Loch Bar — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I typically don’t give reviews, but after my experience at Loch Bar I had to. My friend and I waited over 15 minutes before we finally had to flag down a server to help us. Not sure if something had been miscommunicated with the hostess but the weather was beautiful (we were sat outside) so we were just trying to be patient and were enjoying our conversation. Our server, Kenji was lovely (for real, IF you decide to go I would ask for her!), however we waited over 2 hours for food which was no fault of hers. We had been extremely understanding and kind throughout the ordeal but by this point we were running late for a show. Based upon a review from 6 days ago it appears a similar scenario happened to someone else. Kenji did communicate to us often, giving us updates and apologized. Even gave us a complementary round of drinks due to the inconvenience. Apparently the order made it to the kitchen but that’s about as far as it got. The manager came to speak with us and half-ass apologize. He was extremely condescending and rude. If that’s his normal tone, he’s not being set up for success in this position and I would implore the restaurant to find other areas of opportunity for him to focus on his strengths if he has any… Might I recommend the kitchen space since it appears they need help? Zero customer service and people skills only offering us a discount that ended up totaling $7 off of our bill to appease us. We didn’t ask for a discount and weren’t really expecting it, again, we had been extremely nice about everything but by that point to throw some b*tchy $7 discount at us was a slap in the face. If you do want to compensate your customers for the apparent weaknesses in your kitchen staff you gotta do better than that. My girlfriend did firmly push back that what he was offering us just wasn’t good enough. $7 did not even cover the cost of one happy hour appetizer item and we had ordered several and drinks. He advised other people had been experiencing the same poor service as a reason he couldn’t do better. Uh, what? Do not justify our experience by telling us this is normal… who taught you PR skills? Why would I or anyone else ever recommend this place and come back then? We also noted tables around us that were sat after us, received their food, they left, only to be sat with another party and they receive their food, again, before us. Make it make sense. The math is not mathing manager man. Extremely disappointed.

Update

After a few email exchanges with Christopher who commented below, I made myself available to chat further and was sadly ghosted. It seems he disappeared much like...

Decided to head into the city's center to chat and chew with two old friends. One suggested the Loch Bar. She said, prior to the Philly location opening she would take an hour and a half drive to the one in Maryland. I was definitely excited to try it out.

The Loch Bar is on S. Broad St. directly across from the Kimmel Center. Prime location with valet parking. The exterior dining area is nicely arranged and the interior space is opulent and what I was expecting. I was greeted by a very nice gentleman who held the door as I entered. Very classy.

Our reservation was for 6pm. The hostess promptly sat us in what appeared to me to be a makeshift dining space. Dave was our server and he greeted us on the spot. He was very personable and welcoming. We ordered water and cocktails. My friend who suggested the restaurant said, he has been her waiter every time she's dined there. So far, everything is going well.

Theeennnn... Dave forgot our waters. We asked again when he came back to take the appetizer order, and had to ask 1 more time. Okay, not a big deal.

My friend says, they usually have live music on Friday. Lol I said, where do they set up? Yup! You guessed it lol. In the section where we were seated with the makeshift set-up. In the middle... (no exaggeration, fork with calimari on the end in air headed toward mouth) ...of us njoying appetizers... The manager comes over, apologizes for the interruption and said they were going to upgrade us to booth because the band would be setting up in that area. He did advise he was comping the appetizers and cocktails we had to that point which was a wonderful gesture. So fork goes back on the plate, we relocate to a booth, the staff bring over our dishes. Next question, where's Dave?

The food was good not great, Possibly the disturbance and lack of attentive service from our server curbed my taste a few degrees. We started with Calimari and Rock Shrimp, Artichoke and Crab Dip, and Roasted Oysters. For dinner, two ladies had the Seafood Bake and I had the Miso Roasted Chilean Seabass and a side house salad w/vinaigrette.

The band had played a few songs while we were dining and the tempo was slow. Relaxing to the point of putting you to sleep.

While I feel this was an exception to the business as usual (BAU) routine for this establishment and location due to the stellar personal reviews I received, my experience was lukewarm. While I may return, I won't rush to make it back to the...

I agree with some of the other reviews it’s almost like they don’t want you to dine there. EXCEPT THEY definitely don’t. Realistically during happy you get an influx of black people who are interested in trying out variety of things BUT it’s not just black people. People of other races too frequent happy hour. I went there once and had the best time and so I returned with one of my girlfriends that particular day, which was two months ago. It was very hard to flag down a server when we finally received one after sitting there for about 45 minutes looking stupid we were able to get our hands on two chairs at at the bar because it took so long that people finished up their meals. We sat there and waited an additional 20 minutes like fools. When our waiter came He did not want to take up the food items from the previous table and was rolling his eyes and upset when we asked him to take it up after we saw he was bringing us drinks while the other dirty food was still there when he brought the drink it was almost as if he was under the influence. His eyes were very glazed over and he spilled the drink all over my girlfriend. The next time I returned again, like an idiot this time with my husband when we arrived, there were two seat seats at the bar again still dirty food from previous customer the waiters refused to come and clean the items. The party behind us at the other tall chair behind the bar waited next to us as two more seats opened except they were smart the flagged down an employee and overheard the employee tell them that the workers at the bar would clean it any minute! That NEVER happened you know what they did ? Got up and left while continued to sit foolishly . I did notice that there were people of other races there and they were being tended to a lot quicker than the people of color. We waited over 30 minutes with the dirty food in front of us one bartender finally made his way over and took up most of the items and said that they were understaffed, however, as I said, it was clear other people were being served just not us even the parties who are next to us Black people who were dying and you could see from their dish it was off of the regular item menu. They were being treated as if they didn’t belong either. I learned my lesson you won’t let me give you a third time to disrespect me like that. It’s clear they are tired of the influx of block people...