Willy T's Tavern & Grill — Restaurant in Alexandria

We were a walk-in table, party of 3 on 14FEB2022. Active duty Army SSG, mother-in-law, and wife.

We waited to be seated per the designated sign and were sat at a small table in the side/middle area of the restaurant. The empty booth we eyeballed a short ways away was reserved. We sat quietly, looking through our menus. The restaurant was pretty full. We anticipated a wait. However, as 5 minutes turned to 10 and 10 to 15, we hadn’t even gotten so much as a basic pleasantry - “we’ll be right with you,” nor did we even get glanced at, smiled at, brought water, anything. During this time, I watched my family begin to grow uneasy. We all watched as three tables that sat after us, received service before us. We all listened as 4-5 different waitstaff made their rounds and catered to the other guests, all of the other guests, but not us. They generously questioned how the other guests enjoyed their meals, how was their stay…brought them their bills, etc. While it shouldn’t be necessary to point out, as a complaint about poor service typically is just that - POOR SERVICE - but it just so happens we were the only party of color at the establishment. Coincidence? After about 20 minutes of not even a cracked smile from a server, I got up from my seat and asked server “M” who walked by our table for the umpteenth time and had just made her way to the card processing station, “Excuse me, we’ve been here a while, when will we be waited upon?” Her response was “I’ll get someone on it.” From that point, we had the pleasure of watching her complain to one server after another about my simple question. We watched her mouth to the other, “I don’t have to take that, I’m not going over there.” Her whole demeanor changed.

After another 5 minutes of nothing, we decided to leave the establishment and look for service elsewhere. We weren’t even being acknowledged before, we weren’t sure what treatment we were looking forward to now. Even the gentleman at the table next to us gave a look and shoulder shrug like “why y'all haven't gotten service 😒 😑 😕?”

We initially walked into a full restaurant as patrons just looking for food after over 8 hours of driving. We left the establishment feeling like outcasts. It was humiliating. The treatment from this establishment was unprofessional, uncalled for, and ridiculous.

If I could give less than a 1 star...

(In short, we sat there for 2 hours, one of us had to get our food to go and once cancelled the order since it hadn’t been started in that time frame. Our drinks were wrong. Our service was poor. Nothing was remedied.)

Some friends and I were in town for the Grape Stomp at Carlos Winery (always a great time!). We stayed at the Holiday Inn this year and thought we would go for supper and drinks here since it is located in the hotel. The atmosphere is great, but the service was atrocious. We sat down, ordered a drink and a round of Chuck’s. The waitress informed us the bartender misread the order slip and didn’t make what we ordered, but she didn’t try to remedy it whatsoever and still served them to us. Next, we ordered food. Shortly after, the margarita I had ordered was delivered (it took a good 15 minutes). I ordered a frozen margarita and it was some watered down mess that wasn’t blended. My appetizer came out maybe 20 minutes later, as well as a side salad one of us ordered. We sat there for almost two hours and the chicken breast and street tacos still hadn’t been delivered. When asking, she said she’ll check with the kitchen. The chicken had been started but the tacos hadn’t even been started. She said that the kitchen has been having issues and that the bartender is swamped (there were tons of empty tables and waitresses standing at the computers that were next to our table). The margarita was gross so she got me one on the rocks which was appreciated-however we sat there for over an hour and a half before I had a chance to let her know it was wrong. The girl that ordered the chicken asked for it to go and the other cancelled her taco order since it hadn’t even been started. The waitress offered hardly an apology, and gave us one of the Chuck’s (that wasn’t as we ordered anyway) out of the 4 for free after one of the girls had had enough and asked it to be comped after seeing it on the tab. The waitress was friendly enough, but filled with excuses and didn’t try to make anything right and didn’t notice that our food wasn’t out after all that time. She didn’t offer to put a rush on it or anything, just said she’ll cancel it. We were frustrated and hungry and decided just to go the room and order in instead of sitting there not being served. It was a very disappointing end to a fun weekend...

Not great and it could easily be better. I don't give poor ratings lightly and this is a 2, but verging a 1. We arrived at 6pm for our 6pm reservation. The seating went smoothly. The venue has been beautifully updated since Willy T's took over. It's a very warm and inviting space, but maybe a bit too bright.

Our waitress was initially fair. She filled drink orders in an acceptable time and did well to wait for our food order.

Once our food order was in (2 pizzas and 2 kids meals) the service basically ended. It was around 30 minutes before we saw the waitress again. She told us our food would be out soon, but didn't stop to ask anyone if they wanted refills on drinks... and we did... we had been sitting with empty drinks for at least 10 minutes and nearly everyone in our party of 9 needed something. We ordered 4 more drinks at the table. A couple of beers, a soda and a water. 15 to 20 minutes later the waitress returned with our drinks. The food was still apparently cooking.

The food arrived about 60 minutes after we ordered. It wasn't busy. At least half of the tables were empty. We waited 60 minutes for 2 large pizzas and a child's pizza. ...but the mac and cheese for one of the children didn't come with all of the other food. Over time we sent two separate waitresses for the mac and cheese. Neither returned. ...and with a child this is an eternity. We fed the child some of the pizza as we waited. Eventually I decided to find a wait-person to ask where the mac and cheese was. As I walked through the room one of the waitresses was coming with the mac and cheese. She dropped that off and did not ask whether anyone needed a drink.

The service, overall, was abysmal. The food was decent. I'd even say it was good. The mac and cheese was Kraft, which is standard kid-fare, but... 70 minutes?? This place could be good-to-great, but the service... it was extraordinary in all the wrong ways.

Don't worry Willy T! I try EVERYTHING twice! Seriously, though, you need to provide some training to all of the wait staff and possibly the cook's. The service...