Local Tavern (Terminal F Hub) — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Went to the Local Tavern to spend some time before my flight. DO NOT. Absolutely horrible experience. I ordered a Long Island and a Veggie Burger that I upgraded to an impossible patty with an egg on it that totaled to 50 bucks with tip (me including a tip on card to just round up and was going to leave even more cash). The drink came quick and was decent but nothing special. The burger was 23 bucks and some change, which I also thought was expensive but whatever. 20 minutes pass by and the cook comes to me and tells me they are out of the impossible patty (a $5 charge) and I say it’s no problem the lentil patty is fine but can you send a manager here so I can get the price difference back? They offer me more food instead, which I denied because I would have ordered it if I wanted it. I ask if they can replace it with another Long Island which the answer was no and it was explained to me thats not how it works, which being in the hospitality department myself, I understand. So I ask to speak to a manager then a man in chef coat with very broken English approaches me. “You have a problem with veggie burger???” I ask are you the manager ? He replied “you need to do refund process.” I said are you the manager? He says “that’s what I’m saying.” So I tell him I’m at the refund page and cannot refund because it’s asking for a name and email address when I only put in my phone number. He clearly does not understand and keeps telling me I need to do the refund process. So I oblige, and fill out the page. Now 20 minutes has passed since I got my food and I finally take a bite into it. Once I fill out the refund page he says now “place another order.” I say why would I place another order when I wasn’t even refunded… this man absolutely loses it, screams at me asking me then why I am eating my food. I am shocked and at this point ask for the supervisor because the manager is screaming at me. The staff behind the counter then informs me “that man is not the manager, he shouldn’t even be here , he doesn’t work here.” So then what the hell is going on in this establishment? I then hear the wait staff say “I don’t know where the manager is I’m still waiting on him.” When answering a question to a coworker. I let them know this was an absolutely horrible experience, and I’m not eating my food solely because this man decided to scream at me for wanting a refund for an item that was not available that I paid for. They apologized, about 5 of them, profusely, and I apologized for being a customer with a problem but let them know how completely unprofessional the whole experience was, gave my food back, and left. Do not go there unless you want to be harassed and given food you did not order and weak over priced drinks. Get it together local tavern, because it’s clear you’re becoming the lowest tavern in...

This place just can’t seem to find its way. During Covid they had a system of ordering that used iPads at the tables. Then, the last time we were here a couple of months ago it had changed to QR codes on the tables and no menus. Now they have paper menus again but the wait staff uses tablets to place the orders. We ordered a burger, a build your own, and a simple request for lettuce, tomato, and onion turned into a negotiation with the waiter. First none were included. Then the lettuce was included, then the tomato, and the way it wound up was that it would be 75 cents for the onions. It is a very relaxing dining experience to have to go back and forth with the waiter about condiments. When the burger came the fries were cold but were replaced quickly with overdone ones.

I had a veggie burger that came with guacamole and pickled cabbage. I asked for cheddar for an extra buck. It didn’t come on the burger and after further interaction with the waiter’s tablet was told I did not pay for the cheese. The sub of a side salad for fries was fresh and good.

In the latest weirdness for this place you now need to pay before you get your food. Why I have no idea. And the waiter told us that the tip was defaulted to 18%, but we could change it if we wanted to. Note that 1) the tip conversation was held with the recipient of the tip who was yet to bring us our food, and 2) we were asked to determine the tip before we were served! As I said, just a weird way of doing things.

This place seems to be addicted to technology. After paying we got a text acknowledging our order. The link in the text would not open. When we were done we get another link supposedly with a receipt, with another link that wouldn’t open! (See photo).

I am no expert on restaurants, but this place, in all of its iterations has had technology that definitely took away from the customer experience.

Note to management: how about equipping the waitstaff with pen and paper, using an order entry system, asking the guest to pay after they have gotten their food, not making the customer discuss the tip with the waitperson, and handing the customer a receipt! Yes, quaint I know but it would immeasurably improve the customer experience.

I wish there was another sit down restaurant in F but part of me wants to see how much more customer unfriendly they can make this place....

I was gonna be generous if anything. But this place really pissed me off. The only way to order food or drinks is to scan the QR code that they have taped to the bar top. That bothers me for two reasons. It lacks the human interaction that is a typical bar/restaurant visit and it limits your custom/ability significantly.

For example I order double Tito‘s on the rocks three olives. That’s a simple order anybody can take that. But guess what I have to type in the notes column that limits you at like 15 letters “3 olives please” what happens if somebody has a food allergy or I don’t know has a specific request that they want to order how do you do that in 15 letters?

What happens when you have an older individual male or female that isn’t tech savvy enough or somebody that is out of data and can’t use their phone to scan. And this is not a shot at the servers or the bar backs and the bartenders are fine very polite and kind. Even willing to help individuals out that are confused with using the app. But it’s quite frankly annoying. Stating get with the times or get with technology just shows me that whoever owns or runs this bar is lazy and doesn’t care about the customers. Their pours are less than what is standard “using big ice cubes to make it look like the glass is more full does not mean the glass is full”. If I order a double give me a double don’t short me. I’m not a drunk, but I know what a double is. Please give me what I request & pay for. Ice or not and when I tell you, I know it’s short it’s not me being rude. Not trying to get something for free. It’s me telling you that you’re either pouring me less than what I requested or you’re being cheap.

Also every time you purchase, it automatically closes you out at the end, even though it states that will leave your tab open for an hour so that on my credit card statement will generate the same charge multiple times if I’m sitting there over the course of an hour getting the exact same thing. It’s annoying and it causes you to over tip each time and pay their additional fees.

I’m not only will not come back, but I will tell you “DONT COME HERE”. so please whoever answers this don’t give me that please contact me at this email and I’ll make it right or whatever. You’re a joke, you’re pathetic, and you’re lazy.

Fix your bar and do right by people. It’s not hard to do the...