Marathon

During the Philadelphia Marathon weekend, my friends and I were looking for a brunch spot. We ended up going here because not many places were open. Our top choice was too crowded. The place here is clean and the food is really fresh.
The staff are friendly, and they provide free refills of coffee.
The marathon brunch item is huge. It comes with 2 eggs (any style), multi grain toast, and home fries. I added a side of blueberry pancakes for a few bucks more. The blueberry pancakes were AWESOME! The pancake was fluffy, and they provided a lot of blueberries in the pancake. The home fries were seasoned to perfection. The eggs (over easy) were fresh tasting and cooked perfectly. I was able to douse up the runny yolk with the potatoes and toast.
Yum yum yum. Great amount of food to carbo load before a race for a very good price.

Just got back from a date with the boyfriend here. =) It was our first time here and we were actually surprised how fast we got a table. There were a few people waiting but I guess because they went in groups of 3+, they had to wait. We got seated immediately, which was great!
The hostess and waitress were both really nice.
We had the CHEESE QUESADILLA for starters = Yummy.
I had the HERB-​MARINATED GRILLED CHICKEN = Pretty good.
And he had the ORGANIC MEATLOAF PLATTER = Yummy and the BBQ sauce on it was really good.
The only problem with this place is how long it took the food to come out! Maybe because it was a busy Saturday night.

Easy to get a table for Saturday or Sunday brunch because it’s always half empty… for a reason. Food is mediochre at best. I had an egg white omelette with goat cheese and smoked salmon. It was overcooked and underwhelming. Even the toast seemed stale. Bacon had the strangest texture. The only upside: since they’re not terribly busy, they’ll let you sit as long as you’d like.

The brunch here came highly recommended by a local friend. While the atmosphere was great and the food was passable I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be, especially after seeing the prices. It seemed like there just wasn’t enough effort put into the dishes as they were being prepared. I got the feeling that they were thrown together (although not served all that quickly from the time of order). As far as taste, it was sufficient that I wasn’t displeased, but certainly nothing to be raving over. All in all not a terrible experience, but not one that leaves me yearning to return either.
In other related news, for a restaurant of it’s size to have only one unisex bathroom is outrageous.

Question: How do you ruin a chicken quesadilla?

Definately have mixed feelings on this place. I have had a few «okay» experiences… and more recently– an awful experience.
Came here to meet 2 friends for lunch on a Thursday afternoon. I arrived a few minutes before 12 and asked for a table for 3… I was told I couldn’t be seated until my full party arrived. Typically I understand this policy… except the hostess would seat parties of 2 with only one person there. Maybe it’s just me– but if your going to have that policy– use it across the board.
The 2^nd person of the party arrived a few minutes after 12… the place was dead– with tons of open tables… I asked why we couldnt be seated and the hostess proceeded to tell me because people yell at her when only 2 people are siting in a booth made for 4… that would also be somewhat fine– if I didnt see more than one 4 person booth occupied by only 2 people .
We finally convinced her to seat us– based on empty booths in the restaurant. Our third person in the party arrived a few minutes later.
One of us ordered a sandwich witha side salad… and the salad came out with no dressing on it.
To top off the already poor experience –the bathrooms were disgusting. Not what any of us were expecting from a restaurant such as Marathon.

We went in seeking brunch, which we’d been told was an all day affair here. While there were some egg dishes on the menu, brunch it was not.
However, we decided to stay. The hostess attempted to seat us in the center of an empty dining room at the tiniest two top ya ever did see. Rather than be the floor show, we opted for a seat at the bar. The bartender was pleasant and fairly attentive, though lacking in any kind of personality.
Ended up eating the buffalo chicken sandwich and the veggie burger, both of which were decent, but nothing to write home about. The fries were confusing, frankly. Shoestring potatoes that had clearly been twice-​fried, but within an inch of their life. The first few were good, but after a few minutes, they were cold and hard.
Overall, if you’re familiar with the menu and from the area, I’m sure you could make some magic happen here, but as someone from out of town seeking a great meal, I’d avoid it. Hipster heavy, lacking in seasoning, though the atmosphere was nice.

Had the eggs benedict for brunch-​the english muffin wasn’t as puffy, and neither were the eggs… came with fruit salad. Friends had the chicken tacos-​it was ok. Another friend had the omelet. Service was good, but food was just average. Cute atmosphere and ambiance.

I stopped by here (after working out) yesterday to get a salad because I was starving and i still had to go to evening class.
I ordered a crispy chicken salad to go. Service was as expected for a «to go» meal. Didn’t wait to long, they were nice.
Got my food, ran to class and got there early so I had a few minutes to chomp down salad.
1) During my feast, I a 1.5inch of HAIR on one of my crispy chicken and I assure you it wasn’t my nappy naps.
But I was hungry as heck and I decided to take that whole strip and put it aside. So I continued eating.
2) Found another hair on a piece of carrot… this one looked like the length of an EYELASH.
WTF man. At this point, Lord know only what hairball I have sitting in my stomach after that meal!
I decided to forgo the rest of the meal. I was scared to find a piece of tooth next.
Disappointed. I was willing to let the 1^st one go but TWO on one place means there is definitely a THIRD (0r more) that I didn’t see.

I’ve always enjoyed the Marathon restaurants that are sprinkled throughout Philadelphia. I’m pretty sure that I’ve been to every one of them and I always have decent service and decent food for a reasonable price. My favorite item on their menu is definitely the Southwest salad with BBQ chicken. The lime vinaigrette is so good and the BBQ sauce on the chicken adds the perfect touch.
I also love that they all seat so many people that there is rarely a wait. If you’re looking for a fairly quick, casual meal and not really looking to impress then you can’t go wrong with Marathon!

Their food is pretty good (I especially love the beets/​soft cheese side dish), but their prices are too high for casual food. Also, when I take out, after 15 or 20 mins, someone at the counter will ask me if/​what I ordered. They always seem overwhelmed and confused.

My mom and I went to this marathon grill after a long day of shopping. We usually do not eat a lot for lunch so the server was happy to split the food for us. We enjoyed the salmon burger and the best matzoh ball soup in town!
This marathon grill is perfect to have a snack after shopping at Macy’s!!! So when my sister-​in-​laws were visiting us we went to this one again. and I ordered the salmon burger again and it never fail me!

My boyfriend and I were with my parents last weekend in Philadelphia for the Rock n Roll Half Marathon and we were staying the night at the Hampton Inn near the starting line for the race. The evening before the race we ventured out to get some dinner. We wanted something that would fill us up and give us energy for the long distance running that we were going to do in the morning. We decided on Olive Garden and headed towards the restaurant since it was not far from our hotel. Upon arriving, we learned the wait would be forty-​five minutes to an hour. We were pretty hungry and didn’t feel like waiting that long so we looked around and saw Marathon Grill across the street with some available outside seating.
We walked over and went to the hostess stand and asked for a table outside. The hostess cleaned off the table and we sat down and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally a server came to our table and apologized for the wait and took our drink order. Since it had taken so long, we had already decided on our dinner order and placed those as well. My mom had ordered a side salad with her entrée and I got a soup with my entrée and he told us those would be out shortly, along with some dinner rolls that my mom requested. The server brought our drinks out and they were served in tall, skinny glasses. We drank them right away.
We waited. And waited. And waited. The soup and salad came out and it was eaten so quickly, but there were no bread rolls. We asked for refills on all our drinks. We waited. And waited. And waited. Our entrees finally came out. Still no bread rolls. We got our refills though. All this time we spent waiting to have our order taken and waiting on the soup and salad to come out (still wondering why those items took so long), we realized that we could have just waited for a table at Olive Garden and been served faster than we were at Marathon.
There were plenty of tables available for outside seating, but I’m not sure how busy it was inside. Our waiter did say it was busy, but I think he may have just forgotten about us. A lot. Even though the service was horribly slow, the food was excellent. Everything tasted great and the steak was cooked the way I ordered (medium rare) and the presentation on the plate was beautiful. Our server did finally bring us some rolls… after we finished eating dinner.
After we finally received the bill, we waited a long time (surprise!) for our server to come back and get it. A simple dinner turned into two and a half hours. If the service had not been so horribly slow, I would have rated this place 4 stars.

I love Marathon’s salads.
Let me preface my discussion of their MIND BLOWING salads by saying 1.) Philly is salad challenged and this pisses me off– why do you have so many sandwiches and such boring salad options? 2.) I will never step in a marathon to sit down and eat, nor will I drink anything or eat anything other than their salads. Everything else is junk.
Their greek salad is the most amazing salad I have had in this city. It’s huge and includes extras like grilled zuchinni, chick peas, and this insanely good creamy lemon vingarette. I would drink that stuff. Their cobb is also incredible and I’ve heard great things about the salmon salad as well. I think the key to the awesomeness of the salads are their dressings. They taste as though they were just made and every single one of them is perfect.
The one negative is that the salads are real pricey, I’m talking $ 11+ for a salad.
But if I’m not in the mood to make one at home or my company is paying the bill, then Marathon is my go-​to.
Until Marathon opens a takeout place dedicated to salads or I open my own salad place (both of which are highly unlikely to occur), I will continue to pay their outrageous prices for my salad fix.

I have seriously mixed feelings about this place — mostly for reasons I don’t want to express here on an open forum.
I occasionally run in for a cup of coffee and if I am feel like splurging on calories, a muffin. There is one manager that is efficient and friendly — the other can’t multi-​task to save his life. The few time he has waited on me it has taken far too long to purchase a coffee/​baked good.
This past visit I ordered, he put my muffin in the bag, then proceeded to take a phone order. When he was finished with that transaction, he gave me the bag and began to ring me up — I had to remind him that I ordered a coffee too. He got my coffee (and split the lid on the coffee cup, did not replace it, which cased some coffee to slosh out and onto my hand as I walked to my office –OUCH), rang me up, took my money and made my change. But before handing it back to me, walked over to another customer who apparently had an issue with a hot take-​out item. He actually stood there, with my change in his hand, talking to the other customer and a server (about 15 feet away). After he dealt with that issue he walked back and handed me my change. Seriously, as a former server, this dude needs to learn how to multi-​task and to prioritize. It took about 5 minutes to get my breakfast — way to long to put a muffin in a bag, pour a cup of coffee and ring someone up.
As a side note — aside from myself and the woman who was waiting for her hot breakfast we were the only people at the take-​out area — it was later in the morning so it was not busy at all.
Sorry this was more of a rant than a review, but this dude is terrible at customer service — the female manager is awesome though.
Aside from that their prices are pretty good and the food is consistent — not spectacular but always tasty. I must have one of those approachable faces because tourists are frequently asking for recommendations — sometimes for breakfast places (weird huh?) This is one of the places I’ll recommend for a decent, fairly inexpensive breakfast or lunch.

Womp womp.
Service was lame.
The artichoke dip came with six measly pieces of bread even though the dip was huge. Our waiter did bring more out when we flagged him down and asked him.
My burger was one of the driest I have ever eaten. Now, I did order it well done, but that doesn’t mean it should be unchewable.
Overall, just nothing special.

The good:
+ Atmosphere
+ Décor
+ Some decent microbrews on tap
The not good:
— Service
— Cubano*
— Service
* better reheated the second day — I think it’s the mustard they use, too sweet or something

I really do love other locations, but eveytime I’m at this one the service is absolutely terrible. The last time I went there, a friend and I seriously considered dining and dashing.
Our waiter not only took forever to even wait on us in the first place (and it wasn’t busy in the least bit). He also took awhile to pick up our food from the kitchen as it wasn’t all that hot when we finally got it. Then he didn’t check on us once before bringing the bill.
Needless to say, I won’t be coming back here anytime soon

My visit to Marathon Grill reminded me why I so often dine in Chinatown. Chinatown never lets me down. Marathon Grill let me down. I wish I could give it no stars because that is what it truly deserves after my experience dining there on Thursday. My friend was in town and I liked that Marathon Grill was participating in Center City Sips, and that the exterior of it was inviting. So we stopped in there.
They have got to figure out a better layout for their seating because it was empty at 6 pm and all the little tables are so crammed together that you cannot help but kick your dining companions in the shins. Furthermore our waitress was unfortunately the worst server I am have ever had. It all started when she came over a minute after giving us the menu with an incredibly abrasive «So what’ll you have?» to which our response was «Can we have another minute?» which was answered with a roll of her eyes and her stomping away. Might I add that we were here only responsibility at the time?
When I asked her some questions about what constituted appetizer and what didn’t (the layout of the menu is very unclear, and options are extremely limited especially for this type of restaurant), she was annoyed and highly unaccommodating. Not only was she terrible, but so was the look of my friend’s sandwich. They brought out his fish sandwich with the top bun off, unfortunately for them exposing a disgustingly wilted, nearly inedible looking piece of lettuce. Come on, if you are going to only put one piece of lettuce on and display it like it’s important– at least don’t screw it up???
My vegetarian chili was boring and near tasteless. My arugula salad was uninspired but fine for its price ($ 6.50). While we were still eating, my friend with ¾ of his sandwich uneaten, our highly unpleasant waitress slammed down our check in front of him and stormed off, proceeding to just hang out and chat at the front with other Marathon Grill Staff members. She then ignored our pleas for a to-​go box, and we managed to get one from another waitress.
Needless to say unless enticed by some amazing coupons or something, I will never return to Marathon Grill — and especially not this particular location.
Boo. Hiss.

I wanna love you, but sadly i cannot.
You have disappointed me time and time again… horrible food, horrible service… just horrible everything.
I’m sorry but I don’t this will work. Our relatonship is toxic, so we should part ways now before I hate you.