Sassafras — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I am still trying to comprehend how this place operates and functions as a bar with the abyssal service we received. Our group of 3 went there initially and the bartenders could not be bothered to offer any sort of interaction. Asked about the specials, the bartender said it's on the wall, without even looking up. The bar wasn't even busy by any means. Maybe 4 ppl sitting at the bar with about 8 standing. The group order 3 drinks and the bartender again acknowledge them so they go sit down. They were given waters and not given the chance to try and order drinks. We met up with the group of 3 with another group of 3 and could tell they were annoyed and finally just said that they wanted to leave after being there for 15 min and no drinks or service. So our group leaves without getting any drinks or no service. We go to the next door bar and begin to order a few and the original group is telling us what happened. When the bartender that they tried to order with comes in and creeps on my female friend, demanding she pay for drinks she never received. You could tell the guy was only expecting that it was a group of three girls and not 3 guys with them. The guy refuses to leave and is trying to be super aggressive. Says that the drinks were at the bar and they should have got them themselves. The bartender starts to try and get in other's faces saying they left and stiffed the bar with the drinks, which again we never got nor were notified that they were ready. If this is the kind of customer service they provide when it's not even remotely busy I cannot even imagine if it's slightly busy.

Truly zero...

It was my first time being in Philly, the party that I was with had passed by this place and decided this is where we were going to eat. The atmosphere seemed nice. We stood outside the door because there was a sign that said "please wait to be seated" so we waited and waited and waited..... all while two of the servers continued to walk by us. We finally stopped one of them and said that we wanted to sit outside and pointed to an open table and asked if we could sit there. The guy server rolled his eyes and said they "guessed" we could sit there, there were a ton of open tables. Once we took a sit we continued to wait a while for a menu and to find out who our server would be. Lucky for us, we got the guy who rolled his eyes. When we were ordering he was unpleasant, rude, and when we tried to get his attention for a refill on our drinks or we need something for our food, he would walk by us. Honestly we should have gotten up and left from the beginning, it was the rudest experience we have EVER had at a restaurant. I must say though the food was fantastic but I will never return due to that service. Two stars for the food but if I could leave zero stars I would for...

Upon arriving the staff were helpful in suggesting drinks but unfortunately they did not understand what type of drink I wanted. The first drink was bitter when I wanted a sweet type. After 2 sips I asked foe a cider. Big mistake it came in a CAN. It was very acidic and I had to add a sweetener to it. I then just switched to a basic rum and coke because it's less likely that you can mess that up. We decided to leave and get something to eat and come back later to continue drinking. When we returned we ordered more drinks and the female that brought the drinks over said "I am surprised you came back as I thought you did not like the service as you did not leave a tip" I explained Unfortunately being from England and not used to tipping I forgot. She then replied well the normal amount is 20%. We all felt very uncomfortable and was worried something may have been added to our drinks so we paid and left straight away. I WILL NEVER DRINK THERE AGAIN. I think that was very rude and inappropriate and will most probably not tip again for the rest...