Morten's at Old Town — Restaurant in Columbus

It’s just as embarrassing to write this as it was to witness it firsthand. Yesterday was my first time visiting Morton’s at Old Town in Columbus, GA. The owner and chef, Mr. Morton, initially seemed helpful, assisting me and my guest with the menu. I was the last in my party to place an order. Unfortunately, when my meal arrived, it was completely wrong.

I notified the waiter, who then informed Mr. Morton. At that time, he had been drinking at the bar, touching surfaces, and even handling food with his bare hands. He came to the table and offered to “re-cook” the meat, but I declined, explaining that I cannot tolerate the sight of blood. His response shocked me—he said, “I’m still going to charge you either way. If you don’t want me to recook it, take it home and cook it yourself.” He then walked away and returned to drinking at the bar.

Not wanting to make a scene, I approached him privately and respectfully explained that I was not refusing to pay, but that the order was incorrect and I truly couldn’t handle food served rare. Instead of listening, he accused me of lying, saying, “My waitress said that’s what you ordered, and she doesn’t lie, so you’re lying.” This was said loudly, in front of my dinner party and other patrons.

I calmly explained, “Sir, I am a veteran. I’ve seen my share of blood, and as a therapist, I am very intentional and precise with my words.” His response was to dismiss me further, saying, “I tell you what—get out of here and don’t ever come back.” My dinner party and others looked on in shock.

When he noticed that I had tears in my eyes, he whispered, “Go back to your dinner party. I was wrong, I apologize.” Still, the damage was done. One bartender apologized quietly, adding, “At least you look pretty.” But that did little to ease how humiliated I felt.

In that moment, I even told Mr. Morton directly, “You hurt my feelings,” but he simply took another sip of his drink. I left feeling beyond embarrassed—hurt, disrespected, and utterly...

I’m going to start out by saying that the amount of money my husband and I paid for our food/service last night was definitely not worth $200.00. Upon walking in the hostess asked if we had a reservation and I didn’t realize we had to make one, my mistake, but were able to seat ourselves rather quickly. If I am paying that much for food, which is suppose to be a higher end restaurant you should give the hostess more of a job than just pointing people to their seats because she had enough time on her hands to be sitting there snapping ‘selfies’. Very unprofessional. The First Gentlemen who came to our table was grand. Although he did warn us he wouldn’t be our server, which was disappointing, because our waitress lacked any social skills - which later reflected in her tip. Anytime we asked her something she seemed bothered that we didn’t know something - being our first time, or if we asked her to repeat something because it was rather loud in there, she seemed annoyed. She literally only spoke to us when she needed to - which was to tell us the specials. Aside from that, us being there seemed to inconvenience her. The food was meh. I don’t know if it was the chef or owner walking around speaking to everyone but if it was the chef - his priorities are lacking. The food was bland. The swordfish was dry and not worth the money we paid. My husbands steak was good, but even the small plate we ordered lacked flavor. For the amount we paid, we just ate it. Heaven forbid I ask the waitress to do more than she needed to because her annoyance with us already was enough to get our desserts to go. I definitely won’t be returning. I happen to agree with another review that unless you look a certain way - you’re not wanted. Too bad people judge others on appearance because not everyone with money drives a Porsche and carries around Louis Vuitton. I wish you the best of luck on...

I have rarely written a bad review of a restaurant, but I’m making an exception for this place. My wife and I were wanting to celebrate an anniversary tonight and we looked on the reviews and chose Morten’s. I looked online to see if they take reservations and there was no place to reserve a spot. We decided to get ready and go there after work. The receptionist greeted us and said there would be a 30 min wait. The bar was full so I stood by an open spot and waited for the bartender. When she got to me , she said she was slammed and she’d get back to me when she could. She also told the host that she should not seat people so she can catch up. That’s fine. I waited for her to get to my order and looked at the restaurant. It was half full and there was a table for two by the window. After waiting 20 mins for our order, we finally received it AND the table for two was still open. We sat on a couch in front of the door and waited patiently for the “open” table for two to be available. At no time had reached out to us to let us know about our wait, if we would like to sit at the bar, or if they would be able to seat us at anytime while we were there. After the 30 minutes had past, three groups of over five people came in and were immediately seated. Again, no one came up to us to explain why we weren’t seated in open table. After another 10 mins , I asked the host why we were not being seated in the open seat and she got defensive. To the owner: you just turned away an over $200 tab at your restaurant because your staff would not communicate with us about this situation. Also, I sat there and watched you at your kitchen bar look at us on the couch multiple times. Not once did you come over to introduce yourself and apologize on why we were not being seated. It’s said a good review is worth a few customers and a bad review will reach hundreds- guess what, here’s...