Hummingbird Bar and Kitchen — Restaurant in Alexandria

We came here to celebrate multiple birthdays and were seated outside along the planters, which have a built-in bench. Midway through our meal, the party of women seated next to us started yelling, then came over and let us know that a large number of slugs had crawled out of the planter and were all over the bench and their clothes. When their waiter came out, they told him and he said something to the effect of, “Oh, it’s happening again?” The women left the restaurant shortly after.

About ten minutes later, my mother also yelped and flung a slug ONTO our table. Several other slugs had also crawled out of the planter and were on the back and seat of the bench. When we told our waiter, he also let us know that this had happened before, and seemed to imply it was a regular occurrence.

Not long after that, the manager came out to see how we were doing. When we told him about the issue both tables had had with the slugs, he gave us the following excuses, some of which were just bad excuses for a HOTEL RESTAURANT, and some of which were just lies that he told to our faces:

This was the first night anyone had had problems with slugs, which contradicted what both the waiters had told us.

The restaurant “can’t control Mother Nature” and are simply at the whim of what slugs choose to climb on. Obviously, the restaurant could clearly pull out the tables and just put chairs at the seats instead of using the bench.

When we pointed out the obvious solution above, “The restaurant doesn’t have any extra chairs.” Mind you at this point it was after 9pm and the patio was largely empty. Obviously the restaurant, as many do, could reduce the number of tables being seated and use the chairs to replace the bench seat.

At this point in this review, it is hopefully obvious that the people managing this restaurant have no interest in the comfort of their guests, and are perfectly comfortable lying rather than taking the natural steps to solve any given problem. Nevertheless, here are several additional highlights of our $450 (pre-tax and gratuity) meal:

The entrees for our party of 6 came out at wildly different times. Our first three entrees came, then two others came 4-5 minutes later, and then the last person’s (the “signature” lobster pappardelle) came out about 5-7 minutes after that. For a restaurant charging an average $35, a basic expectation would be that the food comes out more or less at the same time.

Three members of our party ordered the halibut, which had obviously been sitting under a heat lamp for some time, and had completely dried out.

The bottle of wine we ordered and did not finish was taken from our table and put in a paper bag for us to take. The waiter did not dry off the bottle, and so while waiting for our car, the bottle fell through the bottom of the bag onto the street.

For our trouble, the management removed a paltry 5% from our bill.

To summarize: go somewhere else to eat. The staff and management here are not professional, and display a complete disinterest in performing at a level you would reasonably expect of a restaurant at their price point. The manager should not be allowed to continue in their role. Single worst dining experience I...

For those of you who don’t want to read my entire review, let me give you the lowlight- the food and service was subpar.

There were around 15 of us who were excited to celebrate our friend’s 35th birthday. The location was perfect, a nice restaurant in Old Town Alexandria with nice room with a nice view looking out to the water….and this is where the highlights end. The waiter that we had, whose name was Nate I believe, was lackluster. He seemed as though he wasn’t interested in serving us and he appeared to be mentally checked out the entire time. He collected our drink orders….and we waited a very long time for our drinks. We understand we are a large party and it would take a little more time, however he was not attentive and did not check on us or attempted in any way to make us feel welcome. If anything, we felt forgotten about.

Our food was unappealing and unappetizing. We had a set menu for our group. We had to choose between steak, salmon, and chicken. Most had steak with several choosing salmon and one had chicken. Notably, my boyfriend and the guest of honor both had the steak. Also, when everyone placed their orders, everyone stated their desired doneness. My boyfriend asked for medium well. Nate appeared to write down everyone’s choices. Our food arrived and I had the salmon. It was lukewarm at best and was flavorless. The vegetables, which I assume were lentils, were extremely salty. The asparagus tasted old. Everyone who had steak were taken by surprise because nobody’s steak was cooked as expected. When my boyfriend asked, Nate sharply replied that everyone’s steak was cooked the same. Collectively, everyone was shocked because one, Nate responded in a way that was unacceptable for a waiter in a Frommer’s 3-star restaurant and two, it was not disclosed that all steaks will be prepared the same way. My boyfriend and the guest of honor asked for a new steak because the ones they had were inedible. Their steaks (and everyone else’s) were dry, rubbery and just overall poorly cooked. My boyfriend also asked for A1 steak sauce, and again, Nate sharply replied that they don’t have any. Chimichurri sauce was offered, however it didn’t help.

At this point, we were all collectively disappointed in our experience and Nate did nothing to make it better. We grew irritated thinking about how we were required to give automatic large party gratuity for subpar service. My boyfriend and the guest of honor eventually received new steaks, however it was extremely chewy and disappointing. My boyfriend eventually speaks to the manager, who did comp us the two steak dinners. That was not enough for me, seeing that we still were required to pay the service charge.

Needless to say, none of us will be returning. Hopefully management will address these issues in a timely manner so the next party won’t be a huge...

Short story: NOT kid friendly (not talking about the menu - staff rude & we left before receiving our dinners) Long story: We made a reservation for 5 on Resy stating that our 5th was going to be an 7 month old in a stroller. I also requested a table on the outskirts of the patio so that we may quickly get up and walk around away from restaurant patrons should our baby start crying (which didn't end up happening). We brought our portable clip-on high chair with us. As we were seated (apparently by the manager we later learned), he stated that he "strongly recommended" not using it and brought us one of the wooden high chairs that all restaurants have. We gave the wooden high chair a try, but our little one is a peanut and it was too roomy for her to stay sitting straight up (which can increase the risk of choking). We ended up switching to our clip-on chair. About 15 minutes into our daughter eating and us enjoying our drinks (which everyone enjoyed, I'll give the bartender kudos as deserved), the manager came back over and rudely said, "I told you not to use that kind of chair on our tables for a reason." He goes on to explain that their tables have been broken by these types of seats in the past. My gripes are as follows: his tone was highly inappropriate as he scolded us (not discreetly) like children ourselves in front of all of the other patio patrons when he actually didn't say that we "couldn't" use the high chair in the first place, just that it wasn't "recommended". For what it's worth, we stress tested the chair on the table before putting our peanut of a kiddo in the high chair. She was 14 lbs at this time. The table was unphased by her presence. She was also quite content and not crying during this whole ordeal - so, an annoying, crying baby upsetting other patrons was clearly not a motivator for the manager's temperament. We ended up leaving (after paying for our drinks) prior to receiving our dinner orders, as we were so embarrassed and upset by the demeanor of this management figure. In summary, Hummingbird was the worst management experience I have ever had at any restaurant in my...