Elephant & Castle — Restaurant in Washington

If you are going here the food is delicious! Me and my husband and my in laws went. We were out in Washington heat all day and my husband found this place to eat! So we reserved a table and when we got there we were greeted by an amazing host. I did not catch her name but she was very friendly! When we were sat our server came over and asked what drinks we wanted and honestly that’s when the service kind of went down hill from there. He brought us our drinks and gave us no straws, so I asked kindly for them and he said he would be right back with them. He never came back with straws for about the whole hour we were there. We asked him and the host that was cleaning tables to get us straws and we still never received them. And about the whole time we were asking for straws. But all the tables that came in after us received straws. So finally he comes back and we finally order. And with my meal I asked if the honey mustard could be replaced with ranch and he said yes! So now we are about 25-30 mins from sitting down at our table and all of our drinks are empty and he has passed by our table multiple times and never asked us if we wanted refills. So finally our food comes and everybody’s is right except for mine. They have me honey mustard instead of ranch. Also while the food was being served to us my father in law asked for refills on our drinks. Our server asked what we had again and said he would be right back with them. We never got refills until 5 mins before our check came and we left. Nor did our server get them for us we had to ask the hostess. Our server never came to ask us how our food was or anything. Finally my father in law stopped him and asked him for ranch for me since they messed it up he said he would be right back with it and still never came. Finally my father in law asked the hostess if I she could bring ranch and she came out with it the second after we asked. I did not catch our servers name but honestly he was horrible to us. Me and my husband were trying to show my in laws the amazing food around DC and this place had amazing food but the service from our server was honestly horrible. The hostess on the other hand was absolutely amazing! And we went around 5pm and there was barely any people in there it didn’t start to pick up until...

We had a reservation for 5 on Sunday April 14th for dinner. We arrived on time, traffic was a mess, bot on time. We waited at the host station for approximately 10minutes before we were acknowledged. Took a few more minutes to get our table which is understandable. Our server started off attentive. Took our drink and appetizer order. I had coffee with water. The rest of the party having soda and one water. Sodas came quickly. My coffee was to my dismay still not delivered along with the water for another 5 minutes. Coffee was COLD and then it took 10 more minutes to arrive. While waiting for our appetizers we placed our dinner order. Waited another 15 minutes for our appetizers when the expo showed up with our dinners. Told him we had appetizers and wanted them before our meal. He took the meals back and probably 5 minutes later our server arrived with our hummus and at this time told us our other appetizer was unavailable. 30 minutes after sitting this happens. We get the hummus and then our dinner comes. 3 of us had pot pies with salad and one burger with salad. The Shepard's pie was dry and dried out from being under the heat lamp. All 4 plates that had salad came with warm wilted salad that was never removed from the plates while under the heated line. We ate what we had for we were soon to be at the Warner Theater for a performance. After dinner we wanted dessert, but there was only one dessert on the menu left and none of us wanted bread pudding. We asked for our bill, tipped customary and left. This was very poor. Really bad restaurant management. I have been in this business for 38+ years working my way up from dishwasher to general manager. Leadership not present to allow for quality control and smooth operation. Not to mention being understaffed for as busy as you were. First and last time I...

I had a very disappointing experience this past Saturday afternoon. The service was inattentive and dismissive, especially toward families, while most of the staff’s attention seemed directed at the bar’s sports crowd.

I arrived with my mother and baby in a stroller to join nine other family members, including children. As others had done, I left the stroller at the entrance and went to the table where my family was seated and had already ordered. The server assigned to our table saw us but he never greeted us, offered menus, or a high chair. We sat for several minutes without any service. I eventually had to ask another server just for straws, and later brought my stroller to the table myself because no one ever provided a high chair.

When the manager approached, instead of addressing the lack of service, he immediately asked me to move the stroller—despite the fact that no high chair had been brought. He then moved it himself for the convenience of the empty table next to us. Meanwhile, the original server only appeared after about 15–20 minutes with menus, by which point I had lost patience.

One server (with long hair and green contacts) was the only staff member who showed kindness and empathy, apologizing and trying to help despite being busy. Unfortunately, the overall attitude from both our server and the manager was dismissive and unprofessional.

When food arrived for the table, my aunt’s meal was missing. My family reported that what did come out was unremarkable—chicken lacked seasoning, and some dishes were served cold.

In the end, I left without eating, frustrated at how poorly we had been treated. The lack of basic service, disregard for families, and indifferent management left a...