The English Inn — Restaurant in Town of Gibraltar

This restaurant has it's pros and cons. It's hard to give it an overall rating because the different aspects were either really good or really bad. I'll start off by giving our waiter, Alex C, a shout-out. He was great! Another great thing I want to mention is the atmosphere. The inside is pretty dark, but the outside patio where we ate is super awesome. Each table has a propane fireplace, the chairs have a bounce to them that allow you to relax, and the background music keeps the vibe pretty chill. The front entrance has a "draw bridge" too! But sadly that's where the pros end and the cons begin.

As far as "supper clubs" go, this is probably on the low-end of quality. The food is average, but the quality is nowhere near the price they charge. I'd expect the food to be half the price. For the price I pay, I expect quality, and the quality was definitely lacking here. That's not to say it was bad. The food was good, but it wasn't great or excellent. Let's just say there are plenty of other supper clubs that have far better food.

We also encountered a bit of a strange situation while dining here. 3 members of our party ordered the Queens Prime Rib, medium-rare. When the food came out to our table, it was quite clear that the prime ribs were well done. No red to be seen, no juice, no nothing. The concerns were raised to Alex, who graciously brought them back to the kitchen to be refired and apologized on the kitchen's behalf. Shortly after, the so-called "manager" of the restaurant (unable to obtain his name) came out to address the issue. First off, I'm not even sure that this "manager" was in charge of anything, and if he was, I'm shocked. When we first walked in, I mistook him for a guest at the restaurant based on his appearance. His polo shirt was untucked, his slacks were creased and wrinkled, and he was wearing socks and flip flops. When he came out to address the food situation, I almost started laughing. But wait, it gets better. He proceeded to argue with the 3 members of my party regarding their food, stating "it looks medium-rare in our kitchen, it's just the light out here makes it look well done". He then whips out his phone to show us a picture he stated he took of the food in the kitchen to prove it. First off, how tacky is that?! Second, who knows when that picture was taken or if it was even the food from our table! Thankfully my wife, who has been a professional chef at some high-end restaurants, intervened and set the record straight about how overdone they were and how they had clearly sat under the heat lamps for too long because they burned. The "manager" stated there was no way to fix them unless they made them "rarer than rare", which the party members chose to do. The refired prime ribs were much better and actually cooked correctly the second time.

The manger was extremely unprofessional and unapologetic, and Alex had to apologize on his and the kitchen's behalf. We were shocked at how unkept and unprofessional the management here was. We didn't ask for free food or anything, just that our meals were simply cooked correctly. This manager should be fired, his behavior was completely unacceptable in the hospitality industry. The only reason this review isn't getting 1 or 2 stars is because of our server (Alex C) and the...

We made reservations for Saturday night, full well knowing and accepting that things could be a bit wonky because of staffing shortages and it being a busy weekend. We weren’t expecting perfection by any means. The place was absolutely beautiful. Stunning inside and out. But, it was a terrible experience. We were sat at our table 30+ minutes late. The intake at the front door and the hostess was a disaster, and rude. Our server was doing his best, and was very pleasant despite being terribly overworked. We had to wait a long time for our drinks and bread, then even longer for our soups, salads and meals. When the soups (other than the baked French onion) and prime rib came they were cold and had to be sent back. Understandably, our server didn’t want to put the prime ribs in the microwave to warm them up. So he said he put them in the au jus to warm them. This seems like a good option, but it didn’t warm them up, AND keep in mind each person who received the cold prime rib at our table had tried the steak already- that’s how they knew it was cold. And it was put back into the big vat of au jus that was likely being served to everyone else in the restaurant that ordered prime rib. Not sanitary. As I said they were still cold- some at our table just brought their food home to heat it up and eat it at home. The king prime ribs were much smaller than they should have been- the waiter was nice enough to knock a little money off the price to compensate for that. The portabella mushroom plate was slimy and tasteless, except for the excessive balsamic glaze that was all over it. The carrots were cold. I can say that the spinach salad with the hot bacon dressing was amazing, as was the baked French onion soup! And as I said, our server was doing his best. He didn’t waiver in his desire to try to do his best in a situation that was brutal in terms of providing good customer service.

There were way too many tables and not enough wait staff or cooks. We felt very sorry for the workers. Management and the owners should not have taken so many reservations. The place was packed. Every single table, inside and outside were filled and they spared no space in packing in the tables. If you’re short-staffed, and you are going to have a busy weekend, you should not seat every table. It’s a great way to lose the employees you do have, and drive way customers. We all left disappointed and feeling like we had just been ripped off. We definitely will not...

Decided to try the Friday fish fry, touted to be one of the best in DC. We made a reservation, arrived a bit early, and were seated immediately. We'd barely got situated and someone showed up and filled our water glasses - so far so good, but if we'd only known this would be the turning point.

So, we waited.....and waited.....and waited and no acknowledgement, no smile, I almost began to think we were ghosts. I'm not as patient as my wife and finally determined to set a 30 minute limit in that if we weren't served by then we were leaving (I had said 15 but she overruled me).

At about the 20 minute mark, a lady stopped by (I assume some type of management type) and apologized profusely for us being ignored. Something about our waitress had to fill an order in the back? OK, now we're back on track. A few minutes later our waitress finally acknowledges that we are living, breathing human beings and mentions that she just found out we were her table and she had to take care of an order and would be right back to help us.

My mistake was that I didn't have her clarify what "right back" means - in my world, 5 minutes or so but perhaps she's used to living in Alaska where it might mean a day or two. That was the last contact we had with anyone - the management type wandered by but seemed to be avoiding eye contact and the waitress was having a great time conversing with other diners (maybe I shouldn't be so harsh, she may just have a short term memory deficiency).

Needless to say, I finally screwed up my courage and told my wife that we need to reconsider our original time limit for no service. She looked at her watch and we were near the 40 minute mark and just decided to go to plan B (which we didn't have but it couldn't be any worse) and find another place to eat.

So, no idea if the food was any good but I will say it was some of the most pathetic service I've ever experienced which for me is a total deal breaker. For what it's worth, there was a lot of staff wandering around so I can't think they were shorthanded.

I would say that if you work in the customer service world like I do, it's almost worth a visit to see how not to do things. It was so bad it almost became comical (part of me wanted to tough it out and see just how long it would take to be served - if ever) and would have been if we...