We eat out a lot in Philly and Tavern 17 was the worst experience we've ever had! We arrived on Christmas Eve with a reservation - the place was pretty empty, maybe this should have been our first clue . We were seated right away and given menus and water - the only good part of the evening. Then after being seated for 20 minutes and no waiter even taking a drink order - we polited asked the hostess if we could just sit at the bar so that we could get a drink and order some food - we never received an apology for the poor service (it's not like they were busy). I asked the bartender about two of the specialty martinis on the menu and he suggested ""his specialty martini"" instead. Hts specialty was a glass of Irish cream with some choclate syrup - not exactly what I'd call a ""specialty martini"", another bartender did replace this with a cosmo, which was worse - it was all cranberry juice. The Seafood Cocktail Flight had rubbery scallops and a few broken pieces of baby shrimp with very bland sauces - one was just mayo. The Lamb Sheppard's Pie had NO lamb but did have one big chunk of grizzle. We let the bartender know as politely as possible without sounding liking constant complainers but he did nothing, except ask us at the end of the meal if my husband found any meat yet, to which we answered NO. The bartender then commented, ""Well, at least I didn't do anyting wrong."" Maybe if he had told the chef to give my husband some meat, he would have done something right! My steak was ordered medium rare (the waitress said to let her know if it's too rare and she can always have it done a bit more) but there was no need for that, it was more medium well than even medium and came with soggy mashed potatos and no veggies. Avoid this place at all costs, there are tons of great restaurants in the city - this one should be closed! I could tell you more about how bad the food and service were but I'm out of room.
Pros: Nice looking place
Cons: Bad Food, Bad Service and no one seems to care!
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