St. Anselm — Restaurant in Washington

The food here was really good but the service was maybe the worst I’ve ever experienced and I say that as someone who spent many years working in restaurants and am generally very forgiving when it comes to service in restaurants. We sat down around noon. The deviled eggs we ordered came out very quickly. But it was at least 30 minutes, maybe 40 minutes before we got our next course. The part that made it so frustrating though was that the server didn’t come to check on us for a very long time. She came out after we finished our appetizer but as time started to drag on and everyone around us was getting their food, she was still nowhere to be found. Eventually she came out but walked right past us and didn’t seem at all confused why we didn’t have food yet, nor did she check in with us. I had to go walk over to her to tell her that our food was very delayed. She said she would go check on it but then didn’t come out right away to give us an update. We continued to sit there with no idea how much longer we would have to wait. We finally decided to put cash on the table for what we had received and started to leave. At that point she finally came out and told us our food was coming out shortly. She apologized and said she would talk to the manager about comping our meal. The food did come out shortly after that and it was very good. But the manager who talked to us blamed it on the fact that we had ordered appetizers as a main course, along with a burger, and that the timing of those things just got messed up. Look, I’ve been a server and I know I’ve forgotten to put an order in. Or the ticket gets lost, or the kitchen screws up, or your order gets delivered to another table accidentally. This stuff happens and it’s ok. But he refused to acknowledge that something might have gone wrong and just kept saying they didn’t get the timing of the courses right. In the end, they did not comp the bill. We paid and left a tip but I was pretty annoyed. They should have comped us. The thing is, it would have been fine if the server had just checked on us earlier. We would have mentioned it seemed like it had been awhile and the problem could have been resolved. Instead, we just sat there with no one checking on us while I started to get so hungry I was shaking. I want to add that it did not seem like they were super busy and that the server was overwhelmed. In my impression, she...

I was new to the Union Market area and wanted to try St. Anselm. I made a brunch reservation for 4 people for my family and I on Christmas Eve. Snatched the first opening from their open slots which was 10:30am. The morning of Christmas Eve, we had two family members whom we haven’t seen in years fly in to surprise us. I decided to bring them to brunch, of course so we could show them around Union Market and DC. It was 2 additional people, how difficult can it be to add 2 chairs at the restaurant. We arrived at St. Anselm right at 10:30am. We were greeted by the host and the manager, Anna. I gave her my name and told her we had a reservation for 4 people at 10:30am, then asked if they could add 2 more chairs for 2 family members who surprised us that morning from out of town. Anna looked at her screen, tippy tapped her fingers a few times and said “we are fully booked!”. I asked if she could add just 2 more chairs to our table as we just really wanted our family to join us. And she said “We have your reservation for four. We do not have your reservation for six” in a very mocking manner. While I understand it was Christmas Eve and one of their busiest days, the restaurant was EMPTY at that time because we booked the first slot they had open. I would have appreciated her at least trying to see if they can accommodate us, even if she had to pull two extra chairs from the kitchen. A gentleman from the party behind us waiting to be seated heard the conversation too and sarcastically said “wow, they’re so busy they can’t seat you guys” and laughed. Again, at that time the restaurant was empty and we were the second group to check in with one other group behind us. I can’t say anything about the food at St. Anselm unfortunately because we were turned away. There was no “let me see what I can do” or an apology. It was St. Anselm’s manager, Anna with an attitude and her “we have your reservation for four, we do not have your reservation for six” sarcasm after I already explained that ‘yes, we have a reservation for four. Can you please add two more people because of our family who flew in this morning’. Extremely poor service from this “manager”. It’s an upscale restaurant, but there was nothing upscale about the service we received...

5 Stars all the way, from the food to the setting to the service!

DINNER REVIEW

I was in town visiting DC and wanted to have a celebratory dinner with friends. One recommended St. Anselm so we made a reservation at 7 PM and we were on our way.

DECOR - St. Anselm feels like a hybrid of a tavern with a nice steakhouse with both modern and classic elements. It's really tough to describe but it's beautiful and there's so much to look at on the walls. If you are lucky enough to sit on the perimeter of the restaurant in a certain section, you can even choose to make your meal a bit more private and close curtains to separate you from the rest of the restaurant. Pretty cool concept, in my opinion.

SERVICE - I don't usually mention service but it was superb here, from the recommendations to the speed at which food came out (really fast!), to how fast my water glass was refilled (which I appreciated).

FOOD - of course, this is the most important thing and this place DELIVERED. The menu is curated and it has some classic dishes (ribeye steak) but also some that you don't see much elsewhere (lamb merguez). I would 100% order everything we got again with the exception of one dish. Here is what we got in order of my favorites:

Buttermilk Biscuits with pimento cheese - OK I have just recently come to fall in love with biscuits and these were amazing. Crispy on the outside, warm and buttery on the inside. And that pimento cheese! I would eat it with a fork.

Ribeye Steak - Cooked to a perfect medium-rare, you cannot go wrong with their steaks.

Salmon Collar - A unique dish that you don't see often but it's shaped like a horseshoe and has amazing salmon flavor. There are some bones to pick around but it's not that hard to eat around them.

Smoked Burrata (with delicata squash and pomegranate) - I didn't think burrata could get better but it did!

Cauliflower with tahini and puffed amaranth - The flavor on this was good but it came as a whole head of cauliflower so all the flavor was on the outside and less on the inside. I wish it was chopped up so the flavor was evenly distributed.

Overall, an amazing meal I won't soon forget.

Next time I am back in DC, I...