Modern Malt — Restaurant in City of Syracuse

I recently had the opportunity to dine at Modern Malt in Syracuse, NY, having heard numerous positive reviews about its ambience and culinary offerings. Unfortunately, my experience fell significantly short of expectations due to the service I received, which marred what could have been an enjoyable outing.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, my sister and I were met with a complete lack of greeting from our waitress. She merely walked past us to a table, placed utensils down, and then walked away without acknowledging our presence. It was both surprising and disappointing, especially in a setting that prides itself on customer service.

When she finally approached us for drink orders, there was a noticeable lack of attention to detail; she did not inquire about our party size, instead making an assumption based on who had entered the restaurant together. While I can appreciate that she might have been busy, the growing feeling of neglect began to set in at this point.

After placing our drink orders, we waited approximately 15 minutes before we saw her again. During this time, she frequently attended to other tables, engaging them warmly and taking their orders. This inconsistency in service was particularly frustrating; it felt as though priority was given to other patrons while we were left unattended.

When we finally managed to flag her down to express our concerns about the wait, her response was dismissive. She remarked, “I’m one person; I have things to do,” which could have been a valid point had it not been delivered with an apparent lack of empathy. My sister, trying to assert that we recognized the challenges of being a single server, pointed out the inequality in the attentiveness we were receiving compared to others. Unfortunately, the waitress did not seem to grasp the essence of our feedback and did little to amend the situation.

Although my family members enjoyed their meals, I found myself unable to eat, as the overall experience had already soured my appetite. The disconnect between service quality and restaurant expectations left me feeling quite dissatisfied.

The culmination of our morning was just as lackluster: when we requested the check, the waitress simply placed it at the far end of the table and walked away. In a clumsy move, the check slipped to the floor as she left, highlighting a further lack of attentiveness. In contrast, I observed her interaction with other tables where she was smiling, placing checks down with care and asking how things were—yet all these were experiences I did not receive.

When we asked to speak with the manager, he was indeed friendly and attentive. He lilistened to our concerns and offered an apology, which was a small consolation in light of the morning's events. However, the experience with the waitress, who per the receipt the name was "Mikey," overshadowed the positives of the manager's response. I cannot help but feel that the service culture needs significant improvement if it wishes to retain first-time visitors like myself.

Perhaps my experience with Modern Malt was an unfortunate anomaly, but given the level of service I encountered, I cannot justify a return visit. I sincerely hope that this review can aid in improving the establishment's service standards, as it has potential that I believe should not go...

Horrible customer service. Beware of the very unprofessional, Trey Alvarez who is unfortunately the manager. Upon the arrival of my meal I noticed that instead of having just lobster as the menu advertised, I’d been given a lobster and imitation lobster mixture... this has happened before on a different occasion and when asked about it before, I was told that it’s not something that typically happens but because their “food truck didn’t come in on time” they had to combine imitation lobster to present the meal. As a result of them not telling me that prior to bringing out my meal and because I had to encounter that, they offered me a different meal of my choosing and they took it off of the bill which I was very appreciative of. This time around however, the manager came over to the table and stood there. I proceeded to tell him about the imitation meat that I’d received to which he responded has “always been apart of the meal.” I then proceeded to tell him about my previous experience with a different manager and how I was told before that it’s typically not apart of the meal. He just stood there saying nothing, no apology for the misunderstanding, no explanation, not even an inquiry into if I’d like a different meal, nothing. I told him I didn’t want it, he said okay, took the plate and walked away. Now I’m sitting there with no food and no resolution and very upset by his lack of concern and apparent lack of customer service/managerial skills. I decided I’d ask for the general managers name so I could tell him/her about my experience. I got up, went to the bar and asked for the manager. Mr. Alvarez then came over and I asked for his name, followed by the general managers name, followed by a telephone number or means of contact for the general manager. Mr. Alvarez decided to give me his own name but reassured me that he was the “highest” person there is. I had to pry out of him who his boss was by asking who the owner of the establishment was, which he then said was Rob Biddwell. After receiving a name I asked for a means of contact. He refused to give me any type of contact and instead said “I’m trying to understand what the problem is.” I responded saying the problem was you came over to asses the situation and didn’t offer an apology or a resolution to which he responded “I didn’t apologize because I’m not sorry. I didn’t do anything to be sorry for.” To make a lengthy story short.. Mr. Alvarez ultimately (embarrassed by rightfully getting called out) felt the need to call the police on me, who by the way thought it was unnecessary that they were called.

I am completely disgusted with Trey Alvarez and his behavior! I have worked in customer service for the past 15 years and have NEVER seen anything like this before. Having been in these types and more difficult situations than this, I recognize that the customer is always right. Mr. Alvarez behaved like a complete fool, ignorant of what it takes to be a professional customer service representative, let alone a manager. I am embarrassed by how he treated me and the fact that I even had to defend myself about something that wasn’t even my fault.

Before this experience I loved modern malt and the food there as I have always had pleasant experiences. Mr. Alvarez has unfortunately tainted my appreciation for this restaurant and I will not...

Today we stopped by for breakfast (sept 1/19). The hostess was great; welcoming, friendly and helpful.

However the waitress was as less of a success. She was friendly but seemed to be much more interested in looking at her phone than coming to take out order or bring us our coffee and meal.

As annoying as this was the meal was really the disappointment. We ordered the huevo ranchero omelet, which was just ok. We also order the breakfast bowl with an over easy egg. The waitress was accommodating about the swap from scrambled to over easy for the egg which was great. However when the meal FINALLY arrived the true disappointment began. Understand, when we arrived there were only two other tables occupied.

The breakfast bowl arrived with lukewarm hollandaise. That description is generous as I would say it was actually cold. The over easy egg was actually over hard, which defeated the purpose of swapping from scrambled.

It took easily ten minutes before we could get the waitresses attention (she was playing with her phone and chatting with colleagues). We explained that the Hollandaise sauce was cold and asked for a side order of hot hollandaise. We decided that mentioning the wrong egg was useless and I just pushed it aside.

After another ten minutes and now everyone but me was finished eating the hot hollandaise arrived. She apologized for the delay and said that is was because there is no microwave. I would have expected that since hollandaise is made on a cooktop and not a microwave that was irrelevant.

Somehow your restaurant is exceptional and has the ability to cook hollandaise cold. Not once but twice.

This would have been a delicious breakfast bowl but not cold which was all it ever was.

We receive and apology but though no more than three hopeful votes were gone from the bowl and we explained that the new sauce was also lukewarm we received no compensation. I paid the entire bill and sent you this message.

One of my worst breakfast experiences.

Update: I received a call from the manager who was very contritre and apologetic. He offered to comp us the meal even though we were long gone. He offered to dig for the credit card receipt to do so. Very considerate. Thanked us for the review and the opportunity to improve.

However as I tried to return to the review that I left on their site (identical to the one above) I discovered that it had been erased. Not responded to, erased. That was an act of desperation. This, from reviews, seems to be a very popular venue though there are many complaints of poor service. Maybe it...