The Palm - Washington, D.C. — Restaurant in Washington

I honestly don't know where to start but please read. I actually would have given this rating a 1 star but had a very nice waitress named LaDawn....I searched for a restaurant in the DC area where I thought I would be able to enjoy a good steak because I only eat it once a year and usually, it's for my birthday. I settled on The Palm-DC after reading the reviews and after my experience, I feel the people who wrote the reviews either work for this establishment or have very low standards. I will start at the beginning... I arrived this evening to celebrate my birthday... the place was so dimly lit, I had to use the flashlight on my cell phone to read the menu. I asked the waitress, who again, by the way was very nice, if they make espresso martinis...she stated they did and they were very good. So, I decided to order one...actually two because my daughter was dining with me and she too, ordered one. I knew from the look of the drink when it arrived at my table that it was doomed because the color looked a caramel color...I took a sip and it tasted like a very watered down, ice coffee. I sent it back and ordered a vodka martini. For an appetizer, I ordered calamari...finding a single piece of calamari on the plate was like searching for a needle in a haystack! Instead of calamari, there were fried lemon & lime peels, a few pieces of green and red peppers...everything but calamari! I forgot to mention the rolls that were served at the beginning...I feel like they just purchased some store bought rolls, put some hard butter in a dish and served. Tonight, they had a ribeye special and I ordered the queen cut which came with 2 sides. I opted for a salad and mashed potatoes. I am still struggling with how anyone can get mashed potatoes wrong...well, they did! I ended up having to send mine back because they arrived cold and tasteless. I was brought another dish but again, they were tasteless. I ended up having to put some of that hard butter that came with the rolls, salt and pepper just to make them edible. As for the ribeye,,, that had so much fat on it that I was only able to enjoy approximately 1/3 of the queen cut. ..since it was my birthday, I was privy to a little dessert accompanied by a birthday song by my waitress and another employee that was so busy singing to the left, staring into the distance instead of to me!...he clearly didn't want to participate in the 1 minute happy birthday song! This restaurant is overrated, outdated, overpriced and the food is subpar at best. I would honestly consider this an overpriced Outback Steakhouse. Of all of the great places in DC I could have dined, I unfortunately picked 1 of the worst to spend my birthday. If you're curious about dining here because of it's history, don't be. However, if you like dining at substandard establishments, then this is the...

Update to the response from the restaurant…I don’t think you read my review, because you did not meet my expectations.

Went here on a Wednesday night to celebrate a birthday with two other people while in DC. Had reservations. Hostess and maitre d were very friendly. The place is clean and lively. Assistant waiter came over and filled our water glasses. Only interaction with him was to say hello and thank you. No response from him to either statement. That fact and the look on his face made me feel like our presence was a nuisance. We didn’t even ask him for anything. Waiter was great, but clearly over-worked. He was running around the entire time we were there. Don’t know if someone called in sick or if they are short-staffed in general. They put two large tables together behind us for a larger group. A few minutes later, another waiter came over and started pushing our table away from that table…out of no where…no warning. Not cool but we rolled with it. But then the guy continuously bumped into one of us as he moved between our table and the larger table they had put together. Over and over again. I guess he should have pushed us more. It stopped when he caught an elbow. Totally unintentional…the elbow was only nine years old, but it seemed to do the trick. When we first ordered drinks, our waiter offered to have some “American Idol rejects” come and sing happy birthday. I told him that would be great. We had dinner. The salmon was incredible. Cooked perfectly. The filet was under-cooked, but great. The lobster tail was over-cooked and chewy. The mac n’ cheese side was a mistake to order. After ordering dessert he broke the news that they were too busy to sing happy birthday. I could tell they were cranking, so no big deal…but, two of us went to the restroom and when we got back, the owner of the nine-year-old elbow told us that while we were gone for five minutes, they had sung happy birthday to the table next to us. 😂😂😂 Really? …ok. Dessert was 10 out of 10.

I went here a few years ago (before covid) with a DC regular and the service was over all much, much better. But to be clear, our waiter was great. It was the assistant waiter and the body-check waiter...

My experience was awful. I made a reservation for my birthday on the 21st and When I got there the host looked at us like if we were from another planet. Well, the thing is that I have a 14 months old daughter who has stranger anxiety and will not stay with anybody. I knew the restaurant is more about adults, because they don’t even have kids menu. Plus it was my birthday and the last thing I wanted to do was to spend the night without my daughter. Okay, it didn’t end there. After we were seated, the waitress came and she didn’t even introduced herself, nor did she said “hello” she just came and said, “ anything to drink?” I was very disappointed after this, but I decided to give her a chance. We waited there for our water and she sent a guy who speaks Spanish to ask us in Spanish what we wanted to drink when we told her already what we wanted. She was very rude and had this angry face every time she came to our table. So, I told my husband that maybe because we were Latinos she thought we didn’t have the money to pay the bill. Okay, when we were ordering she wanted us to hurry, it was the first time for the other couple that was with us, so they needed more time. As the waitress I thought she was gonna say “you should try this it come like this, bla, bla, bla” but no she was just trying to be done with our order. Anyways everyone liked their dinner. I do want to thank everyone in the kitchen for the great work you do. After we were done with our food, we asked for the check and we pay. On the reservation I had written down that the occasion was “my Birthday” we saw that everyone was singing happy birthday to other people, so I thought “oh I am going to be next” nope i was wrong nobody said anything. She took the check and left. My friend decided to tell our waitress after all and she came with another waitress. It was so weird cuz while they were singing they were just looking at my daughter. After they were done singing she left without saying anything else. I will never come here with my family or friends for the the food maybe but the service was very unfriendly and...