Makers Union — Restaurant in Virginia

We were here for brunch today to celebrate our little girl’s birthday. She loves mac n cheese so I chose this place based on reviews.

Food: my husband and I were able to get the bottomless brunch and order Mac and Cheese separately for our little girl. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to do that so it was really nice we were able to do that.

Crispy Brussels sprouts: these were out of this world delicious! I’m not really into sweet/savory combo dishes but this was simply amazing. Spinach and Artichoke Dip: the chips were good, felt freshly made. The dip was good - pretty standard. Nashville Hot Chicken Tenders: delicious! Beware this is pretty spicy. I enjoyed them with the coleslaw that it came with which was a perfect balance to the spicy chicken.

French Toast: good. I loved the maple-pecan praline syrup. I also enjoyed the crunchy texture from the cornflake crust. Personally, I would have liked more of the syrup to soak through the toast or provided additionally on the side to make it a softer toast to cut into. Chicken and Waffle: the waffles were delicious with the butter that tasted like vanilla butter. It is really hard to like this fried chicken after you’ve tasted the Nashville Hot Chicken Tenders. It felt very bland. Crab Cake Benedict: I love crabs but somehow don’t seem to enjoy the smell of crab cakes but I still keep trying them because I love crabs. 🤣 If you like crab cake Benedict, then you will enjoy these. Mac and Cheese: it was good. Our little girl was more into coloring than enjoying her special birthday lunch. 😂 Coffee: was not a fan unfortunately but I’m not a coffee drinker either.

Service: Service was excellent. Our server, Emily was warm and friendly and super loving on our little girl. All the other staff we interacted with - hostesses and other servers were warm as well.

Price and Portion Size: the bottomless brunch is $32 per person which is expensive but given that many struggling restaurants are charging a covid surcharge, we were glad that there wasn’t one here. The portion sizes are excellent. We wanted to take home just one of the leftover items from the bottomless brunch and we were able to do that.

Parking: there is plenty of garage parking all around which is free after 5pm on weekdays and all-day over the weekends. I read that if you visit before 5pm on weekdays, the restaurant will validate...

The waiters and staff were really kind and attentive which was the only highlight of the night - sadly, and I hate to say this - the food is mediocre compared to the what is offered at other places in Reston Town Center. At this price point, days later I’m still uneasy because it was a pricey dinner that I expected would be better and more enjoyable. I hate going out and spending $130+ (myself and 8yr old) for food that didn’t bring me joy.

The calamari and Thai she crab soup appetizers were OK but not apps I would return for. A few years ago Makers had a really great calamari with light breading similar to a tempura w/ hot peppers, now it taste like an Olive Garden Calamari. Over seasoned and chewy.

The macaroni & cheese + Crab we ordered came without crab at first and they were really great about fixing. They didn’t charge us which was nice - but then I wish we had the original, with no crab, as the crab wasn’t seasoned and had an odd chemical flavor/ sitting crab water flavor. It felt out of place in the macaroni and cheese but otherwise the Mac and cheese with no crab is decent.

The flank steak was disappointing - it had good flavor with the chimichurri however I believe we got a cut of steak with a lot of fat and it was so so chewy I just sucked the flavor out, ate the broccolini and al dente baked potato. We left almost half the chewed steak and for $34, well we might as well have gone to Fogo de Chao, Jackson’s or Outback as they are more consistent with their cuts of meat.

I really appreciate the kindness of the FOH staff - I believe that without them perhaps I would have been more upset from my experience. Everyone we encountered said hello or had a good presence/ attitude. Our waiter was Sophia I believe.

FOH can’t fix the way food is executed that has to come from the owners/ chef/ kitchen and prep - but definitely something owners need to look into as there are places in RTC serving better quality dishes - it’s worrisome as Makers is at a similar price point without the quality. We really could have gotten a better steak and...

Wow!

My husband and I decided to give this place a try last night for our date night, and we were both very pleased with our first experience.

This place was booming last night. There was a very large party being hosted in the front of the restaurant last night. We had a reservation that I made earlier that day, so i was a little shocked when the host tried to sit us at the tiniest 2 top table. We paused and noticed multiple 4 tops open and requested a larger table, which the host and manager graciously accommodated our request. I understand that places will keep the 4 tops open for larger parties but we were ordering a lot of food and there were at lesst 4 or 5 open tables around us this was at around 8:30. There would have been no way our meal would have fit on that tiny 2 top table, so I'm very thankful we were able to get a larger table.

It took a while, like 15-20 minutes for our cocktails to come out, but when they finally did, they were DELICIOUS! I had an amazing espresso martini to start. Like when I say it was so good, it was so good! My husband had the Life After Death, which I ended up having for my second drink. Again, I totally understand that this was due to the bar being behind because of the large party.

Our food was delicious as well, and there were no issues with timing when it came to how our food arrived. We had the Main Event Tomahawk Steak with broccolini & parmesian French fries.

Dessert blew me away! We thought our dessert was going to be one to share..nope we each got our own plate. The bread pudding was PHENOMENAL! It was served warm with a scoop of the best vanilla ice cream, and the strawberries were some of the best strawberries we've had as of lately!

Overall, we had a great experience, and our server was so sweet! We could tell she was very busy, but she was great and the perfect amount of attentiveness! The tiny hiccups we experienced were not enough to steer us away and we look forward to coming back and trying something new...