Matchbox — Restaurant in Washington

We've been seeing the posts about the weekend brunch and finally made our way after 8am service 2 weeks ago to check it out. We didn't have a reservation, and the 4 of us arrived separately, probably 10 mins apart, but as no one was there at 10 am Sunday morning, the first one to arrive was seated right away. As soon as we arrived the server was there ready to take orders. Three all American breakfasts were ordered at different times due to the varying arrivals as well as the shrimp and grits minus the turkey sausage. The food came out just as quickly as the server took the orders, but didn't look as appetizing as the advertisement, which is to be expected. What wasn't expected were the overcooked/practically burned eggs, the All American that was served with the wrong egg preparation that took 20 minutes to come back or the burned stuffed French toast which was ordered later. I didn't take a picture of the black French toast that came to the table. The bottoms of all 3 pieces were black. The French Toast isn't stuffed with anything, it's just stacked. The manager couldn't even believe the kitchen sent that out. The server was very strict on the 2 hour time limit, but the manager allowed us a little time extra due to the numerous food and server issues. Yeah, the half empty restaurant caused our server to not come back to clear the dirty plates or replenish the bottomless drinks as often as she should. But trust and believe at an hour and 45 minutes, she told us we had 15 minutes and asked if we wanted any last order. The manager did tell us that a DJ comes in after 12 and they do get a little crowded, but he was very gracious to allow us the extra time, so we did hear some of the DJ's set. What we heard was a good set and was at a nice volume where you could enjoy the music and still have conversation with others at the table.

I'm open to trying their brunch again, just not at this location. Location is everything and is this difference that makes...

This place gets a 1/5 for incredibly poor to-go service. I order from lots of different restaurants around Capitol Hill, but matchbox is consistently the worst. A few weeks ago, I ordered a meal through Caviar, which is advertised on matchbox's website, and tried to go pick it up. I got there and was told they would have to put the order in again because apparently Caviar isn't set up to work with the registers at matchbox. My question is why even have an "online order" section on your website if it doesn't communicate with the restaurant? That makes zero sense to me. Someone who looks like she could have been the manager said to call in my next to-go order. Fair enough. So I did...

Tonight (a Tuesday!), I ordered a very basic meal (chicken sandwich, fries, and side salad). I got there about 30 minutes after I called, even though I was told it would take 15-20 minutes. I ended up paying for the meal and then waiting ANOTHER 30 minutes for the food. The bartenders were cleaning up the bar and the kitchen staff were cleaning things in the back, in preparation for closing. I just sat there, in awe of the negligent service. Eventually, I had to remind one of the bartenders that I was waiting for food and what transpired was a game of telephone to try to see who placed my order and where it was. Even the bartender said something along the lines of "You should talk to the manager to see if you can get a refund". Talk about embarrassingly low standards. I took the food and left because a refund probably would have taken another 30 minutes! The total time that elapsed between calling in my order and leaving with my food was an HOUR! That should never happen, especially on a Tuesday! Don't even bother trying to order take-out from matchbox. Ironically, if you want to see good take-out service, go to the sister restaurant Ted's Bulletin, which I've ordered from dozens of times...

Food was great, as always, but the service was so abysmal, it was genuinely shocking. Night-ruining. When we came early for our res, we were asked, "can y'all just wait until your reservation, we're super busy," when there were obviously open tables. The manager caught us on our way out and said, "nah, come back in, we have a table for you."

Music was a time warp back to 2003, and I don't mean that in a good way. It was loud and obnoxious.

We were seated at a wonky, unbalanced table which really felt like it shouldn't be where it was. It was situated at the base of a set of stairs behind a wine fridge. Maybe this is what the hostess was trying to save us from?

Then it got really bad. Our server spoke to us a total of four times the entire night:

When he got our drink order When he took our food order When he brought our food When he gave us the check.

Like, dude, you NEED to check on us. We didn't even have silverware or napkins at our table. What if the kitchen wasn't on top of things and our food was incorrect? We had to flag down other staff to get literally anything done the whole night.

And what was our server doing in the meantime? Surely it was helping other tables out? Nope. Dude was chatting it up with his other friends on staff, laughing at the server's station near the hostess stand. Zero awareness.

And when he did come to take our check, he just kinda wandered around with my credit card for over 5 minutes. Then, I kid you not, looked at us and audibly said, "Oh, sh*t." THEN he rang us up at his chatting location AKA the server's station.

Like, was he high on his shift or just super poorly trained?

Find a different Matchbox to have dinner at, because this one, while it has the great food, will ruin your night with the utter...