Citizens and Culture — Restaurant in Silver Spring

This review is a mixture of my experience in the club part upstairs versus the restaurant downstairs. My cousin reserved a table for 8 so that we could celebrate our girlfriend's birthday. When we arrived, there was no table reserves for us and we were charges $20 each to walk around in a jam packed space with wall to wall people smoking hookah and weed, drinking, dancing and having a good time. However, it was clearly not the type of atmosphere that we were expecting it to be. The club is more so for a younger crowd in their 20s and early 30s at the most. After standing for about 30mins, some people left and we sat at their table, only to be told that we had to move if we weren't paying for a bottle of alcohol that the promoter (Kwame) was selling for $300-$400 per bottle. We refused to pay that and decided to leave. The promoter didn't take any accountability for the table reservation that we never got nor was he willing to refund our money. He only offered for us to go into the restaurant and order food (at our expense) but he gave us a bottle of champagne. Whoopie!! The server (Kyrie) was very nice and did the best he could but the cooks could not keep up with the orders. It took over an hour for our table to receive its food and it came in 20-minute increments for 2 people at a time. The food was good with no complaints. The manager (Elijah) came over to our table after speaking to a couple beside us that had a complaint about their food. We told him about our experience in the club upstairs first and then the extreme wait times fo4 our food. Elijah addressed our concerns immediately and got our money back that we paid to get in the club. After that, he took 40% off our bill that was initially $180 and we truly appreciated him making the situation right ✅️. Had it not been for the fiasco we faced in the club, I would've given the...

I was excited to try Citizens and Culture for my birthday. I'd heard great things. I made a reservation for a large group and confirmed several times. When I got there my table wasn't ready and they only allow you a 90 minute time slot. Regardless, brunch was going to end before my 90 minutes was up. When they finally did seat us, the table and chairs were something you'd have at a backyard bbq. When our server came over she didn't instruct whether or not we could start the buffet just said she would be there for drinks and whatever we needed. Told me the mimosas were self serve unless everyone at the table did it. Then disappeared before I could let her know what we wanted to do. When she finally returned, I told her we wanted mimosas for the table. When she finally returned we were already halfway through brunch. Additionally, they had several flavors and she didn't ask me which ones we wanted. At one point she was standing there and I kept trying to get her attention to refill the mimosas because we were empty and brunch was ending. Finally someone next to her was able to get her to come over to me. Aside from the horrible customer service, the food was good. The buffet was extensive. I appreciated that they even had veggie sausage. I think it's worth the money. The music was extremely loud. My ears are still ringing days later. I liked the music but it was too loud for comfort. Lastly, the rooftop is closed in and it's extremely hot! I thought it was going to be open. We had to keep going outside to get air. I think if I went back I'd try the downstairs level where it's less noisy and...

I went to dinner at Citizens and Culture on 9/6/24 with a group of 12 people. We were the only people dining in the restaurant that night at around 10pm (there were some people at the bar). The restaurant is beautiful and they had a DJ who played good music so I was shocked that it was empty on a Friday night.

I ordered the salmon with broccolini and mashed potatoes. When it came out, it had asparagus instead of broccolini. I asked the waitress why it came with asparagus. She said "The kitchen ran out and they don't tell us when they run out of stuff." Asparagus isn't my favorite vegetable but I sucked it up. The salmon and mashed potatoes were fantastic! A few minutes later, another person in my party received their food and I noticed they had broccolini. So I called the waitress over and said "How did he get broccolini if you all ran out?" She had no response. I told her I would like an order of broccolini to go with my dinner. She later brought me a side of broccolini which tasted great. So either she lied to me and told me they didn't have it when they did or the kitchen didn't follow what was listed on the menu and she just made up an excuse. Both are unacceptable.

Fast forward to the bill - she charges me for a side of broccolini. I said "I shouldn't be charged for the broccolini." She said "We don't do substitutes and you had a side of broccolini." I said "No, the broccolini was supposed to come with my meal and you told me they ran out which wasn't the case. It wasn't a substitution." She removed it from my bill.

Summary: Food was good, ambiance was beautiful, service could...