B. is for bad?

Its restaurant week in DC so Es made plans for us to go out to dinner and meet her beau. We'd been looking forward to it for weeks since our experience last year in Baltimore for the same event was so good! A three course meal at a great restaurant for around $30. Es made a reservation for B. Smith's. I'd seen her on TV, the Southern food description sounded great. What we got, not so much.

We got seated relatively quickly, after that there was nothing quick about the experience. It took at fifteen minutes for someone to take our order, close to half an hour to get salads--really, we know you make them ahead, how much time could it really take? Mine was about as forgettable as they come. We watched others get served (and others look disgruntled) around us. Finally a manager came over and apologized. In her nicest voice Es asked to make sure something would be done to compensate us--it had been well over an hour since we arrived at this point. She also promised more bread (it was 8:30 and we were HUNGRY) Finally dinner came, mine was okay but not great, the others said theirs was soggy and appeared to have been sitting around for a long, long time. Our waiter was nearly non-existent, occasionally he'd come by and fill a water glass or bring out a new soda but not often and never a word of apology from his mouth. We couldn't even get the bill paid when we finally finished after 9 PM--Gman had to go to the maitre d' to get him to track down our waiter to take our check. Needless to say, his tip was not large.

If the idea of restaurant week is to lure diners to your restaurant with a good deal your food and your service should give the impression that you'd like them to come back. For us, it is bye-bye for B. Smith. Gman and I have a reservation for dinner in Baltimore during restaurant week and I certainly hope the experience is better than this one!

The bright spot of the evening was definitely meeting DCLawyer and getting to know him a bit. He's cute and personable, the good Midwestern farm boy I would have expected with a bit of city smarts.