Astoria DC — Restaurant in Washington

I visited Astoria DC twice, hoping to enjoy what appeared to be a trendy spot with great atmosphere. Unfortunately, both experiences left me thoroughly disappointed.

First Visit - Takeout Attempt: The restaurant was packed with what seemed like a lively crowd, but my experience quickly soured. When I inquired about seating, the host curtly informed me that they were fully booked and I couldn't even sit at the bar. I opted for takeout instead and was directed to wait at the bar. What followed was 10 minutes of being completely ignored by the bartender, despite the fact that I was standing right there. When I finally flagged down a server, they informed me there was an hour wait for takeout orders. The entire interaction felt cold and unwelcoming—not the kind of hospitality you'd expect from any restaurant, let alone one with Astoria's reputation.

Second Visit - With Reservation: A few days later, I decided to give them another chance and made a 5:00 PM reservation. I arrived promptly at 4:55, only to find a line of people waiting outside. This immediately reinforced my impression that this place takes itself far too seriously. While I'm not typically one to wait in lines for dinner, I decided to stick it out since I had a reservation. The restaurant opened a few minutes late, and once again, the staff's attitude was off-putting—snobby, overly serious, and lacking the warmth you'd hope for in a dining experience.

The Food: The mojito was genuinely excellent—beautifully presented and delicious, though overpriced. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the meal. The crab fried rice was mediocre at best, with overcooked crab that was disappointingly sparse throughout the dish. The lazi chicken was so overwhelmingly spicy that it was inedible—and I typically enjoy very spicy food. The heat completely overpowered any other flavors, forcing me to send it back (something I rarely do). I also ordered mala ribs to-go, which were equally disappointing.

Overall Assessment: The fundamental issue with Astoria DC is poor seasoning and unbalanced flavors. Every dish was either aggressively over-spiced with hot peppers or dominated by overpowering ginger—including large, unpleasant chunks that were jarring to bite into. For a restaurant charging premium prices, the food quality simply doesn't justify the cost, and the pretentious service makes the experience even worse.

I genuinely wanted to love this place and had high expectations, but Astoria DC failed to deliver on every front except for that one excellent mojito. At these price points, diners rightfully expect exceptional food and service—neither of which I received.

Rating: 2/5 stars(and that's being generous...

If you are going to this place make sure you have a reservation other straight up walking might make you wait for more than an hour. I went here in a group of 4 and the attendant asked us to wait for about 15-20 mins, for which we were fine. At the end we ended up waiting for 1.5 hours. We could’ve easily left for some other place if they had informed us properly but it was already 10 PM as we were waiting. Not to forget that this restaurant has received a Michelin Star which was our primary reason to go to this restaurant. After we got a table we were like at least now we’ll have some good food but as we started ordering, we were informed that they were out of chicken so technically we could not select a considerable amount of items from the menu. We were still fine and placed the order (2x little noodle, 1x fried rice and 2x lamb scallion) and it took them more than half an hour to server us our first fried rice. After that they took another half an hour to get one little noodles and some prawn rice (which we had cancelled immediately after ordering and so they took the disk back) then again silence for 15 mins and then randomly they serve some wonton soup which we had not ordered! Luckily after some time they gave us one lamb scallion but it felt like they had completely forgotten about 2 other dishes that we had ordered. Also, by this point it had been more than 1.5 hours in the restaurant just waiting for food. At this point, we had lost our temper and asked the waiter if the other 2 dishes were not being prepared then just cancel them. He went in the kitchen to check and informed us that those dishes were not being prepared so we can cancel them. Immediately after that they gave us another lamb scallion which apparently looked completely different from the one that we had received previously. We were like we cancelled this as it was not being prepared and asked them to take it back but instead they gave a take away box and said that it was their mistake so it is complementary. At the end we were like just give us the check and we’ll leave. We waited almost 15 mins to get another little noodle instead of the check. Again we told them that this was cancelled and they can take it back. They took it back and brought the check which was again messed up as they charged for 3x lamb scallion so we had to again correct them. At the end I’d say that this was not at all a Michelin Star restaurant as neither the service was good nor the dishes were consistent (same dishes were completely different) and for the same reasons I won’t recommend...

I had heard a lot of good things about this place and really wanted to try it and was willing to put up with probably more than I should have. At first we got there and we put our name in for a table and were told it would be an hour and fifteen minute wait. We said "ok we understand," we didn't have a reservation so we had accepted that we would wait. We put our names in then went to a bar next door to wait. When we returned, we noticed that multiple people (of the same party size 2) who had been in line behind us who also had not had reservations had been seated in front of us.

By this point it was an hour and a half after we had first arrived and we finally said we would take any table that opened up, whether it was outside or inside, we did not care because we were so hungry. They had us sit outside, which was fine at first, until we noticed the cockroaches. These were large, 🪳American cockroaches 🪳, over an inch long, crawling all over the outside patio. Still, we had said we were okay with outside, and staff was trying to manage the problem with some type of powder pest control, so we thought maybe it would be ok. Until a cockroach ended up right on my shoulder. I was so freaked out, I had to stand on the sidewalk. The staff again were so nice, they helped get the cockroach off me and moved me and my companion inside quickly. However, I think this definitely soured the experience for me. There were no cockroaches inside, thank god, but I don't quite understand why they were sitting people outside when they knew the cockroach problem was this bad. I've lived in DC for years and eaten outside many times, but I have never had to deal with a cockroach problem like this. It was an infestation 🪳 of their patio.

At the end of the meal, I thought surely a manger would come by, apologize, and offer to comp our drinks at least, but we were given a measly 20% off which equated to them taking about one drink off our bill. I honestly don't think it was enough.

I really did not want to make a big deal with the staff, because the staff were so kind and the food was really good, but I think the management of this situation was really poor.

If anyone is looking at making a reservation here, DO NOT SIT OUTSIDE OR ON THE PATIO. Otherwise you might be sharing your meal with a...