Matt & Tony's All Day Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Alexandria

Hello everyone, my family and I dined in Sunday the 7th. To say I was disappointed in this dining experience is an understatement. We arrived to the host stand around 2:55, a lady told us it would be about 45 minute wait. We were okay with that, actually got called back in around 3:25. They were preparing a patio table for us, my family and I wanted to dine inside, so we spoke with who appeared to be the manager that we would like a table inside. (Mind you when they added us to the waitlist they didn't ask if we would like inside or patio seating, so we could only assume that meant inside seating). The gentleman told us he would get us a table inside if that's what we wanted, and told us it would be another 20-25 minute wait. He also made it clear to let me know he would send me an alert when the table was ready, that I did not receive. Luckily 30 minutes later my dad walked back inside to check, just to see plenty of tables available, so they sat us down inside. If he hadn't walked back in we would probably still been standing outside in the heat.

We sit, a few minutes later a host comes over to pour us water, I asked if she was our server she said no. Given we had been waiting so long we were starving so I'm glad she was able to get us started with appetizers we wanted. Another 5 minutes goes by and finally our server comes to our table. I had to ask him if he was going to be our server as well as what his name was. Chris, was very unpleasant and seemed uninterested in being our waiter. He tells that he had the entire patio section so he was going to be busy but try his best. As first time guest traveling from Loudoun County, because we saw appealing videos on instagram, we received no sort of introduction or proper greeting from our server so that was disappointing, just a "are you ready to order."

Now onto the food... our server mentioned to us that since there was a big party entree orders would take longer than usual to come out. My dad ordered the Classic breakfast, he specified he wanted crispy bacon. Lord have mercy his bacon came out burnt! Never have I seen bacon so black and hard. His eggs and home fries were cold. Everything was sent back, they had to redo his order. So more waiting.

I ordered the Patty melt, absolutely delicious burger, I made one request and specified to Chris that I would like 'hot fresh fries' and he ensured me they would come out as such. I received my plate the fries tasted like they had been sitting in the bowl for 20 minutes very lump and nasty. I had to ask for fresh fries, and by the time I got those back I was one bite away from finishing my burger, which is not enjoyable because I wanted to eat them together.

My mother ordered Filet tips and tots, and thats all she got to do was order it because both times it came out not as asked. Chris gave her two options, pink or no pink, she asked for pink. The first time the filet tips came out they were well done! No pink at all and very dry. Her meal as well was sent back, it came out again THE SAME WAY almost worst, so bad she had to spit it out. She normally orders steaks where ever we go and she said it was the worst she's had. How hard can it be to cook filet tips to a pink center? She ended up not eating at all because she lost her appetite.

My bother and sisters order was okay, his food was warm but he didn’t want to wait anymore.

Our bill was $150, we made sure to tip Chris 20% but that was 110% not deserved or worked for but we wanted to do the right thing, and not seem ignorant. I am a server, so l know what it's like to give excellent hard working service, and make people feel comfortable about spending there hard earned money, I don't think Chris understands that. We absolutely will not be back, from the waiting, to the service, to the food, it just made a relaxing Sunday evening exhausting. The only thing that made it somewhat better is they included there sweet potato doughnuts which we were very good, on them, because they knew they...

UPDATE

Since our last visit, the manager reached out to us and sent a very thoughtful email and offered an opportunity for us to come back again. So, we visited recently and I'm really happy to say that our experience was great - back to being on par with our first visits in fact! The food was delicious, the server was great and our general experience was wonderful. I'm really glad we had an opportunity to give Matt & Tony's another try because we really do enjoy this place and we will happily come back and recommend it to other people!

OLDER REVIEW BELOW:

I've been here three times total and the first two times were really good experiences, but the latest visit was just too disappointing that I have to bring my general rating (and opinion) down to a two star (and it's not a 1 star only because the previous visits were so good). So, I ordered the french toast with chicken, which I've had before and loved, but this time around the french toast was burnt black and the chicken was dry and either overcooked or was maybe even an older piece of meat that was recooked? Now, I know that sometimes mistakes in the kitchen just happen and things can go unnoticed and when we mentioned the burnt french toast to a server (not our actual server, but a different server...because we couldn't find our server), he absolutely agreed and said that it was definitely burnt and he'd tell the kitchen immediately. Well, a few minutes later our server came back and said he needed to take my plate to the kitchen because the kitchen needed to essentially see proof that it was burnt. I didn't have a problem with him taking my food away because I definitely wasn't planning on eating it (and if you look at the pic, most people wouldn't want to eat it either), but the fact that the kitchen needed proof that I wasn't making it up sort of irked me, especially since anyone with eyes should have been able to see that they were about to send out burnt food from the kitchen. But fine. He took it away and whatever. I was expecting to have a whole new dish, but what I actually got was new french toast, but my toppings from my previous dish (the nuts, berries and syrup) were put in a separate cup while my dry old chicken strip was on a separate plate. At this point, I didn't even know that the chicken was dry and overcooked and I was just happy to have my food because I was starving. Anyway, long story short - everything about our visit was disappointing. We came in the middle of the afternoon during the week, so the kitchen was hardly busy and there was only one other party in the entire restaurant - and yet our food was burnt and overcooked, the kitchen didn't believe that it was burnt, the server was absent half the time and the manager was just standing by the host stand playing on their phone or tablet and never looked interested in what was happening around them...oh and there were flies everywhere. So yeah, we walked away from this place really disappointed and I'm not sure if we'll ever come back. They absolutely should have...

You know, I must say that the 4.6 rating for this restaurant is an understatement! Everything that we tried was very flavorful and a true experience for the palate!

Six of us decided on eating here solely due to the high, 4.6 rating. None of us have ever heard of this place. After over shooting streets—which resulted in taking an unplanned, scenic tour of the nearby, quaint neighborhoods—we found this restaurant!

First, I must say that our waitress was very warm, personable, and gave us very good suggestions on what to try. (Unfortunately, I do not remember her name. But I do remember that she was from Peru!) Her recommendations were on point! Of course, the six of us agreed to share our dishes so that we could gauge our assessment of many of the items on the menu.

We started with the Small Plates! She recommended the Seafood Dip and rest assured that we would be satisfied with the BBQ Mac & Cheese! The Seafood Dip and the BBQ Mac & Chesse were scrumptious! I was tempted to order another Seafood Dip! But I reasoned with myself that it would be best leave room for the main meal. Matter of fact, the Mac & Cheese could have been a meal all to itself, if you added a vegetable!

Then came the Big Plates! Our waitress recommended the Scottish Salmon and the Filet Tip & Tots! Most of us ordered the Filet Tips & Tots which ended up being an excellent choice! Everything on the plate was nicely seasoned! Do yourself a favor and do not get the meat well done. You will miss out on some of the flavors.

One member of the party ordered the Scottish Salmon. I think the flavors in the Salmon dish surpassed the Filet Tip & Tots! (I think their proprietary secret lies within their sauces!)

Since the desserts were the last items we ate, we only sampled two times, due to sinfully stuffed ourselves. We tried the Sweet Potato and Ricotta Donuts and their Lemon Chess Pie. The doughnuts were good! But the Lemon Chess Pie was FANTASTIC! It is sweet and vey lemony. Lemon lovers will probably be the only ones that agree with my assessment.

Now the reason why we were full by the time we were ready for desserts, is because we kind of got carried away with the drinks! We ordered more than 6 drinks as a group! Although I cannot remember all the drinks that our party ordered, the drinks that stood out among the pack were the Darryl Strawberry, Tweety Bird Tattoo, and the Farmhouse Punch (non-alcoholic). I ordered the Farmhouse Punch since I was the designated driver. That was an extremely refreshing drink. I ordered this twice! They should have made a variation of this drink with some dark rum!

We will definitely return to Matt and Tony’s on our next special occasion, especially since we now know how...