"Never Again" Experiences

[Al Dente]

on one visit, i recall the waiter steering us away from lower-priced selections on the menu that sounded good.

I experienced that as well. I picked a bottle of wine and the waiter proceeded to recommend another, much higher-priced, bottle-- "if money is not a problem" as he put it. In front of my date. Idiot that I am I went along with his manipulative ploy because, hey, of course money is not a problem! I also casually mentioned to him that despite the fact I masturbated twice that afternoon, I was still confident I could have sex 3 times that evening.

Never again. I mean I Ricchi, not the amazing sexual prowess.

[monsterriffs]

This might belong in the RFD thread, but the beer list is hardly "pedestrian". They don't get as many exciting taps as they used to (since the Brickskeller installed taps upstairs, many of the interesting kegs have headed over there), but the bottle list is still very respectable, and there are usually at least a few taps worth trying. It may not be my favorite place in town to drink beer, but it's far from my least favorite.

The food, however, I completely agree on.

I dunno dude, it seems like that bottle list is a bit dated, for lack of a better term, and you could easily find the large majority of those beers with a few visits to Whole Foods and maybe Chevy Chase Liquors.

But, yes, ugh, the food...I'm getting kind of nauseous thinking about it...

[Adam23]

I hear nothing but nightmare stories about I Richi, mostly about the high cost for lousy food but moreover, the service. Tom S. mentioned that I Richi hasn't been good in....years, when a chatter wrote in to complain about a bad RW experience.

How does this place stay in business? Expense accounts??

I'd say expense accounts. They are always busy for lunch with the lawyers and lobbyists who couldn't get into the Palm or choose to go there. One of my bosses, for instance, goes to lunch there 4 days a week and the service he recieves is superb. I've been to lunch a few times with him and the food was decent but nothing blew me away.

[edenman]

I dunno dude, it seems like that bottle list is a bit dated, for lack of a better term, and you could easily find the large majority of those beers with a few visits to Whole Foods and maybe Chevy Chase Liquors.

Just because many of the bottles are now available elsewhere doesn't make it pedestrian. It's still a massive list with a wide range. Admittedly, it does suffer from "Brickskeller Lite" syndrome a bit, but I still occaisonally catch random seasonals in the bottle there. And they had stuff like the Dominion Winter on tap when I wasn't aware of anyone else carrying it. Not saying it wasn't around, but for stuff like that, RFD/Bricks are good first places to check to see about availability. And if CrescentFresh were paying attention, I'm sure he'd chime in about the recent run of good cask beers they've had.

[jigones]

The District Chophouse and Brewery. I had chards of glass in my mashed potatoes during a work lunch event. The manager argued with me that they don't have glass in the kitchen. I then proceeded to take two pieces out of the mashed potatoes and hand them to him. He said it was large pieces of salt. I told him to put them in his mouth and eat it. He declined. Meal was comped, but I will never go back again. Glass in food is a serious issue, but even worse was their attitude. At least they supposedly dumped that batch. Actually we never went back for lunch ever again.

[brr]

I hear nothing but nightmare stories about I Richi, mostly about the high cost for lousy food but moreover, the service. Tom S. mentioned that I Richi hasn't been good in....years, when a chatter wrote in to complain about a bad RW experience.

How does this place stay in business? Expense accounts??

aaah, I Ricchi!! Against my advice my company had a disastrous Holiday lunch there. Oily waiters telling us our apps would be served family style which turned out to be code for miniscule portions of two apps instead of a proper sized single app, ruthlessly pushing one entree they clearly wanted to shift above all others, opening as many bottles of mineral water as possible etc etc.....I believe it turned out at something like $75 per person when all was said and done - if only I could have been given $75 in cash I could have gone to Vidalia, or Firefly, or anyhere but I Ricchi...

[blakegwinn]

I experienced that as well. I picked a bottle of wine and the waiter proceeded to recommend another, much higher-priced, bottle-- "if money is not a problem" as he put it. In front of my date.

Despicable. As a waiter of many years I hate hearing stories like this. It must be the same way an honest city employee feels when reading about the tax scandal or an honest car salesman feels when he hears about someone getting a major screwjob from a sketchy dealer. People like that are a parasite to the industry. They suck tip money out of peoples' pockets while killing the trust level in all the rest of us servers.

A lot of times we complain about "bad" customers but a decent amount of responsibility for the sometimes adversarial relationship between customer/service staff rests on punks that do stuff like that. It may be good for an EXTREMELY short term boost to the check but this kind of behavior has intimidated so many people from getting into good food and wine. When one of these people decides to sink back into their Applebees/Chilis rotation because they don't like feeling inferior at "nice" restaurants who really loses in the long run?

Sorry for the rant, I don't know why that just touched a nerve with me.

[Andrew Rose]

The District Chophouse and Brewery. I had chards of glass in my mashed potatoes during a work lunch event. The manager argued with me that they don't have glass in the kitchen. I then proceeded to take two pieces out of the mashed potatoes and hand them to him. He said it was large pieces of salt. I told him to put them in his mouth and eat it. He declined. Meal was comped, but I will never go back again. Glass in food is a serious issue, but even worse was their attitude. At least they supposedly dumped that batch. Actually we never went back for lunch ever again.

I have had that problem on two occasions, but with drinks, not food. Both times, it was because the server was using the glass as an ice scoop as well. The first time it happened, the glass got stuck in my gums, and I was bleeding. Regardless of the obvious, the manager actually had the gaull to ask me if I had dental problems before apoligizing. As always, when I explained very nicley that I am in the business, he changed his tone completely. It was at that point that I realized that if I did not inform him of my job, how far would the insane attidtude have continued?!? In the interest of this particular restaurant, and the fact that the manager has long since moved on, I will leave the name out.

[giant shrimp]

for added crunch, there were odd, small pieces of hard plastic in the lomo saltado at lauriol plaza when it was at its corner spot and long before the food started going steadily downhill up the street. we didn't even bother to ask how it got there.

my wife was once served shards of glass in a drink at one of the chain restaurants in atlanta's hartsfield airport, something you have to watch out for, because it resembles ice. we figured somebody must have smashed off the lip of a glass. the drink was graciously replaced by our server, whose nonchalance suggested that it might have been happening all the time.

not so gracious was the waiter who listened to my complaint of a bottle cap in the ice in my (weak, weak, weak) margarita at cactus cantina. he pointed out that it was "no big deal." we stopped going here a couple of years ago, but that was because of the food -- the worst chile rellenos in my life, with less than cooked batter -- and the service (slow and slapdash). who knows, there may still be some good food to find at this place, but i don't feel like bothering to find out.

i thought we might never go back to rio grande in bethesda, largely because the last time we went there they had just moved and left no relocation address on the door. (we used to take our children there quite often.) a few months later, i found out that they were still around but never bothered to find the address. years later, a month or so ago, we were looking for a place that wasn't slammed around the landmark theatres and stumbled upon the rio grande about a block away. so that's where it is, we said. the food wasn't half bad -- the old formulas were still holding up -- although we left feeling stuffed like pigs, which is what you can expect to happen if you order the platters or a pound of fajitas. the premium margaritas were pretty good ($10). the service was uncoordinated and slow, a switch from the uncoordinated and fast service we had remembered. i have nothing particularly against this place, but i wonder what circumstances would bring me back.

[lperry]

Whitlow's in Clarendon. I know, it's not that great a place anyway, but we had to go to the Apple store and we were both famished, so we went to Whitlow's. This was Tuesday night around 8:30 PM, and there were hardly any other customers in the place. The hostess tried to seat us at a table in the middle of the empty room, and my BF asked for a booth (since they didn't look too busy). She was pleasant enough and seated us. In a few minutes our waitress came by, took our drink order, then stepped to the next table and began chatting with the customers. One minutes passes. Two minutes pass. Five minutes pass. We wait and wait and she is standing no more than seven feet from our table and can see us very clearly. Did I mention we were both really hungry? We put the menus to the side, stared at her pointedly, and nothing. Nada. Zilch. She's just chatting away. BF gets up, goes to the hostess and asks if she could please seat us where someone will take our order. She says, "well, I can tap her on the shoulder..." So the waitress is now pissed at us and she was short and copping attitude through the whole meal. It made mediocre food terrible, we wondered how much spit we might be ingesting, and we won't go back. Not even for music and drinks.

[Roo]

My "Never Again" experience regarding Whitlow's was when they tried to charge my two friends and I the $5 cover at 8:57pm. The $5 cover is only charged starting at 9:00pm. When we pointed out this fact to the bouncer, and (very politely, I swear) showed him our cell phones with the time registering at 8:57pm, he told us we'd have to ask the guy standing next to him (the manager?). This guy, who overheard the first part of the transaction, just looked at us, shrugged, and said "5 bucks." So we left. And I went to the Galaxy Hut for the first time, which proved much better than Whitlow's ever had been. The sheer indifference of the bouncers, trying to blantantly rip us off and not caring if we left, upped the experience to a "Never Again."

[DanielK]

The new Thai Pavillion in Rockville Town Square.

Arrived at 8:30 on a Saturday night. Place was pretty busy. We were greeted pretty quickly at the door, and pleasantly informed that it would be around 15 minutes for a table. Had the kids with us, so almost left, but realized that unless we went for fast food, we weren't going to eat quicker elsewhere, so decided to wait it out. The pleasant young woman at the host stand handed us a menu to peruse while waiting.

After 20 minutes, we were shown to a table. A few minutes later, the waiter comes over, and apologetically admits that there's at least a 30 minute backup in the kitchen. This is too long, so we go to leave, and I thank the waiter for being so honest. At the way out, I stop at the host stand to talk with the young woman. The way the conversation goes, it's clear that she knew there was a kitchen backup, so I ask for the manager.

The manager comes over, and introduces himself as one of the owners. I explain the situation, and point out that he really should have trained his hostess that a family with young kids, dithering over whether to stay with a 15 minute wait at 8:30 at night, should be told that the kitchen is severely backed up.

His response, and I am paraphrasing, is "we had a meeting on this today, and the waiter shouldn't have said that."

I'm flabbergasted, and repeat what he just said to make sure I heard it. Yup - he wanted the waiter not to say anything to us, so we would put in an order and be trapped at the table. Then he blames the hostess for telling us that she knew about the kitchen backup. I press him, hoping that he'll take responsibility for the scenario. Nope. He did admit that next time he will make sure that the hosted doesn't KNOW about the kitchen backup. Since he had a meeting about this, I'm guessing this is a common occurrence there.

I wasn't looking for a handout, just an apology. I got neither. I sure hope the food stinks, because I would hate to have to enforce my lifetime ban against some decent Thai food.

[FunnyJohn]

The new Thai Pavillion in Rockville Town Square.

Arrived at 8:30 on a Saturday night. Place was pretty busy. We were greeted pretty quickly at the door, and pleasantly informed that it would be around 15 minutes for a table. Had the kids with us, so almost left, but realized that unless we went for fast food, we weren't going to eat quicker elsewhere, so decided to wait it out. The pleasant young woman at the host stand handed us a menu to peruse while waiting.

After 20 minutes, we were shown to a table. A few minutes later, the waiter comes over, and apologetically admits that there's at least a 30 minute backup in the kitchen. This is too long, so we go to leave, and I thank the waiter for being so honest. At the way out, I stop at the host stand to talk with the young woman. The way the conversation goes, it's clear that she knew there was a kitchen backup, so I ask for the manager.

The manager comes over, and introduces himself as one of the owners. I explain the situation, and point out that he really should have trained his hostess that a family with young kids, dithering over whether to stay with a 15 minute wait at 8:30 at night, should be told that the kitchen is severely backed up.

His response, and I am paraphrasing, is "we had a meeting on this today, and the waiter shouldn't have said that."

I'm flabbergasted, and repeat what he just said to make sure I heard it. Yup - he wanted the waiter not to say anything to us, so we would put in an order and be trapped at the table. Then he blames the hostess for telling us that she knew about the kitchen backup. I press him, hoping that he'll take responsibility for the scenario. Nope. He did admit that next time he will make sure that the hosted doesn't KNOW about the kitchen backup. Since he had a meeting about this, I'm guessing this is a common occurrence there.

I wasn't looking for a handout, just an apology. I got neither. I sure hope the food stinks, because I would hate to have to enforce my lifetime ban against some decent Thai food.

WoW! So, in other words, the manger/owner is honestly diappointed with the honesty of his staff, and also honest enough to confess about a policy at this establishment of being intentionally dishonest with the customers. UNBELEIVABLE. Where did you and the kids finally get something to eat?

[jiveturk21]

This was probably six years ago and I have no idea what the name of the Thai restaurant was (it was down in Virginia Beach, we had some work to do down there for a week), but we were not allowed to get extra rice with our order. It was a carryout order for four or five people, the total cost was probably in the $60 range, and we asked for extra rice. We didn't ask for it for free, we were willing to pay whatever, but the owner just said, "You are not allowed to have extra rice." I asked why and she replied, "We are running low and we are not going to waste it on you guys." Not knowing what the hell that meant, we left our order on the counter and walked out without our food.

Yes, this has no real relevance to this topic, but over the years I have learned that the people at Thai restaurants are brutally honest, they will tell you how it is, even if they could care less whether it is something that they should be saying or not.

[Banco]

...I'm flabbergasted, and repeat what he just said to make sure I heard it. Yup - he wanted the waiter not to say anything to us, so we would put in an order and be trapped at the table. Then he blames the hostess for telling us that she knew about the kitchen backup...

"Kafkaesque" is becoming slightly overused (probably owing to the myriad opportunities one has of late to use it) but I think it definitely applies here.

[DanielK]

WoW! So, in other words, the manger/owner is honestly diappointed with the honesty of his staff, and also honest enough to confess about a policy at this establishment of being intentionally dishonest with the customers. UNBELEIVABLE. Where did you and the kids finally get something to eat?

I was shocked at his position as well.

We walked a couple of doors down to the fast-food-ish Primo Italiano, which was mediocre but fast.

[jaimetown]

I haven't had too many appalling instances of poor service but the one that really sticks out in my mind was at Jin Sung Garden in Annandale about 5 years ago. I ordered a dish, and along with my wife waited a while for the dish to arrive. When our food finally arrived my dish was a different one - I pointed this out to our server and she said "well, it will take a while to make - why don't you just take this one?" I was flabbergasted - I did give her this look "you have to be kidding me" and said that I'd take it only because I was starving. We left no tip and have never returned.