Dovetail Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Washington

I came to Dovetail with a group of colleagues for dinner, and unfortunately I cannot recommend it. We were a large group and I made an initial booking for 10. I should have known there would be a problem when I needed to call multiple times in the week leading up to the meal to change the reservation to 11. When we arrived for our reservation, they still thought we would be a party of 10.

Our meal was at 7:30 on a Thursday, but the restaurant was not busy at all. There were probably 5 other parties dining at that time. We were 5 minutes early for our reservation, and we still had to wait 25 minutes for them to seat us in a nearly-empty restaurant. Apparently another large party was still at the table they had planned to give us, but they didn't seem to be speeding the other party along, nor had they made a contingency plan for our group--which, as discussed, they knew was coming.

By the time we were all settled in our seats, it was 8 p.m., and it took another 30 min for the server to come back with drinks--all of which were draft beer and glasses of wine, so nothing too complicated. We finally ordered at around 9. The service was so unspeakably slow that it was actually painful. This would have been excusable except the restaurant was not busy! The servers were just standing around.

When the food did arrive, it came out piecemeal, and it took so long between orders coming out that attendees were forced to start eating without waiting for everyone to be served. The last person to be served had been waiting a long time when his food came, and lots of the table had already finished.

I ordered fluke tartare, which was listed as an entree on the menu (it now appears as a starter online) and was absolutely tiny. Definitely a starter portion. However, the service was so slow I didn't want to order anything else for fear of being there all night. I left hungry.

All in all, it took 2.5 hours for us all to leave pretty unsatisfied. I am only giving this place 2 stars because the food was actually good. But I will not return and will not...

I really liked this place! It's a beautiful restaurant and pretty new but they got all the food items right. We enjoyed every single item we had, including the drink. Not only did the food taste really good, the presentation was pretty and creative. Our server Isabel was an excellent server. She was very knowledgeable about the menu and even offered her suggestions for our dietary restrictions. I'm a vegetarian and the menu here offers plenty of options for non carnivores. The cocktails are very good.

I'm only taking one star off because of our interaction with the hostess who was working on Sat. 6/4/22. We had reservations and walked in to an almost empty restaurant. There were only people sitting at the bar. All the dining seats were empty so we requested to sit at the booth (more room). There were 3 booths available and every seat was empty. She said no because those are only for 4 people with reservations. We accepted that and sat at the smaller table. Those booths sat empty the entire time were were there. We also observed the hostess sit two parties of only 2 people at the booths toward the end of our dinner. I asked her why were weren't allowed to sit at the booths when she came to our table and she repeated what she said when we arrived. I explained that nobody sat there the whole time and pointed out that she just sat two people at the booths just a moment ago. She seemed very upset that I asked her this. She seems to be making up her own rules. The restaurant was not full inside. I don't understand the rules for booth seating at this place. Please train your hostess better and make her enforce the rules for everyone.

I would like to come back here but will only stay if I get to sit...

Dovetail is Amazing. The food the staff the ambiance is all above and beyond. I took my family who had just travelled in from Germany to have dinner at Dovetail everyone on the table loved the place. We had all the starters and each one was amazing I could honestly eat a whole tray of the deviled eggs. The Hush puppies where also amazing and need to be experienced. Starting with our pickiest eater having the Burger which he loved and got him to try kimchi which he was not sure about until he tried it and ended up loving it. The New York New York. Which is the name for one of the steaks on the menu was cooked to perfection and taste was amazing. The beef cheek that comes with the steak was juicy and flavorful and balanced well with the entire plate. The octopus was to die for and I would recommend it to anyone who likes sea food. The Salmon was great and the pork belly that comes with it was a nice unexpected addition to the plate. The risotto primavera was great as well and has become my favorite. The cocktails were very nice balanced and refreshing and paired well with the menu items. My personal favorite is the “Deep reverence”. Erica who was our server was lovely and explained menu items as well as made suggestions on what to try overall the best service I’ve received in a long time. The rest of the staff is also very attentive and courteous. Through out the night they made sure to check on us and made sure any accommodations that were needed...