Alero Restaurant

Reviews 4

MI

Mitchell Everett

Its the weekend of my 30th birthday. I made a reservation for 15 at 8pm for Jan 30 a week prior to my scheduled dinner. I called them the day of and asked my reservation be moved back to 8:30pm and to up it to 17 guests. I arrived at 8pm. Its really busy and my friends begin to arrive. I go to check in closer to 8:15 to let them know most of my party had arrived. The hostess says they need a few minutes to get the tables together. About 30 mins later, I go up to the hostess who looks like a deer caught in headlights. Another lady, assuming whose either a manager or lead hostess, asks me if my party was here and if I made a reservation. I had JUST confirmed this information with the other hostess, who seemed confused still. They told me to give them a few more mins to get the tables together. At about an hour after my reservation time, we still had yet to be seated. A member of my party requested to speak with the manager, and they immediately began to figure out how to pull tables together in an already crowded restaurant. They concluded they were waiting on another party who appeared to be having a problem with paying their bill. The manager on duty apologized to us and offered to comp our appetizers. An hour and 45 mins later, the party ahead of us finally got the bill straight and gave their cards and money to cash out. At this point, we learned that Aleros system went down so they were unable to cash out the bill. They had to manually process their credit cards. They give this party a round of shots to appease them. Now, at 2 hours, and 4 people of my party leaving, they tell us that they wont be able to seat us unless we all had cash. Further, a new manager chose not honor the promised compd food. At this point, it wasnt even about the cash only, it was about the inconvenience and how Alero at U Street decided to handle it. We didnt just show up with a huge party w/ no reservation. They had known about this for a week which was reconfirmed the day of. They showed us they were completely incompetent of planning in advance for a large party, and inadequate in I their ability to fix the situation. We ended up leaving the restaurant and going to the Matchbox down the street. We told them what had transpired, and THEY gave us appetizers for FREE. They turned a horrible evening into a great one. Do yourself a favor: skip Alero at U street for any event with a large group of people. You might just find yourself lied to, hungry, and annoyed. Its just not worth it.

BL

Blake Ourso

Im not sure why Id never gone to this place before. Weve seen it plenty of times and just walked by. We were wandering around the city and needed some food before a show at the 9:30 club and decided to try something different than the usual Duffys action. We walked in and were pleasantly greeted and quickly sat by the friendly staff. We dug through the Margarita menu and made random choices on the Passion Fruit half pitcher. Not bad for 20$. You get about 3 drinks in the pitcher so the price is about right. Sadly, it was hard to detect any drop of alcohol in it so Im rating it down for that. It was on the rocks people. You can judge how much youre putting in. Its not out of a machine! Now comes the food. I ordered the ribeye and ordered it med-rare. It didnt take too long to come out but if compared to a normal Mexican eatery it was slow. I will say that my steak was PERFECTLY cooked. Hot on the outside, warm even pink on the inside. It was great. Whatever sauce they put on top of it simply made my year. So freaking amazing. Ill definitely be eating this again. Service was pretty decent to average. We were checked up on plenty and there were bus boys walking around who also would refill your water for you. We never ran low and I drink a lot when I eat. I appreciated the top hats, although Im not sure if thats their daily thing or b/c it was December 29th and close to NYE. Tables were nice and clean, atmosphere was great. Plenty of space between tables even though it was a smallish room. I will say I hate that they have those annoying bathroom attendant guys trying to assist me in washing my hands. Go away! Ive been doing this for 28 years. I dont need your assistance or the guilt b/c I dont want to give you a dollar for you talking on your phone while I use the bathroom! Ugh! Pet peeve...

A

A Private User

My friend planned a birthday celebration and RESERVED, several days before, an 11-party seating at 8:00 pm Saturday night at Aleros on U St. Those of us that arrived exactly at 8:00 were told that we couldnt be seated until the full party was there. The entire party was there by 8:05, but we did not get seated until 8:45, despite our reservation! So, once we were finally seated, we ordered a round of drinks which didnt arrive for another 20 minutes. There were only six menus on the table when we got there and more where not given to us even though we asked for more. Not enough silverware was on the table but by that point. . Our food orders were taken, and finally came, but by then, we were eating dinner at almost 10:00 pm! What is the point of making a reservation at a restaurant if you do not get seated on time? And, candidly, the margarita that I ordered from the bar had no tequila in at and was all sour mix and then the pitchers of margaritas for the table were just as bad, except for that they were pure tequila with no sour mix! I was disappointed in this restaurant from the moment I walked in and ordered a drink at the bar! My opinion from this experience is that Aleros on U St. can barely handle a regular Saturday-night crowd, let alone any big-party reservations on the weekends! The horrible service was the subject matter of our friends birthday party. Several people in our party work in the service industry and commented on the sub-standard service that we received, especially considering the size of our party. So, if you are planning a big birthday-dinner for someone, dont go to Aleros!!! I will not go back to any Aleros nor do I anyone else that was with us will return to this establishment. Obviously I will recommend anyone that asks me about this restaurant not to even bother.

CH

Christie Cooper

Aleros was one of my favorite restaurants, until last night. Last night was the most embarrassing and the worst customer service experience for my friends and I. I came to join a group of six of my other friends, and it was clear the server was overwhelmed (or maybe new). There was confusion with the bill, in which we paid for drinks we received, and drinks we did not receive yet but thought they were on the way (the drinks were around $20 total). When the drinks did not arrive after some time, we asked for the drinks again. When we received our final bill, we were double charged for drinks. The server was adamant that we in fact received the drinks, and we explained very calmly the situation. We asked for the Manager, he came over to our table and we explained to him again, and he informed us that he needed to look at the tape (video) to determine if what we were saying was indeed the truth. We said that was fine, although we were pretty sure he could have pulled up the receipt to verify, and then we had three police officers come over to our table, and we explained the situation to them. Im not sure why they felt they needed to call the police, but we still remained calm. It was indeed embarrassing, as now, all eyes were on us. This was all over two drinks totaled at around $20, for which we never received, but the Manager and Server thought we were lying. One of the drinks was removed from the receipt, and because of the unnecessary ordeal we just went through, we paid for the drinks we did receive and the one we didnt receive, and we explained that was the case to the Server and the Police Officers. I thought in customer service that the customer is always right. Apparently, that is not something that Aleros management believes.