Sonoma Cellar — Restaurant in Alexandria

I don't leave reviews ever, but after my experience last month at Sonoma Cellar, I was so upset, I can't not say something.

My family has been long-time advocates of Sonoma Cellar since they popped up on King Street a few years back. We always love the food and have a great time.

Last month for my mom's birthday, I thought what better place to take her. So my dad called the day of and got us a reservation. We were running behind schedule so we called again and asked if it was alright if we pushed back about 15 minutes. The gentlemen at the end of the line was super pleasant and assured us that that was a-ok.

When we arrived, the place was pretty empty but for a couple at a small table and a woman sitting at the bar with a glass of wine. There was a musician there performing with his guitar, and he was just excellent (truly saved our evening).

The manager (?? not sure if it was the manager, but seemed like it was) got up from her corner (a dining table by the window), took one of her AirPods out, and came up to us. She told us we could sit wherever and gave us some menus. She didn't seem aware that we had made a reservation.

It's probably important I tell you it was "Thanksgiving Eve" when we went. This didn't really matter to me or my parents, but it definitely mattered to the manager, which is something we learned.

About 10 minutes into sitting there with our menus and water, she had asked us what we wanted twice. She explained that she wanted to make sure her kitchen staff could leave early tonight "because of the holiday" so that's why she was rushing us. She seemed more concerned with getting our orders in than giving us waters.

After a mere ten minutes of being there, we order, and she returns to her corner to do computer work with her AirPods in. The AirPods really bothered me because there was a musician there performing. It felt rude.

After we finished eating our EXCELLENT FOOD, she comes over to grab our plates almost immediately. It became more apparent that rushing us had little to do with wanting to send the kitchen staff home, as we were still being rushed AFTER we had received and eaten our food.

She brings us the bill after clearing our plates, then says, very loudly, to one of the other customers, that she wants to close soon because it’s Thanksgiving Eve and a lot of people are drinking tonight, and she doesn’t want to deal with drunk drivers on the way home. She comes over to check on our bill and processes our payment.

After we get the card back, we’re finishing our water and diet cokes when she comes over and collects either one of our empty glasses or our silverware (can’t remember which)— but she basically picks something off of our table that wasn’t our plates (already cleared those). And that was the real kicker. Because we had finished eating; we had paid; the musician was still playing; there were still two other customers at the bar drinking wine. We were just sitting there minding our own business, finishing the diet cokes we paid for, and even that was a problem.

So we left, said thank you to the musician, gave him a nice Venmo tip and were on our merry ways. It was just so shocking. She didn’t even say have a good night when we left--the musician did.

For the up-scale vibe of this restaurant, the price point, etc. I was truly not expecting to be treated like the biggest headache. I tried to be understanding at first. As someone who’s worked in the service industry, I know you have good days and bad days, and it can be hard to give absolutely every customer the best experience. However, there were SO many moments in which the manager could have chosen to be kind or professional or respectful, but she just wasn’t. It seemed her only goal that night was to get us in and out as fast as possible. Needless to say, it was not a great birthday dinner for my mom.

I'm not leaving this review as an outlet for my frustration; rather, I am truly hoping my experience will help the owner(s) to restore Sonoma Cellar to its former glory (if not for me, for...

This was such a disappointing experience. It looks good from the pictures online and the rating but I don’t understand why. To start, my gf and I entered and the bartender immediately came around and asked us where we would like to sit so so far so good. We decided to go outside and he cleared off a table that we wanted. The waiter came over with some water and then left to let us look over the menu and this is where it all went down hill. We sat there for 20 min and he never returned. In that time we witnessed another family have to get up and bring the check to the front so that they could finally pay and leave. After five more minutes we were so fed up that we just got up and walked inside. Surprise surprise he came out as we were going in. We told him we wanted to switch inside. Shortly after we saw two couples get up and leave the bar entirely from sitting outside that had sat down after we did our there. The bartender from before saw us and came over and took our order. We ordered everything at once and then waited. 25 more effing minutes go by and our food never came. Nor did any other waiter and there were at least two others walking around. The bartender came back around and asked us how we were doing. Ummm not great! Where the hell was our food. He apologized and chalked it up to having a small kitchen. Even if that is true, there weren’t that many people in there and we ordered a cheese and meat board, a burger and quesadillas. Not exactly the most complicated dishes. He immediately went to the kitchen and right after all three of our dishes came out at the same time. The food wasn’t bad but nothing special and definitely not worth the time it took us to get everything. When we got our check he asked how it was and we said we were a little unhappy to which he apologized and asked if we wanted a discount on the check which at the very least you would think they would just do that but nope. Gave us the full price. This place only gets one star for the sole fact that the food was decent and the bartender was...

My girlfriend and I decided to try this place out for Restaurant Week. We go into Old Town a lot but had never been here before, so we decided to give it a shot. We showed up a little after 2:30 on a Sunday to try their RW brunch special. The place had a family owned feel and felt like you were in a house, so we initially liked the vibe. We asked about brunch and Restaurant Week and were told it was still going on and given brunch menus and sat upstairs.

The place was moderately full, with several groups still eating and drinking. We were sat next to another group that had arrived just before us and apparently were there for the same Restaurant Week brunch. We then overheard the server tell that table that the kitchen has decided to stop serving brunch at 2:30 and hadn't told the rest of the restaurant employees, so he was unable to offer any brunch items and could not do Restaurant Week. Since that's the whole reason we were there, we quickly asked him about it and he confirmed with us as well.

I would say the ONE TIME it is not wise to cut corners would be during a week designed to attract new customers. What started out as a charming impression quickly soured into a bad taste that would not go away. At 2:40 the server brought over DINNER menus and took our other menus away. We were nowhere near in the mood for a full dinner, so we promptly left the place and went to Virtue Feed and Grain where we had a wonderful lunch.

If the place had been empty and the lunch crew had decided to start cleaning up early, I may could understand. The place, however, was still hopping and all your advertisement promotes brunch until 3. Perhaps at some point I will try this place again, but it's going to take a while after such a bad first impression. Maybe this is just a place that focuses more on selling wine than giving a dining experience. If you want to do more than drinks, I would...