J. Hollinger's Waterman's Chophouse — Restaurant in Maryland

I don’t really like to take time to share bad experiences at places of establishment, but I feel compelled to do so, because this one takes the cake.

TLDR :

It was mine and my friends’ first time here. We were extremely excited to try this place to celebrate my friend’s birthday.

I ordered a sweet tea, they brought out UNSWEETENED. They remade my drink, but they never asked if I wanted any refill. My glass had been empty for at least 30 min, they only asked my friends who ordered the nonrefillable alcoholic drinks despite seeing my empty glass. The peach drink that our birthday girl ordered was FILLED WITH ICE TO THE BRIM. The actual drink was merely 15-20% of the total volume and at $16 per glass, it’s not worth it.

We ordered fried calamari and fried oysters for some of the starters, but the only things that had flavor on those plates were the pickled olives and [carrots?] on the side. Like, WHAT?! I’m so confused. It was extremely bland. The batter just tasted like fried flour with no salt or any type of seasoning. I was beyond disappointed. I couldnt had just added salt superficially. It wouldn’t had tasted the same as had it been dipped in a well-prepared, well-seasoned batter. Even the sauce they came with, I swear, was what seemingly just puréed tomatoes and that’s it. Yay! YUCK to the max.

There was a lady who greeted us in the beginning, but it was super informal, she didn’t even introduce herself with a name. Moments later, a guy took over, and same thing - no name.. and then the lady appeared again to ask if my friends wanted any more drinks, but never bothered to refill my glass. Take note - they weren’t busy.

THIS PLACE BEING SUPER SHADY is an understatement.

They handed our birthday girl the dessert menu to have her pick. They billed us for it. It took pointing it out to get it taken off since it was supposed to be complementary to begin with. Our bill was $181 w/o tip. We put $200 in the check holder and the male server came back stating that we only handed them $180 and he laid out the bills on the table, which there was, indeed, $200.. “oh, the bills might have gotten stuck together”, he claimed. They WEREN’T.

The grilled pork chops were also under-seasoned. Nothing phenomenal. 5/10. Still bland. Like, how is this place still open??? I have soooo many questions!

Overall experience is 1/10 and it goes without saying - ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TO A FRIEND, or anyone for that matter. Overpriced, staff is shady, unprofessional, smaller-sized-portioned bland food - just not worth it. We would’ve gotten better food and better service at Golden Corral and the like. SMFH

To top it all off, I got food poisoning from this place. Not sure which food item(s) caused it, and I know, TMI.

So come to J. Hollinger’s Waterman’s Chophouse! Where you’ll get the literal RUNS for...

Sadly, another disaster thanks to hands down the worst hospitality at a DC area restaurant to date (hence no pictures). This was one of the places we went to and liked when looking for a house a year ago and shockingly is listed in the DC Eater list of essential restaurants. After arriving, we sat for a long period of time with nothing but water. So long, we watched the table seated around the same time as us get served their appetizers before we even were welcomed by our waiter. Side he was too busy staring at the glasses, another waiter came and offered to take our drink order - we gave him our drinks and meal order (tomato salad and salmon for me, oysters and crab cakes entree which is priced @ $48). Our starters came a few minutes after our drinks, now about 35 min into our visit: Ken’s 2 types of oysters (no one bothered to tell us anything about them) and a crab cake appetizer (priced at $21) were delivered. The server (who we later learned didn’t speak English) looked confused and took the crab cakes away. Several minutes later our actual server asked what I ordered and said tomato salad. 10 min later a delicious set of heirloom tomatoes and cheese arrives. With empty drinks, we then sit for nearly 35 more minutes before we notice the server who took our order and our actual waiter trying to figure out what we actually order - we clarify again crab cake entree for Ken and salmon for me.

Another 17 minutes goes by, still with nothing to drink, and the waiter comes by and asks if we want to see the dessert menu - I say, no we just want our dinner. Still nothing offered to drink when he returns and says our food will be out shortly.

Finally, my salmon and the very same crab cake appetizer that we were served 50 min ago (you can tell the cake and now wilted salad) have been sitting under a heat lamp for an hour. We ask the delivering waiter if this is the entree portion and he looks confused and walks away. We flag our waiter down and ask is this correct and he insists that this is the case - even though the menu describes a double cake, salad and fries combo. We ask him to check and he comes back and says we should get a second crab cake. Out comes a second crab cake appetizer order for Ken.

We finish, with nothing to drink, and ask for the check. Our waiter asks if we are sure we don’t want desserts. The check arrives with 2 crab cakes AND the crab cake entree on it - we ask for the manager who comes and fixes the check. Not a single apology or anything.

So Eater needs to remove this from its essential list and move it to its essential restaurants to avoid! ...

I recently saw an enticing Instagram Reels posting of J. Hollinger's Waterman's Chophouse and decided to haul the family over there to give their Brunch a try. My immediate thought once I set foot in the restaurant was that it looked "too nice" for that neighborhood. The buffet spread was set up near the impressive bar area. But the overall "classy" vibe stopped there once I took note of the very casually dressed crew, the "face" of the restaurant. It felt like the memo didn't reach them. We were given a corner table adjacent to the reception desk within the long dining hallway that led into another dining area that I never got to see. That well-lit dining hallway had a touch of elegance to it. The music didn't help appearances, though - it was loud and too jaunty for the ambiance that they might have been aiming for. It was somehow going well until I realized that being in that first corner table was a hazard - my chair kept bumped into as people stepped into/out of that area. Anyway, we were there for their "unlimited" Brunch buffet (which was really limited for two hours). The spread was laid out neatly, and you can tell right away that it wasn't going to be a big feast. The choices were limited and they seemed at par with the menus at similar diners offering Brunch -- salad, scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, bacon, sausages, fried chicken, pasta, shrimp (unpeeled), ribeye slices, potato wedges, French toasts, mini-croissants, waffles, and a few desserts that included a soggy bowl of (unreplenished) fresh fruits sliced into inch-sized tidbits. Included drinks were coffee, hot tea, iced tea, and sodas. I had iced tea and was bummed that there wasn't a stirring spoon (sugar!). When I asked for a glass of water, the lady server overfilled mine to the brim (see photo). I think this restaurant would need to fine-tune the services required of their servers. It wasn't even a painfully busy time/day, and yet the lady server wasn't around much. Despite some of my misgivings, I mentally gave bonus points to the waffle guy, our lady server, and the busboy for being pleasant and courteous. If there was one thing my family agreed on, it was that the fried chicken was really good! Would I recommend J. Hollinger's to others? Yes, but with the caveat to check all reviews first before they make a decision. (P.S.: I wish I could give a half-star rating because not being able to makes me begrudgingly more generous than...