GATSBY — Restaurant in Washington

Came for brunch to celebrate one of my A1D1s' birthday. I came once for brunch in the summer of '23 and wasn't impressed, but one of the ladies said she was a regular and the food was bomb. So I figured maybe the food had improved or it was just me as my food options here are limited as a pescetarian. Needless to say, won't listen to her ever again.

Party of 16 ladies for brunch at 11:30. We were seated on the top level in their party room. We were pleasantly surprised as we didn't expect to have a semi-private space. They have a bottomless brunch, however, the entire table must participate. Fortunately, they were aware that some wouldn't participate and had set up separate tables, so 9 were at one table and 7 at another. Though I'm not a fan, I did like that the bottomless had a selection of drinks to choose from (Greta's punch, mimosa, tequila sunset (frozen), bloody mary, wines and beer) you are able to mix and match. So if you didn't like the first drink, you could choose something else. Though there was snow on the ground, the sun was beaming hot through the windows, so most of the ladies ordered the tequila sunset, a few more ordered the Greta's punch and the birthday girl started with a mimosa before switching to a Greta's punch.

My table started with 2 orders of the Gatsby bites which consisted of 4 Deviled egg halves, 4 mumbo wings (2 flats/2drums) & reuben eggrolls (2 rolls cut in half). The only thing I could eat were the eggs. They were ok. The ladies loved the reubens and wings. They said the wings were spicy sweet.

For entrees, we ordered chicken & waffles, French toast, crab cake Benedict & several varying All Americans. The portions were pretty big. The French toast reminded me of a Smith Island cake as there were several small layers together to make one huge stack. This is where the issues come in. First, in order to do bottomless, you have to order an entree, not several sides to make a meal. Hence the need for several variations of the All American. The All American comes with 2 eggs your way, bacon, home fries & pancakes. Our server Emily described the home fries as sauteed in onions and ketchup, so i knew I didn't want them. I already don't eat meat, so no bacon and I don't like pancakes. The birthday girl also doesn't like home fries and requested grits and another one doesn't eat pork, so asked for turkey sausage. Final All American orders, 1 with eggs over medium, fries and rye toast, birthday girl ordered 1 with soft scrambled eggs w/no cheese, bacon, grits and pancakes, another with scrambled eggs with cheese, chicken as they were out of turkey sausage, home fries and pancakes & the last with scrambled eggs, bacon, home fries and pancakes. All dishes begin to come out. Most are pleased with their meals except, me, the birthday girl and the one All American with no modifications. My meal was sent back 2 times as the over medium eggs came fried hard and no toast and then were undercooked and served with bacon and homefries. It got to the point they brought my meal in pieces. A piece of rye toast, then an order of fries and finally 2 over medium eggs. The birthday girl's eggs were scrambled hard with cheese and the pancakes on her and the non-modified All American were ice cold. So as the rest of the ladies enjoyed their meals, the 3 of us waited patiently for our meals to be properly prepared. Emily was doing her best as we WELL past the 90 min time, but you really can't put people out if you haven't served them, now can you? By the time the last 3 entrees were served the other 13 ladies were done and packing up leftovers. Shortly thereafter, Emily brought out a slice of cake for the birthday with a candle and the check

As we were celebrating, no one was going to create an issue about what should've been done, however, something other than we're sorry should've been offered. I've been here twice and am not a fan, nor will I be back. There are far too many other restaurants in the city that can actually cook eggs correctly...

Hi -

I am a frequent patron of Gatsby and typically have great service, and hopefully this was an isolated event. On 7/7 4 of my friends and myself came for Happy Hour before going to a concert. We seated ourselves at the bar and waited briefly to be served. After a short period of time, the bartender brought us menus and didn't return for at least 25-30 minutes. There was another server present who came over to the register but didn't say anything to us until we asked to at least be served water, to which he said, "I am about to leave but I will see where the bartender is." He never returned. After waiting a bit longer, I walked over to the manager who had just taken the order of another table and asked if we could be served again. I also directed him to the couple who was at the counter waiting to be seated. He says, "I got you" and walks over and seats the couple that was waiting. He never returned to take our order either. Finally, the bartender returns and tells us she was "in a meeting." Obviously not her fault, but scheduling a meeting during Happy Hour isn't ideal. The bartender then took care of us and was very attentive from this point on. However, we ordered calamari and never received it because they gave it to another guest. When we asked if we could just have their order boxed up to go, we were told they just sent it back because they thought it was a double order. So, I never received my food after being there for 2 hours.

I understand being short handed and try my best not to give servers a hard time, as their job is already difficult enough. They usually are blamed and not tipped because of the kitchen mishaps and other things beyond their control. However, this experience was just unacceptable. The manager was attempting to pick up the slack, but he also dropped the ball. His way of rectifying the situation was by saying "we hope to see you again and the calamari is on me."

As a Navy Yard resident, Gatsby is one of the neighborhood favorites and I would hope this isn't going to be the experience in the future.

Thanks...

I want to start off by saying that I have previously dined at Gatsby, and the experience was much better. However, tonight's dinner sealed the deal on us never returning here again. When we arrived, although we had reservations, we decided to sit at the bar. We were immediately greeted by the bartenders, who offered to take our drink orders. We order our drinks, and they bring them right away. My boyfriend ordered spaghetti and meatballs, and I ordered the chicken piccata. When the food arrives, my boyfriend begins eating his food, and I dig into my chicken piccata. Immediately, I noticed that the food was rather cold, not tasty, and a bit slimy... BUT when I cut into the center of the chicken, it is RAW. I, for one, am appalled that a restaurant would serve raw chicken... which is a BIG NO-NO. Worried about my health, I immediately asked the bartender to please send it back, and you could tell she was shocked. The plate was taken, I guess, to their manager, who appeared to take the plate up to the kitchen. The bartender stated that they would be making me another plate, and obviously, I refused because I did not want to take that risk again. I asked for another plate, the rigatoni bolognese, which came out fairly quickly and tasted much better than the piccata. My boyfriend and I were pretty bummed we did not get to enjoy dinner together, but that's better than becoming deathly ill from raw chicken. What surprised me the most of all this was that the manager, although present and given the plate of raw chicken, did not even take a second of his time to stop by where we were to apologize for the inconvenience. Instead, the fantastic bartenders (who are the only reason this place is getting the 1 star I am giving it) were undeniably unapologetic and utterly embarrassed by this incident. Overall, I will never be dining here again, and I will make sure no one I care about dines at this establishment where wreckless and careless cooks can compromise...