Chart House — Restaurant in Alexandria

WORSE EXPERIENCE EVER! We came to this restaurant with the expectation of 5 star service because of how the Annapolis Chart House never disappoints. It was my cousins birthday and we just wanted a nice family outing. It was 6 of us. The waiter from the beginning had an attitude for some reason as if something happened before we arrived. It took 15mins just to get a bread basket to the table, he never refilled our water NOT ONCE and we were there from 7:30pm to 10pm. Two chopped salads were ordered and the rest of us got our salads from the salad bar downstairs. It took another 15 - 20 minutes to get the ordered chopped salads, and they had no freshness to it, no crunch, and minimal veggies in it, to the point you had to search in the food to find tomatoes and cucumbers. We called the waiter back to let him know and instead of just taking it back and apologizing he decided to mansplain what a chopped salad was to us. We then asked for the manager and a woman came up and listened to us without an attitude and took the salads back. We waited another 30-40 minutes for our food including the time our food sat 3 tables from us after it was brought out, because the person who brought out the food was looking for the waiter to present the food to us. So he left the food sitting out as we watched from 3 tables down for 15 minutes before someone came to actually present the food to us. By that time all of our food was cold except for the sea bass and coconut shrimp. The stuffed shrimp, ny strip steak, fillet mignon, and salmon was cold and the side of mash potatoes for each dish was so rock hard that you could pick it up with a knife just by scooping it up. This time the chef came out and he was even appalled at how the food was when it got to our table and said this should have never happened and offered free Desserts for the table. When the desserts arrives another 30 minutes later the waiter presented one of the lava cakes with two scoops of ice cream. One bowl of ice cream was a perfect round scoop of ice cream and the other bowl was melted all the way down to liquid form ice cream. When we pointed it out to the waiter, he chose to ignore us and walk away. We asked for the manager again and a different person came this time and we had to explain our whole night with him all over again. He was being very dismissive, and we explained to him that it’s frustrating speaking with a different person that wasn’t the original person who came to the table when the problems first started. This new manager who came to the table even admited that he hadn’t talked to the previous manager to see what was going on with our table initially. He got smart and was telling us that the check has already been fixed for us and that we should wait because we haven’t even seen the check yet. We were telling our story to him all over again about the melted ice cream. The waiter comes over and says that is not how the ice cream came to the table as if we could of melted this ice cream in the 10 to 15 minutes it took for the manager to come. At that point, the manager told the waiter to walk away. When the check came out and we looked at it, two things were still on there that needed to come off that we are trying to explain to that last manager, but he didn’t wanna listen to us and kept telling us to wait. So we had to wait again for the check and during this time the waiter kept coming back and at this point that’s just unprofessional. Why do you keep bringing the waiter who we have a issue with around? I had to physically walk up to the waiter because he was arguing with my cousin back-and-forth and tell him, sir please leave. Then we had to do the same thing with the third manager that had originally came to our table after he messed up our check and had to send it back. He decides to engage in a argument with my cousin, he was originally walking away and decided to turn around to say something back to my cousin, instead of being the professional here, the so-called manager and walking away and just doing the check the correct way....

BE SURE TO MAKE A RESERVATION! My husband and I were very hungry and as a lot of people do these days, we relied on Google to point us in the right direction of a well reviewed establishment, on our way home. As we were walking from the parking garage to the Chart House, my husband wondered aloud if we had to make reservations for this particular restaurant. Then, we discussed the possibility of a dress code if a reservation was required. We were dressed comfortably since we had just rushed out the door to meet our real estate agent to view a house.

We walked around the building and we were impressed by the ambiance just looking in through the windows as we made our way to the entrance. We walked through the door, to the front desk, and quickly realized we indeed needed a reservation. The hostess at the front desk was a bit short and rude with my husband, which I can understand because of the ignorance on our part. She explained she had no reservations until 7 pm. My husband asked if I wanted to wait and I said, "yes, we can walk around until then." We did attempt to apologetically explain to the hostess we were unsure if there was a need for a reservation, because we had obviously never been there before and we're not even from the area.

After securing it reservation, we walked around taking in the beautiful atmosphere of the Potomac River and the soft lighting along the boardwalk. We arrived back at the Chart House a little early, wanting to get out of the light mist that was saturating our glasses and hair. We sat at the bar for drinks until 7 and the bartender was very kind.

At 7, the next hostess we encountered greeted us enthusiastically and had us seated rather quickly. We had a table overlooking the Potomac, near the fire. It was comfortable and inviting. Our waitress was patient with us as we made our appetizer and dinner choices. She was very kind throughout our entire visit. She was also thorough at keeping the table free of empty dishes and our drinks filled. For appetizers, we had the stacked shrimp, mango, and avocado and my husband had a kale salad. The portions for dinner were somewhat small and pricey. I had the coconut crunchy shrimp and my husband had the crab stuffed shrimp. I wasn't very impressed with the sticky rice on my dish and my husband was more impressed with the appetizers than his dinner choices. We also had sides of creamed spinach and three potato mash, both of which were filling and flavorful. I got a to-go box for some of my food and saved room for dessert. The waitress did warn us it would be a half hour wait on that, which was a decent amount of time for us to relax and let our food settle.

Dessert was worth the wait! The mixture of hot and cold and smooth and crunchy textures were perfect. If you like chocolate and really sweet flavors, the hot chocolate lava cake is for you. If you would rather have something with a lighter sweetness, the apple cherry crisp has just the right balance.

Overall, we had a great experience last night, despite our being uninformed of the need for a reservation. Maybe it would help future customers if there was a sign on the door; so new and possibly unaware customers can make a call and take a stroll or sure at the bar while waiting.

Thank you to the employees of Chart House for the wonderful atmosphere and kindness while serving the public in such trying times. We appreciate...

Dined here on July 13th to celebrate a birthday.

Starting out we went in to check in for our 7:00pm reservation. I waited in line until 7:15 to even check-in for the reservation and while waiting saw the hostess roll her eyes and rudely call for a couple to follow her up the stairs as she was already way in front of them. Finally I was able to check in and then had to continue to wait to be seated finally around 7:30. It was a busy Saturday night, but nothing a well established nice dining experience shouldn’t be able to handle. At this point we were starting to get concerned…

We were seated at our table and the interior decor and view were nice. Our waitress was sweet and as attentive as you could expect for it being busy. She also was the only waitress designated to a large and crowded section of the restaurant. We ordered the Ahi Tuna as a starter and this is when our previous anxieties were solidified.

The Ahi Tuna arrives and is placed down on our table. We both glance at each other trying to gauge if the other had the same question, “Is this fish?”. We were so hungry at this point we ate it all doused in soy sauce to make it the slightest bit edible. The soy sauce was the redeeming factor.

We took a moment to look over the menus and settled on the pri fix opting for the caesar salad with savory shrimp pasta and the Mac Nut Mahi. It took awhile for the food to arrive but our waitress politely checked in and made sure our drinks were topped off. When the food got to the table we were excited to dive in, hoping this would be the evening’s saving grace. Sadly it was the opposite…the nail in the coffin for charthouse.

After the first bite all we could do was laugh. The food was so bad. It tasted overcooked and like it had been sitting for ever. I would wager that the shrimp were frozen and they were wildly overcooked having to chew aggressively to stomach them. The noodles were so overcooked and flavorless. I mean how do you mess pasta up that badly. The Mahi was so dry and flavorless I had never been in a situation so close to eating simulated cardboard. This is not hyperbole. The double berry mule was good and a pleasant reprieve when we took sips to wash down the food.

Honestly I’m upset to even waste the time writing this but feel like it is necessary to share this cautionary tale. Next time you are dining in Old Town Alexandria do not be lured in by the prime location and view, instead opt for somewhere with decent food and enjoy the view as you make your way to your dinner.

Ultimately we spent around $240 for the two of us. Comparing what we spent there vs other restaurants it is purely a rip off. After this we needed a drink, on the way home we stopped at a 7/11 to buy some wine. We opted for the same $13 dollar per glass wine we had alongside our entrees but this time settled on the bottle for $12.99,...