LYDIA ON H — Restaurant in Washington

It was a bit confusing to find the place, but when I did I entered the establishment and the hostess wasn’t at the door to greet me. I waited a couple minutes until my friend noticed me at the door at yelled over the blaring music for my attention. We sat a good 30min waiting on another friend to arrive and still no hostess or waitress. By time I noticed someone, she was taking orders at other tables. She didn’t acknowledge us at all while sitting there. My friend did say that while she was waiting for us to arrive, the hostess sat her but never came back. She didn’t bring waters or even say she’d be right with us. When she did come in our area, she skipped over our table and went to another table that came in after us. My friend had to stop the girl to ask her if she could take our order. She seemed overwhelmed. She did eventually tell us that she was the only waitress. Which was confusing since there was another girl on the floor taking orders as well.

It was so loud on the inside of the establishment, I get that this place is considered a lounge but if you’re serving food and drinks… the volume could be adjusted for such a small area. I listen to loud music every day but the way the DJ played the music was giving me a headache! I mentioned to my friend that when I went to the restroom, it was much quieter in that area but no tables were available. She went to restroom And luckily my friend was nosey enough to peek around in the back and found a spot outside, which we didn’t know they had. We ended up sitting outside where the music wasn’t overpowering our voices and we could chat and chill. Our food came in a timely manner, not long after we went outside. The mosquitos were ridiculous though. Despite that, the waiter seemed to be doing a bit better. She came to check on us a few times. Some of the other staff came out, in passing, and answered some of our questions even though they weren’t waiters. They were nice for the most part. I enjoyed my time for the 3 hours that we were there. I honestly would go back again just because the food was so good! The jerk wings I ordered fell off the bone! Seasoned to perfection! I also had the lamb flatbread. I honestly wondered if I stuck with my initial order, the snapper, I could only imagine just how good it would be. But it was pricey. The margarita I had was good as well. I have no complaints on the food and drinks. But I do believe that Lydia needs to get more help. One waitress to tend to your patrons was just overwhelming. I could see it in the waitress expressions. I started to ask for an application myself. I will be back again and hopefully there’s some major improvements. I also want to add that paper towels and toilet tissue should be stocked, especially on the weekends! My friend said that when she went to the restroom (after I went), there was no tissue. When I went, there wasn’t any paper towels. And we both went to the restroom a good 5-10min apart. That’s a bit ridiculous and I’ve seen other reviews saying the same thing about tissue. Lydia, if you ever need...

My friends and I got here about 8:30 on a Friday. It wasn’t too busy. One friend got the hot honey wings (tasted like buffalo without the spice and a little honey) another got the salmon bites (amazing) well when we ordered another round of salmon bites we salmon bites we noticed a viable difference, that’s when we were informed that management changed the batter mid dinner service. We begged Chef DJ to make them the original way because management had no idea what they were doing obviously and they were a hit. We went to 2 more rounds and we were informed that management wanted them their way so we declined (I heard a few other tables grumble about this as well). We decided to go upstairs (dj was great) we sat in a booth (mind you all of the seating looks second hand or extremely worn) as there was no seating for us (5 women) anywhere else. No one came over to greet us for almost 10mins. She was very ill prepared and not knowledgeable about “booth” (if you can call it that) procedure or costs. I had to approach the owner who informed me that the only way we could sit there was to buy a hookah or pay $300 for champagne. Nobody in my party wanted either, we were willing to pay the minimum in drinks but the “owner” was adamant about champagne so we left. We had already spent over the $300 in the bar already so no need to pad his pockets. I’ll stick to brunch or when there’s more space at the bar. The owner obviously has overbought champagne and needs to offload or is ignorant. Either way, he lost several (I think we counted almost 7 and we left with maybe 30 (including my 5) in the entire establishment upstairs and down) customers in the time my friends and I stood outside planning our next move. I hope management wises up or sells to someone more knowledgeable soon or Lydia’s will just be another “used to be” Black owned business on H. And PLEASE let Chef DJ do his thing, he’s more knowledgeable of the...

Honestly, the food was great imo. Others in my party said that it was mediocre, but to me it was full of flavor. I will say, the chicken & waffles could be executed better. The waffles were so thin & basic.

BUT my rating is a reflection of the service.

I booked a reservation for 8 people for the Sunday buffet brunch. Literally canceled our other reservations to go to this restaurant.

We get there & everyone is very nice. But then we’re told that they were not having the buffet. We were told by one person it was because they were filming a movie, then another person told us it was because of a spike in Covid.

We were told that we could only order off of the Saturday brunch menu. Which only consisted of like 6 items I think. And the oxtails weren’t even available.

The brunch buffet was all you can eat for $35. We ended up paying an average of $25 just for one plate. Not including drinks. And the fact that no one was willing to compensate us for the bait and switch that they pulled, made the experience worse.

The tables were sticky & dirty. The glasses were dirty. Most of our table requested plasticware & plastic cups because the dishes didn’t seem sanitary.

Our server, while incredibly sweet, got one order wrong, but quickly corrected it. However we didn’t receive refills fast enough at all. I think we had a total of 3 refills & that was only because we had to flag her down a little. I will say, it seemed like she was the only one truly running all the tables though.

The atmosphere was a complete vibe. The music was nice, but just way too loud. It gave me & my mother in law headaches.

Honestly, if we were in some way compensated for the fact that we were expecting to pay $35 for an array of all you can eat food, the rating would be a 4. But it was the lackadaisical attitude like we should just accept it that bothered us. Especially because we booked this in advance & we’re from...