City Kitchen — Restaurant in Alexandria

My husband and I went here on Saturday and have gone here once before; however, Saturday will be our last. First, there was no host/hostess at the front. After waiting AWHILE to be seated, with servers passing us by without acknowledging us, we called the restaurant to grab their attention so they can answer the phone and be aware that there were guests waiting. The phone was answered by a woman (who didn't even answer it at the host podium, she had answered from somewhere else) and said "I'll be right there." No apology and no urgency. We were then greeted later by a young gentleman (clearly not who we spoke to over the phone) who sat us with our menus and said our server would be right with us. Once seated, we had 2 different servers pass our table without greeting us. They were literally serving the tables around us, but couldn't offer a "hello" or "I'll be right with you." All we had were menus, so we flipped through to give them some time to get to our table. Finally, after some time, the same gentleman that sat us gave us 2 waters and said "I'm not your server but here's water while you wait" and some other mumbling we couldn't make out. We waited patiently with our 2 waters, until eventually we realized that we were not being greeted but rather ignored - no greeting and no reassurance by any server. Eventually, even the table next to us was upset that their server had forgotten a few of their orders, so we decided to get up and leave. Mind you... All we had was water, lol. It's unfortunate that I have to leave this review and never come back, but just be aware that it's really a hit or miss and the food isn't even worth it in the end. I'll be sharing with others in the community that this is a place not worth going to around the Alexandria area. There's other restaurants with far better service and food...

I've been going to City kitchen I guess for about 5 years. And I've never put in a review, I wouldn't call myself a regular per se , I'd say I'm good for seven visits a year. But I've been in there about three times in the last 6 months, and I'll say that the staff is always top notch from top to bottom. The food that I've had is always been very good to excellent. Honestly since I come in during the day I usually get one of their soups..... And there clam chowder is as good as anybody's and better than most. To go along with that soup I usually get their Southwest avocado salad which is always crisp and fresh and the Green goddess dressing is amazing. Or the Caesar salad, the salad is very traditional and a very nice portion and they're homemade Caesar dressing is made perfectly , thick and creamy and a nice hint of garlic - anchovy. I don't know about you all but when I order Caesar salad at a lot of restaurants in the area they give you kind of a glorified Italian dressing, and to me that's not a Caesar salad. Enclosing the last time I came up a friend of mine was meeting me there and I was running late and she went on and ordered their shrimp and grits . She gave me a taste and OMG those grits were the best grits that I've ever had. They were just done perfectly and with just enough chopped smoke bacon to tie everything together. I'm not a chef but just enough (butter milk cheese ??) to make it nice but yet not greasy or overly buttery. The shrimp were cooked perfectly, Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing you all when I'm...

The place is just meh. There were a couple things to like about the food, but overall it wasn't that great. The portions were reasonable. I had the Germantown Club where bread was maybe dunked in oil and the chicken breast was dry and bland. My wife had the beef burger and said it was tough as show leather. I had the garlic truffle fries for a mere 20% more which were ok, but had little to no garlic. The wife had just fries which were pretty much the same without the truffle flavor.

One major misstep was their beer. For some reason they were all flat. I ordered an Aslin pale ale. Tried it, and the flavor was ok, but it was flat as a pancake. I asked if they could change it for another one. The waitress said sure and I asked for an old faithful yeungling. This too came out flat, but I didn't want to change it again so I stayed quiet. When we got the bill, I found out that I was charged $8 for the yeungling and $11.50 for the Aslin which I took one sip of and asked for them to change.

I was already on the fence about the mediocre food, but since the wait staff was nice I was thinking I would have given 3 stars. But after the manager woman came in and charged me full price for one not so good flat beer and another flat and stale yeungling, 2 stars is all I can give. Once every couple years I guess I have to remind themself why I haven't been to a place in a couple years. Now I remember. Hopefully I won't...