Matchbox — Restaurant in Washington

Look at my profile and you will see I have never left a 1-star review anywhere. That is important here.

I’m sure the manager or whoever reads this will try to counter this story below with a false narrative, so beware.

It was my wife’s birthday yesterday. We had an event nearby at 4:30. I made a reservation for 3:15 at this matchbox location.

At 3:04 pm, I had friends show up early to check us in for our reservation. The hostess told them that our 6 person table wasn’t ready, so my friends should wait at the bar. At 3:11 pm, I’m texting my friend. They tell me the restaurant hasn’t gotten our table ready.

The restaurant texts me at 3:20 pm and calls me at 3:21 pm (see the photos for proof) and I respond to the text to confirm we want the table. When I arrive, I see my friends at the bar. I am unsure why they aren’t at our table. I stand patiently while the hostess talks to other guests. The place is busy, I’m not trying to be a bother.

Eventually, I call the restaurant (see the photo) knowing that it might be easier than asking people without reservations if I can push in front of them. Places sometimes cancel your reservation if you’re 15 minutes late. I didn’t want that to happen because we were there.

The hostess says, “You aren’t here, so we gave away your table.”

I say, “I’m standing right in front of you” and start to wave at her.

She sees me and says, “Well we contacted you and you didn’t respond.” Dear reader: this is FALSE.

I walk up to the stand now to get some explanation and, hopefully, a table. Instead of trying to offer anything, the hostess continues blaming me saying I didn’t respond to their calls or texts. I show her my phone, so she knows I responded AND the restaurant responded with “Great! We'll see you shortly.”

She ignores this and says, “Well, we called.” You can see in the other photo they called at 3:21 pm which is 6 minutes after my table was supposed to be ready. I texted them at 3:22!

I ask her why she didn’t tell my friends she sat at the bar that the table was ready. They were sitting patiently at the bar, why didn’t she get them when the table was ready? She has no response.

The manager walks up saying they gave away the table and I should’ve responded to their text. Again, more blaming me. This should not have happened.

I show him that I did respond. He looks at my phone, doesn’t apologize for blaming me and being WRONG, and says, “Well, we gave away your table, so you will have to wait.”

My friends - still sitting at the bar because they were never called over - come to the hostess stand to ask whats going on. I explain that the hostess gave away the table. Of course upset because they were never told and were only sitting at the bar because she told them to, they ask why this happened this way. Instead of trying to be accommodating at all, the hostess then claims my friends WANTED to sit at the bar instead of getting our table?? This makes no sense. They clearly just didn’t want to seat us.

They say again that I didn’t respond to the text, which is just shocking to me because at this point they both clearly know that isn’t true. You can’t fake facts. Maybe they kept saying this to make us seem irresponsible to the people waiting in line around us? Or maybe they were treating us this way because I’m a young black man and my friend who checked us in is Puerto Rican and Iranian?

It wasn’t lost on me that 99% of people in the establishment were white. I assume that kind of thing shouldn’t matter in 2025, especially in DC, but it’s hard to know for sure seeing how they were treating everyone else with kindness.

So, instead of trying to accommodate us, offer us anything, or even lend us any compassion, the manager says, “We can get you a table in 30 minutes.” With our event being at 4:30, I explain to my wife the situation.

We frantically search Google to find a new place and leave. Our time at matchbox was the worst part of our day, and almost threw the...

I’ve been to multiple matchbox locations before but was a little disappointed by my experience here. I had a 4:45pm reservation for 7 people and our food came out around 5:35pm. At 5:37pm, our waiter asked if the hostesses told us we could only have the table until 6pm. We told him that they had not informed us of that. At this point, they expected us to scarf down our meals and pay within 20 minutes. The reasoning for rushing us was due to the concert happening (which we were also attending) and the amount of reservations they had. Having 1 hour and 15 minutes for a table seems a little ridiculous, especially when we are spending $250 on the bill. Let it be known that it was by no means the waiter’s fault - he was great (Maurice)! He apologized multiple times and assured us that nothing was our fault. He served us well and the food was great, as per usual. He even provided us with some trash bags to use outside while we walked to the arena in the pouring rain. The overall experience just wasn’t great due to us being rushed out. Yes - there was a concert and a lot of people around the area looking for dinner beforehand. However if you don’t have enough seating/reservations for people, just turn people away. It isn’t fair to the paying customers who made a reservation ahead of time to be rushed and kicked out due to other reservations coming in…after only an hour at the table. If we had more time, we definitely would’ve had another round of drinks which would’ve provided your restaurant with more money. Not sure I’ll be going back to this...

Food, service, and atmosphere are nice. 4 stars because of clear management oversights. No serious issues, just a few comments (frequent visitor between classes) --

every time I go, the staff always seems super stressed out and stretched thin, but they are all so nice and try their hardest, so just be patient.

There is clearly no management awareness of big events in the area -- this restaurant is mere blocks from Capital Arena.... in Washington...D...C....!!!! I've been here on hockey nights and the night nation-wide famous comedian Nate Bargatze was in town, for example -- the poor staff was dying and had no idea how to manage the mass flood of people. Not their fault. Poor management for not anticipating the major, major events at the Capital Arena (or even things like Chinese New Year and Cherry Blossom Festival!) -- and planning staff/ responsibilities/schedules to accomoate.

The bartender should never have to leave the bar, but even on 'normal' days they were waiting on tables across the restaurant and leaving the bar unattended for extended periods.

The Happy Hour Menu needs attention. No one... NO ONE wants an entire burger with greasy sauteed onions during happy hour ... put the finger food mini burgers and some fries on the happy hour menu so groups can purchase a couple plates, eat with one hand, and share!

Like I said, overall, it's good -- but until management 'manages and creates an outlook/plan -- be patient with the hard working and...