Ashling Kitchen & Bar | Catering & Events — Restaurant in Crofton

We came on a Saturday afternoon to celebrate my friends birthday. We happened to be in Crofton and I told her about my initial experience with Ashling Kitchen which was great honestly. My initial experience was when they had a South African menu. The chef came out, he was talking to the tables asking about the food- which was all really good, well cooked and well seasoned.

On this recent visit, The restaurant was not super busy other than a party in their back area and maybe three tables when we first came in. The hostess greeted us kindly and quickly sat us down. Our waitress came over and greeted us. We ordered two sweet teas that quickly came out. They were both perfectly sweet. We decided to try the crab and artichoke dip as an appetizer and were not so sure about what entrees to get. We asked the waitress who didn’t give us much to work with, maybe new so we didn’t think much of it and took our time to look it up on yelp.

The crab artichoke was meh, more cheese, not much crab or artichoke pieces, but we didn’t make a fuss and kept the merriment going.

My friend got the jerk chicken. It was a big portion size and smelled great. The sauce was different than normal jerk, but still decent in taste. I tried a small piece on the side, that looked cooked. She literally said “I wish it was cut up more so I don’t have to get messy.” We laughed and she started cutting into the chicken - she opens up her chicken and mortified she sees blood and raw chicken. We didn’t even think to take a picture of the rawness which in retrospect maybe we should have. We were both so surprised. We immediately looked for the waitress.

The waitress saw it and said “sorry”, grabbed the plate and asked if my friend wanted it to be redone. My friend was disgusted so she didn’t want chicken or anything at that point. I encouraged her to take another look at the menu as it could be a rushed unfortunate mistake.

My gumbo had a wonderful appearance, tasted great in flavor and spice level. The portion size was pretty big so I asked my friend to try and see if she wanted some of mine/to order her own gumbo.

A guy (was he a manager? Another server? Who knows) came over and asked was she ordering anything else. She hesitatingly said fish and chips after I’d encouraged her to give it a try. There was no management apology about the issue as a follow up which I expected because I’d bragged about the exceptional experience and customer service prior.

In the middle of eating my meal, I started to feel sick. I thought maybe I was disgusted by her raw chicken, so I didn’t think too much about it. I asked for my food to go and kept it moving. Getting a box for the leftover gumbo seemed to take forever. We finally got the check and left.

My friend and I went down the street to TJ Maxx and I literally had to leave the store, because I felt so sick and started to experience several symptoms of food poisoning. My friend soon after expressed nausea and also showed symptoms of food poisoning as well.

I am not sure if the small piece of chicken was the cause of my food borne illness or if it was the gumbo but needless to say the leftovers were trashed.

I’d like to say this was a one off situation, but as I looked at other reviews following this experience I noticed someone else had a similar issue, maybe the restaurant should consider cutting the chicken into smaller pieces to ensure...

I came here on a Sunday at around 3 pm to celebrate a family member's birthday. We had about 9 people in our party. However, we had to wait until majority of our party was here to sit down. So once a 5th person came, we sat down. There was barely anyone there when we arrived, which should have been the first red flag. So we sat down and waited for the rest of our party to show up. I was excited for the bread they supposedly give you because I hadn't eaten all day. But apparently, they start giving our bread at 5 pm, so bumber! Once the rest of our party got here, we ordered appetizers, which we shared. We got the wings and the chicken & waffles. They were pretty okay. Then we ordered entrees. Considering the fact that there weren't really many people in the place, we expected to get our food relatively fast. However, it took like 30 minutes just to get the food to us. I got a burger because I think that's the safest option at any new restaurant that you're visiting. Some of the other food that people in our party got were a salad, salmon with risotto and vegetables, pasta, and chicken sandwich. My burger was pretty good. However, the amount of fries that came with it could have been a little bit more. Did not seem like the right proportion. Additionally, the salmon was supposed to come with risotto and market vegetables, but ended up coming with risotto and broccolini. Not a terrible thing but the person who ordered it was expecting market vegetables. If the restaurant didn't have that, someone should have made it known that it would be substituted with broccolini. The two people who had the chicken sandwich really disliked it. They didn't even finish it. They didn't like the bread, the chicken was not seasoned AT ALL, and it was not good. However, the person who got the chicken sandwich with macaroni and cheese said the macaroni was good! So food wise, it was okay. Was it worth the money? I don't think so. Could have gotten better quality and a bigger quantity of food at another establishment for just about the same price or cheaper.

I would have given them 3 stars but I am giving them 2 starts instead for the two following things. When we came in, we had a birthday cake because we were celebrating someone's birthday. We were planning to sing happy birthday, cut it there, the whole nine yards. However, when we had all finished our meal, were ready to cut the cake, AND HAD ASKED THEM for a knife (since they took our utensils), they then informed us that they would have to charge us an additional $15. They reasoned that it would be for the plates and cutlery that we would be using. THAT IS RIDICULOUS! First off, you saw us walk in with the cake. Nobody brings a cake to a restaurant unless they plan to cut it there. Why not inform us of this $15 charge with us then, instead of at the end of the meal when we are ready to cut the cake? And why did we have to ask before we were even told about it?!?! That is ridiculous. They charged an automatic gratuity fee on the bill. That is pretty common. However, on the receipt to sign, they asked if we would like to provide tip. If someone did not look at the bill closely, they might not have noticed that gratuity was already included. Thus, they may have added another tip on top of that. Thank goodness we read because we definitely were not going to provide another tip for mediocre food and...

I generally don't write reviews, and in particular, bad ones. My mother always told me, that if you don't have anything good to say, then don't say anything at all. This time is an exception. If I could give zero stars, then I would. The location is horrible. Parking is awful. The food is over-priced with average quality. Professionalism is severely lacking. Accommodating extra guest because a few people in our party didn't RSVP should not have been a big deal; but it was. We were willing to wait at the bar or outside until seats came available. But there was NO effort to accommodate our party. As you know, there is a natural table turnover in the restaurant industry; waiting 30 - 40 minutes wouldn't have been a problem. Nonetheless, I sat down at chairs at the bar but was later told that I couldn't sit there because that area was reserved as a bar service area. Why would you put bar seats in an area where you don't want people to sit? That doesn't make any sense. “Stupid is as stupid does!” I was willing to sit at the bar and pay-as-I-go until a seat came available, but I was informed by the bartender of a nonsensical policy that was poorly explained and once re-explained still didn't make any sense. I've travelled all over the world and have eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world. And, nowhere had I run into this stupid policy where you couldn't pay-as-you-go regardless of serving an affiliated large party. Any normal restaurant would have allowed me to transfer my bar purchases to the check associated with the large party, but not these folks. I wanted to make it easy for them because they were short staffed. Since we are talking truth!!! That's the real problem, but they responded to other poor reviews making it seem like something is wrong with us - the customer! In short, save your money. It's too much of a hassle. When you're going out for a memorable celebration and the only thing you come away with is a bad experience. That's a problem! I definitely will not be returning to this hole in the wall. And, I could have sworn I smelled nail polish remover while I was at the bar. Then when I left to go sit in my car, I realized that they are located next door to a nail shop. That explains it.

Response to Owner's Response: Again, I generally don't write reviews. You have to be really awful for me to write you a bad review. I've written only one other review ( a total of 2) and that was 6 years ago. I don't want to come across as being petty, but we were celebrating my mother-in-laws 86th birthday. Most people would think this is a very special occasion. How we were treated was the cause for our family reviews. We don't come after small businesses. We support small businesses. That's why we gave your business a try. We are just sharing our experience. Again, it was a bad experience; we collectively had a bad experience. I'm not sure what you deem false in my/our reviews. What I cited...