Peacock Alley — Restaurant in Washington

We really enjoyed the food and beautiful dining room along with our waiters. However, the experience with the hostess stand has left a sour feeling. My party arrived about 15 minutes before our reservation time for afternoon tea to be told they had us down for lunch, not tea. I politely informed them that was incorrect. The manager had called me a week ago in answer to my email request to be put on a waitlist for the dates I was in town due to tea being booked out for several weeks. He called me twice and after hearing the time my flight would land on the 19th, found a time to accommodate me and emailed me a confirmation. When I brought this up to the hostess stand, I was met with very aggressive disbelief. They wanted to see my email confirmation, the phone number the manager called me from, and demanded I give them his name. I supplied the first two but never thought to write down a manager's name for a simple food reservation. They then informed me that I could wait to see if there was a cancelation but there was no guarantee. I let them know I was there for the tea experience I reserved and I would not be dining with them for lunch or any alternative option. I was ready to walk out but my friend wanted to see what would happen. Miraculously after walking away for about 2 minutes, a hostess comes to us in the hall saying there has been a cancelation and they could get us in at the time I had reserved. I could have written all of this off as a minor inconvenience until we looked up reviews while waiting for our table and found this to be a very common occurrence among others. I can see now that lunch is a much more expensive experience than tea in most cases so my only guess as to why this is repeatedly happening is that you all are trained to swindle people into accepting a more expensive meal. Once more, the food was delicious and our waiters were wonderful and I sincerely appreciate the manager accommodating our trip. But whatever is happening at the hostess stand has made me never want to...

Beautiful location and delicious charcuterie unfortunately I can't speak to the rest of their menu due to our experience. Service left us less impressed and I believe service should be a pinnacle of your experience. Confusion about our reservation was the biggest knock on the overall experience. We had made reservations during afternoon tea time or so we intended but were apparently unclear on the fact that those reservations had to be made specifically as tea reservations or they will not allow you to order any tea items and you only have access to a sparse a la carte menu. It was a learning experience and we still wanted to stay but we were then told that despite our reservation they had no table for us and were made to wait a significant amount of time to be seated. During our wait we witnessed other individuals come in after us and be seated immediately which created a concern since we did have a standing reservation and were told there were no tables. After all of this and patiently waiting we were finally seated and provided with the a la carte menu which we were able to order from. We ended up having charcuterie and a glass of wine while we made reservations for The Bazaar by Jose Andres that was in the Waldorf as well. At The Bazaar we were seated quickly and provided a full menu that was amazing. I would still like to experience the tea time at Peacock Alley some day. Unfortunately that was not a reality on this trip and no assistance was offered just a NO. I will give them another chance in the future maybe next year when the cherry blossom festival returns because their decorations were beautiful and the tables around us who were allowed to order the tea items seemed to thoroughly enjoy their experience. This was something I planned for my trip to DC and had been so looking forward to. However, given the option between the two, I must say The Bazaar saved the day for our dining experience while Peacock Alley left us wanting and feeling a...

I made reservations for tea time over 3 months in advanced for my best friend’s birthday. What appealed to me during the time of the reservation was that they had the Alice in wonderland themed tea time.

I received a call 3 hours prior to my reservation that went like this: Woman on phone: “ hello, I’m calling from the Waldorf Astoria peacock alley regarding your reservation today?” Me: “yes?” Woman on phone “ oh I was calling because I see you booked for the Alice in wonderland experience, but we are no longer offering it.” Me: “ok?” And at this point I anticipated an apology or attempt to make up for this since the theme was a reason why I wanted the reservation.

Woman on phone: “ok, then we are confirmed for your reservation today at 2pm”

Fast forward to our arrival at 2pm: We are seated and once our waiter took our orders; the hostess came back to our table and told us “I should have told you this before you were seated, but we have another event at 3:30 so this tea time will need to be only for the reserved time which will end at 3:30” My response was to look at her and just say “okay” She then said “thank you” turned and walked away.

I’d like to preface the waiter was amazing and did a great job and everything served was delightful.

It doesn’t erase the fact that I made reservations for a particular theme and wasn’t informed that it was no longer available until 3 hours prior to my reservation.

There was no apology or attempt to make up for the theme not being available. Or that my party was rushed because there was another event.

I’m appalled by the experience, I certainly did not expect it from the Waldorf Astoria. I am disappointed to...