Two Nineteen Restaurant — Restaurant in Alexandria

We dined at 219 on Christmas Eve after attending mass. Upon arrival, the hostess station was vacant, but she soon popped around the corner and showed us to our table, which was in front of the fireplace per the reservation. The ambiance is the best thing going for this place. The dining room is elegant; the fireplace is warm, and the large windows offer a splendid view of King Street. The bar is opposite the fireplace, though there was no bartender present. At first the room was very quiet, but toward the end of our meal, four dozen patrons were seated at the bar and the situation was rapidly changing. As for the meal... I had read on several reviews that they do a limited fixed-price menu (or a “prix fixe” for the French wannabes among us) on New Year's Eve, but I did not expect it on Christmas Eve. Silly me. There was no mention of it on the restaurant's website. And the only note on the confirmation email was that reservations are only accepted for the main dining room. Let me tell you how awesome it is to show up with a family of six and find that the only option is a $48 per person three course meal. Apparently the unwritten rule is that meals for kids 12 and under are half price. So now I only have to pay $24 each for a meal they won't eat. Here I am, in that awkward position of having made a reservation based on the current online menu, only to find that I’d basically RSVP’d to an exclusive event. We asked that, given the lack of notice on the website, if it would be possible for the kids to eat off the regular menu. Our server replied that it was probably doable, but of course for the same price. We had already ordered drinks and were about to cash out and roll the dice somewhere else when our server returned and informed us that the owner said the boys would be able to order cheeseburgers ($14 adult cheeseburgers, of course, not kids' cheeseburgers as would have been available in just about any other restaurant in Old Town). I ordered the chestnut soup, prime rib, and cake. My wife ordered the kale salad, glazed ham and cake. We were both excited for some Cajun Creole food, but there was nothing Cajun on the Christmas menu. Three of our kids ordered burgers, but our ten year old is especially picky and was not particularly hungry. He was going to share some of his brothers' fries and hold off until we got home to eat something he actually wanted. Our server understood and departed. Then she came back and said the owner won't allow him to not eat; he must order something. So we said a bowl of mac & cheese would be sufficient. That ended up being a $14 bowl of mac & cheese that he barely touched. They had some drink specials--I'm not really sure what was special about them, certainly not the price. My wife had a bellini, which she enjoyed, then another. I had a Founders lager initially, then opted for the Kentucky Peach (kind of a Kentucky Mule) which was watered down. After that I stuck with water. The food arrived reasonably timely. 1st course: The chestnut soup had the consistency of thick gravy. They were pretty skimpy on the thyme cream. I didn't care for it. My wife enjoyed her kale salad, which was clearly the better choice. 2nd course: The prime rib was unimpressive. I've had better on a Navy ship on that rare occasion when the supply officer would treat the wardroom with steak and lobster (and that was terrible). My prime rib was barely a half-inch thick. If not the worst prime rib I'd ever had (though a contender), it was certainly the thinnest. The potatoes and asparagus were cold. The "au jus" consisted of splattering a tablespoon of drippings on the plate. See photo. Of course you expect a lot of fat with a prime rib, but there was only about 4 oz of edible meat in my cut. I'd say it was about an $18 steak at best. My wife ordered the glazed ham, which was fine, but not worth a fraction of what we were paying. The kids' burgers all came out medium rare to rare--not that we specified a level of doneness during our initial food negotiations, but who gives a 6 year old a...

I would love to give this place a great rating because I have eaten here on several occasions, dates, connecting with friends in town, and to celebrate friends moving. I've been eating here for several years.

Tonight was a completely different experience. The evening went well with a group of 4. My wife is pregnant and ordered something spicy therefore couldnt eat it, I asked the waiter for a different meal and not to worry about the spicy meal, just prepare it in a to go container. Ill pay for it, take it home, no problem. Well the replacement meal for my wife, salmon, orzo, and brussel sprouts came out and she didnt really enjoy it but i wasnt too worried, we're having a good time and I didnt want to send it back. It wasnt until i asked to have this boxed that we had issues.

I asked to have about 80-90% of the meal boxed to go. The waiter brought the meal, salmon, orzo and brussel sprouts stuffed into a small container layering the items on top of one another. At this point the food is no longer appetizing as everything has become mush. I was not satisfied and requested this singular item be removed from the check, $28. The waiter gets the owner, Patty, who comes out frustrated and tells us that's what she trains the staff to do with small portions. Again, 80-90% of this meal remains, this is not a small portion. She also provided a larger box which could have been used originally and tells us to box it ourselves. Patty proceeds to tell us that she will not remove this particular meal because there is nothing wrong with the food and tosses both containers on the table and walks away. Keep in mind the food literally looks like a raw diet bowl for a dog in this small container.

My wife needed to use the bathroom and on the way tried to discuss the situation and how it was disrespectful to which Patty stated, she doesn't disrespect decent customers. Not sure how we became customers who weren't decent.I could speculate that she made several assumptions of decency based on our skin color. My wife proceeds to the bathroom. Upon return Patty runs into my wife and tries to make it seem like my wife is at fault. She's pregnant, why would she try to run into someone? Patty calls the police because we're rejecting the bill, not true, I rejected part of it because I was dissatisfied. I had no issue paying the remainder.

Police arrive to mediate, which is fine, we never attempted to leave the restaurant. In the end, the restaurant removes the spicy dish from our bill, the same cost as my original request. All of this is seen and heard by other patrons for no reason at all. I no longer recommend this establishment or any that Patty is associated with to anyone. Our server Sheik was amazing during the entire night from start to finish, someone please provide him with other opportunities to...

If I could, I would give 0 stars!!!! I am never coming back to this place and would never recommend it to anyone. The food and the service was atrocious. Our waiter, Keith (at least that's what it sounded like he said through his mask) was the worst! He was rude to everyone in my party in how he spoke.

We were told by the manager (the older gentleman) that even though there was no mixed drink menu that we can give the name to the waiter and we would be able to get it.

We asked Keith if the waiter could make a Blue Ocean or a Blue Whale. He said that he would check. About 5 minutes later, he came back with a champaign flute with a blue drink and lemon. When we tasted it, it was NOT a Blue Whale or a Blue Ocean. It tasted like champaign with blue curacao. When we asked him to get a different drink because it was not good, he caught an attitude, talked to the lady (I'm guessing she's second in command) and came back saying that we weren't allowed to order mixed drinks, just whatever wine and whiskey they had.

My family and I figured that maybe they decided to no longer serve mixed drinks. About 20 minutes later, we see a BUNCH of mixed drinks being brought to different tables. No one was able to explain why we were denied the service that others were given. Another waiter who was friendly picked up our plates and was kind to my party and I. We asked him about mixed drinks, he said of course they provide mixed drinks to their customers. When we explained to him what happened, he quickly remedied the problem. His 5 minutes of kindness outweighed the 3 hours of blatant rudeness from our waiter. I really wished that this gentleman, whose name I don't remember, was our waiter the ENTIRE time

Outside of the drink fiasco, the fried pork belly had an after taste that tasted like toilet water. (This opinion was shared by multiple people in my party). The Mac and cheese was lacking cheese, the best food in my personal opinion was the truffle fries. I had the Jambalaya that had mini crawfish that tasted like seawater. What made the night better was the party that was happening downstairs. Some of my family and I were able to shake off the frustration that Keith and the nasty food caused by dancing, which helped.

Again, please, please, PLEASE do not waste your time on the over-priced food and terrible, subpar service! Save your...