Origins Food and Drink — Restaurant in Wilmington

Headed for Origins, arriving at 7 pm with a 7:15 reservation. They sat us immediately, outside on the patio... definitely quieter. The restaurant was jamming, folks at almost every table and the bar for a Wednesday night. The restaurant is modern, very nice and stylish, lot's of atmosphere. The chairs were comfortable and the napkins and service ware were great. Our server (Erick) was very nice, personable, and friendly, yet not lingering.

My companion ordered a glass of wine (Dopff & Irion Cuvee pinot blanc for $12), which she enjoyed. We gave the server our complete order. She ordered Seared Scallops with Herb Gnocchi, Butternut Squash Puree, Pickled Apple, Piquillo Pepper, and Verjus ($36). I ordered a Black Garlic Caesar with Little Gem, Radicchio, Brown Butter Croutons ($12), and Classic Steak Frites served with Pomme Puree & Market Vegetable, and Brandy Peppercorn sauce on the side ($36). We did not order any bread, which looked tasty, but it's a separate charge for four rolls ($5) and you would have to order it.

The Black Garlic Caesar salad arrived as my appetizer and we decided to share it. It was good, but nothing special.

The main course was served and we tried our dishes. Her dish had what I call small scallops, maybe U20-25, too small for this setting.  The sear was good and they were tasty, even if smallish. Her gnocchi was very small pasta (maybe to balance the small scallops) and not noteworthy. My steak frites plate (the meat ordered as "no more than med-rare")  was just over the med-rare marker and the sear on the outside was almost a hard char on the ends. I was glad I had ordered the side of sauce. The Frites were slightly underdone and very lightly salted. The plate salad was unexceptionable. We chose to skip dessert, as nothing tickled our fancy.

In retrospect, I should have sent my plate back, I had only a morning latte with a friend  mid-morning and was very hungry, which is no excuse. It was hard not to reflect on the steak frites at the Brasserie Du Soleil, under Ash's ownership. Once again, today, it's never good to have expectations of previous restaurant experiences, especially after the pandemic, supply chain issues, and inflation. I will continue to try new places, it's always...

I rarely take the time to post a negative review, however my experience at this restaurant was so off-putting that I feel compelled to share it. What started as an enjoyable lunch quickly turned into one of the most unpleasant dining experiences I’ve had in years.

The food arrived looking fine at first, but after mixing my salad, I noticed a long black hair nestled right in the middle of my bowl. Needless to say, I lost my appetite instantly. Accidents happen, and I understand that. What truly ruined the experience, however, was how poorly it was handled.

I politely called over the server, who looked mortified and took the plate back to the kitchen. She was delightful, attentive and a great server however the manager wasn’t. I expected at least a sincere apology or a visit from a manager with some acknowledgment of the situation. Instead, the manager appeared briefly, shrugged, and said something along the lines of, “that she would do me the favor of taking it off my ticket.” No apology. Meanwhile, I’m thinking to myself “no shit, you are removing it from the ticket. I’m not paying for a dish with an hair inside of it. What a pathetic attempt to make things right. Just indifference. I was shocked and disappointed with her lack of empathy for the situation.

At that point, we paid for what we’d ordered up to that point and left. The manager lacked just basic customer service skills and accountability.

Restaurants are judged not only by their food but by how they handle mistakes. In this case, both the hygiene and hospitality failed miserably with the exception of our waitress, we didn’t blame her for this kitchen and management mistake however, I won’t be returning, and I’d caution anyone who values cleanliness and professionalism to think twice before dining here.

Manager was absolutely awful. I have never seen anyone respond in this fashion to this type of mistake and to offer minimal effort towards resolving the issue felt like a joke or her first day on the job, almost like she didn’t know what to say. Definitely not what I expected at this caliber of...

I could not be more disappointed with our last visit at Origins. We have dined countless times and we recently brought out of town guests to show them how highly we thought of this gem. From the moment we walked in our night was a mortifying experience. Our reservation was at 7:45, the table wasn’t ready so we were told to wait at the bar and they would grab us when it was ready. We got 4 cocktails at the bar but by 8 we checked in with the hostess and discovered our table had been given away. When we were finally sat they tried to give us a dark table in the shadows of the patio. We politely said we’d wait for a table inside. Once we were sat we ordered 2 dozen oysters. We waited no less than 30 minutes, fully finishing a bottle of wine before we asked again where our oysters were. At 9 our oysters were finally delivered after a chat with the GM. When our meals came one of filets was cooked to a temperature not even close to what was ordered and needed to be sent back. Unfortunately by the time the new steak arrived our party was finished eating. The kicker to the whole night was how we were treated. The servers and hostess all had attitudes but all of that stemmed from the General Manager. She was nasty, unpleasant, showed no remorse and should seriously reconsider her career choice of hospitality. They did not comp any of our $500 dinner but worse, did not apologize once. If the restaurant responds to this review please know it is the least genuine, generic response and she has no remorse for the amount of eye rolls we received. They did not care about guest experience and had countless chances to right their wrongs. It’s so sad to have to blacklist a restaurant we loved so much but I will never return to such a poorly managed, sour, attitude fueled...