PhillySpeak.com

Getting reservations with short notice surprised me. I was looking forward to eating at this very popular restaurant more so than usual. Matyson has been around awhile. Long enough to be on its second set of owners and chefs. The ‘new guys’ have been there about a year and nine months.

I don’t read food reviews until after I have written my own but you could not avoid the good things said about the place. This was most of our party’s first time at Matyson. On their website they use a quote from Philadelphia Magazine:

“One of the city’s best BYOBs, Matyson wows with vivid contemporary American flavors and down-to-earth, sophisticated service.”

Barbara, the hostess, pleasantly greets us and shows us to a table. Jonah is our amiable wait person. He provides us with menus.

Asked if we want bottled water or tap, we choose Schuylkill Punch. Say what you want, Philadelphia has some of the best drinking water right from the spigot than anyplace in the world.

Jonah pours all of us glasses of water.

He explains to us the specials of the night and the chef’s tasting menu. We all order the tasting menu at $45. Jonah compliments us on our choice.

He collects the menus and knocks a full glass of water onto the laps of the two women at the table. They are pretty much soaked.

Jonah hurries to get cloth napkins. Barbara the Hostess comes over to tell us not to worry- many people knock over their water. We let her know; it was not us that did the knocking. Oh! she says and walks away.

Jonah comes back with napkins and humbly apologies as he sops up the…is it a river of water…? yes it is. I try to make him feel okay about the accident. He is embarrassed. The women at the table have laps soaked with water.

Like most women they are troopers and do not complain enough to destroy the dinner.

After the second course I had to ask the server to take away a soaking wet napkin sitting on the table.

The dinner, a ‘Lobster Mania’ tasting menu.

You know what. I am going to ignore the value of the food. The way we were ignored by a gross mistake of spilled water onto two customers laps. The way Barbara the Hostess, after finding out her waitperson spilled the water and not us, slinked away to greeting others, doing nothing to help.

The way the wait staff reached over and across in order to serve us! Having to ask for bread.

Matyson is a BYOB so they could hardly come to the table and say they will buy you a drink for your wetness. We ordered a $45 tasting menu so it would be difficult to comp you a dessert for the uncomfortableness of eating dinner in wet clothes.

So how did Matyson with their “down to earth sophisticated service” take care of their mistake?

They ignored it.

You know my philosophy about dining is the hard working wait staff, the bartenders, the front of the house folks make or break a dining experience. If the food is just pretty good, good service makes it better. If the food is great and the service is bad, the food becomes ordinary. A dining experience begins when you walk in the door.

If you think I am being too hard or wrong just ask George Perrier, or anyone that seeks to be excellent. And if you are not striving to be the best at your level then you should pack up and go back home.

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone can bring a wrong order. But there is no reason to reach across a diner to serve another diner. No reason to spill a full glass of water onto, not one but enough for two patrons laps, and not do more to apologize.

Were it my restaurant, I would have bought the table dinner for the accident. But Matyson did not do that. They could have bought the two women dinner. But Matyson did not do that. They could have taken $10 off the check. Matyson did not do that. The chef and/or owner could have come to the table and apologized. Matyson did not do that. Matyson did nothing. They ignored their mistake and the customers discomfort.

I suggest you ignore Matyson.

I waited two weeks before I wrote this piece because I wanted to be fair. That is more than what we experienced at Matyson at a cost of $216 for four including tip.

I encourage you to ignore Matyson and pass the word. Manners go a long way when dealing with the public. Philadelphia Magazine may think this is what passes for “down to earth sophisticated service,” but PhillySpeak.com has higher standards, as do you.

I suggest you ignore Matyson.

Sometimes, Not so Lucky.