Firefly — Restaurant in Washington

I want to start off by saying that the waitstaff was impeccable, and that the duck was fantastic. The wine was also a great selection with unbeatable flavor, especially when paired with the dishes. The ambiance was rustic and tasteful, but the food... Entirely different story. They should really hire a new chef. or Sous. Whoever was in charge of checking quality tonight.

I first ordered the fois gras with brioche and huckleberry jam, and the unoaked chardonnay. It was hard to tell that the brioche was the large round puck while the fois gras was a 1/2oz piece of sauteed genius hiding under the greens, but overall was great, despite the $14 price tag for so little protein.

The second course was intended to be the "butter poached lobster tail with lobster bisque risotto foie gras butter, meyer lemon". What I received instead was underdone (not even al dente) rice with enough cilantro to kill a great dane and not even half of an over-cooked lobster tail on top, sliced in such a way to fool the average consumer into thinking it was acceptable. Send back number 1 for undercooked risotto. For $40 a plate you can cook my rice a little longer, even if the protein to rice ratio wasn't... let's just say appealing, and no mention of cilantro on the menu at all. Send back number 2 came after they put even less lobster on top, spread even further, some watery substance on top, and EVEN MORE cilantro added. Again, no mention of said herbage on menu.

After this failed, I figured, ok. Not every restaurant can afford the time and effort to make a decent risotto, so I changed the order to the filet mignon. I mean seriously, how hard is it to mess up filet mignon? Apparently I was wrong. It was so difficult to get a medium steak, I eventually gave up and got the same dish my fiance got (the duck) but it took 3 MORE SENDBACKS to even get that. First try on the filet was rare. And I mean RARE. Cold in the middle rare. Not even attempting to get anywhere near medium. Second try they put the same exact filet back on the grill (an acceptable practice in most restaurants) until it was well done. No pink, at all, anywhere in my steak. When I pointed out that not only was it the same steak I cut thoroughly in half, but that it was well beyond medium, they took it back, put it on the grill A THIRD TIME and cooked it further, before returning it to me yet again.

Let's take a step back. I get not doing risotto the right way in a high-volume restaurant. I get wanting to cook a steak on the fly to get it to a hungry guest, but this was the FIFTH TIME I had returned a dish for improper cooking.

At this point, the cook offered us the deviled eggs (a nice gesture, but who in their right mind is going to accept three deviled eggs for dinner) and the staff was offering free wine, comped meal, and dessert, to make up for it. The manager, seeking to rectify the situation, asked me how the eggs were (are you serious??) and then asked, "What would make you happy at this point in the evening?" How about a meal cooked properly?

By far, this is the worst food experience while dining out I have ever even heard of. If you're looking for good wait staff and atmosphere, definitely give this place a try. Just don't count on good food. We were sincerely debating leaving at the 2 hour mark to go to Taco Bell, because at least the food is consistent.

UPDATE: The staff were so concerned about the events that transpired last night that they are looking to "show [us] the real Firefly experience". One added star for the persistence to prove last night was a fluke. Gotta give 'em some credit...

Went there for a belated Valentine's day meal with my girlfriend. 2 hours, a burnt filet mignon, and an undercooked risotto later we left. It took an hour and a half to get a decent meal out of this restaurant. This was my girlfriends experience:

1. $40 a plate lobster bisque risotto ordered. Arrived with rice so under cooked it was crunchy. Spoke with waiter and he offered to have the plate re-made.
2. Risotto came back, but this time covered in oil and rice still under cooked. Risotto isn't made with oil, and tasted nothing like the 'lobster bisque' that it was supposedly made with. Mostly it's undercooked rice and cilantro.
3. Talked to the waiter and switched dishes. It's alright, risotto is hard to make in a restaurant kitchen. Order the filet mignon cooked medium. Nice and simple. Comes out with 1/8" actually cooked, the rest rare and cold. Not medium. Meal returned.
4. Filet came back. Same piece of meat, this time cooked very, very well done. Not medium.
5. Filet came back again. Still same piece of meat. Cooked so much the outside is charred black.

The waitstaff was very accommodating to make up for the utter incompetence of the kitchen. My meal was fine, but we got the utterly romantic experience of having my food out and getting cold while the kitchen tried to figure out how to cook a filet and my girlfriend was sitting, without food. We split the plate of duck I ordered. By the time they brought her an entree of duck, an hour and a half had passed and the experience was ruined.

The meal was comped, thankfully. The waitstaff was awesome, kept our drinks full and were understanding.

Charging for a premium experience and sticking a drunk idiot in the kitchen is unacceptable. I don't care about the bill getting comped; if we wanted a cheap meal we would have gone to McDonald's. Firefly advertises itself as a premium experience. Ask yourself if you feel alright paying for a $40 entree cooked by a chef that confuses 'medium' with 'raw' or 'charred black'. Then ask yourself if you want that experience for something like Valentine's day dinner.

If you do, eat at firefly. If you, as most people, don't want to pay premium for sub-grade food,...

Giving 2 stars because the first time we went was amazing. The service and drinks were both great, but today was horrible. My partner and I hardly get weekends off together so we were super excited to go in for brunch and enjoy the start of our Valentine’s staycation week- We walked in and the servers/managers were all hanging out around the bar talking. We were ignored for a few moments until the bartender finally said “they need to be sat.” I’m assuming it was the manager who sat us, which okay fine, we weren’t bothered yet. The server comes over and is obviously having a hard time with our order, we both ordered a drink, and our entrees- my boyfriend wanted to add avocado to his ham Benedict and the server was very quick to act shocked and that they wouldn’t be able to accommodate him. Okay no big deal. Then things turned really bad. Our drinks are up, and I can see our server, another server and the manager talking at the host stand, and our drinks just sat for 15 minutes. The bartender, and other servers just left them there while our server was having a conversation the whole time. The server finally goes to get them and then walks past and then goes back to his conversation… at this point my partner is upset and decides we aren’t staying.. I was stopped by the manager on the way out and asked while we were leaving. I told him we were being ignored while they had a conversation for over 15 minutes, he didn’t seem to concerned and said he would “talk to him”. I am career service industry and was shocked at how we were treated and they should be embarrassed. Sadly the first impression was ruined and a place we would have added to one of our regular spots, we will never be back. Do...