Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant — Restaurant in Virginia

So, this place is LOUD. If shouting to be heard over dinner isn’t your thing, don’t go. More below…

We went tonight for a birthday dinner and it was a fairly mediocre evening start to finish. We arrived early for an 8pm reservation and were pleased to get a booth vs. their somewhat crowded tables after about a 10 min wait. But then we realized that a booth means less attention. We saw at least 3 surrounding tables get drinks and food from our waitress long before us; she spent ages chatting with other tables while it took us 11 min just to get water before ordering. I also had to ask for the yummy pretzel bread, which came after our appetizer.

I made the mistake of asking if our entrees could be timed enough to allow us to enjoy our appetizer first; this resulted in at least 25 min after the tuna sashimi was cleared (but not our small plates, ever) before we got our entrees. The tuna came with 1 set of chopsticks, despite there being 3 of us. Weird.

Dad’s steak was cooked well but was completely unseasoned. A request for steak sauce couldn’t be met, but Sarah brought him BBQ sauce. Better than nothing, I guess.

My rigatoni was pretty good, but nothing I couldn’t have made at home, I realized. The worst was the tiny veggie enchiladas in a mini skillet that only tasted like tomato sauce. They were served with a salad drowning in tasteless cream. Hubby sent it back, with a reminder to self that this is not a Mexican restaurant. The manager came over and said it would be removed from the bill, which we appreciated. Hubby didn’t want to order anything else because by this point it was an hour into our visit and he didn’t want to wait another 30 min for a a new entree. Just getting a second cocktail took 20 minutes and a reminder to Sarah.

We decided to be masochists and go for dessert. Sarah took our orders, but somehow they didn’t make it to the kitchen. She brought us lukewarm coffee and hot tea within minutes, all of which was cold by the time she told us our dessert orders hadn’t gone in, around 20 min after ordering. We opted to cancel the desserts and just asked for the check.

She then spent at least 10 min chatting with another table and taking photos of them before bringing our bill. She then said the desserts had gone in eventually and would we still like them? I asked for them to go, which she did, for free. Thanks for that, Sarah. We finally got out of there at 10:15, frustrated and with headaches from the noise.

The food is generally good there, but the inconsistent service tonight and super loud atmosphere leave me not wanting to return. I appreciated all the comps but we’d have happily paid for everything had it not taken over 2 hours, been underseasoned, cold...

Cooper's Hawk has been a favorite for my family for quite some time. We typically schedule a few group outings a year and always go to the Reston location. This past Memorial weekend we had quite the experience unlike any of our previous experiences and were truly disappointed.

For starters when we arrived we were escorted to our table with only 10 seats. The reservation was made for 12. We asked the person to add an additional table and 2 chairs. He added an 11th chair but but not the table and said he could not add the 12th chair because 'there were other parties coming with reservations'. We made a reservation for 12 so I fail to understand why our request could not be accommodated. We ended up having a last minute cancellation from our party so we didn't make a big deal of it. But having to justify why we needed more space was unnecessary.

Now on to our server - Kayla V. She started out very pleasant - but that was quite short lived. The more questions we asked the more obviously irritated she became. My niece actually witnessed her rolling her eyes several times during order taking. We asked for a tasting - which she stated usually occurs at the bar. In the past we have been accommodated at the table based on the size of our party. We had to ask her several times before she finally brought the tasting over. Then we asked for separate checks (3 checks in total for a party of 11) as we were placing our orders. She stated it would be easier for her if we didn't separate the bills as 'it takes a long time to split out the orders when it is time to print the bill.

Really? Is it not your job to accommodate us? I understand the job of a waitress/waiter is demanding - however if you do not like what you are doing for a living we the customers should not be made to feel your wrath.

The food took some time to finally arrive and many of our dishes were luke warm/tepid at best. As I initially stated we have been regulars at Cooper's Hawk for several years and always look forward to dining with you. It has consistently been an absolute treat for us. This past experience truly marred our experience and was definitely reflected in the gratuity - which we have NEVER had to do at Cooper's Hawk as we typically tip well above the customary 20%.

Please do better Cooper's Hawk. I would suggest you have your servers replicate the customer service skills of Chris. That is an outstanding waiter and we will be sure to request him IF we...

We visited this place on a Saturday evening for my girlfriends birthday. We had an amazing time! The food was delicious and the drinks were as well. Our server, Grace, really took care of us. She was kind, personable, and gave recommendations and suggestions upon request! The only negative I had was the placement of the table. It seemed a little cramped and out of place but that's really just a flow issue. Everything was fine UNTIL the next day.

We 5 people in our party. Because it was a birthday, we had 4 people split the check which wasn't a big deal until the next day. Three of us paid via credit card and one paid via cash. The instructions were to apply a set amount to each card (equally split) and the remainder was to be taken from the cash anything outside of that was to be taken for the tip. That was executed perfectly that night. Each of us who paid via card got a receipt for the exact amount that we asked and the bill was settled.

The next day one person in my party realized that she had been charged for the entire amount that was supposed to be split equally between the three of us. Upon investigation, I noticed that I was charged and then my transaction was reversed (both of them pending of course) and then the third person was charged flat out for her portion. So in short, one person was charged $100, and another was charged $300 and I was charged nothing. To top it off, we had given some $120 in cash for the remainder and the tip-the bill was only $358.00.

In an effort to fix this I called the restaurant to help understand the situation and then have it resolved. I spoke to the manager Kevon(sp) and was assured that this would be taken care of. He had us to send an email requesting a refund and resolution to our issue. The next business day happened to be a holiday but the manager assured us we would have a resolution by that week. Fast forward to now. We are three weeks and three managers later, and after a bunch of calls to the restaurant, inclusive of empty promises and broken time lines, and finally a dispute with the Bank, we have a refund. This was the longest process ever and we still were not offered an explanation on how this could have happened outside of "sometimes at the end of the night we auto reconcile". I work in finance specifically in reconciliations and that's all I'm going to say about that.

This was such a disappointment because we really did like the restaurant. They just did a poor job of servicing us...