Calabash African Cuisine & Bar — Restaurant in Alexandria

I would give this place ZERO stars if I could. Calabash makes McDonalds look like a 5-Star restaurant. The experience was beyond deplorable. I've went to other West African restaurants in the past. Seemingly, the other restaurants were excellent. This one, however, was HORRIBLE. Walking in, I was never greeted. I stood at the counter waiting for somebody to serve me for close to 10 minutes. The guy at the counter treated me as through I was invisible. I had to call him out to acknowledge me. The price I was given over the phone for soup was $I4. But in person, I paid close to $17, not including tax. He tried to cheat me out of a couple dollars until I noticed it. Although I knew what I wanted, I was not given a menu, which was very weird and insulting. I paid for my food right before I was even seated. WAIT....I had to seat myself, and my table was barely cleaned. I waited close to 30 minutes for my food, and was given dirty utensils. To be honest, the soup I had was good. But the lack of customer service they have is very real. I personally felt like the American patrons were overlooked, while the Ghanaians were waited on and helped with care. I believe they are family-owned and operated, which is why they probably didn't feel obligated to make an exceptional experience. While leaving, not one person told me goodbye, thank you for coming, see you again,...NOTHING. I forgot to mention the guy at the counter refused to offer me extra napkins. Whatever you do, DON'T EAT HERE! It will be a waste of your time and your money. For the lack of service, their prices are too high. Oh, By the way, some of the good reviews are fake! Pay attention to the low-rating reviews. Notice the similarity in frustration others experienced. You're better off dining at a...

I must say my experience today was a culmination of a series of mishaps at Calabash. I ordered Okra with rice for take out and requested fish which lady said was not an option because they only offered beef or goat so I chose beef. Get this, she politely told me they didn't have white rice and that she could give me jollof instead (to which I hesitated wondering if folks were in the business of eating Okra with jollof). Long story short, I decided to the source-only for almost $14 (which I thought should have been discounted given that it was not a complete order). Picked up my sauce, went two doors down to Chinese restaurant for a box of rice and headed home excited until I opened the so-called Okra sauce. Everything looked blended with no recognizable features of Okra except the seeds. To my utter disappointment and after driving from Arlington to Calabash and back, the meat was not beef but mainly goat skin. Of course wife who isn't Ghanaian says to me "that's not Okra", you need to call them to complain or drive it back them. I told her we should eat at this since it was 930pm and was pointless to order another meal elsewhere. Needless to say, it tasted so terribly that I threw it away immediately and ordered delivery through uber eats at some burger joint in Arlington which was good and consistent with how I expected a burger to taste. I am always inclined to give any establishment some leeway but I think I have reached my limit (from closing and not updating website, not having the items I want to order, delays, diminishing quality, etc). Not...

Let me start by saying I absolutely LOVE the spinach stew (hence the reason for the 3 stars).

The reason for the low rating is due to the inconsistency. I have been coming to this restaurant since it first opened in which I've literally ordered the same thing a side of spinach stew (which would only cost $7/$8 with a side of yam (when available) NO MEAT which roughly cost a total of $14/$15. Today I paid $19.75 for the same exact thing. How is it that the spinach stew meal with meat cost less than a side of spinach and a side of yam. I came a few months back and almost got overcharged as well which is why I stopped going for a while. Not to mention I called my order in 35/40mins in advance and still had to wait an additional 15-20mins. There was another customer that came in after me who also said she placed her order 2hrs in advance which wasnt ready when she got there (1 order of jollof rice and beef).

I used to come here once if not twice a week when they had the lady in the front (I cant remember her name). Since she has left the lack of customer service...