Spent Easter Sunday prepping, painting, reversing a door and installing a new lock set in a basement room of my condo building with lots of help from the roommates. So, we decided to treat ourselves to a walk in the nice weather, a meal at Chicago Uno Grill ("UNO's") in Georgetown, and then a movie for two of us (the other roommate has better taste in movies).
We haven't been to UNO in Georgetown in a very long time, well over a year (maybe mid-2008). On that last visit we were also planning to see a movie, and we told our waitress so before we ordered to make sure we had enough time. Of course she said "yes". Great. We order. And we wait. And wait. And...you get the picture. I had to chase down our waitress (who seemed to disappear partway through our waiting). The pizza arrived very late, was not cooked properly, and was more or less room temperature. We complained, the manager came by our table, offered to remake it but we decline due to our time constraints. The manager adjusted our bill to zero, which was fair but still left us hungry and without time to get anything but popcorn and soda (a hot dog, you say?) at the concession stand. The manager also asked us to return soon and gave us a business card with a note on it - which I've since lost - that I believe might have resulted in a discount of some sort on our next visit.
So, Easter Sunday, around 3:30 PM, we arrive at UNO on M Street. I tell the hostess that they are on probation due to our poor experience on our last visit and to please give us a waitress who will see to it that it doesn't happen again. We are assigned a woman who was allegedly a "supervisor" of some sort. We ordered the "taster plate" appetizer, which was about $12. The photo to the left is what arrived at our table (there was a third ramekin of marinara but we'd already moved that to the table before I took this photo. The photo makes it look better than it was!).
There are supposed to be onion rings on this plate. There are a total of about 4-5 complete but very skinny "rings", and the rest of the meager pile at the "12 o'clock" position is broken pieces and bits. Two chicken strips, three "hot wings", and some fries. Perhaps folks in DC actually think this is a good value for their money, but I and my roommates certainly did not.
I walked to the bar and found a manager (I knew he was because he was holding a cash organizer (complete with money) for a register. I think his name was Frank. I told him about my concern and he immediately said they had run out of the mozzarella sticks but the kitchen was supposed to be adding more of other items to make up the difference. He came over and saw our plate. He began to remove the plate to return it to the kitchen while having it remade, but then asked if we'd like to nibble from it while we waited - YES PLEASE, as we were very hungry. Frank then came and asked if we'd like our pizza to come out with our remade appetizer plate, or should the pizza come later. "All at once is fine". The new plate was MUCH better, with a mound of onion rings, and more of each of the goodies than the first plate.
Then the pizza came. Prima Pepperoni. It seemed smaller than I remember, even though we had ordered the large. I thought, 'it's OK...it's really thick with toppings'. Nope - I forgot about the wire rack that supports the crust above the pan bottom. I thought, 'well, it's still filling at least because the pastry-like crust is worth eating'. Nope, not today - it was more dry and cardboard-like than I've ever had at an UNO, and I've been at them in a number of US States over the years. One of the roomies was very disappointed and only ate the toppings off of one piece - it's a good thing we had LOTS of appetizers left so he could keep eating.
I and the other roomie did manage to eat the remaining pizza - there wasn't that much to it - but none of us had eaten ANY of the crust edges. In fact, we reassembled the pizza crust in the pan, something like a puzzle. I'd guess that about 30% of the "base" was still there upon reassembly, which is unheard of for us at an UNO because the crust is usually pretty good. 100% of the outer edge of crust was still there, too.
Frank tried to fix things for us. He never said anything of the kind, but I got the feeling his hands were somewhat tied. I did not complain about the pizza (although the reassembled pizza in the pan might be a tip off), so Frank didn't have an opportunity to make that right. The waitress was just OK, but she brought refills to the table without asking if we'd actually like another; as it happened, I had started with a regular Coke because I felt my blood sugar needed a quick hit, but I certainly did not want a 2nd one - I wanted a Diet Coke for my refill. But, since I'd already made a fuss about the appetizer plate, I just accepted the 2nd Coke and kept quiet. I also believe she should have refuse to bring the first appetizer plate to our table looking as it had.
I must recommend you stay away from this establishment unless you are in the mood to vent your frustrations at the staff.
