Just FYI

Thanks to your recommendation (or well, an utter shout-out) for Komi, I've made my reservation for my second annual birthday dinner at the righteously-hyped restaurant. Last year's dinner was (at 21) the food event of my life and with the tasting menu this time around, I imagine it will be a life-changing experience yet again.

With all of DCfoodies' suburban reviews, you should rename yourself "Suburban Foodies." (not as catchy, is it?)
The 'burbs are not D.C, people.

You consider Crystal City the 'Burbs? I live in DC and it's more Urban than the neighborhood I live in...

PS. I also own the domains for VAfoodies.com, NoVaFoodies.com and VirginiaFoodies.com...

I've got to agree. Crystal City is not the burbs. Heck, I live in Alexandria and I don't consider it the burbs.

I'm very psyched for this place. I tried to head last weeks and saw the doors weren't quite ready to be open. I'll likely try to sneak over sometime this week before the weekend. Thanks for the update.

Thank God Crystal City has turned the corner. I lived there in 1990-92 and it was a disaster, food-wise. Thanks for the update re: Bebo Trattoria.

We've been twice already. The food is wonderful and the service is improving. I posted about it on my blog and have some pictures from our meal.

We went this weekend. The food was awesome but the service was so off we just had to laugh in the end. I'm sure they'll get it right --it's only been a couple of weeks. The food's worth it, and the bill was practically nothing next to a meal at Galileo.

We just ate at Bebo this weekend. Didn't have a reservation so we sat at the bar. Food was excellent. Service from Luis, our bartender, was okay but he had to be asked twice for silverware and never served us bread or water. On the other hand the young lady who served the other half of the bar not only served water, bread, put placemats on the counter and took the time to ask me what I was drinking when she noticed my empty wine glass.

We can't wait to return.

Friends and I went to Bebo Trattoria last evening, looking forward to trying Donna’s newest restaurant. Although the food was very good and reasonably priced, the service was atrocious. When we arrived a few minutes before our reservation, we were directed by the hostess to the bar. No problem. We wanted check out the wine list anyway. But it took the bar tender almost 10 minutes, and some urging from the bus staff, to notice us, even though there were very few people at the bar. In fact, someone from the kitchen was greeting us with a complimentary appetizer (nice touch and tasty, but we had nothing to wash it down with) long before the bartender asked us if we wanted a drink. After taking my order and leaving to search out the wine list for my friend, it was another 5 to 10 minutes before the bartender returned, during which time the hostess came to say that our table was ready, and if we weren’t cashed out at the bar within the next 5 to 10 minutes, we would lose the table. When she approached us, we still did not have the wine we ordered and realized that it would be a miracle if we would be both served and cashed out in the timeframe she suggested. We attempted to explain that the delay was not our doing, but she would have none of it. At that point a tall man approached us and said not to worry, that he would hold our table. Some common sense and customer service? Not so much. We cashed out as quickly as we could, giving the bartender a credit card as soon as he delivered the long awaited wine. Apparently that was not quickly enough, because when we approached the hostess stand the tall man said that our table “would be a few minutes.” A joke, right? We could only be so lucky. There was a cleared booth in plain view, but he explained that was for a group that had arrived after us and was waiting. Eventually, he put us in a table at the back of the room, and we were hopeful that things would improve from there. Nope. The waiter almost threw the menus at us (Shouldn’t the hostess have given them to us when we sat down anyway?), and scampered off without asking if we wanted anything to drink. Cold pieces of bread arrived (again, the bus staff was very attentive), but without oil or butter. Water eventually filled the glasses, and we were able to flag the waiter down to ask for some oil and two more glasses of wine (each a different variety of red). First, he forgot the wine. Then he came back and put the two glasses in the middle of the table, as if we were expected to divine which was the merlot and which was the cabernet. When we stopped him from running of to the next table to explain which was whose, he seemed annoyed. Eventually the food came, and then the bill. Had the service merely been sub-par, those two things were so pleasant that we may have forgotten about the earlier treatment. But this wasn’t an over-stressed staff attempting to do their best – it was a collection of ill mannered buffoons who forgot that their clientele would be hoping for a place that deserved the Donna name.

I'm checking it out tomorrow for dinner, I'll be interested to see what service issues come up if any. Oh, and please forgive me for living in the suburbs (Not! I love it!).

I ate at Bebo Trattoria last night and was excited to check it out, though I had heard about the lack of service, I still was eager to eat there. The restaurant was almost empty, so our waiter was very attentive the whole time, which was great. Our water glasses were kept full, empty plates were taken away quickly, things were fine until our dinners arrived. There was a bunch of confusion over who had ordered what (there were only three of us) and I got served my sister-n-laws dish, not a problem, except that when the woman placed it in front of me she spilled it all over me. I understand that this kind of thing happens, and it was an accident, but hot lasagna sauce went completely down the front of my shirt, on my hand, and all over my sleeve. The staff felt bad, and brought me some seltzer water. The manager came over and promised to pay for my dry cleaning, but then he never followed up on his statement which was disappointing. Please don't tell a customer one thing and then do nothing about it. I had planned on bringing back my dry cleaning bill had the stain not come out, but I think with some Oxyclean I was able to get it out, thank goodness (I am six months pregnant, so I have a very limited amount of clothing I am wearing right now, which made this spill even worse for me). Overall the food was good, the service was fine, but I was upset that the manager promised me something and didn't follow through on what he had said, this was not good customer service in my opinion.

We live nearby and gave Bebo a try last week.

It wasn't bad, and I think it will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

However, the experience could really use some fine tuning. Has anyone else ordered the Caesar Salad? Setting aside the fact that the dressing was bland (I'd go so far as to say "tasteless") and that there was far too much of it covering the plate, to call it a "composed salad" would be generous: it is a portion of a head of romaine on a plate covered in dressing. So it's left up to the diner to chop and toss the salad on the plate at the table. Which might have been fine...if they had given me time to eat it.

I am not a slow eater, but I had only managed to chop and dress a small portion of my salad when our main courses arrived. My choices were then to surrender my uneaten salad or to allow my main course to get cold at the table while I finished the salad. I did mention to the server that if the kitchen was going to make the guest prepare their own salad, they had to give us time to do so before rushing the next course out (the place was empty, so it wasn't a matter of turning the table).

Also, this was a business dinner. At the end of the meal, I presented my business credit card, an AmEx. With no prior warning (on the menu, perhaps?), the waiter told me that they don't accept AmEx. Then he blamed the reservations staff and said "they should have told you". Am I expecting too much to think that a major restauranteur should know that choosing not to accept a very prevalent form of payment should come with an _advance_ warning?

We went to Bebo a week or so ago. Terrible, terrible, terrible servie and mediocre food. Very dissapointing. I will never go back.

Went to Bebo last night and we have wonderful service. Our server was attentive, friendly, and accommdating. There were only two of us, and instead of ordering meals we decided to split several appetizers. The server helpfully suggested a way to "course" our order so we wouldn't have so many plates on the table.

All of our food was delicious, with the seared tuna with argula and balsamic reduction off the specials menu being absolutely amazing.

The bar serves the full menu as well as a separate bar menu of small plates not available at the tables. When we return, we plan to eat at the bar so as to try some of those; they all look fantastic.

To Susan above, we paid with an AMEX card, so perhaps they were just having some start-up issues with AMEX.

We just dined at Bebo on Saturday. Absolutely amazing! I loved everything, our server John was amazing. Our glasses never empty, service could NOT have been better.

Prices are unbelievable especially when coupled with the best part...
THE FOOD. Delicious, wonderful, mouth-watering fabulous. I would like to dine here every day. Everything was fresh, flavorful, and cooked perfectly. Selection was wonderful. It was a lovely, leisurely meal that was almost mythical for the DC area. To have EVERY dish be perfect to be surrounded by service that is so attetnive, knowledgeable but not overbearing, AND to have it be affordable....well that is almost a dream.

Maybe it was, I shall be returning soon to confirm that I was not on a foodie ecstasy trip. Thank you Roberto!

We went to Bebo with the hope of having a nice relaxing lunch. We ordered shortly after arriving. 50 minutes later our wine arrived. Waited until an hour and a half had passed and they still hadn't served us any food or appetizer. We left without eating because it didn't seem likely our food would ever arrive. Terrible experience. This is the third visit with unbelievably bad service at this restaurant and the last time we will be visiting. I'd recommend going next door to Jaleo where they will actually bring you your food and treat you right. On previous visits the food was good to mediocre--doesn't make up for the service issues either way.

We live out of town and bought a gift certificate for our parents during their trip to D.C. My grandmother was hospitalized, and Bebo Trattoria would not refund the gift certificate. I am sure there are numerous other Italian restaurants in the area, and the majority of them would be more sympathetic to an ill Grandmother.

Was at BeBo for the first time last weekend based on our daughter's recommedation about the food, but was warned about the terrible service. Actually the service was not bad but the food was simply awful. One of the chicken dishes was so undercooked that there was still blood on it and everyone in our party of 6 agreed that the experience was one we would never repeat.

My boyfriend and I sat down at a table at Bebo Tratorria for truly the worst dining experience we’ve ever had. I ordered a bottle of wine (#255 on page 11) and the waiter brought over the wrong bottle. We got the maitre’ d and sent it back. The maitre’ d over a second wrong bottle, and we pointed out this error again by pointing to the wine line list again. The maitre’ d o then told us the bottle we ordered wasn’t available. Instead of telling us that when we ordered, we were given 2 bottles of lesser quality of wine. Were they trying to pass them off as the bottle we ordered?
There was no wine service from the waiter, who opened the bottles (we thought he was going to drop it at one point), and poured both glasses full. There was no opportunity to inspect the cork or taste the wine before decanting.

There was no pepper in the pepper shaker. My Caesar salad was the worst presentation – pieces of romaine lettuce held together in a base of white unseasoned toast, not croutons. I cut into the toast and pieces of bread crumbs flew everywhere. No fresh pepper was offered for my salad. The waiter took my silverware with my salad plate and didn’t give me new silverware so when my entrée arrived, I stared at it. I wasn’t going to begin eating anyway as my boyfriend’s pizza margherita took several more minutes to arrive. Meanwhile, while we sat there waiting for his entrée, out of nowhere the maitre’ d placed a bowl of fettucine in front of him!! His pizza was awful – the crust not firm. It was soaked wet with balsamic vinegar and sauce, drippy, and sloppy. He picked up a piece and the toppings slopped onto his plate. He literally could not pick up a piece of the pizza and eat it because it was soupy!! It was truly disgusting for him to eat it and equally as revolting to watch him eat it. He had to use his fork to keep it from falling apart altogether. We complained to the waiter who said, “if you think that’s bad, you should’ve seen what the kitchen wanted me to give you the first time. That’s why your entrée took so long to come out.”

While my boyfriend and I were eating, the waiter brought over the check and said, “I’ll take this when you’re ready.” We pointed out the obvious – that we were still eating.

Glad to know that we (Me and my date) were not the only ones that had a terrible experience. Much like most of the other entries the service was horrible. The waitress actually sat her behind on another table. We were ignored and a drink order was never asked or taken, I actually had to ask if we could order after 15 minutes of sitting. With a brick oven one would think that the bread would be hot, or even warm, NOPE it was cold and hard. To play it safe I ordered the marinara pizza my date followed suite and ordered the mushroom and ham, the crust of the pizza barely had any sauce to cover the tough dough, we were so disappointed. Again service was HORRIBLE food was mediocre to so-so. I will never go back EVER!!

OK, I think we get the point. Service is not getting any better at Bebo. I'm closing comments for now. If anyone has an *atypical* experience and actually gets good service, please let us know. I'll reopen comments so you can post your experience. Until then, let's not beat a dead horse.