Reef Restaurant & Lounge
| Address: | 605 S 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19147, USA |
| Phone: | +1 215-629-0102 |
| Site: | phillyreef.com |
| Rating: | 4 |
| Working: | 4–11PM 4–11PM 4–11PM 4PM–12AM 4PM–1AM 3PM–1AM 3–11PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
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Ron M
My first attempt to dine at Reef (7/20) was foiled due to unexpected construction delays (I showed up at the restaurant to find the doors locked and the lights off). I spoke with the manager later, learned about the reason behind the closure, and decided to try Reef at a later date. Flash forward to my visit on 9/21, and Im happy I decided to return to Reef. TL;DR - if you like Jamaican food and are on South Street, check out Reef! The decor is beautiful, and themed appropriately (tile mosaics on the columns, underwater murals on the walls, blue overhead lighting, island music on the playlist). The bar is well-stocked, and the menu abounds with island-inspired drinks. The bartender crafted an excellent mojito - properly muddled, light rum, just enough syrup. As for our meals, we got the seafood boat appetizer, Salmon Montego Bay, and jerk short ribs. Good - the appetizer. $15 for 2 scallops, 4 bite-sized shrimp, and 2 bite-sized crapcakes is a bit steep, but thankfully it was half-price within happy hour. Otherwise, it would not (in my opinion) be worth it. That said, it was well-prepared. Actual crab meat in the cakes (not just breading like many places), tender scallops and delicious jerk BBQ sauce on the shrimp. Better - the short ribs. Decent portion size, served with a good helping of rice/beans and broccoli, and prepared with that flavorful jerk BBQ. Minor critique - it was slightly dry (inside and out - extra jerk sauce would be welcomed) but truly, Im picking nits. Best - the Montego Bay Salmon. It was everything salmon should be - tender, juicy, with an excellent crispiness and that spicy citrus jerk sauce. I would go back just to get this salmon (and excluding sushi, Im not usually a salmon guy, so thats saying something). The wait staff was polite and attentive, and the manager was a gracious host. Overall, a great dining experience.
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Tearah Jones
Let me start with the Food was good. They were training a new waitress which was irritating because I have a infant & it was taking longer to order because I had questions that she didnt know the answer to & had to keep running to ask. People with infants know how precious sleep time is. Its basically lets get this show on the road before she wakes up, move itttt !!!! Took a long time for the food to come in my opinion its not like its cooked to order, as oxtails are an all day process. We ordered the spicy Jamaican shrimp as an appetizer, which was great. We ordered oxtails cabbage rice & peas on one plate & beef short ribs broccoli & mash potatoes on the other to split. The oxtail were great. Tender & seasoned well. Cabbage was so so. Rice & peas were good. The ribs were a little tough for my liking. Mash was good broccoli was tasty seasoned with garlic butter. Now to me the food portion didnt coincide with the prices. Expensive & small portions. Usually you get bigger portions at a Caribbean restaurant. Part of the culture. $20- 23$ a plate isnt worth it. Good but not THAT good. We ordered two alcoholic drinks a piece. Significant watered down. I had two mojitos. Tasted good but little to no alcohol. Person I was with order a frozen drink. Tasted like No alcohol in it. & the other drink which was great had a little more alcohol. They need to do better on drinks. Bartender was loud & having a conversation with the waitress about out of work topics. They were just standing around talking. All in all I would return just for something to do but..... Ive had & experienced better.
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A Private User
My friends and I went to Reef Carribbean on Tuesday night. We went because they offer bachata and salsa classes (advertised as both lessons for $12 and either one of the two for $5). We sat at the bar and had drinks, our bartender was great; very sweet, friendly and accomodating. Our food was adequate but not what you expect from Carribbean cuisine. We ate and drank waiting for our lesson. When time approached we started to go upstairs, the lady waiting to take our money was the cherry on the already non-appealing cake! She was extremly rude, she acted like we were trying to get in for free. We didnt realize that it was $12 even if you only wanted to learn bachata, instead of both. Instead of explaining this to us like a normal person she acted like we were not good enough to be there! This after we spent $70 on food and drink on a TUES night! We complained to the manager of this establishment, he agreed we were treated badly but by the woman but did not offer any type of courtesy! I have waitressed for many years and I know that businesses do not succeed when they operate like this, especially when the food isnt good! I advise you to stay away: if you want Carribbean food go to Jamican Jerk Hut and if you want to dance go to Brazil. We tried to give this place a chance, but they really blew it!
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Nikita Brantley
The food is always EXCELLENT.. however it saddens me that the service seems to have gone down tremendously. Ive visited the restaurant twice in the past few months and had the exact same experience with the same bartender. Apparently she doesnt believe she can make mistakes and doesnt feel customer service is important. If a customer politely expresses dissatisfaction with a drink, there should no discussion. For instance, i requested no whip cream for my drink, she stated she didnt hear me and thought it was ok to just scrape off the whip cream rather than make a fresh drink. A similar incident happened to a friend in the past, same bartender. In addition, although there were not many customers in the restaurant at the time, I felt it was very unprofessional for the waitresses to be gathered sitting in the corner front of the restaurant on their phones discussing social media out loud, paying little to no attention to the seated customers. This was a serious eye sore...All of which happened while a celebrity was seated at the bar..im sure she has no plans to return. It is my hope the owners of this restaurant create time and space for training their staff to do better soon. Remember, ambiance and customer service goes a very long way.
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Jennifer Geathers
I will never visit this establishment again and I didnt even taste the food! Very briefly, a gentleman tried to share crabs that he over ordered with me and my friend (there is a no sharing policy that the man and we were unaware of being new customers) when the owner notices she approaches us after seeing it all happen and says thats not allowed and has the bartender throw them away in front of our faces (we werent even there for crabs!) I order my food under a section that offers a choice of vegetable with the meal but I am told my particular dish doesnt offer a vegetable. I promptly cancelled the order after the owner tried twice to explain away the discrepancy and left. This woman has lost all my business with her greed and poor customer service. The fact that she has been in business for so long probably has more to do with her penny pinching and brow beating than the quality of her establishment. As a woman with an accredited business degree I would never conduct business in this way and would never support an establishment with such a low regard for creating loyal customers.
