Yalla — Restaurant in Washington

I’ve been a regular at this place, but under the new management, I can’t shake the feeling of being othered—despite being well-known here, especially as a prominent Egyptian American bellydancer in DC and proudly trans.

First, I wasn’t greeted upon arrival and had to seat myself. No big deal. I said hi to manager Sam, whom I know, but he acted like he didn’t recognize me—fine.

The real issue came when, during an event, some guests invited me to dance with them . I hesitated at first but eventually joined in. Moments later, the manager pulled me aside to say it was a private party, accused me of inserting myself to the party, when I LITERALLY told him they invited and insisted me to dance, and he insisted I “stay in my lane,” despite being no complaints from the guests. To prove that even more, two or more people from the private party, came to ask me to join them, and I explained what happened, and they weren’t pleased, . Ironically, other patrons who arrived after me freely danced with the same group, with no intervention from management. That’s when I realized something felt off.

I shared my frustration with few kind servers who listened and tried to make things right, which I appreciated. Still, the experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Hospitality—especially in an Arab space—should feel welcoming, and this didn’t.

It’s a beautiful venue with great food and drinks, the servers and bartenders are lovely, but the service from Management could do better, and be more inclusive, especially in a diverse city like DC (This isn’t Virginia, habibi) . I still have hope for this place, but only if the hospitality improves—particularly for those of us who don’t fit the mold. It’s a fun place...

DO NOT BOOK HERE FOR SPECIAL EVENTS! The management doesn’t care about reservations and lied to me multiple times. I made a reservation for 10 for a celebration through the website and it was confirmed on Resy and confirmed the day prior. When we arrived we were told that 2 large groups were running late with their reservation because they arrived late due to traffic but they were finishing up. It was a few minutes before the belly dancing performance but we were assured that they would delay the performance until we were seated because that was the reason we were there. We ordered drinks at the bar downstairs and after 30 minutes I went upstairs to check and the belly dancer had started! I found the manager and he said we could come up and watch but it was almost over at that point. We continued to wait because we were assured we would be seated. Finally 1.5 hours after our reservation time they seated us. We sat there for 10 minutes without anyone coming over to us to take our orders, so we left. So frustrating because I planned months ahead for this special event and even the guest of honor wasn’t offered anything special to make up for the insane wait. It might be nice for date night but not for groups, and it’s very poorly managed and I am so upset that I was lied to...

Terrible Experience – Never Again!

If I could give Yalla zero stars, I would. This was easily one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had in DC. We had a reservation, yet we were left standing around for 1 hour and 10 minutes past our reserved time before they even seated us—absolutely unacceptable. No updates, no apologies, just indifference from the staff.

Once we were finally seated, the service was just as bad—slow, inattentive, and borderline rude. By the time our food arrived, we had already lost any appetite from the frustration of waiting so long. To make matters worse, the food wasn’t even worth the hassle—mediocre at best, definitely not worth the hype or the price.

I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. If you value your time and money, do yourself a favor and dine elsewhere. Plenty of restaurants in DC offer better service, better food, and actually respect their customers. Avoid Yalla...