| Address | 800 Water St., Washington, DC 20024 |
|---|---|
| Phone | (202) 484-6300 |
| Fax | (202) 488-3840 |
First impressions were not good. We parked in the parking garage, navigating our way through attendants that were surly and unhelpful. Then, we got a whiff of the parking garage--a nice mix between sewage, excrement, and decay. The stairs leading to the restaurant were filthy.
It has been years since we visited Hogates. The rum buns brought back good memories, but it is unlikely that the current experience will do anything but denigrate them. Service was inattentive. It took a long time to figure out who our waiter was. The food was average. The dining area was sparsely inhabited. Most of the action seemed to be happening in the bar area.
Hogate = H2O = same
I think this place is cursed.
bad service, bad food,
such a waste ....
Since the place got some buzz when it went from being Hogates to being H2O, we thought we'd be wild and crazy and give it a shot.
Results: The famous rum buns were pasty and not terribly interesting. Things went downhill quickly from there.
This is the quintessential restaurant which has a large clientle that doesn't know or demand good food. The kitchen responds accordingly. We had calamari which was cool and not crisp, oysters that couldn't be found in the "Rockefeller" they were cooked under, and a mixed platter of old, frozen, seafood items fried in questionable oil.
Avoid this place like the plague.
With all the nicely decorated restaurants popping up all over DC, hopefully restaurant owners will learn that fancy furniture and wall coverings are not enough to succeed. Outstanding service and food are also required. H20 hasn't learned this lesson yet. The newly re-vamped H20, at the location of the former Hogates, offers average food, with below average service, in a pleasant but cavernous atmosphere.
On a recent Saturday night visit, our party of 2 was seated and was never approached by a waiter. Only after flagging down the hostess did a manager eventually come to take our orders, approximately 20 minutes after we were seated. After the entrees were brought to the table, a waitress appeared out of nowhere to check on us, without indicating who she was or if she would be our waitress for the remainder of the evening.
The shrimp and scallop skewer was average at best, not noteworthy or spectacular at all. All tables are served cinnamon buns, a tradition carried over from Hogates, but somehow the H20 buns did not seem as moist and tasty as the Hogates buns. Or maybe the poor service somehow left a bad taste in my mouth overall.
