Ryfe Restaurant, Bar & Event Venue in Moorestown — Restaurant in Moorestown Township

Read this only if you’re interested in a long diatribe. It was an interesting New Year’s Eve.

We made reservations way ahead of time and were confirmed by Open Table and text. We go in and the front desk staff says my name is in the system and after a pause THEY WANT TO SEAT US AT THE BAR! On the end no less where we couldn’t see the game. No. No. No. We made reservations for a table or booth. We should have walked out but it was raining and who is open now without reservations? They searched for a table and said “you’ll have to be done by 8 pm because we need the table.”

Evidently it was a big Penn State party so we rushed to meet their needs. Our server, the lovely and precious Ava Gardner let us know this was her second day on the job serving so since we’ve been in retail and customer service for decades we knew to show some tolerance. So we made the order easy; 2 sodas, 2 waters, 2 seafood bisques and 2 shrimp scampi’s. The bisque is ok. Nothing to write home about. A little thick like a sauce. The scampi says zesty. There was nothing zesty about it. It was bland. The 6 shrimp were fresh. There’s nothing I hate more than mealy shrimp.

We figured dessert is in order. We didn’t want to wait 12 minutes for the hot Snookies so we got one chocolate torte to share and two coffees. The torte is tiny but adequate for a dinner ending palate.

The following is constructive criticism for Ava and we totally understand the situation so don’t worry, you will be fine as time goes on. Learning curve and all that.

After finishing our sodas the glasses remained on the table empty for the remainder of the night. Please be attentive to refills even though we had water with ice.

She then brought two cups of black coffee and asked if we wanted cream. Of course! Then she went back and brought sugar. But we had no silverware! We used our straws to stir the coffee. On the bright side the cream was an amazing Irish Cream and our coffee was outstanding! The torte was delicious!

Now don’t forget they need the table by 8pm and it’s 7:15 and we’re ready to go. I have my credit card out in my hand tapping the table. The place is getting rowdy and young honeys are dancing around shaking booty. After 47 years of peaceful wedded bliss I know not to look. Don’t even turn your head.

Ava disappeared and it’s 7:48pm. An absolutely sweet hostess fantastically dressed asks if she can remove our plates. We explain the situation but engage in a great conversation. She is from Pittsburgh and I talk about my mom taking care of Franco Harris’s mom at a rehab center in Moorestown. This lady is awesome.

PS. There was a server that brought the food to each table. We noticed she was running around getting the job done! Management, she is a keeper!

Ava comes over and takes my card and returns with the computerized bill. I punch in 25% tip because we understand! New employee on super hectic night!

So we hope Ava doesn’t quit. It is overwhelming! Hang in there!

I guess what sticks in my crawl is the reservation system. Who dropped the ball? Open Table or Ryfe? Management should look into this.

Many times I will get a text or email the day of the reservation asking if we’ll be there. Sometimes even a call from the establishment.

So we will probably be back. And maybe...

I thought long and hard about writing and submitting this review. For starters, I never review places. Also, I know this place is owned by a Moorestown resident, and I don't want to trash his new business. However, if I owned the place, I'd want this out there to improve.

First of all, our waitress was wonderful. She stated right away that she was new. When we asked about the crab cake salad, and the difference between the large and the small, she mistakenly said that the large comes with two crab cakes. As it turns out when the order arrived, only one very small crab cake. The difference between the small and large crab cake salad is just in how much lettuce you get, not crab cakes. The waitress did apologize and said she was wrong and she's surprised a larger portion still just comes with one small crab cake. This is also a good time to note that that large chicken caesar salad was just a giant bowl of lettuce with a very small amount of chicken and croutons. Total rip off.

With that being said, the manager did come over to address the crab cake. He had a menu with him. He tells us that the large crab cake salad only comes with one crab cake. The fact that salad only comes with only a tiny crab cake for the price is insane. The GM then points to the section on the menu where we can order another side. So basically he came over and asked us to spend another $12 for a crab cake side. Instead of fixing an honest mistake that a new server made, he came over and offered us to spend more money on a tiny crab cake. If I owned this place and knew my manager did that, my head would explode.

Notably, when settling our bill and signing the credit card slip, we informed our server of our intention to leave a negative review. She promptly informed the manager, who then provided us with an additional crab cake. However, this gesture came too late to salvage our overall impression of the experience.

In my opinion, a restaurant's general manager should possess the skills to address such situations without resorting to requesting additional expenditure from the customer. Following our disappointing meal, we ended up going to pizza Brooklyn Pizza in the food court because we were still very hungry.

In the future, we'll be dining at Yard House or Harvest instead.

EDIT - I posted this same review to Yelp. The owner responded telling me...

We were here as a large group in March and loved everything. Service was slow but that was to be expected as the place just opened. All of us finished every bit of our plates.

On that memory, I made reservations here for Mothers Day. The taco app was great (as it was in March when we tried it). My wife and I both ordered the Latin Sirloin. Her steak came out cooked as ordered, however mine came out raw (blue). I’ve eaten some undercooked red meat in my life but this was too much and I sent it back. The waitress was very apologetic and attentive. The next steak came back very well done, as if the chef said “F this, if the last one was “under cooked” wait til they see this one.” I was starving and didn’t want to be an annoyance so I ate it but I have to say, for the price, I absolutely regret spending my money here. A Five Guys burger would have been better. It was honestly one of the worst cooked steaks I’ve ever had. If Ryfe can’t find a chef that can cook a consistent medium rare steak, then please do not offer it on the menu. After I received my order, I found out the table behind us also had to send a steak back because it was not cooked to the requested temp. The place unfortunately was not crowded so there’s really no excuse for not being able to cook steak to customer requested temperatures. This seems like “chef 101”. As a Moorestown resident I recognize it’s important this business succeed and I want it to succeed but I also want them to be aware of deficiencies so they can be addressed and improved. I will give them another shot since my first visit was so positive but I will absolutely not order red meat here for the foreseeable future. Our server was great and took awesome care of us. Food prep...