MoCo's Founding Farmers — Restaurant in Maryland

This used to be one of my favorite restaurants and I debated leaving a review because it’s normal for places to have an off night or whatnot. I’m mostly just disappointed in the lack of any acknowledgement and feeling a bit irritated that I left feeling like I was asking for too much/being difficult.

My fiancé and I stopped here on a Thursday to wait for traffic to die down and it was the most empty I’ve ever seen it (which was quiet and nice). We were sat immediately, but then we sat a good 15-20 minutes watching all the tables get drinks and all while no one even stopped by ours. Eventually a server came by and asked if we’d been helped. He seemed a bit perturbed which is understandable since it seemed maybe we were placed outside of anyone’s section and he was forced to take it or something along those lines. He took our orders and had the machine there so we watched him key it all in. I ordered a salad with fried chicken on it and no cheese. He typed stuff in and then asked “roasted chicken?” to which I replied “fried chicken.”

Our food came out in a pretty normal amount of time, and as soon as mine was in front of me I could see shrimp tails everywhere. I don’t eat seafood at all ever, and considering it’s an allergen and religious restriction for lots of people, I’m just sort of surprised they didn’t seem to care. I apologized and said I don’t eat seafood or something similar and they took it away. The server came back and asked where my food was and I explained—he came back with the machine and asked if I ordered fried chicken, yes, etc. A few minutes later the manager came out with the machine and took my order again and apologized for the confusion/miscommunication. No big deal, it happens.

Then it takes at least another 20 minutes for the correct salad to come out. My fiancé had finished eating by the time I got my food. The server never checked in with us again until he brought the check, neither did the manager, and they didn’t offer to make it right in any way.

The waiting to get assigned a server on its own isn’t a big deal, and neither is a little mixup that’s fixed quickly, but considering the length of time we waited for both issues and the overall lack of attentiveness and the fact that I came away somehow feeling bad for not just accepting my fate to eat a food I cannot stand just really rubbed me the wrong way. I’m giving a second star simply because I feel like the food is still quite good and the manager did at least come out and apologized for the mistake, but the fact that literally no one would basically talk to us or look at us until it was check time was just so off putting. I’m really sad to say that I don’t feel inclined to go back after this experience and that I miss how FF used to be...

A group of 12 came here on June 30th for brunch. We made our reservations about 2 weeks in advance. They were advised at that time that I had unique allergies. When we went to check in initially we were sent outside to a birthday party. Came back in took a good while for the hostess to find our reservation. It was humid inside. We were seated in a corner by the window. So we were sweating as were sitting with the sun hitting us. I did ask if they could adjust the air. No one followed up. The salt on our table was clumped and couldn't come out the salt shaker. I assuming that was due to the humidity inside. The waiter was nice but you can tell he was relatively new. He did his best but we needed a little more. We did request Tabasco sauce and honey butter never got it. I ordered scrambled eggs, hash brown, bacon and cornbread. The portion was small and Luke warm. The cornbread was excellent as always. Others ordered dishes/appetizers and return some. I believe it was a version deviled eggs. When we checked in with each to feedback on meals. Majority of responses was it was just ok. I wrote this review because I recommended Founding Farmers to my group and felt an obligation to do so. The group is Called Lotus 50 plus we are 1400 plus members in the DMV area we recently started a montgomery County chapter and this was our first meet up.We do lots of community work and fund raisers for local charities. Majority of the members came from Charles and Prince George County to support this. So some traveled a good distance and frequent the Tyson Corner and DC founding farmers establishment where the service, food, and atmosphere is always top tier. Needless to say we were a little disappointed and probably won’t return. I wanted to extend some grace. So I did call on July 1st@8:30 pm and spoke to Ryan (??) our feedback and was expecting a callback from the managing partner hoping to receive some customer recovery efforts. To date we have not received a call back. We are more than happy to patronize other establishments in Montgomery County who would value us as customers. Please note: I came to Founding Farmers on 6/10 for lunch with some friends and our experience and server was excellent. I look forward to a callback from the...

I visited restaurant yesterday, Saturday, August 23, 2025. It was early evening after a day of back to school shopping for my grandchildren. It was busy as have been with my experience with other Founding Farmers. But I have NEVER had the experience I did last evening. My waiter Brandon was not very pleasant or presented any attention to detail. His service came with no cordiality. It was evident he had a preferred clientele as I noticed they received the service my family did not. We ordered four appetizers. They all came cool. My grandson had hair in his drink, Then our meals came to include a chicken noodle soup with no spoon, no servicer and the food was cool. There was 7 of us and we had our food boxed for take home. I requested a coke and was presented with a visibly dirty glass filled with ice and a can coke. I used the can with a straw. Finally, after requesting take home desserts for my grandchildren and children, I was presented with the $389.00 bill. Which was not a problem. But Brandon made especially sure I saw the options for his tip ranging from $70 to $88. But Never showed my family the service supporting such a request. I did provide Brandon a $30 tip to which he didn't evan say, thank you. While waiting for Brandon to bring me my printed receipt, I watched him walk by me with my reciept in hand to check on a preferred client while I waited to receive my reciept and leave.

Summary, this was a most disappointing, unsatisfactory experience I have ever had at a Founding Farmers or its Distillery brand. I am requested to write these reviews and I take them seriously. There are other Founding Farmers in the DMV area. Consider those first.

** To the manager I called this morning prior to writing this review. I spoke with Laura or Lori who was highly irritated I requested to speak with you. This was after I was asked why I wanted to speak with a manager. To which I replied, I am going to write a review and I would like to respect the manager before I do. She left me on hold.

There are other Founding Farmers with great customer service and fantastic food. It was not...