Columbia Station

Reliable establishment for good live jazz & blues. Columbia Station is iconic on 18th street - their unadulterated presence breathes life into the streets. Warm atmosphere with a welcoming hostess, and no cover. We usually just order drinks here because food service can be slow. Stay however long you want - you won't be disappointed with the show!

Ha! I should have read the reviews before coming back here :p The jazz music is great. This has always been a favorite spot of mine, until recently. Had the worst dining and service experience. First of all, when you show up you seat yourself, which is fine. The waitress/bartender brought me a menu and didn't even come check on me again after I placed the menu down and was making eye contact, obviously ready to ask for something, while she was chit-chatting with the other waitress in the corner. I was waiting for my partner to arrive, and when he did, they came to take our orders. He ordered wine, and I wanted to start with water with a lemon. They brought his wine but not my water. Took them 10 minutes to get me a simple glass of water (and the lemon was missing by the way) and I had to ask them for it a second time. Then we ordered the seafood pizza, but they brought out the seafood platter (50 minutes later). We said seafood "pizza" very clearly, but the waitress was not listening. We didn't want to be late for a comedy show next door, so we told them to cancel the order and we'd eat somewhere else, yet they insisted that they would bring our order to us next door and even had the audacity to ask us to pay in advance. Pay for what?? We didn't receive any food yet and service was terrible. We ended up receiving the seafood pizza (a full 1 hour and 10 minutes later by the way) which was delicious. It took additional time for them to bring us small plates. The wait staff don't seem to care that much. The place had been picking up and they seemed oblivious to their bad service, and they seemed slow, under-trained, and overwhelmed. My partner usually always, always leaves a generous tip, but this is the first time I've ever witnessed him leaving ZERO tip. The service was that bad. It was such a terrible service experience. And you know what? There are plenty of jazz/dining options in DC, and we simply won't be coming back to this place.

Ugh. Great potential in this AdMo spot but unfortunately, the service from bar staff and ownership is so bad. Horrendously overpriced drinks and rude bartenders in a place that hosts amazing live Jazz music and the occasional comedy night. Diverse crowd and a packed house with little to no service to the seated tables or those sat at the bar. Didn’t keep proper tabs on our bill so we were charged a seemingly random amount. We might be back but only for the jazz and comedy.

Hello. I have been to this establishment three times and all three times the server has been incredibly rude. Once she charged us for a drink that she tossed when I had simply went to the bathroom. This time was the last straw. We came in and sat down, she greeted us by flopping the menus on the table without a word. Then she comes back three minutes later to ask if we're ready, without recommending anything on the menu, in which we replied, telling her that we were waiting for some friends to park before ordering. Five minutes later, she comes back, and places the promotion card on the table, pointing out the fact that it's a $10 minimum to stay, without saying a word, she just pointed and stared at us. Our friends weren't even here yet and 8 minutes into this place, we already feel unwelcomed. At that point, we called our friends back and told them to not even bother. We asked her to speak to a manager, in which she replied with a face of discuss and anger, and said "What?! Why?" We told her that she was simply being rude. Then she replied, "So! I'm busy!" and snatched the menus off if the table. It was a Sunday night, there were maybe five tables and one person at the bar, she was obviously not busy. When she refused to even retrieve a manager, we walked out. We're never coming back. I just want to let someone know so that others won't have to go through what we went through. The Jazz is amazing, and I don't think it's fair to the talented musicians to see someone drive business away.

After we sat down, it took some time for the server to get to us. She was the only waitress on a very busy Adams Morgan Festival day. Also we had to wait for quite some time to actually get our food. The food was okay at best. Please don't get the chicken wings they were bready as hell, not crispy. We spent $50 on not so good food. Besides that, there was some pretty great live music, however it was too loud for the tiny space. If only we had walked two or three restaurants further we would have enjoyed our lunch.