DO NOT Indulj

Yes, Yes I know that it has been a while, but in my defense I've been busy...


As has been my weekly ritual this summer, I hopped on my bike with one of my closest sister friends, Monet to go enjoy the music, food and generally awesomeness that is DC on a Thursday night. This desire to celebrate the promise that Friday at 5pm usually brings us to U street looking fly and and ready to party. Last week was extra special because it was Monet's birthday. Happy Birthday Monet!!! The location was Indulj, located on 1208 U St NW. She chose this spot because the band "The Beautiful Experience" is just that... great R&B, go-go and the guys and gals that makeup "The Beautiful Experience" are really nice people. I wish that I could say that about Indulj itself.

Now, the spot looks nice... but the service is slow and twice I've experienced problems with management. The first time, it was my birthday and they couldn't find space for my party to sit, the roof was leaking onto our table once we got one, and then they messed up my group's order. The worst part about it was that the manager at that time was unapologetic. That was 2 years ago, and I hoped that things would have changed, but alas... no.



Enter Exhibit A:






So after we wait forever for our food and drinks, we dig in. The food was pretty tasty, well that was until Monet found an extra special birthday surprise at the bottom of her salad. Yes, ladies and gentlemen that arthropoda, specific type: unknown, was found nestled between her candied walnuts and cucumbers. Yuck! This spoiled dinner for the rest of us too, the rest of my cornbread and catfish stayed on my plate to be sacrificed to the trash can. And y'all know how much I like to clear a plate.

Now here's what made matters worse: Monet signaled the waitress over who in turn called the manager. After about 10 minutes, the manager still had not come and the waitress had to go get him again. When he finally decided to saunter his way over to Monet's plate, he simply looked at it, and when Monet asked what he was going to do about it, He replied, "What do you want me to do about it?" in a saucy manner.

Here is where the "WTF?!?!" comes in. Really? What kind of manager asks that question? And with an attitude too... In the end he wound up taking the salad off of our bill and then let her know like he was doing us a favor. I guess he didn't realize that we had taken a photo and planned on blogging about it...fool that he was.

The moral of this post. I'm in culinary school, so I know that shit happens with food. You try to control these things with proper sanitary procedures, but occasionally, a bug will find its way into a salad. But what makes the difference between a classy spot and and hood spot is the same thing that distinguishes a classy lady from a "hood rat". It's in the details, it's the manner in which you handle a problem and in the people around you (in Indulj's case, guests). From the caliber of our experiences at Indulj , the owners, managers, and wait staff obviously have a lot to learn. I really want to like this place, but the next time you want to have a good time on U street, do yourselves a favor and Indulj somewhere else.