Emmy Squared Pizza: Shaw — Restaurant in Washington

I’m a fan of Detroit pizza, so I was excited to try this new place out! It’s a little farther from my house than Red Light, but it’s a real restaurant with a full-sized dining room. We started with the Denizens Boho Chic Kellerbier and the “With Love From Emily” cocktail. The Kellerbier was smooth and refreshing, and the cocktail was very good.

From there, we tried the roasted cauliflower. This has … roasted cauliflower, with raisins and a light and slightly sweet and spicy sauce with chili flakes. I liked this a lot. Lots of places are serving roasted cauliflower now, but I thought this compared favorably to most of those dishes.

We got the vodka pizza, which comes with basil and pecorino cheese. The base pizza has mozzarella cheese, and this kind of mixes with the bread at the bottom so that the crust is part bread and part cheese at the same time - not in a lumpy way, but a smooth mix of the two. I didn’t think it was quite as good as the Red Light Detroit pizzas, it was a little thinner than those, but it was still very good and I wasn’t at all disappointed. It was a little easier to pick up and eat, too. They have a few other flavors I want to try out, more than Red Light.

The service was really good! The waitress was very friendly and had plenty of helpful recommendations. Plates were picked up as soon as we finished with them, without people hovering around waiting for us to finish a dish to do it.

They have quite a few burgers and waffle fries that are supposed to be good, but I haven’t tried any of those.

Finally, we had the banana cream pudding, which was delicious! It’s a little different from most banana pudding. It’s kind of a trifle, with pudding interleaved with something like tiny cookie crumbs. They apparently run out of this regularly, so check when you get there! We got a second one...

Last night I experienced, what was probably in my top three, worst customer service/dining experiences here in DC. It was around 8pm on a Sunday when my girlfriend and I arrived to grab some dinner. We were met with a crowd of Uber Eats/Doordash drivers blocking the already small waiting area. The host initially ignored us however, after making her third trip back from the kitchen she asked me if we were picking up or dining in. I asked for a table for two. She said okay, and immediately ran back to the kitchen to grab more to-go orders. We stood in the waiting area for ten minutes watching a plethora of drivers and more walk-ins cram their way into the doorway. That's when I noticed that a couple who arrived after us, decided to seat themselves in the dining area, and were immediately approached by a server.

So there are really three things that sum up this blunder: If you're going to offer delivery service/mobile orders then you should have a separate area and a separate person assigned to deal with those orders. The overflow between mobile orders and walk in customers was absurd. This is not solely on the blame of the host (though damn it hurt to just be completely and blatantly ignored) but poor management for lack of appropriate staffing.

2.Also worth nothing is that it was clearly visible from the entrance that staff wasn't keeping up with cleaning the tables or the orders. Less tables cleaned, less seating, better pizza, papa johns.

We ended up leaving after waiting ten minutes of waiting and walked down the block to Andy's, where I was immediately served and scored three slices of pizza and a coke for $8. That value kicks this...

On Saturday, July 20, 2024, myself and my friend made our way to this location for a quick bite to eat. Upon entering, we were warmly greeted by the lovely hostess who promptly seated us. I had been to other Emmmy Squared locations, however; this was my time at this location. The layout and atmosphere is beautiful for a causal dining experience at this price point. We ordered a few appetizers to share as my friend and I weren't extremely hungry and had limited time. We ordered a new salad to share with an order of wings. The wings came rather quickly, however; the salad was extremely delayed. We ended up speaking to the Manager, Jose' and asked to have the salad cancelled due to the long delay. Jose' quickly sprung into action and went above and beyond offering top tier customer service to ensure, we had a pleasant experience. To accommodate the issue, Jose' removed the salad from the bill and still packed it up for the inconvenience. He than treated us to a complimentary cocktail by Carl, the bartender - man oh man, Carl makes a mean curated cocktail. The customer service that Jose' offered as a manager turned me into a repeat customer. I found myself back on Sunday with another friend. Again, Jose' went above and beyond to ensure another successful experience. Jose' made the experience feel like dining with family. I'm grateful for the delicious quality food and the welcoming environment. This location is now my preferred location all thanks to Jose'. I like the location so much and the experience was so pleasant, this may become my new "local bar". Thank you for an...