Cheeseburger in Paradise

DO NOT EAT HERE!
My husband and I got food poisoning. I was sicker than a dog. I had the fish and chips and my hubby had the crab sandwich. It tasted just okay, nothing special about their food. The table was sticky and THAT should have been a tip off right there! Also, it was almost 2:00 p.m. on a Sunday and being a Bear’s game day one would have thought there would have been more people eating and watching the game there. Maybe 6 people in the whole place. Another tipoff, which we ignored!

This used to be a favorite restaurant of my family, until they got bought out by another company. There delicious fries changed! Now they are bland and tasteless. It just seems like all of the spices from the original restaurant were now gone! However, the trivia nights and turtle races are always fun for the kids!
Will probably go again, but don’t go expecting the same food from a few months ago!

Awful. Just awful from start to finish.
We arrived with a party of 10 at 6:30 and were seated right away. The place was not super busy… Table was sticky and dirty and it took the waiter a very long time to come over. He finally took a drink order and it took at least fifteen minutes to get the drinks. When dinner finally arrived, he spilled a significant amount salad dressing in the purse of a lady in our group and was oblivious to it. Then he snagged her shirt with his bracelet as he was walking behind her, yanked it out and said not a word. Anyone who had French fries on their plate received them cold and soggy. My FIL ordered his burger on a gluten free bun and his burger came out on a regular bun with the gluten free bun ‘on the side’. ??? The odd thing is, my SIL’s burger came out, as ordered on the gluten free bun. My fish tacos were cold and tasteless. Someone ordered coffee and it came out cold, so the waiter said he would make a new pot. He finally (25 minutes or so later) brought a cup of hot coffee, all the while leaving the existing cold and nasty coffee on the table. We had to ASK him to remove things from the table when they were empty. When we complained to the manager, he impatiently listened to one tenth of what we had to say, gave a scripted ‘I am sorry to hear that happened’ and took two appetizers off the bill. He also said ‘give us your dry cleaning bill and we’ll pay it’ for the salad dressing incident. He was hurried and disinterested and it was glaringly obvious to all of us. The bathrooms were filthy and the men’s room had no hand soap… is that where the employee’s wash their hands? UGH this place was 100% pure waste of money and time.

Great burgers, such as the guacamole bacon burger. Pina coladas are AMAZING!!! Best i had in a while!

It is Friday evening and all I want is a cheeseburger. Naturally, we headed to Red Robin. Unfortunately, the Robin was poppin’ and we couldn’t get a place to park.
Dining Companion: «Is your heart set on Red Robin?»
Me: «Of course not! Let’s tell the car to take us to some burgers»
And that is how my first trip to Cheeseburger in Paradise started.
They told us it would be a 25 minute wait and handed us a buzzy thing. It was maybe ten minutes tops to wait. Score, us!
They must have one of those awesome coca-​cola machines in the back as there was a mix your own soda flavour wheel at the table. Yes, I was excited but settled on a strawberry fanta but companion had a raspberry peach iced tea. Neat!
I ordered a cheeseburger. It was ok. There was nothing too special about it. Although, the waitress did let me substitute pepper jack for American cheese. The fries were a little bit thicker than shoestring with a nice seasoning. I wish the fries were a little bit thicker and potatoier.
The décor was cute. Service was top notch. I will go back for something simple but not expecting the food to be out of this world.

1000+ plus calories and 2 hours of my life I can never get back… less than mediocre food and service all at once. Stone cold food, strangest fish tacos ever — like a fish stick stuffed in a tortilla shell with the weirdest avocado sauce ever. Should have just stuck with our old standby of Potbellys which is right across the street!!!

Great service!
We’ve been there several tImes and like the burgers. But the Waitress said the menu was changing. No more velveeta burgers.

I wish I could give this place more stars, but based on my most recent experiences here I just cannot. I will say that the fried pickles are out of this world, and the food is always delish, but the service the past 2 times has been severely lacking. My girlfriend and I went in to eat about 8 PM, the whole place was pretty much empty. There were a handful of people there, couldn’t have been more than 10 in the whole restaurant. Our server came to the table late, brought us old dirty lemons in our water, didn’t bring any silverware or plates after she had brought the appetizer, and after we had to track her down and ask for those items, she neglected to bring any plates. Once we were served, she did not check on us once, and we had to hunt down another waitress to get our check.
And as we were leaving, we seen our waitress in the corner on her phone.
I will not write this place off because I do enjoy the food, I would just hope that in the future, the service would match the menu.

Service was great !!! I had the sliders for dinner, the buns are dry. I wouldn’t get these again. My husband had a burger and told me it was very good.

I love the cheesy tropical feel of Cheeseburger in Paradise (pun intended). It makes you feel like you are on vacation just for dinner. They have a bunch of crazy burgers and some normal ones too. I love the huge tropical drink menu. It is a novelty restaurant that I would go to once a year at the most.

Party of 7, three adults and 4 kids and we had no trouble getting a table at dinner time.
Had the Triple D, which was really good and big enough for 7 people to share.
Ordered the el Cubano and Chesapeake Bay Burger and they were huge hits. The kids however, were not all that impressed with their mini-​cheeseburgers or the chicken strips. My 7 year old son considers himself a chicken strip expert and can tell you where the best chicken strips are served in the Algonquin/​Lake in the Hills area. He left a majority of his chicken in the basket; however the fries were completely gone. It was that way with all the kids’ meals we ordered.
For dessert, we ordered the Chocolate Nachos. I know, Chocolate Nachos? Sounds kind of gross, but Chocolate Nachos are amazing.
The only big negative was the wait for our order. We waited for a really long time for our drinks (5 soft drinks and 2 waters… c’mon!)… waited even longer for one appetizer and waited for what seemed like forever for our mains and quite a while for our Nachos. The entire meal took almost 2 hours… it wasn’t Thanksgiving, folks… it was just a few sandwiches and some chicken strips. :)

Came here on Saturday night to celebrate V-​day a little early. What can i say about this place… your paying for the name more then the food. The drinks are a little over priced if you order a mixed one. I got the pink flamingo rita and it was mostly ice with a splash of drink… bummer. I then switched to Paradise Beach Ale and that was an amazing beer and felt like I got a little more alcohol for my money. For dinner I ordered the turkey burger with fries, The burger was good… nothing outstanding and the fries were seasoned so thats always a huge plus in my book. For dessert we got the chocolate nachos… these were ok too. they are fried dough with chocolate syrup and sprinkles on them and then 2 scoops of ice cream to dip them into (vanilla and strawberry). I thought the chips needed more syrup and thought it would be better if they had chocolate ice cream with the vanilla and strawberry. I did however love the fresh strawberries they also put on the chips!
It a place you gotta try at least once and maybe go back on a special occasion, but be prepared to pay for the name more then the food.

So this is paradise huh? I think i’ll pass.
A few word come to mind when I think of my experience here: «kind of gross actually».
I had one of those dinner experiences where I left feeling like I had a brick in my stomach and like I had wasted two days worth of calories on nothing. The oh so popular fruity drinks are pretty awful to be honest. First issue, way too sweet! Second issue, is there even any alcohol in them? Third issue, pretty sure the fruit used in them is just Smuckers preserves or something.
Moving on to dinner. I ordered mini turkey burgers. I am not even kidding when I say they cut a whole patty into 4 pieces and put it on 4 mini buns. Really? Why even offer mini turkey burgers if you’re just going to be ghetto about it?
Service wasn’t stellar and Mr. Man forgot about us a few times so I wish I could say service was the saving grace, but it wasn’t.
Overall, horrible. Life is too short too eat crappy food on purpose. You’ve been warned.

My friends and I have been going to this particular Cheeseburger every few months for years now. I’m not exactly sure why. I mean, the food is decent, the service is as expected, and the island-​atmosphere is pretty eye-​pleasing, but there isn’t really anything «wow» about this place. Even so, it has become a staple among our group.
I think between us, we’ve probably tried almost the entire menu. Any of the burgers are always a good choice (they better be, considering the name of the place), and I’m a huge fan of their sweet potato chips (or any sweet potato chips for that matter). The burgers come with bottomless fries, and I’ve never had a problem subbing the chips for fries. They also have a large selection of island-​inspired drinks. I recently ordered the Mango Sangria which came in the cutest single-​serving pitcher, but if you get some of the other ones, you get fruits with tiny sunglasses. Yes, fruits with sunglasses. So cool.

I came here for lunch with a friend – we got here at 11:30 and were seated by a very pleasant hostess. There were only about 4 other tables taken in the place when we sat down, so it felt a little empty. However, the awesome music made up for the lack of other background noise :)
Our waitress was very sweet and attentive, and when she took our orders, she made sure to read everything back to us, and it was 100% correct. I really appreciated that!
I know we came to «Cheeseburger» in Paradise, but I got a «veggieburger» in Paradise instead. It was very delicious. I could see the actual veggies in it – it wasn’t just a gray lump on a bun like other restaurants try to pass off as an edible veggieburger! And the fries were well-​seasoned and hot! My son’s grilled cheese was good (what? He wasn’t eating it!!) and he downed his mandarin oranges first thing. I like how they provided healthier sides on the kid’s menu.
My friend ordered the gumbo (yum) and a side of fries. She had nothing but great things to say about both!
Overall, it was a very pleasant dining experience, and I can definitely see myself returning if I were in the area!

I was visiting my sister and her husband over the Memorial Day weekend, and Saturday night we went to this Cheeseburger in Paradise. It was my first trip to a CiP ever, and it was their first visit to this one. In both cases, I think it’ll also be the last.
The one thing I’ll praise it for is that they’re willing to court a lawsuit or health inspector smackdown that keeps so many restaurants from serving burgers any rarer than medium-​well. I requested my barbecue cheddar burger «as rare as yall are allowed to cook it». What I got was far rarer than I expected. In fact, it was the first time I’ve ever gotten a blue hamburger from a restaurant. A pleasant surprise — although I admit I like blue beef and have an unhealthily blithe disregard for the possibility of meat-​borne illness.
Oh, and I assume the piña colada met my sister’s expectations.
Everything else, though… first off, they say they serve unlimited fries. That would be great, if the fries had been any good. Over-​cooked haphazardly seasoned fries, though, aren’t anything I want to eat in unlimited quantities — so when the waitress asked if I wanted more fries, despite still being hungry, I told her «no».
Second, that waitress? We had to ask for napkins. Several times. We had to ask for silverware. Several times. My sister asked for water — she had to ask again before she got any. My brother-​in-​law and I both got beers (their mediocre «specially brewed just for us» beer), and I don’t think our waitress asked if we wanted any more when we were finished.
Third… we ordered a dessert, the «chocolate nachos,» because the menu’s description of them was of something unique and because our waitress endorsed them. They are unique, actually — they just weren’t any good. They were described as flour and chocolate tortillas both fried and sweetened, and covered in some stuff and served with ice cream. What we got was burnt, not fried, and I don’t think it was sweetened. It definitely wasn’t sweetened enough to cover up the burnt flavor. Also, the toppings included chocolate sauce/​syrup of some sort — but not enough to cover even half the nachos. My sister and brother-​in-​law ate very little of the dessert because they didn’t like it — to the point my sister was angry they appeared on our bill.
Like I said, they won’t be back to that Cheeseburger in Paradise ever. Maybe they’ll keep going to the one they usually go to over by Naperville. Me, I won’t be visiting this chain again at all if I can avoid it.

I came here for the burgers but ate the salmon instead… lol…I was very surprised and delighted with the menu — such diversity. The name of the restaurant is quite deceiving. It is a paradise of varying dishes with an island twist but its more than just burgers!
I started out with a couple of burger sliders and the Euphoria cocktail which was perfect — a great blend of liquors and it didn’t leave my judgment impaired. I ordered the salmon with jerk glaze, rice, broccoli with garlic and pineapple salsa. One word — SCRUMPTiOUS! Enjoyed every bite!
I will definitely come back here… only next time to try one of their infamous burgers ;)

Let me first say that Cheeseburger used to be good back in the day. I remember coming here for lunches and dinners and even for drinks for a night out. And each time it was pleasant and really good food… but now, in 2011, this Cheeseburger is no longer in Paradise.
The first problem was that it took FOREVER to get our drinks out. We even got our flipping appetizer and finished our appetizer before the drinks came out. And there was only 4 drinks, a table tapper and 3 on-​the-​rocks margaritas. My friend didn’t even get her water right away… come on!!!
Second, our friend got the wrong burger and told the waitress, she apologized and the manager came out and said his apologies as well and even comped the burger (which was super nice). But then it took them forever, once again, to bring out the burger. And to top it off, everyone’s fries were pretty cold when they came out as well. Our waitress did not ever ask if we wanted any more fries… I am pretty sure there are endless fries since thats what they advertise.
Third, even though I felt bad at times for our waitress cause there were things out of her control, she really didn’t attend to any needs, never asked for more drinks, forgot about fries, and messed up our bill, twice. We had a free appetizer and charged us for it, and then charged us more for the margaritas (they were supposed to be $ 5, all margs were $ 5 that day).
The food was ok, nothing special and just all of those mistakes did not make up for it. I’m pretty sure I would never go to another Cheeseburger and usually I am not one to hold a grudge.
We should have known it was bad when the place was dead on a Saturday night.

Ate here on Valentine’s Day. Wanted to try something different that the usual place (especially since *our* usual place closed!) and came out OK.
I wasn’t amazed or overwhelmed by the place, but nothing I had was awful. Unable to make up my mind, I had the standard titular cheeseburger and an order of onion strings. The cheeseburger was pretty good, and the broccoli side was VERY good, better than I expected, actually.
My dining partner had the fish sandwich, and he was heard to exclaim that «this is a great piece of fish!»
I accompanied my meal with one of their signature margaritas. There, i was definitely underwhelmed. The liquor used to make it was low-​quality and harsh.
Overall, it wasn’t an unpleasant experience. The service was prompt and polite (even when we took forever to make up our minds!) I would go back if someone I knew wanted to go, but I don’t think I would choose it again for myself.

I’d rather blow my brains out than spend 10 min in this place…
Its got Pusser’s Old Navy Rum… the blackest of blackstrap… so get a frozen piña colada with a shot of this on the top… and you might want to stay 20 min… or longer.