Philly Bar & Lounge — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

I went to Philly Bar Restaurant on Saturday, May 18th 2024 between 3:05ish pm and 3:50pm. The service was TERRIBLE!

This was my second time going to Philly with my partner. The first time we went was a very good overall experience. We sat outside on the patio at a high top, we got two beers and both were in 22ounce glasses. Yesterday’s experience was the opposite. Yes, again, we sat outside at a high top, but this time the first high top was falling apart so we moved to another one. Once at this new high top we got our beers in plastic cups unlike the glasses we got the first time. We asked the server about the difference and her response was, “this is what we do” and walked away quickly. However, it didn’t end here. Halfway through our time at Philly a group of 3 people (2 gentleman and 1 woman) sat at a high top next to us. Watching these 3 people interact with their server made it Cristal Clear that they either all worked together or at least know each out. This was further proven correct because all 3 of them got actual glass wear for their drinks.

The first time we got food at Philly it was very good. We both got sandwich’s which were the Chicken BLT and the South Philly. The bread for both sandwich’s was nice and full and tasted great along with the entirety of both meals. Yesterday’s second experience both for the Chicken BLT and BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich were terrible. Instead of the nice bread like the first time we got dry sesame seed bun bread that was falling apart. The chicken was flat, thin, and small. The pulled pork was in a ball which told me it was prepackaged and if I had to guess heated up in microwave or something. The first bite I took of pulled pork sandwich was completely dried out which told me I was right.

When the server came over to check on us we told her that the food wasn’t good, and the experience was terrible. After a couple of minutes the manager came over to us. She asked us, “what was wrong?” and my response was, “I’m not going to pick things apart, but overall the service and food was terrible. I even made sure to tell this same manager how she went over to the high top table of 3 people she knew by openly saying out loud (since I heard it) “guess who’s the manager today guys”, but yet the same manager told us that, “she’s just a fill in manager” and walked away. So what is her real role then? A real manager or a fill in that doesn’t help her guests?

When this manager returned with my card she said, “I took care of your bill today” and she walked right away. Since we didn’t get a bill, we couldn’t get a receipt, therefore we couldn’t leave a review. However, here is that review.

Philly staff, food, service, and experience were terrible!

It might not be everyone’s experience and that’s good, but for us yesterday it was terrible. Just want people...

Soooo this place vexes me. On one side, most of the food that came out was good. On the other side, we had a little issue that wasn't really alleviated. Wasn't a horrible experience, but I would've gladly gave Phillys 4 stars if they had handled it properly. Let's brrak it down.

Came with a squad of 7 for dinner including my boy, new wife, bro, sis, mom and pops in law.

Apps: Calamari and buffalo cauliflower. Calamari was light, crispy and delicious. The red (schezuan style?) looking dipping sauce was excellent. The buff caul had blue cheese or goat cheese or some cheese chunk droplets all over it. They were tasty with a nice kick. Only wish there was more of each. Wasn't a small portion or anything, just wished there was more.

Most of us ordered beef cheesesteaks with different toppings and dif cheeses. Mine had suayeed onions and peppers wit Wiz. Always money. Everyone who had a cheesesteak enjoyed it. This is their specialty afterall.

Other orders: The sweet potato falafel. Fried Oyster Po' Boy. The Salmon dish.

Falafel was good (although our waitress asked how she wanted that cooked..not sure if that's an Albany/upstate thing). Oyster po boy was tasty (although one side of the po boy had about 2 oysters and the other side was loaded with like 9..Im not a stickler for that kinda stuff, but my wife is and she had the half w/ 2 on it, so i gave her some of mine). Salmon was where the stars start to get knocked off. As a whole, the dish was great. Salad was good, fried polenta cake thing was good, salmon was season nicely..buuuuttt it was raw in the middle. I literally heard Gordon Ramsay shouting in my head that the salmon was 2 seconds away from swiming upstream!

So we had the waitress come over, but she didn't really know what to say or do..she said she hadn't been working there for a few weeks, but is that really a good excuse? She sent the salmon back. Took the whole half eaten plate. We all finished our meals as they prepped a new piece of fish. It came out on a small plate with no more salad or polenta cake and bro was pissed. He just boxed it to go and spoke to the manager. He was ok (I actually used to work under him when he was the head cook at McGillicuddys in New Paltz) didn't really help much but at least he took $10 off the order.

There you have it. Mostly good food. Great cheesesteaks, onion rings and fries. Disheveled waitress was weak. Service on the undercooked salmon was trash. Oh but the drinks were flowin and they had a nice 2 for 1...

Where do i begin , well me and a group of friends went there for a friends bday. We had a few ppl ahead of us in line that were wearing shorts but didnt seem to be a problem as they checked thier id and let them in with no issue. We get up to the bouncers and go to my friend who happens to be african american and tells him they have a dress code of no shorts and no ripped jeans in which i was wearing , we state that we just watched them let a group in that were wearing shorts and they did the tough guy bouncer thing and told us if we changed and give tbem proper id we would get access , so we drove 25 mins back to albany to change , we get back and now they say we need 2 forms of id and get out of line and leave. We asked why were we getting treated like this and the guy said cause i can . Come to find out he was in charge. Then we noticed another group of black guys who were denied because they had shorts on , but seconds later a group of what appeared to be 3 college kids who were wearing pink , biege and light green shorts who only had to provide one form of id were let in with no problem .This made me Very upset and i felt it was very wrong. I feel embarassed and i felt me and my friends were stereotyped as well as a bunch of other ppl. I will never give them a dime again and i hope karma...