Bar Avalon — Restaurant in West Chester

My husband and I recently moved to the area from the city. After a decade there, we are accustomed to many different restaurant styles and atmospheres. However, the experience we had at Bar Avalon in West Chester is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Shortly into our appetizer course the table in front of us had been cleared and a new group sat down. While we appreciate a fun, loud restaurant, this group was extremely inappropriate. They were so loud they were yelling over each other to be heard, cursing, and screeching. Shortly after sitting down, they were recognized by friends at the bar, and said friends joined them for a bit. Everyone stood up around the table and the group was even more loud and rude. The group did not seem to take the subtle hints of everyone around them glancing at them for so rudely interrupting their meals. My brother-in-law eventually got up to use the restroom and spoke to a group of staff members about the table. Our server came over and asked if we wanted to move tables. Not her fault, but the table we were to be moved to was two tables away - it would not have made a difference and we were halfway through our main course. This table then received a wine tasting, were offensive again, but then received food and quieted down a little. Once they ate their apps, the distastefulness started up again. At this point, I asked our server if I could speak to the manager. At the same time, one of the females at the table flung her arms back so fast that she almost hit my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law and husband both asked the table to calm down. One of the males at the table said, “oh, are we bothering you?”, my husband said “yes, you are being extremely rude”. The manager came over at that time. He asked “Is there a problem?” (Management 101, this is not how you address patrons!) My husband said “yes, this table next to us is causing a scene”. The manager said, “well, we offered to move your table”, and then he had the audacity to tell my husband that he was the one causing the scene. (My agreeable, non-confrontational husband... causing the scene? Yes, my husband did raise his voice in that moment, but we were not causing the scene.) I stepped in and asked the manager if he could just speak to other table. Instead of even asking them to quiet down, he only asked them to stop cursing. Clearly the manager was of no help, so instead of ordering desserts for my husbands birthday, we asked for our bill at that time. Over $200 for the worst experience. (We gave our server her full 20% tip, we did not ask to have the bill adjusted for the experience, nor was it.) The worst part about this is that as since it was my husband’s birthday, we were looking for a fun night out without our young child. Management should have stepped up and addressed this table before they even had put an order in, or if not then, when my brother-in-law had spoken to the staff members about the table. Food: okay, wine list: terrible (small list, not great wines, they ran out of the bottle we ordered, markup at 400+%), management: offensive, ineffective, shameful. Experience: horrible. Not sure how anyone can condone running a business in...

Read this before you dine here…. We heard good things about this place so booked my wife’s 45th Birthday dinner here. Arrived at 7:10 for a 7:15 reservation and was immediately asked if we would accept a high top at the bar. We did not book a high top so declined. Was told we would have to wait 15-20 minutes for a table. Ok, a little odd for a place that takes reservations but fine. A few minutes later we get a table right near the waitress station. Everytime the male servers would step down into the lower level of the restaurant they would skip the step and literally jump which was kinda annoying but again, fine. The prices here are expensive. A few dollars more for a beer than standard and 12 dollars for a sangria in a Mason jar. The appetizers were ok. The egg rolls were good, the short rib was soft but not much in them. The other appetizer, the roasted peppers were lukewarm and I couldn’t eat more than one. 8 dollars for a side Caesar salad which was just ok as well. Literally had no dressing on it. The entrees were good, but took almost 2 hours to come out from the start of the meal. I had the Avalon burger which was delicious but the fries are just standard breaded fries that had no truffle Parmesan on them, even though they were supposed to. My wife enjoyed her Seafood Vodka Pasta. The problem I had with my experience was the long wait in between meals with little to no service in between. My wife put a second drink order in that the waitress totally forgot and when asked didn’t even remember what she had ordered. The fellow dinners near us, had a meal comped due to poor experience and another dining party, four people mind you, got up and left after waiting 2+ hours for their food. Upon leaving the manager came over and the son said “we don’t want to wait anymore cause we have a meter running, so can you comp our drinks and appetizers” and just left. The manager just said ok. Meanwhile, we had exactly the same experience never were given the level of service they did. Their server was great and attentive. And to top it all off, no mention of the reservation details of my wife’s birthday celebration or anything. Our server, Olympia, was either new or just was frazzled. A horrible experience for a first time and probably last time patron. There are better places to dine in...

I am sharing my review due to the top-notch customer service received at Bar Avalon. A friend and I decided to dine with Bar Avalon, so we made a 6:30p reservation. I arrived and was seated promptly. I quickly ran to the restroom and returned to my table to wait for my friend to arrive. As I sat, I saw a waitress walk back and forth a couple of times, even serving water to the table across from me. After serving them water, she proceeded to go and grab a bottle of wine for said table. She then returns, opens the bottle, and chats with them for a sec. After, she then walked to the table behind them and checked on that table. I immediately noticed something was off because the waitress never acknowledged my table. At this point I said she couldn’t have been our waitress. My friend arrives and we debrief and tell her I think we should just leave because the waitress has not even acknowledged our table and at this point it’s 6:45pm. There wasn’t a Hi, Hello, I’ll be right with you, it was like we were invisible. We decided to leave, but as we headed out I thought I should let management know why we were leaving the establishment, I come from a family of entrepreneurs and like to give feedback on areas of opportunity in a professional way! Jen was the manager and she immediately apologized with the most sincerity and asked if she could move us to another part of restaurant. At this point, we pondered and she was so genuine that we decided to stay. Her beautiful aura gave us no choice but to allow them a chance to correct the error. We were seated in another part of the restaurant and Quinn was our waiter! From there, our experience was top-notch, he was attentive, kind, and knowledgeable. Management checked on us and even comped our first round of drinks. I believe in grace and Jen and Quinn not only revived our experience, but you have gained a repeat customer. The food was awesome(Lobster Ravioli)! The drinks were good and the dessert even better (croissant beignets)! Thanks Bar Avalon for an amazing experience! And thank you Jen for your stellar...