Galileo is fortunately closed for a year. Hopefully it will re-emerge with some of its early charm. Kinkeads isn't worth much, and Citronelle has fallen so far as to be an embarassment of its former self. Frankly, though, I've found Colvin Run to have improved over a rather poor opening and I enjoy meals there when I find myself out in the Tysons area.

It's probably time for me to try Colvin Run again. My favorite place in Tysons is The Palm, and I seem to keep getting drawn there over and over...

My two favorite restaurants in the area (to help provide further perspective to those who were puzzled by my list of disappointing places) are Equinox and 2941. I also enjoy La Bergerie, Geranio, Magnolia's at the Mill, Bazin's on Church, and such pedestrain staples as Legal Sea Foods and The Cheesecake Factory.

I know we are getting off topic here, but I had lunch at Restaurant Kolumbia last week. It was excellent and I was surprised. BTW, it is also an idine place.

I don't think it to be idine every day.

Have been to wine tasting dinners recently at geranio, r kolumbia and la bergerie. all were excellent. so were tastings at vermillion and Finn&Porter alexandria(??). some places really go upscale for a tasting dinner.

Let that be a warning to everyone! :p
Seriously though, no idine on Friday or Saturday. They are closed on Sunday.

I had a pretty bad meal at Galileo just before they closed. The service was rude (the waiter joked about me being the only one at the table without a menu), the food was average and the portions small.

Maestro at the Ritz sounded like a wonderful idea, made dinner reservations days ahead. We had a lot to celebrate; we both had been very busy over the past months, perfect setting to extract ourselves. I even requested a romantic and quiet table. I was definitely looking forward to it. I have stayed and had dinners at a few Ritz Carlton’s around the globe and always appreciated the quality of the service, food and settings. Friends and colleagues told me Maestro was going to be a special experience.

We were getting hungry; our reservation was for 9:30pm. Le Maitre d’Hôtel Emanuele welcomes us and nicely suggests we go have a drink at the bar while our table was getting set. “Someone will come get you” sounded imminent. Surprise, the Maestro’s bar was packed, smoke and a giant TV screen. I was expecting something more like a nice Billy Joel kindda piano bar. The Maestro’s bar is a sports’ bar, reminded me of a few chains. We ordered a couple glasses of wine after eye chasing the barman behind the bar for a few minutes. We were given a plate of recycled peanuts I wonder how many people touched with their fingers going to there mouths in the course of the day. The service was … let’s just say there was no service at the bar. I expect more from the bar of the Ritz Carlton’s Maestro restaurant.

It’s 45 minute later, about 10:15pm, we are getting hungry, walking back to the restaurant’s reception to be shown our table; any table would have been fine at that point. A lady very directly unwelcomes us with shocking arrogance, greated us in Spanish, I am European and tanned but I don’t believe I look Spanish. I would have been impressed, the Ritz’s “wow” factor but that was not the case, displaced and not worth the risk of being wrong. So, I am not sure what she actually first told us; maybe it was nice. No apologies for the delay whatsoever. Before looking up our table and in a weird kind of way questioning our reservation, I am told “no Jeans”. I was wearing $250 Diesel Jeans bought in Paris last month and a Burberry jacket. This is the Ritz Carlton’s restaurant, In, stylish, hospitality, entertainment, right? I am expecting too much, I even felt embarrassed. I just wish they had told me when I first called last Wednesday. I wish they had told me 24 hours before when the Maestro called to confirm their reservation policy, no shows are charged. I wish they had told me about the dress code 45 minutes earlier, we wouldn’t have stopped by the Vallet nor the Maestro’s sports bar.

Le Maitre d’Hôtel shows up another few minutes later all smiley to explain not to bother with the dress code, we’re fine. Maybe it was the jacket or maybe it was my fashion stylist date who looked awesomely European “elegante” that night. Without a reasonable explanation, Emanuele Le Maitre d’Hotel mumbled that we were not going to have a table at all afterall, not really sorry for the wait, the reception, the cancellation policy, …..I did not want a table either at this point. I felt sorry, and embarrassed for taking my date to the Ritz Carlton Maestro restaurant in McLean. Bad idea! It was maybe 10:30pm, standing in front of the podium waiting for a 9:30pm table. I was surprised, stunned and I wish the reservations had been for 6:00pm to actually have time to turn around some plan B. We ended up having a late dinner at O’Connell’s on King Street in Old Town Alexandria. The Irish staff took care of us as if we were at the Ritz’s Maestro restaurant … I mean, no. O’Connell beat my expectations and certainly beat the Ritz. The service at the Ritz’ Maestro restaurant was politely disgusting, not sure about the food, never got a chance to review.

Most customer facing businesses understand customer lifetime value, how much more expensive it is to win back a gone customer than doing right by them in the first place. Sometimes you have to burn through a few customers to learn and make many more happier. Please, make up for it, much cheaper in the long run. I wonder how many times we would have taken people over to the Ritz’ Maestro over the next 40 years in stead of sharing this negative experience. It’s all about your product and branding, baby! :confused:

Jeans aside, what was the explanation for why they didn't have a table for you? That they were closing?

first, I would like to welcome you to FT.

second, I too have been to many RC's that have treated me very poorly. Not quite as badly as your kiss. find attitude to be their biggest strength. I have yet to find one to have quality and value outweigh attitude.

I may not show well, as I am of eastern european decent, fat, and old, however, I have been treated most decently in about 20 micheline 3*'s on a frequent basis(been dumped on by a few also).

Very bad experience at the Ritz Maestro in McLean, VA
 

I can relate to many of the comments above. My experience at the Maestro was ridiculously bad. Maestro at the Ritz sounded like a wonderful idea, made dinner reservations days ahead. We had a lot to celebrate; we both had been very busy over the past months, perfect setting to extract ourselves. I even requested a romantic and quiet table. I was definitely looking forward to it. I have stayed and had dinners at a few Ritz Carlton’s around the globe and always appreciated the quality of the service, food and settings. Friends and colleagues told me Maestro was going to be a special experience.

We were getting hungry; our reservation was for 9:30pm. Le Maitre d’Hôtel Emanuele welcomes us and nicely suggests we go have a drink at the bar while our table was getting set. “Someone will come get you” sounded imminent. Surprise, the Maestro’s bar was packed, smoke and a giant TV screen. I was expecting something more like a nice Billy Joel kindda piano bar. The Maestro’s bar is a sports’ bar, reminded me of a few chains. We ordered a couple glasses of wine after eye chasing the barman behind the bar for a few minutes. We were given a plate of recycled peanuts I wonder how many people touched with their fingers going to there mouths in the course of the day. The service was … let’s just say there was no service at the bar. I expect more from the bar of the Ritz Carlton’s Maestro restaurant.

It’s 45 minute later, about 10:15pm, we are getting hungry, walking back to the restaurant’s reception to be shown our table; any table would have been fine at that point. A lady very directly unwelcomes us with shocking arrogance, greated us in Spanish, I am European and tanned but I don’t believe I look Spanish. I would have been impressed, the Ritz’s “wow” factor but that was not the case, displaced and not worth the risk of being wrong. So, I am not sure what she actually first told us; maybe it was nice. No apologies for the delay whatsoever. Before looking up our table and in a weird kind of way questioning our reservation, I am told “no Jeans”. I was wearing $250 Diesel Jeans bought in Paris last month and a Burberry jacket. This is the Ritz Carlton’s restaurant, In, stylish, hospitality, entertainment, right? I am expecting too much, I even felt embarrassed. I just wish they had told me when I first called last Wednesday. I wish they had told me 24 hours before when the Maestro called to confirm their reservation policy, no shows are charged. I wish they had told me about the dress code 45 minutes earlier, we wouldn’t have stopped by the Vallet nor the Maestro’s sports bar.

Le Maitre d’Hôtel shows up another few minutes later all smiley to explain not to bother with the dress code, we’re fine. Maybe it was the jacket or maybe it was my fashion stylist date who looked awesomely European “elegante” that night. Without a reasonable explanation, Emanuele Le Maitre d’Hotel mumbled that we were not going to have a table at all afterall, not really sorry for the wait, the reception, the cancellation policy, …..I did not want a table either at this point. I felt sorry, and embarrassed for taking my date to the Ritz Carlton Maestro restaurant in McLean. Bad idea! It was maybe 10:30pm, standing in front of the podium waiting for a 9:30pm table. I was surprised, stunned and I wish the reservations had been for 6:00pm to actually have time to turn around some plan B. We ended up having a late dinner at O’Connell’s on King Street in Old Town Alexandria. The Irish staff took care of us as if we were at the Ritz’s Maestro restaurant … I mean, no. O’Connell beat my expectations and certainly beat the Ritz. The service at the Ritz’ Maestro restaurant was politely disgusting, not sure about the food, never got a chance to review.

Most customer facing businesses understand customer lifetime value, how much more expensive it is to win back a gone customer than doing right by them in the first place. Sometimes you have to burn through a few customers to learn and make many more happier. Please, make up for it, much cheaper in the long run. I wonder how many times we would have taken people over to the Ritz’ Maestro over the next 40 years in stead of sharing this negative experience. It’s all about your product and branding, baby!

I had one of the worst dining experiences of my life at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons. This was more than 10 years ago - I have no idea if the restaurant was the same.

The night was February 14, and my (same-sex) partner and I were there with a married couple. At the time, we were relatively young - early 30's. The service was dreadful. At one point my partner actually went into the kitchen to ask for iced tea because we were unable to get anyone's attention. I ultimately got up, sought out the maitre d' and chewed his ear off. It didn't help. We got there around 8 and didn't finish until after midnight. Meanwhile most of the other tables came and went.

I found it verrry interesting that almost all of the other tables consisted of middle-aged white couples (or older men with young women). I also found it interesting that the table next to us had two African-American couples - and they had exactly the same problems we did.

We gritted our teeth a lot but in the end just wrote it off. If it happened today I'd go completely ballistic.:D

Not the same restaurant.

But apparently the same service and customer-neglectful attitude...

As much as I am devoted to FT...
I suggest that anyone reading this thread who is considering dining at Maestro also head over to Chowhound.com for what I think is a better sampling of opinions.


The negativity here just does not add up IMO...sure I and a few others have tried to balance it a bit, but the overall tone is not reflective of the consensus of opinions of food die-hards within and out of DC.

I just tried to read Chowhounds. I get the same results every time. Lots of tangents, no theme, or consistancy.

When asked to name top 5 restaurants, 20 people named a total of about 70 restaurnats. Mastero was mentioned only once or twice. Dino's was among the most popular. Certainly the most popular among italians. cityzen only mentioned twice also.

no mention of seasons, marcel, eve, la paradou, 2941, vidalia,

i do not recall citronelle or girards either.

chowhounds had a big 4 hour blowout at maestro a while back, and everyone raves about that. I think the memory just lingers on. sort of like one of my tasting dinner experiences, where the restaurant knocks themselves out, and the wine is provided at no cost by the purveyor..