Martin's Tavern — Restaurant in Washington

Honestly one of the more comically bad experiences I've had eating at a restaurant. The restaurant is nice looking, good wooden interior, we sat in a booth with a pretty cool lamp that I noted was nice. That's about as much as I can say positively about Martin's.

We get there for brunch, and there are maybe 5 open tables, cool, it shouldn't be an issue getting seated right away... Wrong, I believe the hostess was actively learning how to use whatever seating system they use, and instead of, you know, the sensible thing, seating the customer and then fiddling with the device for 5 minutes while you try to learn how the system works, I stood around and watched a hostess try to learn how to assign people to a table for 5 minutes.

Ok, that's not that big of a deal, I had to wait around for slow service, at least the food was going to be good. Wrong. Let me start by saying the French onion soup wasn't bad, I tend to like a little more, you know, onion in my French onion soup, but admittedly it wasn't bad. It may even be slightly better than average, but certainly not memorable otherwise. I can't say the same about the other food that was ordered. We ordered the "Martin's Chesapeake Benedict" which is fried green tomatoes, crab cakes and poached eggs, covered in hollandaise sauce, with a side of home fries. Sounds amazing, right? The tomatoes were fine, I will say, but the crab cakes were sad, the hollandaise sauce was nonexistent, the home fries were dry and bland, and the poached egg was horrid. Additionally we got the corned beef hash, which also comes with 2 poached eggs. I adore poached eggs, I've probably had 1000 in my life, these may be the worst poached eggs I've ever seen. Across the board for both dishes, they were brutally undercooked. Brutally. I cracked into the poached egg on the corned beef hash, and the thing looked like it was cooked for no more than 30 seconds. Poached eggs take 3-4 minutes depending on the texture you are going for, but as a rule of thumb, they should not be cooked for less than 3 minutes. These, all 4 of our eggs, were raw. Not like raw as in runny yolk, raw, more like there was a thin film cooked around the outside, but the rest of the white part of the egg was raw and came pouring out after I cut into it. Oh and the hash was nothing to write home about.

If that was it, maybe I wouldn't be writing this review to spare them the negativity, but no, the staff there are also horribly unprofessional. First off, our waiter was MIA after taking our order. This was problem because, as noted above, they served us raw egg whites across the board. Normally, I would never send something back, I worked in a kitchen growing up, and I understand how stressful it can be, but raw egg whites are unacceptable. Because our waiter was no where to be seen, I had to flag down a bus to get us in touch with a waiter. The guy who then came to our table had the audacity to question if we knew how poached eggs were cooked. I then had to cut into the other egg and show him the uncooked egg whites, to convince him that maybe they screwed up. He then suggested we get our eggs poached hard, to which point I had to remind him that the eggs we had weren't even poached soft, they just weren't even cooked, and I just wanted cooked eggs. They wound up taking back the corned beef hash, and I didn't want to deal with the eggs benedict, because I was eating that, and I just dealt with it to avoid the hassle, which admittedly made me somewhat sick afterwards.

Ok, so we sent back the hash, surely it would come back correct? Wrong. We had exact same problem with the sent back corned beef hash, except this time they had the audacity to send the manager to stand over us while we cut into the poached eggs, to make sure "we were satisfied with the experience." Leave me alone, asshole. I didn't want to deal with it, so we ate about half of the shitty corned beef and shitty eggs benedict and left unsatisfied. Oh and it was $90. I actually got an egg sandwich afterwards form a coffee shop that was 10x better. 1/10,...

My fiancé recommended me this D.C. classic restaurant before I traveled to the Capital City last week. He told me President JFK proposed First Lady Jackie at this place back in 1953 when his predecessor was in office. Therefore I decided to give it a try during my short stay in The Beltway. The first meal I ordered that Friday night was an Original Brunswick Stew. It was a delicious soup which reminded me of the beef stew my own grandmother cooked when I was growing up in my native Bolivia.

The deliciousness of their stew led me to try their own Grandma Martin’s Meatloaf. This delicious meatloaf is made of a soft beef cut which made it fall off the fork with the first cut. It also melts in your mouth with tenderness. I could not help but pairing it with a Diora Pinot Noir wine. What a great combination it was. Martin’s Tavern therefore became the only restaurant during my stay in DC to which I went back for a second time. Because my cousin wanted to try it after I told him about it.

I must recognize that despite how busy the restaurant was when I stepped a foot inside, Ramon managed to shorten my wait time to even less than 10 minutes. He made sure I received a personalized attention, I should say. He possesses a great amount of emotional intelligence and empathy for those who are lone patrons like I was. His customer service skills contributed to my return to this place. On the second time, he was even more attentive than usual.

He offered my cousin a glass of orange juice free of charge after I told him he needed something sweet. This beverage placated my relative until Jose Zelaya, our server in the second night, brought us dinner. My cousin ordered Calamari and Shrimp, which quenched his hunger momentarily until his Atlantic Salmon came. He was highly satisfied with how his fish fillet was cooked. We also drank wine. He had a glass of Girlan Pinot Grigio while I had a glass of Mar de Fredes Albariño. I cannot complain about José’s customer service skills at all. Unlike Solomon who served me the first night, Jose’s middle name is attentiveness. He was attentive to our table ensuring we were having a good time. I am not the kindest tipper in the world but he truly earned his 20 percent tip.

I honestly love the atmosphere of this restaurant. Its appearance truly reflects the one of an American Traditional Restaurant. It has remained stuck in the times of Old Georgetown. Everything is brown inside. From the chairs and tables to the bar and stools to its very own walls. I do not mind, however. Because that is the reason you come to a historic landmark like this establishment. Furthermore, when specific events which took place at its location enhance its prestige.

If you are looking for a historical gastronomical landmark in your next trip to DC, then you better come to Martin’s Tavern. Their food only gets better with time. Its culinary staff truly take pride in cooking American traditional cuisine. But their delicious product would not be the same without the amazing customer service Ramon and others provide us patrons within their atmosphere. Thank You Very Much for...

Staff was extremely rude, in particular the M’aitre d. Stopped in to have a drink and sit down for a late dinner on a Friday night; the restaurant was not particularly crowded. The host mentioned that we were welcome to get a drink at the bar and then move if we wanted to get food. We had not eaten dinner so we figured we would have a drink at the bar while we decide what to order. We then requested to move outside. When we asked to sit outside the gentlemen informed us that drinks in glassware from the bar were not allowed outside (no problem). However, when I inquired whether we could get a bottle of wine or something in a disposable bottle and sit outside to order food the m’aitre d acted as if I was asking a stupid question and made it very clear that he wished for us to leave. At which point I paid my bill (and tipped because the bar staff was friendly). On the way out I said “have a good night” to the gentleman and he once again was extremely rude. One of the other waiters said to the guest I was with “get out of here”. Now, I understand that working a nice restaurant on a busy Friday night is extremely stressful, and typically when people order from the bar they are less valued than guests that sit down because their is the expectation that they spend less money. That being said, there was about 15 other people at the bar or standing near the bar having a beer or a cocktail as well so I really cannot for the life of me understand why we were treated so poorly. Furthermore, there was CLEARLY open tables at the restaurant at the time we both entered and left the establishment so it was not a situation where they were over booked. I entered the place with expectation of enjoying a meal and honestly, I figured I would have been treated with more respect. Overall I was shocked by how arrogant the staff was to two paying customers that were nothing but absolutely polite. I have never left a restaurant review in my life but I am shocked at how pour of an experience it was that I felt I had no choice. I am extremely unlikely to return despite living and working around the block from this restaurant. I understand this is a famous place, and we were two young guys having a drink and they are looking to turn us over quickly, but that is not a reason to be rude to two customers. I was very disappointed in all honesty by the entire experience and will recommend people avoid it...