MATCH Market & Bar — Restaurant in Phoenix

DO NOT RECOMMEND My friends and I went to a dinner event that the hotel was hosting. The event was marketed as an astrology themed dinner, but the event was a complete scam and a laughable disaster. Before purchasing tickets I called the manager to determine details of the dinner. The price of the ticket was $70+, so I wanted to get full details before myself and my friends purchased the ticket. The manager who I spoke with (I should have got his name but I didn’t) confirmed there was going to be someone presenting and doing a full “deep dive” on all things Sagittarius. That never happened. Nothing about astrology was even discussed. The manager advised 3 specialty cocktails were going to be included with the tickets. When we got there, we found out zero drinks were included. The manager advised there would be a tarot card reading. There was not a tarot card reading. This is a prime example of being scammed.

Now for the food. The food was just as AWFUL as the experience! It was disgusting. They feed us leftover Thanksgiving food from the week prior and then the main course was duck

The details on the event website were very vague, so that is why I called to get an accurate sense of what the evening would look like. I was ‘sold’ on something that was completely a scam and didn’t even exist. To add some humor — This is equivalent to the Fyre festival. People show up to an event after being told what to expect and then the complete opposite happens. I addressed this with management (Chris is his name) and he refused to refund my friends and myself for the ticket that we were scammed. Chris did not even apologize for the situation. If you work in hospitality and customer service you need to pay close attention to feedback and making things better — it’s called the client experience. Listen it would one thing if we just showed up to the event without knowing what to expect, but the expectations were set and the...

TL:DR - I was at the bar for an hour, ordered with the bartender and never got my food. I reminded them and they forgot about it again.

I can’t rate on the food because I was here for an hour and and never got my drink or food. I was at the end of the bar but I was sitting next to people who got there after me and were able to get 2 rounds of drinks and their food. They took about 15 minutes to even ask me what I wanted. I asked for a water and the menu. Got the menu but no water. Then a different bartender gets my order and proceeds to apparently completely forget I order because they kept making drinks for everyone but somehow completely forgot about mine?? 40 minutes in I asked where my order was and that I never got my drink even tho it’s been 40 minutes. I asked for my food to go since I was headed elsewhere. He apologized and said that it’d be right out.

The two people seated next to me order their 2nd round. Five minutes later they get their drinks and food and still nothing on my order. I waited another 15 minutes but at this point it’d been humiliating enough and I was late. The bartender had started his closing tasks seeming to forget about my order AGAIN. Even the people near me said it was the strangest thing that only my order was forgotten about. There was maybe 8 people at the bar so it wasn’t even crazy busy. I left and let the bartender know that I was heading out, he admitted to completely forgetting about my order again.

It was so baffling I did notify the manager on my way out just so she was aware and that it wouldn’t happen to another customer. She was so nice and apologetic, even tho it wasn’t on her. She’s the reason I’ll return to give Match another try in the future, though maybe not seated at the bar this time. All the other workers (outside of the bar) were excellent. It was just the 2 bartenders that didn’t...

The atmosphere was tense, not unlike the lingering mood in a public space after the police drag away a shouting vagrant. Too busy for a greeting. Okay. We stood at the hostess station - staff came and went, being careful not to make eye contact and obligate themselves to be hospitable. I counted 3 tables with guests, 4 more guests at the bar, 8 employees on the floor including two manager types. Zero smiles. "Maybe we're dead," I said to my wife, "like the movie sixth sense. They can't see us but we can see them." I pinched my wrist to be sure I still had feeling. Following five minutes of existential crisis and wondering if perhaps we had over or under dressed, a self-identified first day staff member stopped to explain he had yet to been trained on where to put arriving guests. He went off and wrangled another staff member from their suicidal contemplation to show us to a table. And there we sat. 15 minutes of reviewing the menu, staring at bar staff, servers, bussers, managers and even a few fellow diners to come by and say hello. I debated the drink offerings with my wife and quite pathetically changed my order out loud 3 times. "I really do think we're dead," I said. "It's because you brought a dark brown woman," she kidded. We stared harder and harder. No drink, no charcuterie board, certainly no new watering hole for us. We stood up slowly, looked around and walked along the longest route to the side exit. I feel bad for leaving the other guests behind. Rumor has it, if you stand quietly by the fountain in Portland park at night, you can hear they're small cries for help. Works for the conference-goers, the college kids and the captive hotel guests, but not for us locals that spend hundreds per week dining at the many far better operations within walking distance. And, as it was made clear, Match doesn't need our...