I've been meaning to write this review for a while and finally getting around to it. I'll try to keep it brief. Being an avid tennis player at Tower Park, which is adjacent to The Midway Cafe, I frequented TMC often with our tennis group of (4-8 folks) after tennis. The pub-grub and prices were decent, however the service was only mediocre at best. We tolerated the poor service because of the convenient location to tennis.
Then in August of 2012 eight of us were dining outside after tennis when the waiter, Scott, got one of our guys orders confused. He asked for a salad and received fries. Scott admitted the mistake, brought out the salad and left the fries. While the unordered fries remained on the table a few folks ate some. Suddenly, Scott came racing back out panic stricken saying he has to take the fries off table because his boss,Tim, who evidently patrols the restaurant via webcam from his basement, saw someone eating them. Scott proceeded to scrape the fries from the patrons plate that contained his half eaten hamburger. Weird.
I should mention prior to the 'fries' incident a lady with us sent back a nearly full draft beer that tasted flat. Scott replaced it with a bottled beer. No problem- right? Unbelievably when she receives her bill she is charged for both beers. We ask to see the manager, Tim.
After some time passes, Tim, the owner, comes to our table. We ask him about the charge on the flat beer and he replies, "No one else had a problem with the beer so why shouldn't I charge it to you?" When someone said, "OK, Tim, but the beer was 90% full when it was taken back", Tim responded with, "She drank it so I'm going to charge her for it. " Asked about the weird experience of scraping the fries off of a patrons partially consumed plate , he replied, " I saw you guys eating them so I had the waiter take them." When trying to help him understand that we had been coming to TMWC for years and tipping very well, he responded sarcastically with, " I know, I know, you all are such loyal customers I should be grateful you are even choosing my restaurant."
(I failed as this is not brief.) Let me close by saying the entire experience was sad because we like to see local entrepreneurs do well and surreal as we have never experienced a business owner go out of their way to make a bad situation worse. Had I not been there and a friend relayed this experience to me I would have a hard time believing it. Unfortunately, every detail is true. We haven't been back to the TMC, however, we did discover a charming little place a half block away called Ft. Thomas Pizza and Tavern and have been eating here since. It's worth checking out. read more