Sullivan's Steakhouse — Restaurant in Chadds Ford Township

I made a reservation for my family there, hearing good things about it. My sister is only ever in town one week a year for Christmas, so this seemed like a lovely excuse to treat them to some fine dining. The reservation is for 7pm on a Thursday, five people.

So the table isn't ready when we get there, and when the wait is over and we're shown to our table, a seat is missing. Fine, people make mistakes.

We order appetizers and drinks. Drinks are all fine, knockout was good. The egg rolls were also good, both the shrimp and cheese steak varieties. I had a soup that was quite nice. The calamari is pretty awful, poorly cooked and drenched in some generic sweet and sour sauce. But so far, so good, nobody bats a hundred.

It bears mentioning at this point they are slammed. The dining room is full and there's a big group I can see in a reserved room off to the side, an event of some kind. So slow service is understandable to a degree.

I have a bone to pick with how the menu is set up. The way the sides are sold is just price gouging plain and simple, and that feeling is only reinforced as the waiter makes sure to mention all the lovely ways we can enhance our steaks. I understand a business has to make money, but the feeling was akin to being on a used car lot.

However, after we place our orders for main entree, we get nothing for a full hour and a half. I literally watch a couple come in after we order and eat dinner and dessert before leaving. That event room? Seems to be getting their food fine. I dont see any management walking around to make apologies or communicate what the problems are. I consider asking for a manager but my wife has terrible anxiety, and doesn't want me to make a scene. Our waiter Offers a free round of drinks for our trouble. Not to take the drinks we have had off the bill, no. To give us new drinks. My wife gets another knockout, but the rest of us decline. I prefer some food with my alcohol.

We get our food around 9, a full two hours after entry. One of the sides is wrong, the steaks come out a little undercooked, and in general it's obvious corners were cut to get this to us "quickly". Nick, our waiter, asks if the food is fine, and I should have said no, and left. But between my wife's anxieties and it being obvious the kitchen would take at least another hour to get it right, I hold my tongue, and we eat.

My steak is edible, and that's the nicest thing I have to say about it. The crab stuffed shrimp were good, best part of my meal. The mashed potatoes were fine. We never got the asparagus my mom ordered, but the au gratin potatoes they mistakenly gave us were quite good, really enjoyed them. The crab fried rice is a travesty, basically cafeteria food. No seasoning, tastes steamed not fried, just the blandest thing at the table.

My wife, desperate to salvage the evening, orders dessert. the rest of the table does as well, and I don't, because I don't believe the kitchen can even handle putting out food at this point. The desserts all seem fine, but nothing spectacular. My wife has banana foster, which I try because it's my favorite, but surprise, it's disappointing.

I pay the bill, and the waiter brings out some free appetizer coupons as compensation, promising this isn't how things normally go, and to give them another chance.

I just paid over six hundred dollars for garbage service and a mediocre meal. I would hesitate to come back for a free meal, let alone just appetizers. How is this compensation, asking me to come back and give you more money? Absurd. And the best part- the coupons all had expiration dates for the next few months, March of 2023.

I checked the time, it was 10:02 when we left. Three hours for a meal and dessert. Two minutes after closing.

So in summary, it was a miserable time. I feel angry. I feel disrespected. I feel like my money was wasted. I feel like my time was stolen. Easily the worst experience I have ever had at...

I went to Sullivan’s with my family to celebrate my mother’s birthday. We heard good reviews and decided to give it a try. I will start with the positive because unfortunately, I have a mouthful of negatives.

Positives: The appetizers and drinks were amazing. I highly recommend the Chargrilled Oysters and the Prickly Pear Paloma if you decide to dine here.

Negatives: The overall experience due to the waiter, Mark.

It took about 30 minutes for our table to be greeted by the waiter, Mark. It took an additional 15 for bread and water to be given. Mark told us that he only came to our table because he was instructed to do so, despite our table our table being in Marks section. I know this because he serviced nearby tables numerous tables before even greeting ours.

Mark only began to be polite after we requested a new waiter because we waited nearly an hour for just water.

Upon check out our bill was $387. We gave Mark $100 cash and told him to split the remaining balance on three cards, which meant each card would be charged $96. However, when we got our individual receipts back, we noticed that each card was charged $129 and there was no documentation of the $100 cash ever being given. Making it seem as if Mark took the cash as a tip despite being specifically told that the $100 was to be added to the balance of the bill.

We again, went to the host stand to discuss this grievance and they blamed it on a computer glitch; stating that the computer must have glitched after Mark input the $100 cash and didn’t add it to the balance. As someone who has worked in customer service and taking payments, this excuse does not make sense. Instead, it sounds like Mark attempted to pocket the $100 cash, hoping that we wouldn't thoroughly check our statements before signing and leaving the restaurant. It also worth mentioning that we had a party of 5, which is considered small, and the tip was not to be included in the bill.

In the end, due to frustrations rising and not wanting to put even more of a damper in celebratory dinner, we decided to leave the bill as it was which left Mark with a $100 tip that he did not deserve. I say he did not deserve it because his service was delayed and disingenuous, it took us requesting a new server for him to simply be polite, and not to mention after boxing and bagging our remaining food he left the bags sitting on the floor in the corner of the restaurant and did not even tell us. We were left to assume it was our food and retrieve it.

Overall, the food was good, but this is not an establishment I would return to or recommend due to the poor service my party received. At a fine dining establishment, I expect more from the server considering the price point. We could have gone to a TGI Friday’s and received better service instead of driving 1.5 hours to receive the worst service we have ever experienced and leave with a sense of being robbed.

If you do decide to go here, at least request a server that is not Mark and thoroughly check your bill before signing...

My husband and I made reservations and went to Sullivan‘s to celebrate my 50th birthday. Never in my 50 years have I had such a poor dining experience, particularly offensive because we let them know it was my 50th birthday. From beginning to end this restaurant made extremely offensive, cavalier mistakes. The hostess was on a personal phone call when we entered and continued to talk on the phone for 10 minutes while we stood in front of her waiting to be seated (perhaps that should have been our first clue of what was to come). Our server, Matt, treated us as if he couldn’t care less about our experience despite knowing that it was an important birthday. The shrimp cocktail appetizer used to consist of very large shrimp but on this night the shrimp were the size of shrimp scampi. We ordered two entrées and two side dishes and only received the entrees and NO sides. Because everybody wants to eat a piece of fish with nothing to go with it right? Trying to get Matt’s attention to let him know our side dishes were missing took 20 minutes in a restaurant with only three tables of guests. Matt consistently ignored us and gave all of his attention to another table so close we could hear him laughing and socializing with them while ignoring us. It was my birthday and I wanted to have a lovely experience so I ate my fish with no side dishes and my husband and I did our best to get past it and have a good time. 20 more minutes passed before Matt returned to our table and I kid you not he brought the bill without ever asking us if we wanted anything else, including dessert, or apologizing for his many mistakes. I looked at him and I said it’s my birthday I would like to have dessert he looked at me like I had two heads and stormed off annoyed. By this point I was so upset I couldn’t contain the tears. On any day you expect a restaurant of caliber to provide you a nice dining experience but particularly on your birthday and especially on your 50th birthday. As tears streamed down my face Matt sent the manager over who looked appalled at the experience we had and the look on his face said it all. When told of our servers attention to the other table and forgetting most of our food, combined with it being a 50th birthday, he almost cried himself. He was speechless. I don’t think he could believe that anybody could treat people that way, particularly when it’s HIS JOB not to. The manager comped our bill he was so disgusted and brought out dessert himself. We will never return to Sullivan’s and we cannot recommend that anybody dine here, especially if you’re celebrating an important event. We could have chosen to eat anywhere on this special day and we chose Sullivan’s who did nothing but treat us as if we didn’t matter. From the moment we walked in the door to the moment we walked out we were treated less than. Do yourself a favor and opt for one of the many other local restaurants who treat you as if you matter and are interested in providing an exceptional...