The bar at Matchbox--photo by Madame Meow
If you stop by Ted’s Bulletin for a quick lunch on a weekday, you’ll get one foot in the door before you are met with a crowd of people, all of whom are waiting for a table. And when it comes time for dinner, you will surely encounter similar sized crowds at Matchbox Capitol Hill. Whether it is 12noon on a Wednesday or 5pm on a Saturday you will be asked to wait for a table, but the question is: are these restaurants worth the wait?
I was just as anxious as the next guy to try out Ted’s Bulletin when it opened last year. As a kid, I was a regular at our local diner—it was a weekly tradition in my fractured family for my dad to pick me up on Friday night and take me and my blended family to the Somerdale Diner for dinner… or breakfast or lunch! So when I heard Ted’s Bulletin was going to be our second option for a diner on or near the Hill (the first being an actual dining car: Capital City Diner), I was there when it opened, and so was the rest of Capitol Hill. We would walk, drive or bike to Ted’s Bulletin in the first few weeks it was open, but after awhile we were less inclined to wait for a table knowing that our meal wasn’t exactly wait-worthy. Sure, the food was good enough, but we decided early on that it simply wasn’t worth the long wait. It’s been about three months since our last trip to Ted’s.
Now, as long as Matchbox has been on the Hill, my husband and I have willingly waited for a table at the restaurant—whether for brunch, lunch or dinner. If the wait is a fraction of an hour, we crowd around the hostess stand and wait for our name to be called or our “chain restaurant buzzer” to buzz. If the wait is an hour or more we walk up and down the block and share stories from our day. I rarely complain. He never watches the clock. We know our meal is worth the wait—the pizza, the mini burgers, the short ribs, the desserts— because there isn’t one thing at Matchbox that I don’t love. Years after it opened, my husband and I still head to Matchbox at least once a month for dinner because it’s always worth the wait
What restaurants on the Hill do you think are worth the wait? Are there restaurants on the Hill that are always crowded but you can’t understand why?
I don’t wait at any of them. There are too many good restaurants in DC to wait. There is nothing so special at Matchbox or Granville Moore that I’ll cool my heels for an hour or more. We rarely go to places that don’t take reservations. Ted’s is now on opentable, so I’ll book there often. I was thrilled to see them listed. Without that, I bet I’d never go back. When we’ve been to Granville Moore it’s because the place just opened and you can get a table, otherwise we won’t wait. The attitude there is that you’re lucky to be eating their food. Fine. Have at it.
A restaurant that won’t take reservations doesn’t care about my time. Clearly they have all the business they need, so they don’t need mine anyway.
You can make reservations at Matchbox and Ted’s now! (Although, I am still a little foggy on the reservations policy; it seems like reservations are available at off-peak times or that only a very limited number of reservations are available.)
Anyway, I generally agree with you. Ted’s isn’t worth more than a 15-minute wait (although I do enjoy it). Matchbox is worth a much longer wait. I just love the mini burgers so much!
I love going to Hill restaurants versus when we go out to our friends in the suburbs because we don’t have to wait. I guess I must not be getting out much or going to the right places. I know Granville Moore has a long wait. But, there are so many other choices, I’d probably go somewhere else. I know reviewers at the Post – I think Tom Sietsema just put in the Post – wondering “why the Hill supports so many mediocre restaurants.” Welp, they’re better than the places that my friends wait 45 minutes for on a regular basis – yes “Round Robin” I’m thinking of you – and they’re convenient, and I don’t wait. Or as I said, maybe things have changed a lot and this is just a sign I don’t get out enough.
Matchbox doesn’t take reservations over the weekend. . And I don’t care what food reviewers think, i’d prefer to get there myself and decide. That is such a cushy job.
Thanks for the note about OpenTable. Yes, these places are both on OpenTable, and the few times I’ve tried to reserve a table through OpenTable I was out of luck. I either had to eat two weeks from the date I wanted a table or I had to eat at 5pm or 9pm.
It can be helpful if you want to plan in advance.
I’m rarely one to plan to go out to eat, so the service isn’t of help to me, thus I go an wait.
Kyra as you and I have attested to in the past having to wait for a table longer than 15 minutes with a toddler is a no-go, so we either eat early or go where we know we’ll be seated when we arrive (either because of a reservation or because the restaurant does a better job managing it’s crowd).
The shakes at Ted’s are great but I am not sure the rest of the menu there is worth the wait. I’ll wait a little bit for Matchbox and maybe dinner at H Street Country Club, but we’ve got so many options for meals these days I am not inclined to sit around for a table. And contrary to Mr. Sietsema’s assessment we’ve got many options that are better than mediocre.
The only restaurant in our fair neighborhood that is really *worth* the wait is Acqua al 2…but going there without a reservation is ill-advised.
Having said that, and being a lazy Hill resident, sometimes I give in to convenience and end up waiting a long time for good-but-not-life-changing food (read: Matchbox). Nevertheless, I’m thankful that we do have options and that (much to the chagrin of a few whiny neighbors and the delight of basically everyone else) we will have even more food options coming our way soon!
I will suffer any wait for the oyster bar once it opens.
“The only restaurant in our fair neighborhood that is really *worth* the wait is Acqua al 2…but going there without a reservation is ill-advised.”
My thought too… although you can always eat at the bar if you didn’t make a reservation.
Waiting with children is never an option, and I’m usually too hungry to wait. If it is something special, I will make reservations, though. And I love both places!
Don’t forget Pete’s Diner! there is NEVER a wait there and their pancakes are great.
Pete’s? I haven’t been there in a long time…for good reason. Food was very mediocre (bordering poor). And the staff/owners are rude, even if they play it off as their schtick. Maybe that is why there is never a wait.
Take out is your friend, especially at Matchbox. It’s just pizza after all – I’d rather eat it at home and not be beaten over the head with their thumping club music anyway.
Pete’s staff rude?! They are the friendliest people I have ever encounterd!
As a new parent with an infant, I’ll give a different take on Ted’s. While the wait can be a pain, the staff there has consistently gone out of their way to accomodate us with our infant in a car seat. I have watched them do the same with families with toddlers and other young children. The food is always good, if not mind-blowing, but consistently good food with consistently amazing service can certainly be worth the wait. Add in that we generally go early to beat the big crowds, the wait is normally pretty minimal.
And, if it’s too packed, we just keep walking down 8th to Zest, which also has wonderful service and accomodates infants, and usually far less of a wait.
Love 8th Street and also have no problem waiting for Matchbox. We live in NE, and will also gladly wait for Granville Moore’s and even Sticky Rice. Food and atmosphere are great at both!
we love them both. I go to Matchbox on Mon/Wed/Fri and Teds Tues/Thurs/Sat then chinese on Sunday.
I love Ted’s and even if there is a wait, I’ll wait!
I never wait to give people my money. If I can’t get there early, I get a reservation. If I can’t get a reservation, I don’t go at all. Life’s too short and there’s too many other options.
I have to disagree with that assessment of Acqua. We’ve eaten there 3 times now, and not a single thing we’ve tried was worth the expense or the wait. It’s mediocre italian at best.
I think CAVA is worth the wait mostly because it’s a fun atmosphere, and the food is reliably good, and Montmartre is still IMHO the best restaurant overall for a nice dinner. Great food, great wine list, good service.
My husband and I recently stopped in Acqua al 2 on a Wednesday at 6:45. We were greeted with a ‘do you have a reservation’. We said ‘no’ and were advised that we could only eat at the bar then. We left to try Tortilla Coast. After having placed our order I thought I’d just check open table to see what was available at Acqua al 2. And to my surprise there was a time available at 7:15. I was SO MAD!! I’m giving it a second chance tonight, reservation made, but I’ll be sure to mention this hiccup to management while I’m there.
We’ve had some fun nights eating at the bar at our favorite places when they’re too crowded to get a table. Though even that isn’t an option at Granville’s most times. Which is a shame because I do like the frites …
Gina, I’m with you. We were underwhelmed too. Speaking of underwhelmed, Smith Commons has a fabulous bar and great, great drinks and really disappointing food.
I think we could use a Hill food blog. Or is there one already?
@Steve
You’re looking at it (THIH bloggers more than commenters). It’s mostly in the Homer Simpson model of food critic — most everything is “groin-grabbingly transcendent”
Also, Cafe 8 on the other side of Barracks Row is FABULOUS–and rarely has a wait. The back patio is like a little Mediterranean oasis in the middle of the city.
For Acqua, the issue seems to be that people grab reservations to hold them, then cancel on OpenTable shortly before they’re up. Many times you can ask to wait to see if something opens up, and a reservation will be a no-show. This might explain the 7:15 reservation issue. A family member in town who loves the place gets in this way fairly regularly, even on busy nights.
This seems to be a fairly regular occurrence generally with OpenTable in DC — lots of places suddenly have slots open right before prime dinner times, presumably as people cancel at the last minute.
Ethiopic, on H Street NE! It is indeed “groin-grabbingly transcendent” Haha. But Mon Martre is consistently the best for service and food. Consistency is underrated–when you always know you will get a good meal, it is worth the wait. Others reasons to wait, if one is so inclined, include the atmosphere, service and now with the spring weather approaching–outdoor patio seating.
I’ll concede that Ethiopic is very good, as well as Mon Marte and its sister 7th Hill, but otherwise I find much of the enthusiasm for Hill eateries overblown.
So I guess the answer to the question is no. I generally wouldn’t wait very long for a table unless I had guests or visitors to accomodate and no viable alternative.
Las Placitas is the only place I’ll wait for. Standard so-so DC Mexadoran for sure, but they liquor me up so well with free margaritas and tequila shots that I’d be an idiot not to wait.
All others that don’t take a reservation and are more than a 10 min. wait aren’t worth it.
While everyone’s giving his or her opinions…
EM/BR Restaurants
Very good: Monmartre, Acqua al Due
Good: Matchbox, Cava, Market Lunch, DC3, 7th Hill
Good-ish: Ted’s, Capitol Hill Tandoor, Tortilla Cafe, Las Placitas, La Plaza, Ba Bay
Decent: Zest, Old Siam, Levi’s Port Cafe, Tunnicliff’s
Borderline: Belga, Molly Malone’s/Lolas, Fusion Grill, Trattoria Alberto’s
Poor: Jordan’s 8, Chesapeake Room
Very poor: Cafe 8, Banana Cafe
Unrated (only been once): Starfish Cafe
The truth is we simply don’t have enough decent restaurants in DC. It’s not ‘normal’ in most cities to have to wait an hour for a table even during off hours and nights for pretty much every decent restaurant in town.
DC government makes it very difficult to open and operate a restaurant.
If we had more options for restaurants, we’d see less of a wait.
Montmartre fans should also check out Bistro Cacao nextdoor to Cafe Berlin. Similiar bistro style fare, but a more intimate setting. The steak frites are one of the better examples in DC. About the worst you could say is that the wine list is middling and a bit overpriced but the cooking is spot on.
If the seating at Montmartre were any more intimate, the bunny eaters there would be sitting on each others’ laps.
I should also mention that while there’s never a wait, I have found Sanphan for Thai to be excellent. I also love 7th Hill for pizza, just wish I didn’t have to mortgage my house to buy pies for my family of five (which includes one teenage boy who can inhale two of their pizzas by himself) Personally, I think all the chain-ready restaurants (Ted’s DC3 Matchbox Good Stuff WethePizza) to be totally overrated and over priced without exception. Someday Hill landlords and DCRA will make it easier for a small restaurant to open up and not feel like they have to build a market for their national chain idea.
Sanphan is great when they don’t leave your credit card sitting on the bar so someone can steal your number and rack up charges.
I have no problem with restauranteurs opening multiple businesses. Our dc chains are not quite the same as The Olive Garden.
I really need to check out bistro cacao. Is it kid friendly? I see another kid friendly post in my future.
Peepo
I think your list is pretty accurate with two exceptions. I found Acqua to be pretty average and I think the rating for the Chesapeake room is pretty harsh. I’d bump it up to decent.
My wife and I avoided it for a long time because we heard such negative things about the food, but we’ve been a couple of times in the last two or three months and thought it was fine. By that I mean, if we’re just wandering down Barracks row and other places are busy, we’re content with it.
Our best meals on the Hill have been Monmartre, though I could use a little less attitude from the staff.
I’m generally not a fan of waiting, but I’m willing to wait for these places on the Hill:
Montmarte
Bistro Cacao
Granville Moore’s
Zest
Belga Cafe
Cava
Some other faves I have are Atlas Room and Smith Commons, although I haven’t had to wait longer than 30 minutes at either. I also haven’t been to Atlas Room in awhile, probably because it’s no longer a well kept secret. The food is still somewhat inconsistent at Smith Commons, but I’ve generally been pretty happy with my choices.
I wish we had more fine dining options on The Hill, or perhaps just bigger spaces.
I love Trattoria Alberto. Cannelloni and minestrone are delicious. Such nice waiters, too.
I like it much better than some of the newer restaurants that generate long lines.
And there’s no wait.