the rude waitress warned us that "there are 50 tickets in front of yours, so it'll be an hour wait on food" What??? There aren't even 50 tables in the place. So I asked if we can get appetizers at least before my friend had to leave...she took our orders and wafted off. She served our appetisers to some other table that arrived after we did...yelled at us, spilled beer on me, and when I questioned her about the other table, she basically said "We're Kuma's. Deal with it." Give me a break. When I think of all the business I drummed up for them over the years it makes me mad. Hey Kuma's! You're not that great. And when people start dropping off and not coming back. You'll have to "Deal with it." BOO KUMA'S. Shame on you.

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The wait can be atrocious but it's worth it! With 3 people or less, just sit at the bar. The bartender with the handcuffed chick on her tricep was hot, sweet and attentive. The burgers are of course some the best I've ever had the pleasure to consume.

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We arrived at Kuma's at 6:30 on Saturday night. We waited 1.5 hours for a table. We wouldn't have agreed to such a long wait, but were with another couple who drove in from the suburbs especially to eat here. After being seated, we waited 2 HOURS for 4 burgers. The waitress slightly messed up our orders, but we didn't say anything because, at this point, we were so excited to have actual food in front of us. After we each took a bite, the waitress came by to check if everything was OK. The first bite of my burger was very overcooked, but I said it was fine. I assumed that a place that specializes in burgers would know how to cook it to order (I ordered mine medium rare), so I assumed that the outside was a little charred, but the inside would be fine. It wasn't! My husband ordered his done rare, and both of us received burgers that were beyond well done. We got the waitress's attention and politely stated that we ordered rare and medium rare burgers and received well done meat. She said that we should have said something the first time she came by and that there wasn't anything she could do about it now. (By now, we were only 3-4 bites into it, so it wasn't like we were trying to scam them for a free dinner.) She finally agreed to replace them, but after waiting 2 HOURS the first time around, we weren't about to wait again. We asked her to please take the price of the burgers off the bill instead. She came back with the check, and --- of course -- didn't take off anything for our lousy food. I asked to speak to a manager and was told that I could, "if they could find him." The manager came over several minutes later. We explained the situation. Rather than apologizing, he just said, "I'll have to talk to your server." He came back a few minutes later and said that, because we didn't tell her that our food was bad the first time she came over, we would have to pay for our meals. I politely refused, saying that if he would just take them off the bill, I'd be happy to pay for our drinks and get out of his hair. He begrudingly agreed to remove them from the bill. The server came by with a new bill, which she dropped on our table without saying a word.

In summary: 1.5 HOURS to get seating. 2 HOURS to get a very poorly cooked burger. An incredibly rude waitress, followed by an even worse manager. Don't Eat Here!!!

The only bright side to the evening was that we spent our 1.5 hour wait across the street at the Square Bar. Great appetizers, a terrific beer list, nice atmosphere, and a friendly staff.

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I was just at the restaurant this past weekend. In a word, lousy. Burger, simply average and not worth the 3 hours between, getting there, waiting to be seated, waiting for the food, then eating and finally paying and leaving.
Got there at 6:20pm and was told it was about a 45 minute wait. I came in after waiting 45 minutes and the hostess found us a table for 2 in the beer garden, while I noticed another 2 seat table and a 4 seat table also empty, when we were seated. Makes me wonder if we would have been seated had I not come in to ask. ???
As soon as we were ordering, since jumped in and said they are behind on the orders and it is about 35 minutes to get A BURGER! I waited because I already invested an hour to just get to the point of ordering and wanted to see if the reputation, for great burgers, was true.
No one is going to tell me they can't keep up with cooking burgers. It's a lie and a gimmick to get you to wait around and buy liquor and appetizers and make you spend more, PERIOD!
Anyway, we had to get the AVERAGE buffalo chicken strips cuz we were starved by then. I ordered a kuma burger medium cooked, a side of mayo and a ceasar salad. I expected to get the salad way before the burger but they said they usually serve it with burger??? Again, why? So they can get you to order other food and more drinks, is my guess. When I asked to get the salad early, she explained that, then found out she didn't have it on my order, and the salad ended up just coming out a minute before the burger, anyway.
When the burger came, it looked good, but was clearly well done and no mayo on the side or on the burger. It really did taste just average, though. I've had much better. No way worth the wait. I really liked the hard rock music they played and the clever rock band names for the burgers but a very tiny place. The service was not good. The waitress didn't come around enough or was hard to flag down and she messed up the order. It took us time to just get the check and pay and when I asked for a try to take some of the food with, she forgot that too and I had to go ask a guy for one.

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Kuma's is great, it really is- but it's a novelty. To have all those burgers with really cool names is fun but in the end it's never worth the wait. I've been 5 or so times now and there has always been a 30min to an hour wait. You end up waiting outside sitting on the curb b.c the place is so small. And then you get in already knowing what you want so the experience to enjoying a burger, with hard core music, in a hip atmosphere, while enjoying the person your with is diminished to 20 min. You're in and out.

I suggest that you go for fun but not if you want to have a date or talk with someone :)

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One of the best burger's in town and a great beer selection....the service is so-so and people who do not get a table at the patio have to endure busy, dark, noisy main room...but the burgers are worthy it..

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