Service Bar DC — Restaurant in Washington

I have been to this bar multiple times due to its reputation but unfortunately have only had multiple bad experiences. This bar has a variety of cocktails that are definitely interesting and bring in a crowd, but the food is mediocre at best and the service is lackluster.

Brought a small group of friends here and we bought multiple rounds of drinks over the course of an hour and multiple plates of food. Unfortunately, after 30-40 minutes of sitting there, eating, drinking, and catching up (even as we still had half full drinks and food on the table), they began to consistently come over every few minutes and ask if we wanted to order anything else. We were still finishing our second/third round of drinks and food, so we kept saying no thank you.

After about the 5th time in about 15 minutes, we said that we were ready for the check, as it felt like they were pushing us out. As soon as we said that, (before we even finished our plates/drinks and gotten the check) the waiter put a "Reserved" sign on our table.

We felt very awkward and hurried to pay the check and leave, as they began cleaning the table while we were still talking and drinking. We ended up leaving with drinks still on the table because of it. Definitely not a good place to go with friends if you want to hangout for a little. Might be good if you just want to grab a quick drink and go.

The cherry on top was: One of our friends who does not drink, asked for something non-alcoholic and the waiter said they could bring some lemonade. My friend agreed and thought it would be $3-5 for 1 glass of lemonade, but when the bill came, they charged her for a "Mocktail" which was $9. This is insane to me, as it did not have any zero proof liquor in it or any other ingredients to make it a "mocktail."

PS. The happy hour is not bad if you like one of the few drinks that are on the list but none of them are exciting.

PPS. They have a 20% service charge already on your bill! They did not notify me of this and I ended up accidentally...

So this is one of my favorite bars to bring my friends to when we are about 6-10 people, primarily because we can reserve the hidden room in the back, have a bartender dedicated to the room and we can hear each other talk.

Last night we had a interesting experience and I would have probably forgotten all about the bartender messing up a drink order, then forgetting about the replacement drink (for the birthday girl on top of it) and not being very receptive to feedback about a way overly smoky drink we ordered.

Again I wasn’t going to complain or right a review, it was no big deal, it happens.

But THEN, our bartender that was serving us comes out from behind the bar approach’s us as we are about to leave and asks “was there something wrong with my service? Because you left a less than 10% tip.”

I explained how I felt about everything that happened despite how uncomfortable that question made me. He seemed upset, so he walked off and I could literally see him talking to another bartender while looking directly at us...

Obviously can’t confirm he was saying bad things about us being a loud bar environment but anyone can put two and two together buddy.

I understand tips are important in a big expensive city like dc, but he handled it wrong and left us feeling uncomfortable and upset as we left. So we walked over to Nelly’s and had a great...

I decided to try this place for the first time yesterday and I must say the experience was odd. First and foremost the security guard at the front door seemed annoyed when me and my cousin first walked to the door and rudely asked if we had a reservation (didn’t know it was that type of bar, being as though most dc bar/restaurants you can just walk in). When we first walked in the energy/vibe changed since we were the only African American’s in the bar at that time and the woman who was working the bar also wasn’t as pleasant as a “waitress” she came to our table once and disappeared, then another person came to serve us the food and just tossed the plates on the table and pretty much tried to ignore our request for certain items. Once my cousin noticed that the chicken sandwich she ordered was not fully cooked, I am assuming the manager/host came over and reasoned with us and was more than happy to assist with replacements (the only kind person who we came across). Aside from the somewhat rude staff and uncomfortable setting if you are black, the food was okay but the drinks were...