Lucy F.
Yelp
The weirdest sequence of events I have ever witnessed happened here. My boyfriend brought me here because he had a good experience when he came with his father. Unfortunately, I did not get to share that same sentiment.
At first, everything was going smoothly. We were seated, got drinks and orders in. However, upon receiving my first course, the quality was questionable. I got the French Onion Soup and usually those are pretty hit-or-miss, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. But when my steak and fries came, there was a portion of broccolini oriented in the center which, oddly enough, had something "orangish-red" poking from beneath the bunch. Lifting it with my fork, I found a thick, PLASTIC RUBBER BAND around a bundle of broccolini. You know, the ones that you see at supermarkets holding veggies together. That means that they probably just grab it and heat it up without even separating or washing the vegetables. I'm in the medical field and I can confidently tell you that there is a HUGE risk of bacterial and parasitic contamination there.
We called the waiter over and he promptly took my plate back, but didn't say anything else. No remorse, just robot mode. Which I can appreciate, I guess.
Next, they brought my re-do plate, and it was a girl (not the man who took our initial drinks order, and served us our food). One thing that a lot of these Reston dining scenes like to do is have multiple people serving you, which I can't understand because it gets confusing when it comes to tipping. In actuality, I don't care how many people serve us. It's a small detail, and I am a very patient person, BUT what happened next pissed me off and is why I am mentioning it:
The new "server" (the girl who served me the re-do of my plate that they had taken back) set my plate down and everything looked fine (no rubber bands on my broccolini this time!) But when my boyfriend tried to politely ask if we could get my portion taken off the check (which is reasonable because he didn't touch his food while we were waiting for mine and his had gotten cold as we waited for my redo plate) the woman gave us an incredulous look and said "I'm not your server. You have to ask your server about that." and walked away....
The thing is...Did she not just serve me a plate? Can she not just relay the message to the manager or whoever?
As she walked away, we just decided to drop it and attempt to eat because 1. We were starving, and 2. We don't actually like being difficult. However, all of that quickly went down the drain when we came to the conclusion that I had no fork.
My boyfriend, able to catch the woman who walked away after giving me my redo plate, asked for a fork and she panicked. I am observant when I dine out, mainly of peoples expressions because it's a habit, but I often use it to read the room.
I think at this point she realized how much they had messed up at our table and so she quickly came back with a fork and all of a sudden blurted out that the meal would be on the house.
So...I didn't have to ask my server? Or was she my server all along? I wanted to chug the diabetes inducing vodka cranberry that was sitting at my table.
Another woman also walked up to our table to "apologize" for everything since nobody had done so yet. I'm not sure who she was, if she was a manager or what, but before she walked over I happened to notice some things. She was complaining from my line of vision, dragging her feet, and one of her coworkers gave her an overtly encouraging high five. What I'm trying to say is that I could blatantly see how much she was dreading this interaction. She barely made eye contact, said sorry, said it was on the house, and left. It was kind of awkward. I just smiled and nodded. I don't ever make scenes at restaurants-- but I do make them on Yelp.
We finally ate our mains as the table beside us who had come much later were getting their checks. It was decent but not worth the trouble. My steak was overcooked, and they got my dessert order wrong too which I was too tired to say anything about. At that point I just wanted to leave. Probably won't be back.