Mount Airy Tap Room — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Not a good restaurant night for us. Our go-to place was closed for a special function. Our second choice was closed for renovation, but they suggested Mt Airy Tap Room as a good option for us.

When we walked in, the place was full of energy from happy customers: a good sign. We are the type of customers who care about restaurant staff, and we both noticed that every staff member looked overwhelmed and unhappy, not a good sign.

They had no greeters at the door, only a sign to go find any staff member to be seated. The first one we found, a bus person, handed us off to someone else, who informed us that the outside tables had a twenty minute wait. He asked for our name to put on his list.

This reluctant greeter staff member was clearly "put out" that our initial response was a reaction to the initial half of what he had said.

Instead of complying immediately to his impatient command to tell him our name, we commented in a conversational (completely non-confrontational) manner that we were surprised about the 20 minute wait since there were plenty of empty tables and nobody else besides us seemed to be waiting for a table.

Our comment was innocent, polite, and reasonable. The greeter guy reacted to it with an obnoxious eye roll. Choosing not to speak to our comment AT ALL, his response was an EXTREMELY SNIPPY repetition of the second part of what he first said. He put on a patronizing scowl that conveyed his annoyance with us for imposing on his time. He dredged up even more disdain to go with his eye roll. Speaking as if he were a fed-up parent talking to a recalcitrant child, he inserted an obnoxious... pause ... between ...each... word, asking again, "what. is. your. NAME?"

Keep in mind: we had not belabored our inquiry about the wait time -- this entire exchange wasn't drawn out enough to justify how much this guy wanted us not to exist.

When he saw our annoyance, he back-pedaled to try to explain the table issue. As best we could tell, it appeared to be ok for us to sit at one of the empty tables as long as we understood that it would take our server 20 minutes to attend to us. That was fine by us, but then he said, "I wasn't trying to be snippy." We replied, "that's, bull. You were most CERTAINLY trying to be snippy, and you should have apologized for it instead of denying it."

We'd had enough. This was our first-ever visit to Mount Airy Tap Riom. In the span of literally one minute, this bozo worker managed to turn us off from his restaurant enough to walk out and instead have a DELICIOUS meal at the BYOB Italian restaurant across the street where everyone there was warm and pleasant.

(Note: if Mount Airy Taproom wishes to write a response, we ask for them to identify as human or AI. Too many businesses are paying to let AI write automated review responses these days. Show us you ACTUALLY CARE by being the human your staff member could not...

Well I will start first by saying that the food is pretty good. The staff is great. The Atmosphere, especially the outdoor dining. I only visited twice and will NEVER RETURN. On my second visit in the middle of dining a couple entered with a huge dog. Ok I’m definitely not with dining with dogs but , after they sat the couple across from I tried to go with the flow and ignore the animal in my eating environment. Not only was the dog shaking and a little rambunctious but, the dog owner sat one of the restaurants water glasses on the ground and the damn dog drank out of it like a dog bowl. Whole time, staff continued to serve in the area as if no one noticed this or perhaps it was a regular thing. When they arrived the waitress did say “oh we love him” . Sooo when I noticed it after my son who LOVES DOGS brought it to my attention by telling me that he was ready, I went inside trying not to vomit and told the waitress/ barmaid. She was very nice and asked if I wanted to move…. POINT IS THE DOG DRANK OUT OF THE GLASS AND HIIS OWNER FELT VERY COMFORTABLE ALLOWING HIM TO DO SO. I AM MORE THAN CERTAIN THAT THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST OR LAST TIME FOR THIS. The waitress did say that she would throw the glass away but I’m sorry I can’t help but to think about other dish that a dog ate out of not only at this place but other places. IT IS DISTURBING, DISCUSSING, and PRESENTS A DEPLORABLE EATING ENVIRONMENT. I am sick to my stomach and my entire dining experience is reunited. It’s definitely safer to eat at home. Unless you like licking dog bowls and sharing bones your dogs LITERALLY stay away from this place and reconsider eating in ANY ANIMAL FRIENDLY ESTABLISHMENT. This includes services dogs. At Least POST a Notice that reflects Amina’s are welcome to dine. This was absolutely by far the worst dining experience that I have EVEN had. I recommend that they not only throw that glass away but every glass and dish in the whole place away. BEWARE OF THE DOG WHO MAY HAVE DRANK FROM YOUR GLASS. Excuse any grammatical...

This evening me and my wife joined by 2 friends had a great meal and service.

Near the end of our visit a single black man at the bar had a problem with his bill. The bar keep had added a large group tip to his bill the manger / I believe the owner told the man the charge was staying on the bill. As the argument grew between the manager and the individual. They bumped into our table and the man showed me his bill and in fact a large party 20% tip was added to his bill totaling $4,75.

Regardless of the history between this man and this establishment. I find it very disturbing for an establishment to add a tip to a bill without notifying the individual of the charge up front.

As for the manager. When you have people in your establishment, your job is to be sure that those people are safe. Escalating an argument with an individual in your establishment is never a good idea.

If the manger is so concerned about his employees getting tips maybe the establishment should pay more or be up front that tips are applied to every guest. Other restaurants have successfully...