SURV Restaurant — Restaurant in Forks Township

We made a reservation for a party of 14 over a month in advance to ensure the restaurant could accommodate a large group. While the outdoor seating and atmosphere were great, the rest of the experience was disappointing.

Service was very slow—drinks took a long time to arrive, and our food took over an hour to be served. When it finally came out, it wasn’t even hot. The bread we received was hard and only brought to us after we specifically asked for it. We were also told that large parties don’t automatically receive bread, which was surprising.

We raised our concerns with the general manager, but he was not apologetic in the slightest. Eventually, he offered a 10% discount on a bill of over $500, which felt like an inadequate response to the overall poor experience.

This was our first visit to SURV, and unfortunately, it will also be our last. This visit was on a Wednesday, and the restaurant wasn’t particularly busy—making the lackluster service and food quality even more disappointing.

THIS IS IN RESPONSE TO THE OWNER’S REPLY:

Thank you for your response to my previous review. I appreciate your attempt to address my concerns; however, I feel compelled to elaborate on several significant issues we encountered during our recent visit with a group of 14.

Firstly, we were attended by a brand-new waitress for our large group. When it came time for our check, a different server brought it out and was very apologetic about the situation, which I appreciated.

However, the bread was served only after our dinner arrived—and only after we asked for it—because we were informed that bread isn’t provided to large parties. Unfortunately, when it did arrive, it was hard and cold. The general manager's comment about being "out of luck" for hard rock bread if you weren't among the first to arrive was particularly disappointing.

Additionally, one of our guests ordered to-go food, which arrived well before our meals, raising concerns about the timing and management of our food. Our food did not arrive within 30 minutes—we waited over an hour, which was only made worse by the fact that our server came back multiple times to re-ask what several guests had ordered. That strongly suggests that the order was either not put in promptly or not managed correctly.

We were only checked on after voicing our concerns, and even then, the service remained lacking. For instance, I requested salt, which didn’t arrive until after I had finished my meal.

We chose to sit outside to celebrate with teenagers, a detail that was clearly communicated when making our reservation. However, while waiting over an hour for food and 30 minutes for drinks, the teens moved to the side of the patio and into the parking lot to use social media responsibly, without disturbing others.

The general manager's response to our concerns—laughing and attributing the issues to short staffing—felt unprofessional. While we received a 10% discount—roughly $42 on our $500+ bill (including tip)—there was no apology or acknowledgment regarding the service shortcomings we experienced, just excuses.

Given these experiences, I stand by my 1 out of 10 rating. It’s unfortunate that there has been no accountability from you or your management regarding the service we received. I do plan to call to discuss...

On New Year's Eve, we had a party of six choose to eat at Surv. I will say it was one of the worst dinner experiences I have ever had. We were seated promptly at 6:30 to a table of five instead of six...we had booked a reservation for six. They quickly got us a chair but after 30 minutes and asking several times our sixth finally got a place setting. Our first drink arrived 20 minutes in and they took our order. Three of our guests got the fixed 5 course menu and the other three got a salad and a meal. It was not until 7:45 that the first round of the prefixed menu came out. Meanwhile the other three had nothing. After an hour and half, they decided to put rolls on our table as well. Two hours in the waiter came over and asked some of our party if they got the second course…..which they did not. He finally found some….and nothing was said to the people without any food. Mind you these courses served so far were beyond tiny. So they were just as hungry as we were. 8:45 the waiter brought out the salads and said the ladies finally get food. Please remember our reservation was at 6:30 and after 2 hours and 45 minutes we got salad. People who had come after us were all getting fed. As a matter of fact I had a friend who arrived at 7:30 and were leaving as we were getting our salad. As they were cleaning up our salad, I was saying at the table that am going to write a review. The waiter overheard and said it is a busy night we have to understand…... get that but almost three hours for a salad? Our food came out at 9 and I thought it was ok to good but also at this point we would have eaten anything. During dinner the waiter sent over the manager who said we had to understand it was New Year's Eve. They were serving 300....I get it, we go out to eat every New Year's with this group but at the point he came to talk to us we were 3 hours in for meal. What is disturbing is the only time we saw the waiter was to drop off food and never checked in on us. The gratuity was included in party of 6...So he didn't have to take care of us. Interesting when I said I was going to leave a review we had someone finally come fill our water, drop off our food and then ask if we need anything... all in a matter of 15 minutes. So we finally left the restaurant at 9:45 for a 6:30 reservation. We didn't want to wait for the dessert that came with the meal as it had been so long. So, they packed it up in one bag and sent us off. I believe they decided on the one bag after they handed my leftovers to the wrong person. In conclusion. if you want an average meal that will taste good because you haven't eaten in so long and you have 3 hours and 15 minutes to waste this is the place for you. By the way the manager couldn't care less and in no way apologized. He actually blamed it on the guests ordering the preset menu. Also, we had been before years ago and the service was just as bad but we thought it was because we were at the bar. We decided to give them another chance even after countless people told us not to because the service was so bad! / will say it was an expensive lesson to learn…...none of us at our table...

I very rarely write reviews but after an experience I had at Surv a couple of months ago, I thought I should write a review. I don’t like posting negative comments about a place because maybe it was just a bad night for a place but I believe feedback is necessary to help Surv improve.

I attended Surv about two months ago with a group of 12 people which included six children (all under 12 and one was five). We requested outdoor seating which I will admit was very nice and accommodating. The outdoor area had live music that was very entertaining as well. Even the indoor seating looked very nice. That was the highlight of our experience.

Let’s get to the negatives:

Our server was not very helpful at all. It took her nearly ten minutes to come out and greet us after we had been seated. After looking over the menu, we were ready to order but she would only do the drink order first. That ended up taking even more time and by the time they came, the children in our party were growing impatient. We finally got to order our food nearly 20 minutes after being seated. The appetizers came out in a reasonable amount of time. The entrée ticket times were a complete disaster. The kids all ordered pizza and we ordered a grilled cheese for my 5 year old son. We were waiting over an hour after we ordered for our entrees. I had to take my 5 year old son out of the restaurant area and walk him around for a while because they couldn’t get his dinner out to him. Despite numerous requests, our server did nothing to help. Another person came out and apologized and admitted someone dropped a few of our pizzas which is why everything was taking so long. I could be forgiving but it took so long for everything to be communicated to us and they couldn’t even bring out food to a 5 year old who was waiting well over an hour for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Service was weak but the food was also a miss. Appetizers despite coming out in a timely fashion were bland and forgettable. The kids at our table wouldn’t even eat the fried mozzarella which was surprising but they said it tasted bad. I sampled it and while it wasn’t horrible, it was bland. Most people got pizza and we all agreed the sauce was way too sweet. Whoever is making the pizza sauce is putting way too much sugar in it. We all thought pizza was soggy and not very tasty. People who ordered other dishes said they were cold and just meh in flavor. Now let’s get back to the grilled cheese that was ordered for my 5 year old. This kid waited a very long time for one simple grilled cheese. Unfortunately it wasn’t worth the wait. By the time it came out, it was soggy and not appetizing. I thought maybe he was being difficult but I and others also sampled it and agreed it wasn’t very good.

In conclusion, Surv offers a beautiful building and decor but struggles with servers, ticket times, and quality control with the food. I hope they can fix their issues but I doubt I’d return there to eat again after my experience. Good luck to the owners. The place has potential and their other restaurant Edge in Bethlehem is great but Surv has a lot of areas for...