Merv’s Bar — Restaurant in New York

Cute space, well themed, well-decóred - overall good vibes. Was there for an "I Heart Burlesque" show - featuring a variety of burlesque artists and the event was sponsored by some rum company.

My party and I arrived about 15 minutes before the show was scheduled and the space was pretty full. The food looked and smelled delicious, and judging by some of the other reviews, it probably tastes good too.

That said, this place DEFINITELY has a management/service issue. I was originally going to write-off last night's experience as just a "bad night" but after reading MANY others' review, there seems to be a pattern. There were 3-4 people behind the bar at any given time, however, only 2 were actively making drinks and they were not particularly responsive and worked really slowly. I mean, I get you have some complicated drinks on the menu, and that's fine, but at least acknowledge everyone else who's standing around waiting to make eye contact (also, if you're gonna have a major event with an influx of patrons, perhaps make a toned-down menu with easier cocktails? Just a management suggestion).

The 2 other folks who were behind the bar were just there collecting and cleaning glasses - in fact one of them had to insist that they were "only a bar-back" and couldn't help with taking an order, or even splitting a $5 to make change. Like, you're (the venue) hosting an event - with the plan to make money and increase revenue - and then severely under-staff the bar, and have insufficient amount of bills in the register so that people could leave tips to their servers and the burlesque artists - that's just REALLY REALLY POOR PLANNING (and frankly undermines the point of having a SPONSORED event, and frankly suggests a deep lack of respect for your patrons).

Then, to add insult to injury, it took 20 minutes (I wish I was exaggerating, but I timed it) for us to get acknowledged and have 3 drinks served. One of them was a Sazerac (the other two were simple, a vodka soda and scotch on the rocks) - the minute the bartender asked if I wanted it on the rocks or straight up, I should have just changed my order.

If you don't know that a Sazerac is SUPPOSED to be served SUPER CHILLED and STRAIGHT, then you have NO BUSINESS MAKING THE DRINK. After I had clarified that I'd like it super cold and straight, I received a clear drink, lukewarm, with a lemon twist (I'll take responsibility for this one - that's on me, I should have known better).

It did NOT taste like a Sazerac. It wasn't a Sazerac. I drank it in silence, because I didn't want to deal with having this corrected and having to deal with the bartender's attitude when I eventually would get their attention again.

Of course, the standoffish attitudes coming off the 2 bartenders who were actively making drinks didn't help (as if they were doing ME a favor for being there and I was annoying them with my drink order), but I'm just chalking that up to being understaffed and overworked for the evening - but this does seem to be a pattern at this place.

Overall, I like the space, but the service really puts a major ding on the experience. Unless this improves significantly, I don't really see myself...

Came here last night with my 4 of my girls, we called to see if the kitchen was open and they told us we had 20 mins. We rushed over there and got there in 5 mins and the guy at the bar (Nick) was annoyed with us from the second we got there. Gave us a nasty attitude and told us "you better order in 5 mins" when we still were supposed to have 15 mins. Whatever, I've worked in food service so I understand it can be frustrating but he clearly wanted us to leave from the moment we got there. We rush ordered our food and when it came time to order drinks, he refused to serve my friend because she only had a temporary photo of her ID (along with multiple other forms of ID and all of her cards that had her name on them) The most annoying part about that is that the bar was dead to begin with so it was weird for a little hole in the wall bar like that to refuse service. When he checked my ID he stared at it for probably a solid 30 seconds and stared at me and shook his head? It was weird I am 28 years old and definitely don't look under 21. Regardless, we stayed because we had already ordered our food and were hungry. I waited 30 mins for my drink and when I asked him about it he said I had never ordered it and then asked me if he had already checked my ID. I was so confused why he didn't want to serve us so bad. The drink was okay, the 3 stars are for the food which was really good. They have Vegan options which I was happy to see. When our food arrived he basically slammed it on our table and then didn't give us water until we were basically done with the food. I wish they would've told us that the kitchen was closed if they didn't want to serve us. We had to rush everything since we couldn't enjoy some drinks together and ended up going to another spot nearby for drinks. We walked up to the bar to wait for our bill and sat there for about 15 mins just waiting when the bar wasn't even busy for it to take that long, I don't even want to know what the service is like on a busy night. When he finally came over to us he skipped right over the itemized bill portion and when we asked to see it so we could see how much he tipped himself, he said he could e-mail it to us. Overall, the place has potential. The environment was cute, food was good, drinks are okay but they could definitely improve their customer service. I think if they brought in stronger employees this place could do really well. Maybe an additional bartender would help since Nick was so overwhelmed on...

Normally I love this restaurant, they have great food and the customer service is usually great, usually being the operative word. On July 6, 2018 I placed an order via Grubhub. I was informed my order would be delivered in about 1 hr, which is typical and I would never complain about that. I waited and waited and after an hour and a half passed I have them the benefit of the doubt and figured it’s friday night, must be busy. Once it approached 2 hours with no contact however, I called the restaurant directly to track the order progress. At which time I was told by whomever answered the phone that they had attempted to deliver the order and made two attempts to call and contact as well as informing Grubhub who also apparently tried to contact and got no response. At that point I informed the gentleman that I had not received any missed calls or texts about my order. I asked the man to repeat the number they had on file for my account and sure enough it was correct so I’m not sure why I had no missed calls registered. I chose to contact Grubhub directly. Immediately after hanging up I placed a call to Grubhub and informed them of the situation. I was told by the representative that it stated that delivery had been attempted but that NO communication had been on the restaurant side or by Grubhub. After I concluded my first call with Grubhub, luck would have it that their customer service line called to let me know that the restaurant had tried to deliver but was unsuccessful. I asked the young lady if they had just received a call from the restaurant and she confirmed which would suggest that the man was dishonest about previously contacting Grubhub. This more than anything was what upset me and despite the great food, I WILL NOT order from this restaurant again. I am very disappointed with the customer service and hopefully the restaurant management can address issues like this so they don’t occur...