Boutique River Falls — Restaurant in Philadelphia

For my birthday, my daughters decided to treat me to brunch. We had made reservations for 11:15 AM on a Saturday morning, with the understanding that a $10 per person reservation fee would be charged and applied to our bill. I arrived with my daughter "A" and niece at 11:00 AM. Upon arrival, we confirmed our reservation for a party of seven. We were informed that we would be seated once the remainder of our group arrived, and the manager (or so I assume) mentioned that she had spoken with my daughter "B," confirming the table was set and everything was in order. No problem. Daughter "B" and my grandchildren arrived at 11:15 AM, and we were seated at approximately 11:30 AM. We were then told that our waiter would be with us in about four minutes.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. After 20 minutes of waiting without even a "be right with you," we inquired about getting water. The manager came over, delivered the water, and adjusted her long weave over the glasses before leaving. From the beginning, it was clear the staff lacked proper training. The waitstaff did not exhibit the professionalism one would expect at a restaurant of any caliber.

Eventually, our waiter – who appeared to also be responsible for mopping the floor and setting up fans – took our order. He committed everything to memory, which would have been fine if his approach hadn’t been so aggressive and off-putting. When we requested drinks, we were instructed to scan a QR code for the drink menu. I ordered coffee and was told it would take 6-8 minutes to brew a fresh pot. After waiting, I was served coffee with Splenda, which I had to request sugar for.

By the time our food was served around 12:40 PM, most of our appetites had waned. The food, unfortunately, didn’t live up to the wait and was mediocre at best. It simply wasn’t worth the delay.

To top off the experience, when we received the bill, the reservation fee had not been credited. Our waiter was unaware of the pre-payment and promised that the manager would address it. When the manager arrived at the table, she told us that we should have informed the waiter about the reservation fee. This was confusing, as it should have been part of the restaurant’s process to ensure this was handled correctly. As customers, we shouldn’t have to remind the staff about their own internal procedures.

Additionally, my daughter had mentioned when making the reservation that the occasion was my birthday, but no one acknowledged it. When she pointed this out to the waiter, he claimed he didn’t have that information. At this point, it was evident that there were communication and operational issues at play. The manager tried to explain that they were using a new system and that the staff wasn’t yet familiar with it. However, this falls squarely on the shoulders of management, not the customer.

In conclusion, while we wanted to support this local business, the experience left much to be desired. Between the service issues, the lack of staff training, and the overall miscommunication, we won't be returning and certainly won’t be recommending this...

Sooooo yall know I don't sugarcoat anything and of course this was our experience. Although the reviews varied in experience I will say they weren't wrong. Let's start with the 1st issue- we get greeted as we walk in by the girl at the register who tells us to chat with the hostess, now she is standing there talking to someone..I stand behind that someone, after the lady leaves the hostess(I didn't know that was here at 1st) walks off..ummm WTH..so I'm thinking she is a runner. As I'm standing by the 2nd door for about a good 5 mins..she ask from across the other side of the counter how many..I'm like huh..I say 2. After about 15 mina we were asked if we wanted outside seating to which we accepted. Well my timer starts..it took 15 mins for someone to come out and take our order..again let me set my timer. The couple who were seated before us was still waiting too. When they got their food it came out in pieces..pancakes..no syrup...wrong eggs no toast..coffee no sugar and it wasn't like the waitress dropped it off and came right back..nooo she went inside and did other stuff. I saw someone I know who works there and mentioned the wait time to which the owner came out and I motioned the table to grab her so they could voice their concerns 1st. They did and then they not the waitress goes back in to get their syrup, toast, the correct eggs and hot coffee. Back to us, I voiced the time issue and the simplicity of our dish and the now 40 min wait, the owner says we'll we have a large party mind you the large party came in while we were standing waiting and they weren't even seated because the entire party wasn't there..sooo make it make sense, the next comment was " well somethings are worth the wait" ..ummm do you see the pics below, nothing fancy or over the top about it. For $48 not including a tip i could of went to the Asian spot but wanted to patronize a B.O.B. the waitresses weren't attentive to the outside section at all. Good help is hard to find but bad help should be re-trained so they can focus on customer service and not yapping at the door with each other..I mentioned that because the girl I thought was our waitress wasn't but the one that was stood yapping with the others to my surprise. All of that and I still left a $6 tip.....they get one more try with me. Go for yourself and...

We took my husband and father to the restaurant for Father's Day. We waited about 5 minutes for a greeter to arrive. They are understaffed. The greeter does more than greet which dimishes her capacity to greet 100%. We all had pretty simple orders. My mother and father had the same order; fried fish, grits and eggs. I had fried fish, sautéed spinach and mac n cheese, my husband had an omelet and my daughter had a waffle w/ a side of bacon. We waited 45 minutes to be seated and an entire hour for the food. We arrived at 11:30 and left after 1:30. Why were people that got seated after us, served before us, ate and left? It didn't make sense. It all boiled down to one thing; my mac n cheese. Couldn't they have simply asked me to substitute if they didn't have it ready instead of making us wait an entire hour for a side. Infact, my party ate their food before I was even served. I watched my parents eat their fried fish and I didn't have my fried fish. That's how we calculated it down to the mac n cheese. Sauteed spinach takes less than 5 minutes to make and all the fried fish should have been fried together for the table. Its all boiled down to common sense which the restaurant obviously doesn't have. That was my husband's first time dining there. We will not be returning. We drove all the way from West Chester, PA (and hour) So we were already hungry when we arrived. We were starving by the time we finally got served. That is horrible service. Simple communication would have fixed that. The two stars is because atleast the food was good. The server didn't even refill our drinks. He also took long to serve those initially. Other factors for the teo stars: the table was wobbly, a reatairant should fix that immediately. It was also freezing in there and the outside temp was in the 60s in Philly on Father's Day. It was a cold wait. This is why I don't like dining out on holidays. But I had the same meal on Mother's Day except for fried chicken and I didn't have to wait an hour for it. We were very disappointed. I will not be returning there. Be careful with the parking lot off the patio; there is poison ivy by the side closest to the river. That's the first thing my husband noticed when...