A friend sent me a list of "Best Brunches in DC" and I picked this one to try because of location and option to sit on the rooftop.
The 1-3 star reviews are all very accurate to my experience.
Problem 1: Brunch was supposed to begin at 12pm based on the website. When we got there, the hostess in the main lobby of the diner said that there was a private event finishing up at noon, and we would be let up at 12:15 after the space cleared and staff could clean up. We, along with the small brunch crowd they gathered were finally let up after 12:30p. When we got off of the elevator, people from the private event were still up there, and commented "oh I guess there letting people up, we should go". So, not only did the private event commandeer the space past their allotted time, but the management staff didn't seem to enforce that they had other paying (and very hungry) customers waiting to sit down and eat. And they were still arranging chairs and wiping tables when the new guests came up.
Problem 2: it took several minutes to realize that there is no wait staff. It is a walk-up ordering system on the rooftop, and not a single hostess or bartender or anyone let the guests know that. As a first time guest, even a sign would have been helpful. I asked someone who was wiping a table for a couple of menus I saw her holding, and she handed me one. When I asked for a second one for the other people at my table she said "well I need this one." I'm sorry, what? You work here and you need to hold on to a physical menu?
So with our ONE menu, my friends and I decided what we want to eat, and eventually walked up to the two bartenders to order.
Problem 3: you order your drinks and food together. The bartender will make your drink(s), hand them to you, take your food order, then hand you silverware, an order number on a stick to put on your table, and you alone are expected to carry this back to your table. I had to ask a friend to help me with everything, and we had to make a few trips back and forth to our table. Why not have one staff member drop rolled silverware to the tables with guest? It's the least they could do.
Problem 4: The food was delivered by one sole staff member who messed up the first few deliveries to our table and others. He brought a ton of incorrect food to our table and started putting it in front of us while we were trying to tell him that these were incorrect. He then apologized several times and started moving with his large tray to other table, but left someone's burger sitting at the edge of our table for several minutes before coming back to get it. If it had been my food I would have been pissed that no safety precaution was taken to prevent someone else from breathing on my food.
*oh also, it says in their specs that masks are required, they are not. Not a single staff member was wearing a mask.
Problem 4: The actual food. We ordered several items, none of which were well seasoned. Chicken in the chicken biscuit was crispy, but BLAND. Steak and eggs were $25 for a very small unseasoned flank steak, and two unseasoned eggs. No salt and pepper was to be found anywhere. My friend ordered something with fried green tomatoes and said it was also severely bland. We didn't finish our food.
The rooftop was nothing to write home about. If you are in the area and want to pop up for a happy hour to get some fresh air, it works. But it's just a bunch of industrial rooftops, nothing to really see. There are better views in DC. read more