Momo Chicken and Grill — Restaurant in Washington

This place has been declining recently. While the food quality is still good and I dig the vibe of the place, consistency and service have become major issues. Living nearby, I usually order takeout because the service has always been slow. I can typically order, pick up my food, and be home faster than dining in. However, lately, my takeout orders have been frequently incorrect. When I bring this up, they offer free items or discounts for next time, but there’s no clear way to redeem these offers, and they don’t provide the name of the person making them. It feels insincere.

A recent experience pushed me to finally write this review. A few weeks ago, I brought a friend here since it’s nearby, but the visit was awful.

Here’s how it went:

45 minutes to receive our first drink. 1 hour for cheese wontons. 1 hour, 15 minutes for water. 1.5-1.75 hours for a 20-piece chicken wing.

We repeatedly raised concerns with the servers, who would say things like, "Oh, that hasn’t come out yet? I’ll check," but never followed up.

The excuses we heard were unconvincing:

"We’re busy." This is a weak argument. There were only 3–4 tables occupied at any time, and few takeout orders coming in. We even saw other tables arrive, eat, and leave before we got our food. When our dishes finally arrived, they were piping hot, meaning they hadn’t been sitting in the kitchen—they just weren’t being prepared promptly.

"Our CEO is here." This was true; we were seated next to the CEO, who was being attended to by the manager, Daniel. While Daniel walked past our table multiple times, he ignored our attempts to get his attention. He later claimed he didn’t see us, which was untrue as he looked directly at us several times. Frankly, having your boss in-house should improve service, not make it worse.

-"Let me know next time, and I’ll discount your food." At least I now know who to talk to, but this felt like another hollow gesture. It took nearly two hours just to speak to the manager after repeated attempts, what will happen next time?

The only positive aspect, besides the food itself, was the bartender. She eventually went out of her way to check on us and even brought us water—something the servers failed to do for over an hour.

In the end, I can’t recommend this place. If you’re craving similar food, go the extra distance to Bonchon on the other side of South Capitol. Their food quality is comparable, but the service—ironically, from a large chain—is much better. Bonchon was here long before this place opened and, at this rate, will still be thriving long after this restaurant...

UPDATE: The manager refunded my order and asked if I could give it another try, on the house. This time, everything was HEAPS better. The chicken had a decent amount of sauce, the radish actually tasted decent. I don't know what happened with my 1st order but they did redeemed themselves. My personal opinion, it's in the same league as Bon Chon.

This is actually a ZERO star review. I've been hearing about Momo's wings in Bethesda from friends and family for a few years now but hadn't had a chance until today and boy, was I beyond disappointed. I called the one in DC to place an order but realized that the free fries promo is only valid for online orders. I told them to go ahead and make my order now while I place my order online. I arrived 20 mins later to an empty restaurant. The waitress told me it would be 10mins. I tipped her in advance and she went in the kitchen. I waited over 20 mins for my food and when I asked the waitress why did it take over 40 mins to make the order, she said there was a shift change.....

I finally got home and was super excited to try the wings. They were very bland with barely any sauce on them. The fries were super soggy and old. The super tiny sides of radish and coleslaw were inedible. Radish was not even a tiny bit sweet and tasted like garbage. The coleslaw was literally chopped cabbage and mayo, no other flavor detected.

I have no clue how this place got a 4.8 star reviews. This was the absolute WORST wings I've ever had. I got the XL (30 wings) and didn't even finish half of it. I want...

Extremely disappointing experience tonight. Entrees were served out before appetizers with large gaps between each dish, and some appetizers were skipped all together until we had to remind the staff to bring it out much later after our entrees arrived.

After we had ordered, less than two minutes later, one of our entrees came out (suspiciously very early). We had come to find that this was for the table behind us, and an entirely different dish than what was ordered. Eventually, the table behind us (15 minutes later), received our original order. Later in the night, another item we did not order almost reached our table again.

The food was just okay. The wings were incredible, as well as the bulgogi and edamame. The side of rice was very dry and tasted like it was left out for several hours. Skip the lo mein, it was flavorless.

What had ultimately ruined the night was after not even receiving the correct order, a staff member brought a check and said “you don’t have to worry about the gratuity, we took off 15% ($13 off, which is not even comparable to what the tip would have been), and proceeds to charge us an auto gratuity for abysmal service.

They gave us a 15% off coupon to take home and tried to give us the correct order to go, but sadly we are from out of state and will not be returning any time soon as we have a...