MARATHON GRILL - Chestnut St
We are frequent patrons of the Marathon Grill located at 16th and Sansom Sts, and have found it to be reliably fast and good. Recently, however, we visited the Marathon Grill on Chestnut between 13th and Broad Sts and found ourselves with some of the worst service we've ever experienced. Just to get it out of the way, the food was good, just as good as the 16th St location, but the service was horrendous.
We were a party of four and as we entered the half full dining room, we were promptly seated for our late Saturday brunch. We eagerly opened our menus and got to looking through their specials. Five minutes passed. Ten minutes passed. Fifteen minutes passed. Normally, a server will come by after a party is seated, introduce themselves and ask if we'd like something to drink while we look over the menu, not this time. Picky scanned the dining room looking for a free server. There were around four servers for the half empty room. There were two just standing by a counter. Picky glared at one of them for a solid thirty seconds. He looked back at him a few times and contined to chat with another server. Then, he got the message.
He walked over to us, but then made a left to the table behind us, a table that was seated about five minutes after we were. Picky was pissed and hungry so he blurted out "WE WERE HERE FIRST" right as another server walked over to our table. Server #2 said that this was Server #1's table, but that he'd help out. Server #1 heard Picky and walked over, after taking their order. He took our order.
The water, coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice came out and also the message that Messy's croissant sandwich wasn't available, they were out of croissants. She ordered the gorgonzola, pear and walnut omelette as a replacement.
A few minutes passed and what looked like our food came out. But Picky's sister's Our whole wheat and banana waffles with canned (not fresh!) strawberries were headed to the other table. The other table said that they didn't order it. We looked on incredulously. The server took it back to the counter. And turned around and brought it to our table along with half of our food. A few minutes passed and the rest of the food came. The side of bacon one of our party ordered took another five minutes (good grief, bacon!). We enjoyed the food, but were still miffed from the (lack of) service.
When were winding down, the server took away the finished plates of Messy and Picky, but not the other side of the table. Five minutes passed. Ten minutes passed. After fifteen minutes or so, we flagged him down for a check, he walked right passed us without looking, very much avoiding our table. When he finally came back around after we asked for the check, he incredibly said "It was a long hard battle, but we got through it" - some of us bit our lips to not lash out at him. Ten percent later, we left.
Based on a U.S. Department of Labor finding as a result of numerous complaints by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission "alleging that Marathon Grill discriminated against its Mexican employees by failing to pay them overtime" we can no longer recommend the Marathon Grill chain as a destination.
More info here.
Messy **
Picky * (because of the horrendous service)
The final word: Head to 16th St instead.
Marathon Grill
1339 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA
215-561-4460
Mon - Fri: 7am - 10pm
Sat - Sun: 9am - 10pm
January 30th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
I simply can't belive that ass said that. But he did. Holy Crap.
February 24th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Check this out. Maybe you shouldn't even go to 16th st?
April 23rd, 2006 at 3:43 pm
I went to Marathon for the first time last month, the West Philly location (next to the Bridge). They were out of many things. Like, the first 3 or 4 things we ordered. The waitress said this always happens on Sunday nights (?). And yeah, the service was pretty crappy. One bartender for a nearly full restaurant made for a looong drink wait. Food wasn't great.
All this and bad labor practices too!
August 21st, 2006 at 2:06 pm
i have prior ties to this place and let me just tell you the whole place is messed up. shady, shady stuff! all of them are always out of stuff and let's not even discuss the management.
January 26th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
I definetly feel u on this blog…. I went to the same one (13th st) we stood at the host stand 4 at least 5 minutes as staff walked by repeatedly before I asked the counter staff if we could seat ourselves. "Oh yeah, go ahead". We waited at least 15 minutes before a server came over as we watched other tables that were sat after us get service. Then when we finally had our order taken it took 15 minutes into the order before I was told half of the meal I wanted wasn't availble. Then, after I reordered another 35 minutes when by still no food. Needless to say I refused to wait any longer, spoke with the manager, who apologized sayin well, we had 2 catered orders come in. And my reply… That's no excuse! She offered us the food free of charge, however it would be another 10 min before it was ready.. 45 minutes… All we ordered was a sandwich and salad! Smh…
June 14th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Well just let me say this……. I have ate at 13th Street many times the service is GREAT and the food is always consistantly GOOD. I have never had to wait, they always had what I wanted and no one was ever rude to me or any one in my party.