Vasili's Kitchen — Restaurant in Gaithersburg

I wanted to love this place but the food was a let down and the seating was weird. Let me break it down. There is indoor and outdoor seating. Don't get me wrong the place is gorgeous, the staff is great but the food is seriously underwhelming.

I entered this establishment right after they opened for happy hour and there was only one tabled seated at the time with around 40ish maybe more tables available. Well there is an outdoor seating area with a wall & windows in-between, for some reason the host decided to seat the only other party right on the other side of the window 6 inches from us, which was just weird since the place was empty. If it was busy, that's fine and totally makes sense, but the place was empty.

Anyway we decided to try a bunch of small plates and wow was I highly disappointed in the quality and taste of the food. In all I liked one and a half of the dishes. We tried the hummus, truffle feta fries, aranchini, Greek olives, bifteki sliders and meat poikilia.

The only things that were good were the hummus, and partially the fries & olives. The hummus was the only saving grace of the meal, it was delicious, flavorful, and with the crispy chick peas on top it was great, the pita bread under average with a crispy bottom but completely tough texture.

The truffle fries were hot, shoe string and crisp which was great but completely lacked salt. The white truffle flavor was more of a smell and not a taste. The olives were seasoned nicely and delicious.

Now for the biggest disappointments was the aranchini, the texture and tastes were way off! The exterior layer was terrible and stuck to your teeth while the inside was lacking all flavor and the goat cheese was randomly placed inside. On top of that they place them in a sauce which was spicy and immediately made them not crisp anymore. Just terrible overall.

The next meh dish was the bifteki sliders, it was basically a meatball placed in a bun twice it's size. The crispy onions tasted horribly and the bread was overly toasted and was hard. The ratio was way off on this. The beef & lamb ball inside, was itself good but the rest totally missed the mark.

As for the meat poikilia that came with a single meatball, 1/3 of a Greek sausage, gyro meat & chicken, it was not great. The meatball tasted weird and sauce were not flavorful at all and they served it room temperature. The Greek sausage was beyond bland and I couldn't even eat the tiny piece I was given. The chicken was white meat and over cooked so it was chewy and lacked flavor. The gyro meat was the only saving grace as it actually had flavor and was warm.

Overall the only time I would come back is it get a drink and maybe a gyro. This place has potential but they food is seriously lacking especially with those high prices! In addition the waitress started putting her hand all over the table and removing dishes when we weren't even finished packing up our food which was very uncomfortable. I have always stacked the dishes to be removed at the end.

The overall look of the place is beautiful but the music is too loud and when that happens people talk louder, so this place is overly noisy and loud. They also keep open flames on each table, so you might but yourself? I don't recommend this place if you have hearing difficulties or can not see in low light settings.

Realistically this place could be amazing but the food is lacking drastically and there are just small improvements that could be made to make this...

Our experience started out pleasantly enough. Our server, Gabby approached us and took our drink and appetizer order. We then ordered dinner. My wife ordered the beef kabob and I ordered the rockfish. The entrees looked wonderful when they came out. While I eat my beef medium-rare, my wife prefers hers medium-well to well. The kabob came out more on the medium-rare-rare side. Side note, my wife was not asked how she like the temperature of her beef. We waited several minutes while without getting a check back with our server, Gabby. I had to wave down another server to come help us. We explained that the beef was under-cooked and we asked that they cook it to a medium well to well. She gladly took the plate and I asked that she take mine back because I didn't want to eat while my wife was waiting for her entree to be finished. Within 3 minutes the entrees came back. I knew that it wasn't enough time for the kabob to be brought up to my wife's preferred temperature. I asked my wife to cut into the meat before the server walked away...medium. We unfortunately had to send her entree and my entree back again. When we explained to Gabby that the kabob was under-cooked to my wife's liking, her response was a cold, "we always serve it medium." She was snippy and seemed annoyed. Now I'm a stickler for service as I am run a business that is service based and was a manager a high-end restaurant that has about 50 locations nationwide. The indifference that we experienced with Gabby ruined our experience at Vasili's. I typically type 20% for average service and 25-30% for good service. This time I tipped only 15%. The only reason I tipped at all was because of my years in the industry. This was my 3rd visit in the past 10-months. Good service the first time, lackluster service the second time and bad service this last visit. While most would say, "I'm never going back", I always give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt and will give it a final chance.

My suggestions to the restaurant... The customer is right 90% of the time. Never make excuses when a customer doesn't like their entree or feel like their meet is under-cooked. Always ask the customer what temperature they would they prefer their beef unless it comes well to begin with. Instruct your servers to leave their problems at home. Nobody wants to be served nor pay for service from a server that doesn't seem interested. Never clear a plate off of the table until everyone has finished eating. It will leave the person eating feeling uncomfortable and feel pressured to eat faster than they normally do. We will try you one more time. I like to support local business however do not tolerate bad service. When dining out, the overall experience outweighs the quality of food only. Remember, mistakes are opportunities -- golden ones. Here's why. Studies show that a satisfied customer will tell 2-3 people about his experience with your company. A dissatisfied consumer will share their lament with 8-10 people and some will push that number to twenty. But here's the opportunity. An unhappy customer will become a loyal consumer if you fix his complaint and do it quickly. Eighty percent (80%) of these folks will come back to you if you've treated them fairly. That percentage rises to the upper 90s if you respond...

his is a very rustic looking, well dictated restaurant. The first couple of times that I've had brunch here, service was good with some hiccups with the food. Last time I visited, the poached eggs on the eggs Benedict were cold, I decided to order another dish instead.

Today, I made a reservation for outside seating at 11:15. I arrived on time. No warm greetings. First hostess was confused with the group of people she was going to seat and asked us to follow her by mistake. Once she realized that she's made a mistake, she didn't apologize to either party and just left us hanging. The other hostess came and again, didn't greet us, simply asked us to follow her. I arrived on time only to be shuffled into a corner table and be told that the outside seating was completely booked. When I mentioned about specifically asking for outside seating when I made my reservation, I was told that other people that made their reservation earlier than I did also requested for outside seating so she couldn't accommodate our request. We decided to sit at the bar instead. She did not even look at where we were going to sit, she threw the menus on the counter and walked away. I asked to speak with the manager, he apologized but didn't do anything. He didn't even speak with her about our complaint. We felt like she saw us as a huge inconvenience to her, wanting to get a table that we requested. Up until we left the restaurant, multiple tables were available on the patio, including two tops.

Having a prior experience with getting cold food, I reminded the bartender to please make sure my food is hot. After waiting for 30+ minutes for our food, the bartender even felt bad for how long our food was taking and offered drinks on the house, which we declined. Finally, I received a pitiful plate of sloppily poached eggs on top of brown avocado. And sure enough, eggs were not even lukewarm. Although the bartender told me that the avocado (really it should be called guacamole) was prepared fresh daily, I highly doubt it, especially with how brown it looked. Not to mention that I saw the pizza cooks filling their pans with bags of sauce... Fresh doesn't come in bags, not like that.

Meanwhile the manager never checked on us. We have had enough by this time. We bid our adios and went into Busboy and Poets in DC. That place is booming and has really...