Article One - American Grill — Restaurant in Washington

Awful. Just absolutely terribly awful. Or perhaps offel is a better description. We had dinner here 5 years ago as we were attending an event in the hotel. It was bad then and even worse now. I regret giving them a second chance. It started out with a $30 round of drinks. That is one dark and stormy and one glass of red wine (from a $30 retail bottle), both served in 4oz. plastic tumblers. The wine was obviously corked and had also sat opened way to long from the strong vinegar smell and taste. We complained about the wine and it was replaced, but it still showed up on our check and they would not remove when we complained. So really it was a $45 round of drinks! There was no bar service from the table. Soda and water only. If we wanted wine with the meal, we had to elbow our way across the lobby and get it ourselves. The water was splashed in equal measure into our glasses and across the table into our laps without care or apology. That is after the empty water glasses were slammed onto the table rudely interrupting our conversation. The bread arrived, which was by far the highlight of the evening. I ordered the buffet while my dining companion order a entree salad and the calamari appetizer. I chose to hold off on hitting the buffet so we could eat together. Surprising, but the app and the entree arrived at the same time, so after sharing the app, my companion was almost completely done before I even got to the buffet. Horrible timing, especially when they attempted to bus our table and take the remaining app and bread while we were still eating it, forks in hand. And the buffet; unseasoned, flavorless, dry, uninspired... Shall I go on? Caesar salad but no croutons, roast beast (beef I hope) cooked to a leathery texture and served in a flavorless gravy swimming in fat, turkey breast and stuffing lacking in any glaze, seasonings, or natural flavor. The side pastas were overcooked and unsauced. Total for the evening was $120 plus tax and tip for two diners. I had pizza latter that night to get the bad taste out of my mouth. Just stay away and walk a block to any of 20 restaurants available to you in the neighborhood. The food court at Union Station would...

We arrived at the hotel on March 14th and had dinner and breakfast here every day. Everything had been excellent until tonight, our last night.

I have a 15-year-old teenager, and I knew that the kids’ menu included a hotdog with fries. So, very kindly, they handed him the children’s menu. We were even joking about it when, out of nowhere, the waiter snatched it from his hands and replaced it with the “adult” menu. I was completely caught off guard—I honestly thought he was joking. But when I insisted that my “little boy” wanted to order from the kids’ menu, he responded in a serious and rigid tone, saying it wasn’t allowed, that since he was over 10 years old, the kids’ menu was strictly for younger children—those were the rules.

I have never experience a situation like this, I just have read that kids’ menus may have age restrictions sometimes, but what really bothered me was the way the situation was handled.

Later, I ordered a beer, but since I didn’t have my ID, they refused to serve it to me. That I completely understand and agree with—it’s a logical rule. But the kids’ menu situation? That really annoyed me. For a hotel where everything had been excellent until now, this attitude was truly disappointing.

EDIT: So I did some research, and I think I understand the reasoning behind this rule. I was actually planning to leave my waiter a generous tip—though of course, he didn’t know that. We’ve spent a significant amount of money every night on dinner and breakfast( the hostess, who gave us the kids menu when I ASKED, knew this) , and to be honest, we always leave generous tips. But after what happened—after he took the menu right out of my son’s hands— I ended up leaving only a $2 tip, which was 20% of my son’s dinner.

If he had simply explained the reason behind this rule, I would have been more than happy to pay extra to compensate for the price difference. My son genuinely wanted hot dogs, which are not available on the adult menu, and today he simply didn’t want a bigger...

I was out walking around the museums all day and figured I'd give my feet a rest and give the hotel bar a chance despite the bad reviews. The hotel lobby is pretty and it's a nice space. Right off the bat, something felt off because someone was coming up to the bar because her waiter didn't bother to give her any utensils and the bartender wasn't giving her the time of day. The bartender took a while to acknowledge my presence and didn't seem to speak English very well. I ordered a couple of appetizers and I didn't finish either of them. They both tasted cheap and weren't particularly interesting. I had a couple of beers as well ($8/each). I thought they might do mixed drinks better, so I ordered an old fashioned. It was okay. Not great. They charged me $19 for it though, and that's where they lost me. My total (with tip) was $83. That was not an $83 meal. If I was paying $35 for that meal in Morgantown, WV I'd have no complaints, but for $83 in DC I could've walked across the street and had a...