Wunder Garten — Restaurant in Washington

My partner and I visited Wunder Garten in DC this past Saturday as we needed something different to do than our usual spots where we live in the Dupont / Adams Morgan area. We decided to try renting a cabana, and we had a few friends join us. We were in the "Deck South" cabana, which was a great spot, especially if you want views of the main area where the picnic tables are and the gazebo is to see all the action. Fantastic people watching! :)

The weather is perfect this time of year for a spot like Wunder Garten, although it would be good year round I imagine given all the amenities - there is a large tent area, and another indoor spot with tables as well, and each cabana has heaters and also fans that you can turn on if need be, and there was even a gas firepit in our cabana! There are really nice plants and flowers all throughout Wunder Garten. There was even a bush shaped like a teddy bear which was fun to see. It's a very inviting atmosphere and I wish it was within walking distance from my home. That said, the uber ride only took 15 - 20 mins from Dupont.

The cabana was very comfortable and clean, and there are flat screen TVs as well where they show sports and other events. There are couches and chairs in each cabana, which can be moved around a bit as need be.

The staff was awesome.. all very friendly and the service was fantastic. You can order a drink right from your table / cabana using a QR code and I swear that every time we ordered drinks they arrived within a couple of minutes, if that. We were impressed, especially considering that it was fairly busy there that day - it's obviously a popular place and I can see why. They have a LOT of cool beer selections, specialty cocktails, and whatever kind of liquor you can possibly want, along with lots of options for mixers. Also, there are multiple spots to grab drinks from.

The food is great too... they have a food truck, and you can order directly from your table. You do have to walk over to the food truck to collect your order, but I am fine with that (personally, I'd rather carry my food back myself than have it walked through a busy place anyway).

There was a band playing until about 6pm, and then later in the evening there was a foam party inside the tent, with people dancing to music in the foam - it was very fun. It is also dog-friendly, and some folks had their kids there earlier in the day. We had a blast and will most...

So my feelings about this establishment is very conflicted. I wanted to get a cabana for my family as part of our Christmas festivities. From the very start this was a difficult process, because the website doesn't make choosing the cabana that you want easy at all. We had never been there and didn't know the names of each cabana. And they are all designed differently, so we just had to blindly choose one. Then the website has a specified time that you'll get the cabana for, but right before we came in, our alloted time was decreased. They tried to fix this by giving a simple explanation and decreasing the fee, but I wasn't really happy with this because a little over an hour is not enough time.

Next, we get there and the actual cabana is already prepped with someone else's name on a sheet of paper plastered to the furniture. My family of course had questions, because why would you do that making us feel like we're using someone else's cabana? Next we try to order food, which is totally online. Unfortunately, the system was down. So now we're wasting the little time we have waiting for the system to come back up. Then we're told the food truck is not taking orders because they're restocking food. Ultimately, all we ordered were drinks and empanadas because that's all that was available the whole time we were there.

I did reach out to the business about our experience and they never responded.

This establishment is not completely awful as you'll see from the experiences that others had, but there are some issues. Customer service is no help when there's an issue. One lady tried to help us a lot, but she wasn't able to do much as a greeter. No one else that we spoke to that day really cared. Also keep in mind that this is not a restaurant or even comparable to a diner. It's real an outdoor bar. They have food trucks and either the food trucks are there or they aren't. Getting a cabana is only a good idea IF you know you'll be satisfied with just drinks in the event that no food trucks are working.

We'd come back again but definitely only for drinks and we'd never pay for...

The reason for this review rating is primarily safety concerns as I suffered a significant hit to the back of the head from one of their benches through no fault of my own (I was seated and talking with my friends when this occurred). Wunder Garden has a wonderful atmosphere all around, but needs certain safety concerns addressed, primarily their picnic bench set up in their left side area (if facing the establishment). NONE of the benches appear to be secured to the ground or truly level. When other customers moved on their bench, it tilted up resulting in them falling to the ground and their bench swinging to my table area and hitting me pretty hard on the back left side of my head. I, as well as other clientele, were SHOCKED that something like that occurred. This occurred around 10 pm on New Years Eve. Thankfully I work in medicine and was able to consult with one of the doctors I work with to ease any immediate concerns, but there is still the question of a possible mild concussion from the incident for which I was recommended to follow up with a specialist as a precautionary measure. At least, 2-3 OTHER incidents occurred from 11pm to 12 am of people falling from their benches tilting and falling over. Given that this is an establishment that serves alcohol, the seating NEEDS to be more secure to avoid a much more damaging incident than my own, even though my incident should not have occurred either. I am happy to speak to anyone in management if you feel it is needed, but I strongly encourage reflection on this review to create a safe and enjoyable establishment for your customers and...