Galileo and The Willard

[Rail Paul]

Laura Landro, the Wall Street Journal's finicky traveler, descended on Washington recently, and wrote about it this past Friday.

Galileo, described as a forgettable meal, took 45 minutes to seat her. It took them a half hour to let her know they had run out of the wine she ordered. Although the octopus "sausage" and baked sea bream were pretty good, the food took so long to arrive she didn't order dessert. As a New Yorker, she knows about good restaurants, and this wasn't one.

The Willard didn't do well, either. They charged her $209 for two cokes and two waters from the mini-bar. Their "crab compression" surrounded by a runny avocado and rock hard tomato wasn't impressive, although the $23 lunch charge did get her attention. A soup was described as "a red oil slick" and tasted about the same.

Slow service seemed to characterize each of her meals in DC.

I'll bet they were happy to see her leave town...

[Malawry]

Where on earth did she get the idea to hit those two places? There's a reason they don't make too many headlines. They both serve overpriced, underwhelming food. I didn't read the article (nor am I familiar with the writer), but I'm not at all surprised by her experiences. Why didn't she do some homework and go someplace decent? There are good eats in DC, and even decent service experiences. The only reason to go to Galileo is to eat in the Laboratorio, and as for the Willard, well, I might go for tea with some girlfriends, but only if somebody else was planning it.

[Rail Paul]

and as for the Willard, well, I might go for tea with some girlfriends, but only if somebody else was planning it.

...and paying for it, too, I hope!

I don't have the article in front of me, but I think she lodged at the Willard.

She also barbed them for making her walk thru a raging stream in their porte cochere when she checked in, assigning her to a crummy room (they moved her), and various other slights.

Her WSJ beat is checking out resorts, luxury hotels, and other upscale accomodations. Nothing escapes her attention, and she skewers some very sacred cows.

Like I said, they were glad to see her pack and leave town...

[Steve Klc]

I wish she stuck around a bit. Washington needs more critical eyes--especially eyes that are used to being pampered and view food and cuisine though finicky focal lenses--but I only wish she had turned her gaze on the really sacred cows here.

That said--the lodging and travel beat is not necessarily the food beat and I'm not familiar with the writer in question.

As far as new places with a travel and business edge--would have been nice to see what she thought of the stylish new Sofitel--with Michelin three-star Antoine Westermann supervised cuisine. But then she didn't ask.

[mogsob]

Wait a sec. $209 for 2 cokes and 2 waters? I'm calling BS on this one. I've stayed at the Willard a few times and don't remember their minibar being any more expensive than hotels in its class, and certainly not 10 times as expensive.

[Rail Paul]

She didn't detail her charges, but she was irritated the staff took so long to realize a zero had been added to a tab when they had the item count in front of them.

She reported on one location a few weeks ago where they had a motion sensor pad in the mini-bar. She took out each bottle to examine it, and they charged her for the whole assortment. Modern technology at work.

When I die, I'd like to be reincarnated as her, at least in her current line of work.

[DonRocks]

Here's a great Willard story (does anyone remember the movie Willard, or at least the sequel Ben?)

A few years back, a friend of mine and I descended onto one of the rooms in the Willard, where a third friend was staying. (The room was amazingly Holiday-Inn-like, but that's another story.)

After multiple bottles of vino, we called down for room service, and we each ordered a ground-steak sandwich and fries. The food arrived, and everything was inedible: the hamburgers were dry, well-done, and tasted like they were made by Cole-Haan, and the fries were frozen and gross. The bill for these three plates of food, including room service charge and tip, was something insane like $100 (honestly, I remember it being some crazy amount like that.).

We ate what we could, and were all considering slitting our wrists when pondering the tab for what we just ate, and then my friend decided to call down to room service and tell them just how awful it was. He put on this hilariously engaged persona, like he was genuinely disappointed, and told them in detail about the meal, ending the phone call by saying, "and this just didn't meet the high standards we've come to expect from The Willard," even though none of us had ever been there before. They comped it!

[JennyUptown]

Funny timing - I attended a wedding reception at the Willard last night.

As weddings go, the food was pretty good. The ballroom was truly beautiful.

Our starter was two mini crab cakes with a corn salsa of sorts. I don't think it was the "compression" prep mentioned below - the cakes were fresh delicious, not tightly packed.

I skipped the salad as I was holding my friend's six week old and I don't generally love salads. PLM ate his though and seemed to like it.

Entree was filet mignon with some sort of reduction, scallops served atop avocado puree, potatoes gratin and haricots verte. All fine, you know - typical wedding food.

[hillvalley]

I miss the Willard holiday parties. Before 9/11 they were the best gastronomic party of the season. Succulent lamb chops, sushi made to order and of course bananas foster. One year I ate 3 dozen oysters on the half shell. Oh, those were the days.