Cori's Modern Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Maryland

We visited this establishment at the beginning of March. Preliminary details: Party of 20, reservations made WEEKS in advance for a Gender Reveal. As organizers, we told everyone to have cash to make the entire payment process seamless and easy (the way they did things, that still didn’t matter and not bc of the guests)

This is a lot! Here it goes - smh: We arrived early - I let the hostess know that I was one of the organizers, she said the previous party was finishing up and we could have a seat until the area was ready. We went to the bar to wait. We ordered Catfish Nuggets and two of the sodas. Catfish nuggets (10/10) were great!!

Once I finally realized a lot of the party was already seated (no thanks to the hostess notifying me, as requested), we got situated and it took almost 20 mins to put in drinks and both tables weren’t asked.

Problem 1: The service was SLOW - VERY SLOW and all over the place!!! The server was so overwhelmed with JUST taking the drink orders that you would have thought he had no knowledge or training of the proper order of operation for/handling a large party. The other organizer had to end up getting up and requesting that the manager help (who kept walking around and never once jumped without being asked multiple times what was going on!). As a person that has been a hospitality manager with extensive experience as a trainer, server and bartender with small and large scale restaurants, conventions, hotels and multiple sports venues in the DMV area and whew - this place needs help! Problem 2: As a manager, there’s ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that if I see or have seen one of my servers struggling that I would allow that server to continue to struggle with a large party. Why? I want to ensure every party receives exemplary service and a great experience, as to spread the word and continue to increase sales and business.

As a manger, you know the following is important AT ALL TIMES: If the restaurant is busy and there are no other servers, as a manager, you roll your sleeves up and you jump in and assist until the server is caught up and then let the server handle the rest OR If the restaurant isn’t busy and there are servers aimlessly standing around without any work, one of them should’ve been asked to jump in and assist! TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK…..welll not here! It was like that’s not my party, I’m going to sit back and watch him drown!! Smh!!! I could go on and on about the service but no need bc just the drinks taking more than 20 mins to an hour, for some, to come out explains the serious lack enough! Service: 3/10 - it only received a 3 for the effort that the server gave! Food: I ordered Cajun Salmon Pasta - spice level was perfect, salmon was decent but definitely too oily and the sauce was too thin! - 4/10 My fiancé ordered Brussels and the Lamb Chops. The Brussels were decent. - 7/10 It was deceiving to say lamb chops bc, when it came to the table, it was in fact lamb LOLLIPOPS and NOT CHOPS - which, for the amount of meat on each bone, the price point does not support charging $25, as there was MUCH TO BE DESIRED.

I tried the following from my fam: Cornbread - Delicious!! - 10/10 Mac and cheese - BOOOOOOO (throws tomatoes at the coook) the presentation was great, overall cheesiness was great but it was SOOOO BLAND and had no seasoning or flavor whatsoever!!!! Boooo!!! So disappointed esp with the awesome presentation!!! Throw the whole recipe AWAY!!!! - 1/10 (only bc of the presentation and how cheesy it was) Fried Green Tomatoes were meh! - 4/10

Overall summation: NO! NO! NO! - -2/10 (yes, NEGATIVE 2) The reveal was great and SOME of the food! Some of the party received wrong orders or had to take their food to go bc of the long wait.

I will NEVER EVER go back and neither would I recommend WASTING your time and/or money - we thought it’d be cool to try a black owned establishment but boy were we WRONG for...

The food was worth the 40 minutes drive, and the three stars are not representative of the food but the service. Service alone gets one star. The managers did credit the bill and apologized for the service, and promised my next visit would be different, even suggesting I call ahead to let them know. Typically I don't return to an establishment after such service, but I will give Cori’s another chance as the food is that good. I hope to get the fried green tomatoes as an appetizer next visit since they were out. I heard from my niece, who suggested I visit. They are mouth-watering delicious. The entrees are not pictured as we took those to go. My daughter ordered the spicy fried chicken sandwich it looks tasty but she never ate it and it's in the refrigerator I may have the leftovers for lunch. My entree was good. I had the Spicy Creole Salmon Pasta; I substituted the salmon for blackened shrimp.

I will update my review based on my next visit. The food is delicious, but the service sucks horribly. If you or someone you know is in the hospitality arena, they need good people for the front and back of the house.

The ambiance and establishment as a whole are on point. I'm a native Detroiter who lived in Chicago and Atlanta before coming to the DMV, and Cori’s would be my spot, reminding me of what I'm accustomed to with that home flair.

I truly want to 5 stars the food but can't get pass the bad service and giving a 3 is being generous. I want people to patronize.

Cori’s I'll be back for brunch in a couple of weeks. Please do better!

I updated from 3 to 5 star! Listen the food is delicious. I've visited 5 times since the initial 3 star bad service rating and Endia is amazing the service provided is impeccable and has an elephants memory. Kudos to you Endia!

I keep updating my review! Today's visit Levi and Endia immediately remembered me and that was impressive!

I had to update 6/3 as I’d called for 2 days about fried green tomatoes. Upon arrival during brunch with no reservation and was seated at the bar and the hostess brought out the tomatoes without an official order and Brittany was wonderful. My five star review changes because of Amos . Unacceptable and a deal breaker for me! Five turns to two solely for Amos mouth. Before leaving my rating dropped to 1 star I wish I could rate negative 5 due to service alone. The food is a ten but this service especially Amos is not acceptable his mouth is reckless! I’ve been at the bar 45 minutes and still don’t have flatware or a small plate for the fried green tomatoes. I guess I will get tipsy on the mimosas.

Before leaving today Levi, Brittany and K redeemed the day. Amos though is unacceptable!

2/10/24 update service is bad waited about 8 minutes to be seated as there was no visible staff and only 4 other guests. Asked for two waters and had to go to the bar to get the 2nd one. Ordered a Arnold Palmer again another wait. I had eaten the catfish nuggets before the French Toast was brought out. The lemon pepper wings I hate I ordered some to go. I need to go home and put in them in the oven to cook them done enough. It has been 8 months since my last visit and now I am...

The food was EXCELLENT. BUT the wait was horrendous. We must have waited at least 45 minutes for our food to come out and we ordered things like omelets, shrimp and grits, French Toast, etc...so nothing that may take awhile like the porkchop that was on the brunch menu. The restaurant wasn't packed so I'm unsure why the wait was so long. But other than us asking our server (Keyvon who was trying his best!) no one came to talk to us about the hold up. We even spoke with the owner, Ryan, as we waited for our check and he was just like "Oh...yea they told there was a table with a long food wait." He was very meh about it and he'd been sitting at the bar the entire time! It would have gone a long way customer service wise had he come and spoken to us while we waited or just on his own (we flagged him over to our table).

The drinks were also excellent. Shout-out to the bartender with the locs whose name I didn't catch---though there were three people behind the bar at several points he seemed to be the only who was actually making drinks to serve patrons. He even walked a few drinks over to us and another table.

Final issue---both the website and the fliers in the restaurant stated that happy hour was every day from 3-6, extended on Tuesdays. My friend was made aware that this was a bar only thing so she went to the bar to order some apps while we waited what felt like eons for our meals. One of the managers then approached us to let us know that the hh is only M-F despite what their website and signage stated. She kept saying "they meant M-F" and while that's understandable what should have happened was an acknowledgement of the mistake on their end while immediately agreeing to honor the hh price on the items ordered since it was their mistake and not ours. There was far too much back and forth and attempting to get us to pay full menu price for the TWO apps (and possibly one or two drinks) that were ordered. Good customer service would dictate that you allow the patrons to get what they ordered at the prices stated and the restaurant updates their site and fliers immediately to correct THEIR ERROR. It was quite off putting that the whole thing took about 20mins to resolve (we were finally given the items at hh price and advised that we could no longer order at hh pricing). The second manager, whom we requested to come speak to us, Brittany was great. She did exactly what someone trained in customer service should have done, acknowledge the patron, apologize, let them know you hear the issue, and provide a resolution. I'm unsure why the other manager wasn't able to provide that level of customer service.

My friends and I, are relatively successful women who dine out often and try to support Black owner businesses but this poor customer service experience makes it unlikely that we will be dining here again (though as stated the food was EXCELLENT---even though my French Toast was not on thick cut Brioche bread...I know regular store bread when I see it lol ..it was GOOD though). I will order on UberEats/DoorDash as I have done in the past but dining...