Summer House Santa Monica — Restaurant in Maryland

Before I state my opinion, I would like to say that the managers that worked on our shift this evening were amazing and rectified the issues immediately. However, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t leave a review, especially when it comes to my mother. At the beginning of our dinner, my mom asked for a Greygoose martini extra dirty, and it came out not to her liking so our server brought it back and she ended up getting a drink that she loved. We both ordered a burger, and I said it be cooked, medium, and hers came out, medium, and mine came out with blood pooling all over the plate. Once again it was sent back and when it was given back to me, it was beautiful. My biggest issue of all of this is that, at the beginning of our meal our waitress asked us if anyone was allergic to anything and my mom stated she was allergic to nuts. And when I say that she’s allergic to nuts- It’s a life or death situation. When her side salad was brought out, there were pistachios on top of the salad and all on the side of the salad. I greatly appreciate the fact that my mom’s friend and I both saw this on her salad and I was able to snatch the salad off of her plate before she even touched it. While things were rectified and made right, I am still thinking about this hours later because this is my mother. And the fact that she could’ve potentially eaten something that would kill her, Really pisses me off. I’m not sure where the ball was dropped, Whether it was not stated by the server or whether the kitchen wasn’t paying attention- But this was a really big mess up, and I pray that moving forward people are more attentive to these kinds of things. I won’t be dramatic and say that I could’ve lost my mother tonight because everyone at the table had the wherewithal to make sure that we knew what was on her salad before she even got to touch it but the fact that we even had to do that really infuriates me. I try to be as respectful as possible in all situations, but this is something that I just couldn’t let go of.

Again, thank you to the managers that worked tonight because the situation was rectified, but I pray that this doesn’t happen to somebody else and that a potentially fatal mistake isn’t made...

We had a surprisingly unsatisfactory experience at Summer House. I’m actually very disappointed. I called to make reservations for our party of 12 more than one month in advance. I called a week before to confirm our reservations. We were there to celebrate our marriages and God’s providence on our lives. 6 couples. We arrived to the restaurant 30 minutes early and announced our arrival. They told us they were getting our table ready. When 2pm rolled around (note brunch ends at 3pm and we came for brunch) the manager comes out to tell us that he is seating our party in 3 separate tables that are immovable. There was no way we could’ve pulled these tables together to be together as one party—which was the point of reserving for our ENTIRE party. He says dismissively that they don’t guarantee that a party of our size can sit together. We were never told this when we made our reservation. I expressed that to him. Then he proceeds to say, “Well you can wait and we can see if we can find a place for all of you. There’s no guarantee how long you’ll have to wait.” At this point I was dumbfounded. My husband and I came in from Florida for this event. We planned everything in advance.

Eventually we are seated together about 20 minutes later than our reservation—which is not horrible. The principle of the matter is how we were treated. Because we sat down late we had to rush to find what we wanted on the menu and place our order immediately to meet the brunch deadline. It was pretty evident that those of us who ordered brunch had the food that was sitting. The hashbrowns were hard as a rock and the bacon not fresh. The eggs were subpar. Our server, by the way, was excellent.

It was also disappointing that the manager didn’t come by to check in with us, or apologize for the delay and for how we were handled. We were not treated with care or concern. His personality was dismissive and aloof. It was concerning that he was the leader of that restaurant.

All of this to say we won’t be returning to Summer House in Bethesda. Each couple still had a wonderful time celebrating life and love in spite of the lack of empathy and care we...

Update: don’t think for one second that the staff “made it right” with their comment on this review requesting for me to contact their manager. No response from them, of course, so that comment is for show. Extremely unsurprising

I'm not one to normally post reviews, but am pretty upset about an experience I had here 3 months ago. I'd made a reservation to dine on a weeknight, and was super excited to experience the ambiance of this restaurant. I think everywhere in the restaurant except for the bar part looks gorgeous. Ambiance is 80% of what I seek in a restaurant experience, so I was upset to be seated in the bar half on this night. The bar part is dark, not well decorated and has uncomfortable seats, the literal opposite of the 2 other main dining areas. Service was very fleeting in this area as well, as goes the dark corner of most establishments.

Upon being seated there I asked if we could switch to the main dining hall, as we'd made a reservation multiple days ahead of time and because I was really looking forward to that atmosphere. The seating hostess checked with another staffer about this, came back and told me they couldn't do that. Meanwhile I could see at least five 4-seater tables open in the main dining area. I was with a party of 2, so it's likely they wanted to leave those 4-seaters open for larger parties. Most 4-seaters literally remained open the whole time I dined in the dark, dingy bar part of the restaurant. Even more annoying, I saw tons of walk-in parties placed in the bar part with me throughout my meal. Which makes sense! Because they didn't have reservations.

I was incredibly busy at this time with 2 full times jobs, and was super looking forward to my 1 special night out enjoying the ambiance of this restaurant. I don't think one should have to request to be seated NOT in the bar, with a reservation multiple days in advance, for a week night. I expressed to the staff that I'd really prefer the main dining area, got told no. And I guess they were disorganized, because all of those 4-seater tables (as well as tons of fluctuating 2-seater tables) remained open throughout my...