McCormick & Schmick’s

I’ve only been here several times for the late night happy hour — it’s decent but nothing special. Great deals.

Terribly disappointed. My family and I have been loyal patrons of McCormick & Schmick’s for years. We’ve dined at the former 13^th and F Street location, as well as the M&S at K Street, Crystal City, and Reston locations. McCormick & Schmick’s was our go-​to restaurant for many years, some place we could rely on to execute consistently good seafood at reasonable prices and with polite and efficient service.
This past weekend, a few out-​of-​country guests came to stay with my parents. We decided to take them to M&S, as we thought we could rely on their consistently good food and service to impress our guests. The restaurant was fairly empty. Aside from us, there was only one occupied table. However, the service was dreadfully slow and our dinner took almost 3 hours. And this wasn’t because we were eating slow or trying to stretch out the evening. In fact, our guests were very tired, and they just wanted to have a nice meal and then go home to rest. Unfortunately, our entire meal from appetizers to dessert took forever to get to the table. We actually had to ask for bread and when we did, the server said, «Oh, I didn’t know you wanted bread.» He was short and curt to us for the entire evening.
Food was pretty standard M&S fare. Most of us ordered the stuffed Atlantic salmon with a side of mashed potatoes and veggies. For dessert, my mom really wanted the crème brûlée and ordered a couple for us all to share, but our server told us that they were out. Out of crème brûlée and it was only 8pm. How does that happen? So we had to switch to New York style cheesecake and strawberry shortcake instead.
All in all, a disappointing night for us and especially our out-​of-​town guests. We really expected better of McCormick & Schmick’s and hope that this was a one-​time fluke. However, seeing a two-​and-​a-​half star rating with over 200+ reviews and seeing many of the same issues we experienced highlighted in the other reviews, I have a feeling this will sadly not be resolved anytime soon. I sincerely hope the management takes steps to improve the service at this location.

Stopped by here for pre-​happy hour pre-​game (baseball game) on a Friday and this was place was very nice. Had a drink with the fish tacos, they were delicious and also munched on my friend’s quesadilla. Both were excellent. Highly recommend and will definitely go back to see if they can wow me with their 5 start service and earn the last star.

Heard bartender tell a Latino barback that he should go home because the restaurant didn’t make a lot of money tonight, so they couldn’t pay him well. Apparently this is a shadow venue for human trafficking lite.

After a movie at Regal in Chinatown, my friend and I stopped by McCormick & Schmick’s because we really wanted some late night happy hour specials, ya know? (We were starving.)
A lot of weird things happened with this visit
— It was MEGA cold. Oh my lord, it was hot and humid outside but probably about 65 degrees inside the restaurant? We were shivering through our entire meal.
— Our waitress did not attend to us very much at all. My water glass was empty for about 15 minutes, which really held me back as far as eating my food. (It was a bit spicy/​salty so the water was crucial.)
— The food was just okay, I think
– Firecracker shrimp tacos tasted like they had sweet chili sauce over them… but then something else that made it less tasty, I don’t know.
– Calamari was okay but had a lot more of everything else (jalapenos, artichokes?) than calamari. BUT BONUS: it came with aioli, which wasn’t advertised in the menu but was a welcome break from marinara, as aioli is my preferred calamari dipping sauce anyway!
Eh I don’t know it was a weird time, I don’t think I’ll be back.

My sister wanted to go here for happy hour.
She’s been here before — I haven’t.
I agree to meet her.
I have her order my food prior to my arrival just so we wouldn’t be waiting. I knew she’d beat me there.
There she is at the bar. She’s almost finished her food — mine hasn’t arrived yet. Wings all flats.
NOT! I have a combo of flats and drummies and they tell us after I asked why not all flats — «it’s pre-​sorted and they cant do it that way»
Had I known that I would not have ordered them. They weren’t that good. needed to be cooked more. BUT the staff didn’t care. I paid for them anyway #carebearstare
Yes, it was happy hour. it was moderately busy. BUT not so busy that you cant pay attention to the 2 women at eh end of the bar who tip well (US). After not enjoying my wings (pushed to the side) I asked for fries. 10 minutes later they arrive. little plate not full. Im even angrier. We get the check and realize that I paid $ 5.99 for some fries! WTH?!
Not happy.
Service sucked.
Food not all that great.

Average happy hour spot. The specials are good but the service and food quality leaves much to be desired. The quality of the food is also slightly below average. We had some beer, wine, wings, hummus, calamari, and the pretzels. The hummus was actually decent until I noticed entire pieces of chick peas that had not been blended! The pita bread served with the hummus was very tasty. The wings and calamari were ok and the pretzels were not so good. They serve them with «three cheese» dipping sauce which tasted like that weird sauce papa johns serves!
Cheap prices but I guess you get what you pay for.

Food was over priced. I mean $ 20 – 30 for 6 tbs of butter is a lot. They advertise on the menu that there were other ingredients in the dish but I don’t believe it. The first plate of complementary table bread that they brought out after the 3^rd time asking, was hard enough to lay mortar ontop of and use as a cornerstone. Three asks also to get a round of waters. The service was great until the poor waitress spilled the first beer on me, mis-​ordered the same wine 3 consecutive times and the bar mis-​ordered it as well. The kitchen was out of every steak in their menu except for filet. So I ordered the shrimp and andouille mac&cheese. Oh, out of that too. And this was 730 – 830 on a week night.
Will change this to two stars, it was nice that the manager reached out to apologize and sent us a gift card to give them another chance.

I appreciate the service at McCormick’s because they went above and beyond to make me the shrimp scampi even though it’s not on the menu. Our server was attentive and prompt with our request! I ate at the one on Houston Texas and now Washington DC and both places had exceptional customer service.

Came to this location for DC Restaurant Week a couple of months ago and discovered one the best McCormick location that I’ve been to in a while. Was immediately seated and order was taken. Noticed immediately that the staff was very attentive and friendly not to mention very knowledgable of their menu and food taste. Then the Manager Dee came out and talked with my table. We connected and loved her personality from the time she walked up. Dee make has an amazing way of making you laugh and even signing up for the Landrys card even when you already know you don’t want to. Her staff and her personality keep me coming here once a month even if its for HH.
If you ever visit this location… make a point to have a chat with Dee. Promise you’ll be back just to have a chat and chew with her.

Very bright and beautiful décor when you first walk in the door. Went on the weekend and was seated shortly as there is a ton of seating inside.
Now I will say first, as a kid, this holds a soecial place where my real seafood adventures began. This restaurant is where I first ate calamari and even as a kid I simply thought «better than fried shrimp» now I can see more that there’s how light it is, well seasoned and perfected with the addition of fried zucchini and different sauces. So that’s what we started with here and it was just as good as it was about 10 years before.
Being that I was opened up to more since squid, I also tried the conneticut oysters which came with a chilled red wine vinegar and cocktail sauce obviously made there, everything together, amazing.
For entrees, my party got the mccormicks seafood trio of shrimp and salmon, which was a smaller portion size than I’d liked but each individual part very nice and well made. My only input is it could be dressed better with a sauce but not much I can ask for In a combined dish like that. Also, we had the mahi mahi with the shrimp scampi add on. The mahi mahi I was having for the first time and we both found it to be a little on the dry side, but they relied heavily on the fishes natural flavor and this is where it flourushed.
Now the one real flaw was the lobster mash. We didn’t know our entrees came with anything so we ordered this as if it was ala carte, no, our entrees came with green beans and cheedar mash already. The sauce on top was very rich, but I had to rely on that to stomach very dry lobster meat. Simple, don’t get it.

Food: 3.5÷5
Service: ¹⁄₅
Only went here because of a gift card my girlfriend had received through work. Made a reservation for 6:30, but wasn’t seated until 6:45 because they said they didn’t have enough waitstaff capacity. That was the first bad sign.
Our server was very nice, but the service was downright sluggish. We ordered right off the bat (we had time while waiting for a table to peruse the menu) both wine and our entrees. The glasses of wine took 20 minutes to arrive at the table! The waitress said the bar was backlogged, but that’s just ridiculous.
The food took about ~35 minutes to come out, which isn’t great, but I guess in the context of the wine wasn’t the worst. The thing is the food was pretty good. We got fried shrip and fish and chips. Fried fish is pretty hard to mess up, both entrees were above par. It’s just that this place is fairly pricey and has terrible service. Food that is just «good» can’t make up for that.

Okay food but incredibly slow service.
I went here for a group weekday lunch and the food was okay but not amazing. The calamari was decent, and the shrimp and sausage mac and cheese was also okay but nothing special. The pasta was «al dente» but I thought it was undercooked. The shrimp were those tiny «salad shrimp» and not the full sized ones. It wasn’t bad but nothing amazing.
The service was awful, the place was nearly empty but it took forever for two tables to be pushed together (at least 15 mins) and took forever for our orders to be taken, took forever for our drinks, took forever to get our food, took forever to get our bills, and forever to get our credit cards. The worst part is this service was training a new employee, seriously?
Lots of lunch places downtown and don’t go here if you’re in any slight hurry.

I eat at McCornmicks all over the country they do seafood well very where I go. You can count on this place to give you a great meal no matter where you are. I have yet to find a bad meal here !
I love the crab cakes my self and the clam chowder.

I love happy hour here. Good prices, good food, and pretty generous portions for the price.
Why such poor ratings, you ask? Service. Our waitress was inattentive, did not follow up, and dropped our bill off before even asking how our food was.
The kicker, though, was that one of our party paid in cash. When she brought back everyone’s cards, she did not return his change. After flagging her down again, she seemed shocked that he wanted any of the change returned, and pulled it out of pocket with a very annoyed look on her face. It’s really unfortunate to have experiences like these, as it turns me away from recommending or revisiting.

We stopped in for a late lunch. The service was horribly slow. When we ordered I asked the server what kind of salmon was served with the pasta dish. She proceeded to explain the difference to me (yes, I know, that’s why I asked for what kind it was). I told her I did not want the dish if it was Atlantic salmon, and asked her to please let me know the price difference to upgrade to the Coho. She didn’t come back for a long time, and when she did she said the price difference was $ 9, so she just put in the order for Atlantic salmon without consulting me. Had the service been better, I would have paid the $ 9 for good salmon. Instead, I changed my order.
The restaurant was cold and drafty, unlike the warm atmosphere I have experience at the M&S in Pittsburgh, and our booth was so tiny that the 4 of us were chests to the table and slughtly uncomfortable the entire time.
Oh! And our drinks! I asked if they could make the ginger sidecar I had at another location, and the server did not know what it was, so I ordered a brandy alexander. She didn’t know what that was either. I then heard the bartender bragging about the quality of his beverages and soon came to ask how I liked the drink. It was fine, except I’ve never had it served on the rocks, in the past it has always been served in a martini glass. It took about 20 minutes for the drinks to come after we ordered them, not including one of the beers, which took another 5 to 10 minutes, leaving one of our party waiting.
There was dust at eye level along the inside wall of our booth, and the restroom was not the cleanest. The black toilet really grossed me out.
There appeared to be more staff than patrons, so the slowness was unacceptable to me. I will not go back to this location, and do not recommend it. We were so excited to eat there because of the good experiences we had in other cities, but were terribly disappointed.

Happy Hour Review: It’s actually not bad. The lack of a good happy hour space and mediocre service sinks this place.
Their happy hour menu is one of the best kept secrets in DC — Diverse food from $ 2.99-$ 5.99 (calamari, bruschetta, hummus, wings, etc.), $ 4.50 domestic drafts, $ 5 Imports/​Craft, $ 4 well spirits, $ 6 glass of Wine, $ 6 cocktails, and $ 7 martinis. It’s really not a bad deal. There is a small happy hour corner near the bar that seats about eight. This place must not be used to a lot of happy hour people coming in, so when we showed up with 15+ people, they were quickly overwhelmed. Once some people from our party left we were able to sit down at the tables and it was much more manageable, although it took a long time for drinks and food.
With a smaller group, this happy hour could be a reliable go-​to. However, it’s still nothing to write home about, and if you keep your expectations low you should have a good time.

I think of McCormick as a very grown-​up restaurant. I know its strange but I am intimidated to eat here! This is probably because one of my first experiences meeting my father in law was at the McComick’s in Santa Monica and I watched him order a $ 100 bottle of wine. Anyway, I guess ever since then, I just McCormick as a very fancy restaurant that I couldn’t afford even though that was almost 10 years ago. So long story short, I only go here for the happy hour or once a year for Memorial Day where they give free food to veterans (crazy I know!).
M&S has the best HH deal running from 4 – 7 everyday including weekends! I love their $ 5 burgers and buffalo wings! The food and drinks here are such a bargain and the location is also great for people watching but it can get overcrowded during tourist season. The service here is a little underwhelming, but I think this is largely due to to the fact that they are understaffed. We went here last night and I kind of felt bad for the servers who were stretch out way too thin. Otherwise, if you’re not in a rush I would recommend them over any other place in Chinatown for HH.

I would like to bring to everyones attention the racial discrimination and gender discrimination displayed from two of the bartenders Magnus and Andrew. My party, who consisted of 4 African American women, were never greeted or served by bartenders Andrew & Magnus. African American men, Caucasian men and Caucasian women were served simultaneously.
After sitting at the bar for 3 – 4 minutes without being greeted, I waved down Andrew to see if our drink orders had been transferred over from the cocktail server to the bar, he told me he «did not know.» Andrew did not keep an open line of communication with me regarding the status of our drink orders. Magnus made our drinks at one end of the bar– but a cocktail waitress served them to us. She was not behind the bar, Magnus was behind the bar, he handed them to her and she walked over and served our drinks to us from behind– forcing us to turn around to receive our drinks and then place them back on the bar. Magnus never made eye contact with my party.
The air was tense and unwelcome energy was transferred to us.
My party decided to transition over to the highball table nestled adjacent to the bar. We had just received our drinks and wanted to make sure that there was enough seating at the table before we all proceeded to our new destination. I asked Magnus if we could have 2 additional seats– he pointed across the room and told me to «get the chairs from the dining area.» At this point we were outraged and offended. It was clear that Magnus did not want to serve us and did not want us seated at his bar. I responded to him and confirmed that he wanted us to carry the (low) chairs from the dining area to the bar area and he said, yes. Andrew immediately chimed in and yelled across the bar, «ya know I think these ladies have had to much to drink tonight, maybe we should cut them off.» Magnus responded, «Yeah I think we should.»
I could not believe that they were insulting my party and insinuating that we were drunk and should be kicked out of the restaurant, especially when we just received our only round of drinks — and did not get to drink them yet.
Discrimination on the basis of sex and race is illegal in the United States. I spoke with the Manager on duty Mario Boykin about the acts of sexism and racism that Magnus and Andrew were displaying, He advised me that he would discuss the situation with Sheri Anderson the General Manager, and that she would give me a call after speaking with Mario, Andrew and Magnus to figure out what was the motive behind their behavior. Mario advised me that Sheri would be in at 9am on Sunday morning, Mario also advised me that this is not what your name represents and you don’t «stand for» racism. I asked for an apology from them, but one was never made. Mario was not able to correct his staff at a time when they were wrong and he voiced to me that he was sorry that he disappointed my party.
I had not heard from Sheri or Mario the following morning and called at 2:28pm on Sunday. Mario answered the restaurant phone and I asked him if I could speak with Sheri. He said yes and placed me on hold, he then came back 5 minutes later and said today was her «admin day» and she left early. I asked her if he briefed her of the situation that occurred the night before and he said yes. My question to Mario was, if today was Sherri’s admin day why didn’t she call me? Especially if she is not tending to the floor; he provided no solid answer. I believe Sherri was there and he was giving me the run around.
As a result, I wrote an official complaint to the Better Business Bureau so I’m still waiting from a response from corporate. African American women, they will gladly seat you at a table behind the bar, They displayed racist and sexist behavior without apprehension. I will never have good things to say about the Landry Restaurants and any opportunity I get to share my experience that I had with Andrew and Magnus will be done so disgracefully.

Went on a Sunday night. The only plus to that was, they have happy hour on Sunday from 4 to 7. That was awesome. Our bartender on the other hand, well not so great. I don’t know if Andrew was in a bad mood, or was just waiting for his girlfriend to arrive, but this was not the greatest service.
I’ll be back, but if Andrew is at the bar, I’ll take my chances at a table. That happy hour 7 days a week, is amazing, and I need to partake in it.