Cavanaugh's River Deck — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I've been a longtime patron of River Deck, but after last night's service, I can assure you that I will not give them any more of my business, and let everybody I know about my experience.

A few friends and I went to River Deck on a Thursday night (8/22/13) for some drinks, and it was apparently their "Dollar mug" night. Since I did not have enough cash on me for the amount of drinks I was going to purchase for myself and friends, I opted to use a credit card. Upon hearing that I was taking out a tab, the bartender that works at the bar closest to the river with dark hair proceeded to throw a fit, rolling her eyes, huffing and puffing, and said to me "You're really going to open a tab"?. I apologized and said to her that I did not have cash. After ordering a drink, she slammed the cup in front of me and walked away. My friends and I looked at each other in awe, as I've never seen such a performance like that from any bartender before.

Upon ordering another drink, the bartender did not recoginze me at first, so after she told me the price for the next round of drinks, I reminded her that I had a tab open. Her exact words were as follows: "You're kidding me right? If I knew that you had a tab open, I wouldn't have served you". Obviously, this kind of behavior from an employee in the service industry is unacceptable.

This has not been my first negative experience here. Do not be suprised if bartenders will try to pull fast ones on you, making up their own bogus minimums on tabs, or choosing to cut you off if you decide not to leave 100% dollar for dollar tip on every single drink. As you can see in many reviews below, it is VERY DIFFICULT getting a drink, as bartenders always seem to be goofing around with their friends sitting up at the bar, and will blatantly ignore you until they feel like serving you. I would normally leave one star for this kind of treatment to customers, but the drinks are competitevly priced, and it is a nice outside atmosphere. But, obviously there is a flaw in management on supervising the service that their employees give to paying customers, and needs to...

If I could give 0 stars, I would. Being a server myself, I have never gone anywhere and not tipped. That changed last night. I had reservations for 7:15 just to eat. When we arrived, there was so much chaos by the hostess stand, they didn’t even properly greet us because they thought we were with another party. Our ID’s got checked, which is understandable. However, the “security guard” gave us a cocky speech on how we cannot leave our seats unless we are going to the bathroom or leaving. I told him we were just there to eat and they we weren’t drinking. He said “I’m just doing my job. Remain seated. Do not leave the tables with your drinks”. We were debating on leaving but we gave it a try anyway. We got seated next to the bar, and the bartender greeted us, grabbed us two waters and a coke. The water had a terrible taste to it, couldn’t even drink it. And they coke was watered down. When I told the bartender about the coke, he said “oh really?”, walked away.. looked to see if the coke needed to be refilled, and that was it. Didn’t grab us a new one, didn’t ask if we wanted something else, and it was on the check. We ordered a burger that came with fries and the chili nachos with chicken. The burger was OK, but the lettuce on it was brown. The fries were soggy. The nachos had potential if the toppings were spread evenly. Everything was in one spot with a HUGE glob of sour cream in the middle. Some of the chips were stale. I was able to see behind the bar from my seat, and it was FILTHY. At that point I felt disgusted. I can’t imagine how dirty and unsanitary the kitchen must be. I could keep going but I hope you get the point. I guess this one star rating could go for the waitress who asked if we were OK.

DO NOT BE LIKE ME AND WASTE YOUR...

I visited from out of state to celebrate my birthday and attend the Roots Picnic and was excited to visit River Deck for their “Caribbean night” after friends my recommended it. We were coming from the festivsl and hadn’t eaten much all day, so we decided to start with ordering food. We waited at three different bars before finally ordering, only to be told they were out of the item I paid for. When I tried to reorder, the bartender completely forgot I had already paid and never put in my replacement order.

After finally realizing that she hadn’t put my order in after 45 minutes, I asked for a refund. Her way of making it right was giving me a dry, unsauced 6-piece wing (which wasn’t what I ordered - my replacement order was a 12pc wing tossed in “cav’s sauce” which was around the same price as the egg rolls I ordered and paid for). I asked for a refund AGAIN and she said she’d have to get a manager.

The bartender avoided me and the barback ignored me. At this point I was livid. After never getting my proper order, watching people around me eat and leave, being ignored, and NEVER speaking to a manager, I raised my voice out of frustration. Instead of her trying to rectify the situation, she calls security on me. I was escorted out by security without a chance to explain.

Even after showing proof that I only ate part of the food because I was STARVING and explaining the situation calmly, the manager refused a refund. Unprofessional and disrespectful from...