Ryfe Bar, Restaurant and Event Venue — Restaurant in Atlantic City

Dear Mr. John Murphy (Owner of Ryfe Bar, Restaurant & Event Venue) –

I felt compelled to write this review in hopes of having my concerns addressed while also speaking to the poor behavior displayed by what is currently deemed as “leadership” at Ryfe Bar, Restaurant and Event Venue. As a native of the Atlantic City area but a current resident in North Carolina, I always take great pride in coming back home to New Jersey more specifically Atlantic City to enjoy time with family & friends especially during the holiday. On the night of November 23rd, 2021 myself accompanied by two cousins decided to grab a few drinks & a bite to eat at Ryfe Bar, Restaurant and Event Venue. The evening was going great, lots of laughs, great drinks (the bartender is amazing) and the food was awesome too; however our evening took a surprising turn for the worse when the ‘manager’ Amy Grabel who at this particular time was not on the schedule decided to interrupt the music we had selected with direct intent to play selections of her own choosing. The bartender attempted to correct the situation and addressing the manager’s actions by ensuring we were okay and providing exceptional customer service. We then noticed the manager sitting across the bar taunting us with a friend (local bar patron). The music is selected on a ipad that is played aloud in the bar area and we had played songs that everyone there would enjoy not just specific to our liking. However, the off duty ‘manager’ Amy G. continued to interrupt the music by changing things in the middle of each song directly from her phone. I specifically asked why and the response was “I am here trying to enjoy my day off and I’d rather not deal with you guys”. Much to our great dismay as PAYING patrons of an establishment we all found it startling to have an employee on/off work speak to guests in such a way. The disrespect did not stop there unfortunately…..as we conversed with the manager the comment was made that “I have a black friend”; race, color, gender, etc none of which had anything to do with our interaction at the time it was totally surrounding service, music & maturity. The mere fact that race was introduced into the conversation completely shut me down and immediately prompted to be retreat and want to leave the establishment; but I was there to enjoy my time back home with family so I stayed. My cousins opted to purchase the off duty manager a cocktail of her choosing as peace offering so that we could stay and enjoy our evening which she accepted.

All in all it truly saddens me that at the time of 2021 individuals are racially charged, rude & disrespectful when we should all look at one another for the content of our character and not solely what is on the outside. Yes, all three of us are African American women with so much personality & character that for someone to find it okay to resort to race statements and banter simply because of a disagreement will NEVER be okay in my opinion.

I truly hope that Amy Grabel receives some much needed diversity, equity & inclusion training accompanied by rigorous management/leadership training before she has any further interaction with patrons that may look different that she does.

AS I plan my next trip back to Atlantic City to visit family & friends I’m not quite sure if it will involve me patronizing Ryfe Bar, Restaurant and Event Venue if Amy Grabel...

I made for my son and his girlfriend for this Saturday evening. My son's girlfriend is not from the area. She wanted to surprise my son by coming to our area to take him to dinner for his birthday. She was looking for something different, so I suggested that she try your establishment in Mt Laurel. My husband and I had a great experience a few weeks ago when we stopped in for happy hour.

When they went to check in, the hostess did not welcome them to the establishment. My son spoke first to tell her that he had a reservation. The hostess looked at him and said how many. He repeated that he had a reservation, then told her 2. She grabbed menus and started to walk away. No direction for them to follow her, she just walked away. My son & girlfriend did follow her, and she sat them. They sat at the table for at least 20 minutes. Another table of 2 was set almost next to my son and within minutes a waitress went over and greeted them and took their drink orders. That same waitress, as she was walking by them asked if anyone came over yet. They told her no. She proceeded to take their drink order.

After delivering the drinks, their waitress took their food order. She was being interrupted several times while taking their order. There was a large party in the room to the left. They believed that their waitress was running that party as well, as she was being interrupted with the needs of those guests. They ordered calamari as their app. When the calamari were delivered, they were told that they were out of the fried calamari, so they substituted the grilled calamari. They tried a few pieces but did not make care for it. The calamari sat on the table the entire meal through dinner untouched and there was no acknowledgement that it was not eaten or any offering of removing it from the bill. Granted, my son also should have said something, but he did not. During their time there, their water was not refilled. My son's girlfriend was only drinking water and she had to ask for it to be refilled each time. Needless to say, the service was awful, then to top it off when they were given the bill, the only option for tipping was 22% or 25%. There was no option to enter a custom tip amount. Should they have been given an option, they would have given much less. I have never heard of a mandatory tip minimum for a party of 2. I am very disappointed that his girlfriend was forced to pay $96.38 for awful service. I was shocked when I asked my son if they acknowledged his birthday at all since when I made the reservation, I wrote BIRTHDAY in all caps. He said there was zero acknowledgement. He said he felt as though they were treated the way they were because they are on the young side.

The location of this restaurant is great and can be successful. Unfortunately, I will not be returning or recommending anyone to come there

To top it off... I tried to email my disappointment but the email that is given to contact RYFE apparently does not exist because my email keeps...

So I don't like to leave bad reviews on places. I usually only take the time to leave good ones. But I received the worst service I have ever had in a restaurant here. Aside from the boneless wings everything was cold and took exceedingly long. I was told they were out of my pick of entree long after apps where dropped. One of our table of threes' entrees (which came out cold) was dropped at least 20 minutes before the other entrees and when we did receive our burger and steak the burger was over cooked and room temperature and the steak was room temp and undercooked as well. Now I can understand a lot of this stuff because my party having all worked in the industry chose not to complain but the long waits for food and one entree being dropped way before the rest where never acknowledged, we were never asked how the food was, and there was zero effort to try and make up for the service given.

Then the cherry on top was the plain burger we had requested for to go food to take home to a friend (who is a picky eater) came out as a hangover burger. While discussing the meal we couldn't believe that even after leaving the restaurant we were still getting screwed.

I hate that I'm doing this but this experiance was just unforgettably impressively bad. We still paid our 150 dollar bill and tipped 30 dollars, this isn't about the bill. The server said she would "give me the ribeye for the filet price" as they did not have the ribeye likely counting on the fact that I didn't know the filet was 2 dollars cheaper and I was still charged for ribeye.

If any effort had been made to try and make up for this or if it was even acknowledged I probably wouldn't even be leaving this review but it felt like it was being counted on that we wouldn't say anything. Even a "sorry would like a desert to make up for it" would have gone a long way. We were the only table in the back and there weren't many at the bar. Maybe this was just an off day but I will be telling others...