The Delegate — Restaurant in Washington

We (a party of 2) arrived at 9pm on a Saturday night. The sign said that dinner service was until 10pm, and to wait at the desk to be seated.

We waited more than 10 minutes and no one came to seat us. One waitress made eye contact with us twice, but never came over. Another party came in from the street and walked up to the bar, spoke to a bartender, and then seated themselves. At this point I walked up to the bar and managed to get the attention of a woman who may have been a manager or hostess (red vest instead of the black jacket worn by everyone else). She was one of three people working behind the bar. I asked if they were still offering dine-in service for dinner. She said she would be with me in a minute, and waved me away.

A minute or two later a waitress came by to seat us. She was nice, but also made it very clear that we needed to order fast because "the kitchen was closing soon". I said that I thought they were open until 10pm. She said that they are, but the kitchen closes at 9:4pm. This is fair, and I understand, but... we got there at 9pm, it took them more than 10 minutes to even acknowledge our presence, and at this point it wasn't even 9:15pm so there should still be time to order. She came back 2 minutes later and took our drink order. We both knew what we wanted for dinner (it is not a big menu, and we appreciated that the staff wanted to go home so we didn't want to waste time), however our waitress rushed off before we could order.

About 5 minutes later our drinks arrived. I just got water. My son got an unsweetened iced tea, which arrived in a plastic Lipton bottle that the waitress opened at the table and poured into the glass. That felt odd for a restaurant that was expensive as this one, but whatever. We ordered, and the waitress told us that we were lucky that we were able to get our order in because (again) they were closing soon). It was now 9:20pm, almost half an hour before the kitchen closed.

Our food arrived quickly... I believe in less than 10 minutes. It was hot, but both dishes were also wrong (wrong sides). We decided it was close enough and ate our food. Which was good because we didn't see our waitress again until 25 minutes later. We did, however, have someone come by at 9:35 and grab the candle off our table without a word. She came back a minute later and put sugar packets for the morning breakfast on our table, and again left without a word.

Again, all of this happened before closing, and before the kitchen was even closed, but the message was exceeding clear that we were unwelcome and an imposition on staff that wanted to go home.

A bit after 9:45 our waitress came to take our plates. We had finished eating a good 10 minutes earlier, but again we were made to feel like we were being too slow and imposing on the staff. I asked for the check, and the waitress promised to bring it.

We then watched her go past us to the back. Then to the bar. Then to the register. Then to the back. Then to the bar. Then to the register. After 10 more minutes of waiting I managed to flag her down to remind her that we needed our check.

Again, I understand that staff needs to close. Kitchens close before the end of dinner service to give staff time to clean up and prep for the next day. But we arrived a full hour before dinner service ended. Staff ignoring us wasted 15 minutes of time for them to get our order in well ahead of the kitchen closing. Staff ignoring us kept us half an hour in the restaurant later than we needed to be there. Our orders were wrong. Staff seemed to deliberately give us poor service because we appeared to be inconveniencing them.

This was, frankly, the most unprofessional restaurant experience I've had in years, which is doubly disappointing because this restaurant is attached to one of the biggest names in hospitality, rather than some...

This restaurant is inside Courtyard by Marriott. When my son and I arrived for our 1 week vacation, we checked in and unpacked. About an hour afterwards, we so hungry as we didn’t eat breakfast as we had an early flight from Raleigh, NC.

I contemplated eating here because of the prices but I failed to really see anything else that was close. My son said he wasn’t hungry and got lemonade to drink. I got Shrimp and Grits with Sweet Tea. When I asked the waitress if the tea was sweet, she said that it comes in a bottle and would typically just pour in a glass with ice because it’s not cold. She asked me if I wanted the glass or bottle and told her that I had no preference. It looked like the Gold Leaf tea. We ordered at 11:15am.

Waitress brought back drinks about 2 minutes later. The tea was not as sweet as I was hoping and the glass looked small, in my opinion. I will add that there was no beverage menu. Waitress had to verbally say what drinks they offered. My son decided he was hungry and ordered some fries. My son told me that his lemonade was sour and it tasted like he was having lemons. His facial expressions definitely matched 😂 He ultimately said it was nasty. I tasted it and it was very fresh. The taste of a squeezed lemon was apparent.

Our dood came about 10 minutes after ordering. His fries were fresh and tasty. The temperature of my shrimp and grits was inconsistent as it was very hot in some places and warm in others. However, it was really delicious.

I noticed my son was making faces while drinking his lemonade. When I asked him why he was doing that, he said he was thirsty and that was all he had to drink. We discussed alternative options for drinks. While waiting for waitress, I noticed that the juice they have was Ocean Spray, in a big bottle. I can’t remember if it was orange juice or apple juice. Nonetheless, I ultimately had to go to waitress, who was at the bar, to let her know about the drink and order a water. Before she could bring the water to the table a few minutes later, my son drank all the lemonade. It was semi funny because he held his nose while drinking it.

My son ate half of his fries before saying he was full. I knew he wasn’t really hungry lol. I was full after I ate my food. The waitress came about 5 or so minutes after we were done. After asking for and reviewing my receipt, I noticed that was charged dinner price versus brunch price for my shrimp and grits, which was a $2 difference. I was also charged for the lemonade… but since he drunk it all, I guess I really can’t complain about that. However, when it comes to my tea, I don’t feel like the glass of tea equated to the bottle, especially with the ice. In retrospect, I should’ve gotten the bottle or they at least should’ve given me what was left.

Overall, food was good. The service could’ve been better. I didn’t even complain about the prices because it was only a few bucks and I was sleepy and ready to get to the room to take a nap. I didn’t go back for the...

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this restaurant at all. Absolutely appallingly managed. Despite being next to the Washington Convention Center, the restaurant is utterly incapable of managing business clientele. I gave the restaurant two chances. Both were very bad from a business lunch perspective.

We had a reservation with our clients, planned to fall between other meetings (obviously). We were told the wait was 20 minutes even with reservation. No apologies, no consideration. That’s their normal policy. Reservations also have a wait time. Unbelievable. We were actually sat 35 minutes after our reservation. Again, no apologies. Once we were sat, no one came and greeted us or gave us water for 10 minutes, until we caught someone’s attention. The food then took very long to come out, and two of the orders were wrong! We asked for boxes because we then did not have time to eat before our next meetings. We asked for boxes 3 times before we were finally brought them, again with a long wait. I spoke with the manager about this appalling experience and his excuse was “a lot of people made reservations at that time.”

Astounding.

The following day, I went for a late lunch with a colleague. We figured it couldn’t possibly be as bad as the previous day. Despite being much less busy, everything still took an incredibly long time. The hosts at the front desk literally argued in front of us about who would take us to the table without even looking at us or acknowledging how unprofessional they were being. The food took a very long time to come to our table. Our server was never around and no one knew who he was when we asked other people.

And I truly cannot believe how badly everything was run for a restaurant that is across the street from the Convention Center.

The food was okay. Once everyone had the food they actually ordered it was alright. Overpriced and not very flavorful but okay. The servers were nice people, but very slow in service and clearly not under good management.

If you expect any quality in timing and service, go literally...