Ripple (DC)

I have absolutely no idea why this place is so popular, especially because Ardeo is only doors down and does what Ripple does except much much better.

The service at Ripple might be the worst I've seen at the nice restaurants in DC. We waited 5 minutes to get seated at the bar, 10 minutes to get the bartender to give us menus, another 10 minutes for the bartender to take our order, and 15 minutes to get the drinks. At some point another bartender came over to see if we had been helped and when we said that supposedly the bartender was making our drinks he gave us a completely condescending look and told us that the bar had gotten busy very fast. No apology. Our table is ready after 45 minutes and the hostess told us it would be easier if we closed out our tab. So we try. First we ask the hostess. She can't close out our tab-- only the bartender can. Um, ok. Another half an hour later (not exaggerating) we finally are able to close out our tab despite expressing such a desire thrice times.

At this point I am starving and so very ready to go to Ardeo instead of wasting my time here. But we stick it out. The hostess was nice enough and kept thanking us for being patient. Our waitress too was very nice. But honestly the food did not blow me away. I started with the farm egg and tomato consume. It was OK. It tasted like spicy chorizo. If you like chorizo you would love this dish. My boyfriend ordered the popcorn soup. It looked like vomit. I had to close my eyes when I tasted it. Like the consume, it was just ok- flavor wise. For entrees I had the steak (which was waaay too chewy) and my boyfriend had the angoletti which was tiny sized and a bit too olivey for my tastes.

The cheeses and the drinks were very good. Between us we sampled three wines and three cocktails. All were on par with a place like Gibson's. But ultimately I could not get over how unapologetically bad the service was. At first I thought it was just under staffed but I came to realize that the problem was that not enough people were trained to be bartenders. Three people managing as hostess were not needed-- instead they needed more bartenders.

Ultimately, this place really sucked but could get better with a new manager.

2 of 5 spoons!

Moderately expensive ($$$).