Maison Bar à Vins

Maison has an excellent, warm ambiance and good service, but the food was disappointingly average. Nice place if you care mostly about atmosphere, but for me, it’s not worth a second visit. Seating & Service: I reserved a high-top for two on a Sunday night, and luckily got seated at a private table rather than the communal table. It’s unclear to me which reservations are for the communal table. The waitstaff were very polite and attentive. They also didn’t rush us out and let us linger, which I appreciate (but this may be because there wasn’t a reservation right after us). However, I do wish that they provided more detail about the menu and drinks without having to be prompted. We had to inquire about recommended dishes, suggested wine pairings, and portion sizes ourselves. Food: FYI, the dinner menu generally goes in order of size, with the smaller plates at the top and the larger plates towards the bottom. As expected, prices per dish also increase as you move down the menu. All the menus (including prices) change frequently so don’t rely on the menus on the website to guide you. We ordered the Warm Manifest Bread ($9), Miso Caesar Salad ($19), Dry Aged Beef Tartare ($23), and the Escargot ($24) plus one cocktail ($18), a glass of wine ($16), and dessert ($15). For these prices and based on other reviews, I expected every bite to be fantastic, but the portions were very small and the quality and taste were average. The escargot was a little too salty for my taste and was strangely hidden under a puff pastry. I enjoyed the tartare the most, but it only came with three small pieces. I had high expectations, but sadly Maison fell short.

Really enjoyed our anniversary dinner here and the bubbly they poured for us. Great service and beautifully decorated. Wine list has many French and natural/biodynamic wines; waiters/somms have solid recommendations and walk you through the beverage/food menu. Standout dishes included the tuna tartare amuse bouche, brioche stuffed chicken, morel tart, and clam pasta, although they change their menu every few weeks. It’s a compact space, but with the carpeted floors and drapes they have it doesn’t get overwhelmingly loud so that you can’t hear other people. All checks include a 20% service charge, which they fully disclose on the menu and say when giving you your check, which I appreciated!

After seeing the photo and menu online, I was so excited to try Maison. Unfortunately, the reality did not live up to my expectations. My party of 4 arrived at 7:10 for our 7:15 reservation and were told it would just be a few more minutes for our table—“great!” We thought. After 10 minutes of waiting, we were told the previous table was finishing dessert and the host invited us to grab a drink in the salon with we waited. We happily ordered a round of drinks. Around this time, the host approached again and profusely apologized and told us the table before us had only just ordered dessert but it wouldn’t be more than 15 more minutes for us to be seated. A few minutes later we were apologized to again and given a “taste” of their sparkling wine (it was literally a sip of champagne? Not even a full glass). We were apologized to perhaps two more times and repeatedly told our table would be ready soon. Finally, around 7:55 we were led to our table. After a 40+ minute delay, the only thing we were given for our time was that splash of champagne. There was no offer of comping our round of drinks or anything else to remedy this situation. They also misled us repeatedly by promising our table would be ready in 5,10, or 15 minutes, not the 40+ minutes it ended up being. I understand restaurants can’t control when tables overstay. But Maison’s reservation system clearly states everyone is given a 2 hour time limit. There are also quite literally 10 tables in the (rather cramped) back room, so you would expect them to actually want to uphold that policy to seat the next reservations as close to on-time as possible. Luckily, my group wasn’t in a rush but this was a disappointing way to start our dinner and put a damper on the rest of the evening. Members of our group being hungry probably didn’t help the mood. To make matters worse, when we sat down we were asked if we were ready to order almost immediately and felt like we were being rushed despite waiting 40 minutes for that table. We were ready to finally enjoy our evening, but ended up feeling like we were being shepherded through our meal (too bad they clearly didn’t do that with the party before us). The food itself was good but not great. Nothing super memorable, and portions were extremely small even for the entrees. The server described the various courses by the number of bites, (e.g, a tomato salad was 3-4 bites) and that is unfortunately accurate. The best part were the desserts— perhaps I understand why the table before us evidently took 40 minutes extra on dessert. I do hope to give Maison another chance to do better in the future, but even then I don’t expect to be blown away by the food, service, or ambiance. Waiting 40 minutes for a table when you have a reservation is just unacceptable for any restaurant, especially when the food, service and ambiance don’t make up for it.

Each dish kept getting better! Was not disappointed with anything I ordered and I ordered almost the entire menu! The service was top notch, was running behind but no wait! Our server and food runner were amazing as well and the management! Great ambiance as well!

Great place to grab a drink and a snack. Unfortunately the food was a bit lack luster. The chicken stuffed with brioche was dry and lacked flavor, the ramp and clam pasta was confused on want it needed to be (clams not needed and had a watery sauce). However, the beef tartare and bread were awesome. The staff seemed super involved and passionate. Hopefully the team can turn this around and save it from being another mediocre dc resturant with an expensive menu.