Ugh! Someone asked me if I only do negative reviews on this site. The answer is absolutely not; there are some AH-MAZING restaurants in the world and I always give credit where credit is due. Unfortunately, for the new steakhouse in town, Reserve Steakhouse, there will be no credits (not a single one) given in this review! In fact, they should close, regroup and try again!
Here is the rundown of Reserve, Philadelphia.
Sparks (for this restaurant, these aren’t really sparks, more like “mists”):
- there is a doorman/bodyguard standing outside who welcomes you into the restaurant…gives a “clubby” feel; i mean, I was ready to show my ID and pay a cover…hehe!
- the chef sent out a bruschetta-type tasting before the entree came; would’ve been cool if it were interesting; it was literally some cheese on some toast with some strawberry jelly on top.
Fizzles:
- when the server came over, he literally said, “hi my name is Tony, I’ll be your server today. Our special tonight is…” Uh, excuse me, where is the “is this your first time dining with us” or “are you celebrating a special occasion?”…something, dang!
- the server missed several opportunities to “upsell”. He didn’t offer sparkling water, he didn’t suggest an appetizer, and never made any of the entree options sound appealing. He also didn’t understand the wine offerings.
- the glass of red wine was brought in a regular “i got this glass from the dollar store” wine glass, not in a traditional red wine glass/tumbler; definitely expected more from a fine dining establishment.
- so, our steaks were brought out “well done” (who eats steaks like that anymore?) although we requested “medium”. The issue was that NO ONE APOLOGIZED; they just whisked our plates away and mumbled something about putting a new order in. To add salt to the wound (reminded of how salty the food was), the manager, who came over several times to check on us, didn’t offer to rectify the situation at all, which is usually customary in cases like this. I mean, can I get a free dessert?
- to top all of this off, there was a very loud, large group (about 30) of cackling college girls in the middle of the restaurant, making it very hard to hear my friend talk about all the wonderful things going on in her life. Like seriously, why weren’t these chicks in a private dining room?!
Recommendations:
- large groups of people belong in private dining spaces; this allows them to be as loud as they want without disturbing other diners.
- if you ascertain that the diners are new to the restaurant, welcome them to the restaurant, give a small history or story about it, and thank the diners for coming, ESPECIALLY if the restaurant is brand new.
- if your restaurant is a fine dining establishment, make sure your servers are polished; the server I had could have easily worked in a pool hall.
- if something is wrong with an order, apologize…and then apologize AGAIN because, the bottom line is, the diner could have gone to any other restaurant but decided to choose yours. Show appreciation for that, particularly when things go awry!
Not sure if I will ever return because it was such a horrible experience but I always agree with second chances (when it comes to restaurants). They’ve only been open three months so maybe they are still working the kinks out, or maybe they are just that bad! Only time will tell!
UPDATE: This restaurant is now closed. Han Dynasty has set up residence in the space!
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