Culinary Underground - (Near Rockford, IL)

4 /5 Anusha: Great food honestly everyone loved their dishes for the most part! The cheese curds were the best cheese curds I’ve had in my life and I am usually NOT a cheese curds person. The cornbread was on the drier side however and extremely crumbly. I will say perhaps the prices are a smidge too high? food itself was great. Me and one other person got full just sharing the cheese curds so there’s definitely enough of the portion; environment is quaint and dimly lit with some fun art and colors around. Their menu is diverse and there are gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options as well. I would say all the dishes are shareable so because of that the price per head is pretty reasonable

3 /5 Cahill Kevin (RUNKMC): This place is solidly average. The food is what you would call bar food, and is not bad for the price. There is a good selection of beers and cocktails available.

1 /5 Staci Hubley-Taylor: This was a negative experience and we will not be back. Upon arrival, we were told that the kitchen closed at 10, to later be told that the whole place closed at 10. If we had known this ahead of time, we would not have ordered. The server was clearly not pleased that we stayed. If she had just told us, we wouldn’t have stayed. For the price, the $14 drinks were not even filled. The meals were also subpar. And we left most of the Green Goddess salad, and the Seoul Bites were inedible. Both the food and server get 0 stars from our table. In the future, if it is inconvenient to have guests, just say it from the get go and save both of us the pain.

4 /5 Stacy H: Menu has a nice mix of options to pick from. We settled on the Meat & Potato and Not Grandmas Meatloaf sandwich. Ribeye was pretty good and cooked how I ordered. Calling the potato "hassleback" is a stretch, lets just call it halved baked potato with a few cuts - but Im being picky. They have an interesting list of cocktails, wines and beers. I had their C.U. Cosmo which was nicely made and also tried their Blueberry Crumble Beer - pretty good. Its a nice space that has interesting decor and spacious seating - at least you dont feel stuffed in their like sardines. Overall we had a great time and would return again to try some of the other plates.

1 /5 Elise Anhalt: We ate at Culinary Underground recently, and unfortunately it was not a good experience. There were only two servers working during what was clearly a planned busy night with a concert nearby, and the restaurant did not appear prepared. The wait from ordering to receiving our meals was about an hour, and several tables around us left before ever getting to place their orders. I ordered the Thanksgiving Leftover sandwich, and the food itself was disappointing. The brie was served in large, cold slices rather than melted, so the sandwich was half cold and half warm. The turkey was deli-style, not sliced roasted turkey as the name implied. My mom’s Caesar salad was not edible due to the dressing. The overall quality just wasn’t there. Most importantly, my dad, who for important reasons, ordered a non-alcoholic Stella Artois and was served an alcoholic one. When I spoke to the bartender, she apologized and said the server had never mentioned that it was supposed to be NA. This mistake could have had serious consequences. We did express our concerns while we were there, but there was no effort to make anything right — even though some of the food was barely touched. When food quality and safety issues are brought up, I would expect at least some acknowledgment or correction from management. The atmosphere itself is great and the servers were working very hard — this is not a reflection on them individually. But the kitchen execution, communication, and staffing needs were not adequate, and the food simply wasn’t good. Unfortunately, we won’t be returning unless major changes are made.