HalfSmoke — Restaurant in Washington

Okay, where do I start. I made a reservation for 3:45pm on 11.7.20. After ten minutes, they cancel the reservation. We walked in at 3:55 and by time someone came to us it was 3:56. They had already gave a way our table even though we had arrived in the ten minute time frame which I explained several times to the people in the front. They told us to wait for 10 minutes to get another table ready, but it was a high top. We politely asked to be moved to another table since we were here on time and they still gave away our table.

They stated they couldn’t, so I asked for the manager who was the same person that saw us come in by 3:45. She stated that 3:55 was not in the 10 minute time frame, but it’s basic math because 3:45 + 10 minutes is 3:55 so we were clearly still in the time frame. Still, she told us if a party did not arrive by 4:30 (which was a part of 4), then she would sit us. She also suggested we can could back another day (nothing nice such as “I apologize for the inconvenience, can we make it up to you?”). I said that was out of the question because we drove an hour to just come to this place because we heard great things.

So we waited. But wouldn’t you know she sat two people at that same table! She deliberately wanted to be petty by sitting those two people at a table that was meant for four. We know it was on purpose because she started dancing afterward. I will be contacting the owner about this incident and I’m very disappointed in this establishment’s manager pettiness.

Update 1: during our service, our server did not check in on us at all. We had to flag other servers for napkins or other items we needed and we truly believe it was because of our conversation with the manager earlier. This is truly tragic. When my guest went to ask the manager for assistance, she was greeted with “put your mask in” , no “we will handle it,” nothing! No server came to refill our drinks, check on the food, give us our check, or remove plates either. It just felt like a truly bias and uncomfortable situation.

Update 2: we were informed close to 5pm that our server was on break and the manager was “watching” her section. I’m not sure how she was watching the servers section but didn’t once check on us or told she about the server being on break until we asked for assistance from multiple people. One of which ran back to the same manager when we asked for a refill on our mimosas. Then, pointed at our table to which we noticed and seemed off putting. Later, another manager came to us who seemed much more kinder and understanding of the whole situation that took place at the restaurant that afternoon. She did try to rectify the situation but by that time we were just at a loss of words on how we were treated and that we drove an hour to be treated as such. Still, we can tried to make the most of our brunch and was glad that another manager took over. We finished our meal, paid and tipped our...

I was a frequent visitor of this location and in the early years, it was definitely a vibe. Service has always been an issue but I’ll come back to that in a moment. Background, I am a previous restaurant general manager and restaurateur for 10 years, so when I choose to leave a review it’s because something really needs to be done. So upon arrival, we are greeted by an disheveled looking woman who looks like she just rolled out of bed in her flannel pajamas and crocs. Meanwhile my friends and I are dressed to impress. It was definitely off putting to say the least. What was more off putting and an overall distraction to our experience was the smell of the restaurant. Upon waking in, through our masks, we could smell an odor that was not appetizing. When I walk in to a restaurant I want to smell the food and feel like ok this is going to be good. Unfortunately, this place smelled like old mildewy mop water. And all of my friends noticed immediately. The disheveled hostess then attempted to seat us by the window which this night is was 20 degrees outside. A normal host would offer the bar since it was available or try to accommodate another part of the restaurant. She did not. Once we got to the bar the smell continued. The bartender was cool, however I don’t understand how they have so many cocktails on tap. In my option if you are going to charge 15, the bartender should be making them to order. It just seems like everything is this restaurant is lazy. No sense of urgency and no pride in what anyone is doing. Which is sad. So the food. 90 percent of our food was served lukewarm or cold. How? I spoke to the manager and when I mentioned the food being cold, there was not a response that was conducive to a manager concerned about food quality. Normally a manager would say, omg I’m so sorry, the food should definitely be coming Out hot! But back to the lazy aspect, it seems that he wasn’t surprised at all that the food was coming out cold, or that my chicken wings tasted as if they were under the heat lamp all day. He only gave an excuse about the smell saying they were having issues with the sewer. I ordered donuts expecting them to be soft and warm and delicious only for them to be cold,hard and crunchy- ugh! I sent them back with the manager and he said he was going to send out some fresh ones. They still came out crunchy, only slightly warmer. And he didn’t come by to check and see if I was enjoying them, the second time. That is simple restaurant management 101. So that being said, if you are coming here for a food meal, don’t get your hopes up. If you are expecting good to stellar service, don’t get your hopes up, even the drinks that are pre-mixed are disappointing. Overall a very frustrating and disappointing experience. I really just can’t get over the overwhelming sense of laziness here. And I really loved this place, but I don’t think I can come back...

I visited HalfSmoke on a Saturday evening for their All Day Brunch, which is great and I love that it’s really all day and that a signature entree comes with bottomless mimosas for $25.

Pros: I really wished I could have rated this place higher because I loved the scenery and the feeling of nostalgia. The Lisa Frank Binders for the menus took me back to grade school, as well as the vhs container for the receipts are a really cool concept. There is also a photobooth where you can get the pictures sent to you and that was fun. The establishment also offers different board and card games that you can play at your table. There are a lot of options to choose from on the menu that I definitely would want to try in the future. I ordered the Pinky and the Brain, my friend ordered the Netflix and Chill. Good portion sizes. The Netflix and chill was pretty good

Cons: the top half of my meal was pretty good, however the bottom funnel cake, which is the red velvet one that comes with the meal was cooked too long and so hard that it was literally just crunchy. The top funnel cake portion was cooked perfectly and perfect mix of soft inside and crunchy outside. I wanted to see if I could get the bottom one recooked, however it seemed that our waiter was not interested in checking on certain tables like ours and the one next to us. We saw him go check on tables that were filled with mostly Caucasians, but he ignored our tables. We finally were able to flag him down so that I could get my order fixed. But seriously, he NEVER checked on our table or the one next to us to see if everything was okay, to ask how we liked our food, or to give us refills on the mimosa container. We could see that after the table he would check on left, he went and sat/stood close to the kitchen area and just watching the tv or talking to his other coworkers. He was extremely unbothered to help us at all. It bothered me because I could see how he specifically chose to avoid certain tables. What makes it more irritating is that this is a black-owned business and you think you’ll get great service supporting your people and I love supporting our businesses but you have to know how to treat your customers right! Even with all of that, the table next to us and my table had to wave him down just to eat the bill because he never came to check on us, period.

I really think great customer service is essential to having people return and tell other people to check it out. I hope that management has discussion with the people that they hire to make sure they are exemplifying things to retain customers and provide a welcoming...