Over the past few weeks, users here left a number of poor reviews for NoLibs/Fishtown Italian joint Modo Mio. All the reviews simmered down to the same problem: The food is great, while the service doesn’t have a clue. We thought it might have been due to growing pains from the restaurant’s Craig LaBan review… But Brian Freedman of Around Philly had such a poor experience that it makes us wonder…
The bad news is that I cannot think of many other restaurants here—BYOB or not, Italian or not—whose service does so much to undermine the overall experience. For while it began harmlessly enough, with only a few mispronunciations of key dishes to perk up my ears and run the proverbial red-flag up the pole, the service ended up going south from there. And I don’t mean to Sicily. In fact, it began poorly even before I arrived: Calling to make a reservation, I ended up on the line with a person of such low enthusiasm, such monotonal vocal tendencies, such (let’s make up a phrase here) telephonic ineptitude, that I felt as if I was back in college, dealing with a particular roommate I had who, if memory serves, cracked exactly three smiles that year. As far as the waitress went, she started off the evening in the weeds and never managed to hack her way out—even once the dining room had cleared out towards the end of the night. From bringing the bread out barely a minute before the first courses arrived to making us wait nearly ten minutes before offering to go over the dessert selections, I did not, at any point, feel as if I was being taken care of. Rather, the experience was analogous to that of a castaway, bobbing up and down, unaided and unguided, upon the big blue sea.
Over the past few weeks, users here left a number of poor reviews for NoLibs/Fishtown Italian joint Modo Mio. All the reviews simmered down to the same problem: The food is great, while the service doesn’t have a clue. We thought it might have been due to growing pains from the restaurant’s Craig LaBan review… But Brian Freedman of Around Philly had such a poor experience that it makes us wonder…
