Big Chef Burgers

Tried it on a Saturday night with my son (1−30−16).The staff was Friendly and the burgers sounded good when reading the menu. I ordered the Tex-​mex my son got blue cheese bacon. The toppings and buns were fine but the patty itself was extremely dry we ordered them medium they were extra well done, and about an inch in diameter smaller than the bun. The waitress got busy right after we got our food. She did ask how everything thing was when she walked by I gave her a disappointed «it’s alright» I’m pretty sure she picked up on it but hey you can’t win them all I guess. The Man who greeted us walked by several times and a real big guy I assume is the «Big chef» was walking around but nobody asked how things were. We were pretty hungry and they would have been ok had I been paying 7 or 8 dollars. But for almost $ 14.00. Each I’ll never go back. They really seemed to put a lot of effort into designing the burgers shame the cook couldn’t make the patty good.

The best and authentic Italian pizza in any Chicago suburb. As close as it gets to the pizza you would get in Italy. I can say it, since there is where I was born. Bravo Cristiano.

Still waiting for food order on line 1 hr ago. Restaurant is holding a fundraiser, and opened for general public does not know how to handle the volume. Service & orders suffering. Should have closed restaurant for fundraiser

My husband and I were in the mood for a good burger and one of my coworkers recommended this place. I got the paradise and he got the Tex burger. Both were pretty good, especially their sweet potato fries! Service was really good and they were on top of things. We will be here again, but will try the pizza next time

I have been to Big Chef on two occasions — each time getting something different.
My first trip, I ordered two burgers and two orders of fries. I would definately go back for these items! The sweet potato fries were amazing and the burgers were cooked just right.
The second trip was for two pizzas, as we had heard that they were rated very highly for them. Do not get the pizza. For the price that you pay — I would have rather had Papa Johns. Not enough toppings, not enough flavor.

3.5 stars really and that’s for great tasting food, menu had a great variety from burgers, pizza, pasta, wine and craft beers, and decent price point. I deducted a point for the slow and inattentive service (womp, womp, womp) and another half point off for the strip mall location. (ugh I hate myself for those deductions)
Pizza: #7 (ham, buffalo mozzarella, arugula, and cherry tomatoes) I would rate this pizza a 3.5 star. points taken off for the salty meat and the dough is great but not the best I’ve ever had. There was too much arugula and not enough cheese. I will definitely come back to try the margherita pizza but will order extra cheese, maybe fresh cheese on top!
Pasta: rigatoni/​vodka sauce with chicken sausage. Now we’re talking, the homemade pasta and the delicious sauce makes this dish top notch imo. This dish was loaded with flavor and the pasta was perfectly al dente. And at $ 7.99 for Saturday special, it’s even better! Must have dish for sure.
Dessert: panna cotta– so fresh and light! Great way to end the dinner.
Prego!

Great Friendly staff. Great food. Amazing pizza and overall special place
One night our son was sick, we live in Bartlett and they made a special trip to deliver our food even though it was outside delivery area
Thank and we love this place
If you go get the chips and truffle oil

The best pizza around. This is the same as the pizza back over when I lived in north Italy, Milan. I love this place.

One of my co-​workers really likes this place, but I’m not sure why. The place is clean and has an open floor plan. The people give you a friendly greeting as soon as you walk in, but as you can see from the picture, there’s not a lot of ‘atmosphere’. And it’s not like I need atmosphere or some kind of theme going on before I can enjoy a great burger, but their burgers are not that great. They’re goood, but not great. And even the home baked chips I got as a side with my burger today were dry and over baked. So I’m not sure what the appeal is. I would think if a place has ‘burgers’ in its name, they should be amazing. Red Robin has more impressive burgers, for the same price. And Red Robin has unlimited fries! So I really can’t go above 3 stars on this place.

First time here, and for sure will be back.
The restaurant was totally empty minus one person at the bar. We were greeted quickly and kindly. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and my friend ordered a chicken sandwich. All the food was cooked perfectly. The beef was tender and juicy, and the fries were crispy and not to greasy.
The fact that it was empty left me baffled. Such an awesome place with some really tasty food. The pizza is the next item on my list to try next time!

Best burger is in the suburbs! The service is great and personalized, I felt right at home. I went during the week for lunch and was pleasantly surprised by their lunch specials. I got the truffle burger which was amazing. I can’t wait to go back and try the rest of their specialty burgers.

Ate here today (Thursday lunch) with a coworker and had an excellent experience. It’s a beautiful sunny day and the little shaded patio behind the petunia planters was inviting (why everyone always sits inside is beyond me).
The service was excellent and fast (thank you Mandy!), and the best part… the pizza was outstanding. and cheap! The #6 (mushrooms and ham) and the #7 (prosciutto and buffala mozzarella) pizzas, normally priced at respectively $ 10.50 and $ 13.- cost $ 8.99 each. The pizzaiolo knows what he’s doing with his brick oven pizza, the (thin) crust was beautifuly blistered in spots. It’s one of the best pizza I’ve eaten in a while.
This place just made it to my list of regular lunch places. Very happy!

4 pm on a Tuesday. One guy was there besides me; that’s not the best sign. I sat at the counter and started with a peanut butter and banana shake. It had a really strong peanut butter flavor to it, and ona hot day, it hit the spot. Just one problem, I had two big chunks of banana in the bottom of my glass. Come on, the banana has to be blended completely!
I ordered a patty melt and sweet potato fries. The fries were really good, topped with cinnamon sugar. They were also crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. I was hoping for honey mustard to dip them in, but none was available. The burger was ok. It was pretty juicy, eventhough I ordered it medium and it was cooked gray all the way through. Even though I didn’t get a beer, they have a very impressive selection of craft brews, many of them local. And all bottles of wine are half off on Tuesdays, that’s a pretty cool deal.
It was a pretty decent overall experience. But living 40 minutes away, I can’t imagine going out of my way to return.

Classically trained chefs open burger restaurants. As sign of the times, one suspects, and capitalizing on an «American craze» the past few years. I don’t know what started the current infatuation with burgers, tho I thought personally it was a reflection of the economic downturn — people still wanted to go out for beef, but steaks had become a little dear on menus.
In any regard, chef Crisitano Bassani, of the classic Italian Bapi Restaurant in suburban Chicago, got bit by the burger bug and opened «Big Chef» in Schaumburg. It’s kind of tough to spot, set back in a strip mall, but if you’re heading east on Alqonquin and you hit Meachem, you’ve just missed it.
I was on my way somewhere else and the sign caught the corner of my eye, I made a quick uey into the parking lot and walked in. Mid afternoon, Sunday, and the (perhaps) 60 seat eatery had one other table of four occupied, and a table of about ten young men who were just finishing up.
Unlike most new fangled burger restaurants these days, Big Chef has table service and linens. A server brought a large bottle of water, a tall glass of ice, and the menu (how did they know about me and the water thing?).
The menu offers a number of interesting combination burgers (around $ 12 with one side), brick oven pizzas, and huge salads. There is a full bar, with about ten stools in front of it, and an open kitchen design with a bar and stools facing it, as well.
Every day there is a special deal for extended hours, whereas any burger, salad, or pizza is $ 8.99.
I went with the bacon burger, which comes with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, and a well-​melted spicy cheddar (don’t you hate it when there’s a slice of cold, unmelted cheese slapped on a burger — I sure do!). You have choice of buns from white, pretzel, onion, or wheat. Patties are a half pound of fresh ground hormone free angus. Side choices are fries, sweet potato fries, house made chips, rings, mashed or slaw.
The meat came as ordered (medium rare) accompanied by massive onion rings, with a light «panko-​like/​herb) coating, very crispy. I opted for the pretzel roll, which is almost always my favorite, but the results can be good or bad, depending on the recipe. Some pretzel roll doughs are laden with molasses, and it’s too sweet a bun for a savory burger, in my opinion.
The patty itself was very flavorful, and the vegetables fresh and crisp. I didn’t feel the need to salt either the meat or rings, which is unusual for me.
I recommend your try Big Chef. Desserts and ice cream concoctions also available.

I just paid 14 bucks for Mac and cheese that I could have made in my kitchen. There is absolutely nothing about this that is restaurant quality. This is how I opened it, with three individual pieces of shrimp. It taste like my 5 year old nieces lunch.
After a few bites I found hair on one of my shrimp. Can confidently say I won’t be dining there anymore.

Pros: PERFECTLY cooked burger, lots of fun burger combinations, friendly service, clean/​hip décor (with fresh flowers!), FULL BAR. And $ 8.99 is a great lunchtime deal for a yummo half pound burger with a side! We WILL be back.
Cons: I would not order the side salad again (bad dressing, wilty lettuce) and service was a little slow.

Every Unilocaler has walked into a new place, looked around, and thought, «I choose poorly.» What was the giveaway away at Big Chef? Was it the sad silence of the empty restaurant floor, or maybe that the craft beer signs out front referred to bottles only since there were no taps? It was probably that the place had no designated bartender, the pizza oven was down and no one gave me a food menu until one nice lady noticed my very confused look of flipping through the bar-top’s promo papers.
I thought, «This is going to suck.» But if nothing else, Unilocalers are up for the adventure and the joy of writing a scathing review. But then my buger came out. I crunched down on a sweet potato fry and it was damn tasty. And then I tried a sweet potato fry in the spicy mayo and THAT was damn tasty. So I chomped into my pineapple & gruyère buger and it was fantastic. Juicy, seasononed and sweet — it was the perfect regular ol’ burger.
Based on the overall service, I should probably knock this down to three stars. But I hope they can get it together because the food is really good! While everyone that worked there was very nice, it was very unprofessional. Servers and managers/​owners were all congregating in different areas near the bar on their cell phones (do that in the back like everyone else, duh). Lots of swearing, joking around and even a guy still in his jacket off-​shift behind the bar. With an experience bar manager that understands scheduling and ettiquite, this place could probably do really well.
** To the owners: No «build your own burger» on the menu? Fix that. Also, the burgers are overpriced, as others have said. As a lover of burgers and buger joints, the MAX should be $ 10 burger + $ 0.50 a veggie topping or $ 1 a meat/​cheese topping. $ 13 for a cheesebuger with pinapple is rediculous. There is too much competition to be on the expensive end of this with no specific ambiance.

I wanted to dislike Big Chef! Why? Because service is so mehhhhhh! I went on a weekday night to place an order to carry out and the restaurant was completely empty. It’s a nice space and very large so whenever somewhere like that is empty it signals issues to me. I asked to place an order to go and the whole process was insanely awkward. I was made to feel really weird, stood there awkwardly as I waited for 23 minutes, wondered why the order took so long to prepare when I was the only person in there… the whole thing was just odd and weird. They need to learn how to handle carry out orders better. Perhaps have some seating by the door for people waiting or offer for them to sit at the bar.
The food is very pricey and honestly there prices should be knocked down a couple bucks on nearly everything. When I got my bag of food though, man did it smell good! I ordered the truffle burger and that truffle smell was just intoxicating.
I seriously expected the food to be horrid based on everything else but it was so freaking good! The truffle burger had ingredients that all melded so well together and was so juicy and flavorful. It came with sweet potato fries that has amazing seasoning on them! Seriously some of the best sweet potato fries I’ve ever had. My friend ordered one of the pizzas and sadly for him it was overcooked. I could visibly see it burned on the edges and he said the taste was forgettable.
I’m so conflicted on whether or not I’d go back. The food is amazing but everything else is pretty wack. Time will tell.

I was eager to try Big Chef — being a big hamburger fan I’ve been impressed with some of the new «premium» burger joints that opened over the past few years.
We tried a Groupon and went to Big Chef at about 6 PM on a Saturday night. The space is nice. We’d been to the restaurant that was in this space before Big Chef, and I’d say Big Chef did a nice job redecorating. The wood pizza oven is in the corner and the smells from it are wonderful. The bar is nice. The ambiance is nice.
There were plenty of tables open when we first arrived and were seated immediately. But, throughout the hour or so we were there the space filled to the point where there was a wait.
We ordered an appetizer of their hot wings, and I ordered a beer. For dinner, my wife had a salad (chicken) and I had their regular burger with their homemade potato chips.
The wings were well done, which is the way I like them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really call them «hot wings». They did have a hint of Tabasco, but I would only call it a hint. Otherwise, they were really flavorless. The burger on the other hand was very good. There were several options on bun type, and I opted for the pretzel bun — the right choice. The meat was flavorful. It was slightly crisp on the edges, but still juicy. It came with a pickle spear. For the side, the potato chips were very good — not overly salted. My wife said the salad was good too.
The downside to all of this was the number of servers per table. There appeared to be only one regular server and one who was helping (a little). When we first arrived and there were only a few tables filled this was not a problem. But, when the place filled up, getting anyone’s attention was very difficult. Even getting the check, which is usually easy in placed (especially when their is a wait for table) took too long.
So, overall the experience was good. For the type of service they provide, I would say they are overpriced. If they improve their service, the quality of the meat and the crafting of their sides would be worth the cost.

Big Chef was very nice inside from the décor to the cloth napkins. The menu is not huge but has a good variety.
I had the Bacon Burger which is a half pound Angus beef on choice of bun. My choice was a pretzel bun. The beef was cooked medium at my request and was done just right. The bacon was two thick slices criss crossed on top. The spicy cheddar was not really spicy but good flavor. Overall good Angus burger.
The side was sweet potato fries with a sprinkling of salt, sugar and cinnamon on top.
The owner also came around to each table and thanked us for coming out on a snowy day.
Although I had a Groupon I’ll be back for their $ 7 lunch menu.