Patrice M.
Yelp
We went here for dinner last night and it was quite an unpleasant experience. We arrived about 20 minutes early for our reservation. To our delight, the hostess let us know that she could seat us. She proceeded to lead us to the outdoor balcony. While there were multiple heat lamps, we had just come from Enchant and I just wanted to be inside and warm. I thought it was weird that the hostess didn't ask if it was okay to seat us outside, but I let them know and they were able to give us a table inside.
We were seated, and a few minutes into us waiting, a guy passed by and told us he'd be right with us. It had to be another 10 minutes before he returned and asked if we wanted to put in drink orders. We stated that we were ready to order food and drinks, as we'd been waiting. We decided to do the Social Dining experience, which gives you 2 shareables or sliders, a drink, and a dessert for $50. I usually ask waiters and waitresses if they recommend anything because I can be indecisive. I asked our waiter, Ishmael, if he had any reccs and he told us the steak and chips were his favorite. Cool. I asked about a couple of other dishes and he came off as if he didn't want to talk to us. I just went ahead and picked something after that because I was over it.
For drinks, I ordered the DC Reviver (I love a gin cocktail) and my husband ordered the Smoky Getaway. The drinks took awhile to come, and when they did, he only brought one drink and sat it in front of my husband. What I heard him say (again, it did not seem like he wanted to talk to us) was "you had gin right?" I said yes and he said it'll be here shortly. My husband mentioned his drink coming in a martini glass, but I didn't think anything of it. Before I even got my drink, they brought our first set of shareable dishes. My drink came shortly after. I ordered the wings and my husband got the buffalo chicken tacos. The wings were not good. From the dried up garnish sauce that was drizzled on the plate, it seemed like they were sitting for awhile. They were also lukewarm and I noticed that a few of the wings were more pink on the inside than I am comfortable eating. I left them alone. The buffalo chicken tacos were good and I was very jealous that I didn't order them.
We finished our first round of food and I decided to taste my husband's drink. After a sip, I said "this tastes like gin." After looking at the menu again and inquiring with another waiter, it turned out that he gave us the wrong drinks. I had his drink and he had mine. We told Ishmael and he said he'd get us another round. During this time, we also noticed that my husband's half-drank drink had a small fly in it. Joy.
The last straw was our second set of shareables taking close to an hour to come out. We got the first round at 8:11pm and it wasn't until around 9:09 that we got the second dish. This was also after they brought out the wrong order for me. I ordered the crab cake sliders and they brought me the crab cake dish. I told the food runner that it was incorrect and she took it back. Ishmael then came over to clarify, insinuating that I ordered the crab cake, and I told him no, I ordered the sliders. These were the dishes that I asked him for more information on and he told me the crab cake came over corn and the sliders came with a side of guac. It was a no-brainer for me to get the sliders, because I love Guac. But why would I expect a waiter who had no intention of listening to us to get my order right?
Our second entrees came and they were actually delicious. It's a shame that this was overshadowed by such poor service. There were two groups sitting at the surrounding tables that Ishmael was serving, and he was much more attentive to them than he was to us. In fact, one table that sat after us got their food, their desserts, and left before we even got our second entree. The disrespect was blatant.
The desserts were nothing to write home about. We got the churros and the apple gallate. The churros tasted burnt, but the sauce it came with was good. The Apple gallate was pretty good.
The saving grace in this experience was the manager, Celeste. After not receiving our shareable for almost an hour, I called her over and explained everything. She was understanding and conversational and made sure that we got the rest of our food in a timely manner. She gave us something off the bill and gave us two drink tokens for our next visit. My husband said he's not coming back, but I'll keep them if I'm ever in the area. Thank you Celeste. She is the only reason I added an extra star to this review. Ishmael-- shame on you.