Uninspired. Slow service. Mediocre food served cold.

Very enjoyable

We were very happy indeed to see the improvement in the menu. At first there was a bit of hovering by the wait staff. We just had to tell them that we weren't ready to order and they politely left us to talk and finish our apéritifs. I believe they got their signal from the Maitre'd who hurried us out of the bar and onto our table. I regret now to have followed him into the dining room. We should not have been rushed to order and eat. His demeanor could use some improvement.

Joe was our waiter. He was off the charts great. Food was excellent. Highly recommend.

Friends from out of town was the occasion. Service, food on the four course price fix terrific. Only “complaint” was would have been nice to have choice on dessert.

The Oval Room is consistently excellent and a perfect choice for a meal in a beautiful atmosphere and quiet enough for good conversation. All the dishes are clearly labor intensive with nice special touches like shaved dehydrated rhubarb (delicious) in a salad, high quality and perfectly executed. The one thing to be aware of is that some of the appetizers, like the citrus marinated Arctic Char, was a tiny portion. It seems like my usual order of 2 appetizers for dinner wasn't the right choice. That's a minor complaint, though, because it was delicious.

After being ushered to the table in the middle of the room, we asked for changing the table to the corner, but the waiter simply replied the table at the corner has been reserved and THIS IS YOUR TABLE. We were kind of shocked. Sitting for a while, I asked waiter to come. That waiter seemed very unreluctant and

Scallops were cold. We had to ask for bread to be served after our appetizer was served. The server serving wine kept on missing the glass and dripping all over (every time). They forgot to bring us one of our sides. Server took our glass of iced tea to refill it, and we had to remind her of it over 15 minutes later. The coffee was served with beans in it they had to replace it. we asked for lemon curd in a cognac and got orange... service wasn’t really up to the part for what is supposed to be an upscale restaurant.. The food was very tasty and the cheesecake was exquisite!

After being seated we waited about 15 minutes to be asked if we wanted a drink. I finally called the captain over and my wife ordered a glass of wine, and I asked for a non-alcoholic beer, which was not available. I then asked for a virgin mojito, which took about 15 minutes to to arrive – I was told that the bartender was researching how to make it.
We told our waitress that we were ready to order (she had not asked) about 35 minutes after arriving.
Our appetizers were delivered to our table about 15 minutes later, after we were first brought the wrong appetizers. We waited about 30 minutes longer for our entrees. Twice we received apologies for the delay, but no explanation; we were finally served our entrees 80 minutes after we had been seated. We never received a side dish we had ordered.
My lamb loin was good. But my wife’s veal loin, ordered medium rare (favoring the medium side), was “chewy” – not exactly tough, but it took a great deal of chewing to be able to swallow a bite. I tried a bite, too, and had the same experience. About that time the captain came by and asked how our meal was, and we explained the situation re the veal loin. He offered to bring another entré, and my wife selected salmon, which was brought with none of the accompaniments mentioned on the menu; it was a very uninspiring dish.
By now, nearly 2 hours after our arrival, we were quite put off, so asked for our check. On leaving we were asked by the maître d' if we'd enjoyed our meal. My wife replied that we had been “somewhat disappointed"; he replied “well that’s a surprise!”, but asked no questions, expressed no concerns nor offered any apologies.
We are frequent diners in restaurants of this caliber, willing to pay for excellent food and service. We were very disappointed and a bit offended as well. The wait staff was uncoordinated and the kitchen unable to prepare or timely deliver its food. We will not recommend The Oval Room to anyone and will not return.

Exceeded my expectations. Will return for sure!

Awesome and special

The food was very mediocre

It was a delicious 3 course brunch with wine pairings.
Very subtle but complex flavors, pacing perfect by staff.
We’ll return again soon.

It consists a wonderful part of my trip to Washington who didn’t prepare beautiful cherry blossoms for me. My boyfriend is not a big fan of American style, but he was satisfied by those nicely cooked food as well. And service there is perfect, light was not too dim and atmosphere was friendly. I love that night. Definitely will come back if... the cherry blossoms are ready🌝

Beautifully presented delicious lunch. Parsnip soup was excellent. Scallops very tasty. Chicken wonderful and tender. Staff is top notch.

Great place for a working lunch. Excellent atmosphere and nose level for conversation. Service is outstanding.

Very pleasant 87th birthday Wonderful server Ashley

Tasty, carefully prepared food and attentive service. Sleek upscale surroundings. I recommend and will be back.

Terrible. Went for an important business lunch — the food was so embarrassingly bad, it derailed our discussion! The menu tries to be avant-garde and it fails. The chicken sandwich (highly touted by the server) was inedible-a tiny potion of skin-on chicken was overwhelmed by the over-toasted (ie, hard) bread. The fish was just as memorable.

New chef is great. Portions are not too big.

We love this restaurant -- the menu, the quiet, the nearness to the Metro. And the waitstaff is brilliant.

The Oval Room deserves 2 Michelin stars, above all for the creativity and the flavor and the
presentation of its dishes. The setting is also pleasing and again quietly creative.

Lunch during restaurant week was the perfect opportunity to try this restaurant. Fabulous meal and excellent service that was not pretentious . Friends had recommended it and they were right. Looking forward to returning.

The Foie Gras blew away any that I had on a recent trip to Paris. It was luxurious and decadent balanced perfectly with the quince. The risotto was perfectly prepared. The service was also attentive. The experience surpassed our expectations, both couples indicated that we would be back soon!!

Had a great lunch during the restaurant week. They had not too much of variation from lunch to dinner. So I would say the lunch is definitely has more value than the dinner. The Parsnip soup has pretty looking, but I can't say the same to the taste. It is sort of fruit, nutty, and cream. The mushroom risotto is good. The chocolate cake is more like flourless cake, but good. The only thing I don't like is the accent added on the dessert, sort of south east asian or middle east spice . Overall Oval Room is a good restaurant, but not standing out.

We went for a birthday celebration. Our waitress was upbeat, efficient and attentive. High marks to her.
The food was pretty good too, although neither entree was served hot, just warm; and the salmon was close to raw. Dessert was good, except that my partners choice was substituted for a birthday dessert without our ok. It would have been better to place a candle in what he requested.
The dining room on the right is too loud. We easily overheard everyone else’s conversations.
So while I’d agree with other diner’s comments, if it had not been restaurant week, we would have overpaid.

wonderful service and inventive menu. Will be back!

We love the atmosphere and the food at the Oval Room and occasionally go there for regular or special occasions. Last time was ok but the food was in small quantities (restaurant week) and it took a long time to get our food and especially the desert, which is usually not the case. Regardless, one of our favorite places for dinner.

Excellent restaurant week menu. We enjoyed every course, and the service was friendly and attentive. Only disappointment is that they were out of one of the star appetizers on the restaurant week menu. A leisurely and most enjoyable dinner!

Restaurant week! Excellent selections. Our favorite table (not as noisy as the rest of the main Dining room) and favorite waiter (there ARE skilled professional waiters in DC!). Appetizers: the roasted Veg tasted like veg should take, and that foie gras had small toppings of added flavors that made the dish simply pop. (really didn't need the Sauternes... but enjoyed them anyway). Mains: the chicken was perfectly cooked and the duck breast was soft, rare, and almost fork-tender. All the arrayed vegetable portions were excellent pairings. The chef may be "new" to the OR, but the food is as consistently excellent as ever and with gift of cooking vegetables just SO.

Everything was great till the end when we were practically thrown out at the closing time of 3 pm.
Not classy! And presumably not in keeping with the reputation they wish to cultivate.

This restaurant never fails to excel! One of the most civilized (nicely spaced tables, low decibels) and delicious restaurants in DC.

my food arrived warm at best. my guest did not accept her fish entree as it did not taste good to her at all. another entree was prepared for her and was acceptable to her and two guests got this same entree which they both stated was extremely salty and not enjoyed. this was restaurant week and the restaurant did not offer its regular menu. this information was not on its web site, had i known this i would have reserved elsewhere.

The food was fantastic! The waiter was very attentive. The menu had a great variety.

Good options for restaurant week. Wish more bread was offered.

Atmosphere was good, food exquisite and staff very attentive. thank you!

Restaurant week menu and food was amazing. !! Haven't been back in so long I'm glad I did and I'm going back this coming Monday with friends ( which one of them had dinner last Monday and loved it ) . Want to praise Nick our server he's new but was very nice , professional, not over baring .
Thank again for a great experience !!!!

The Oval Room never disappoints. We were here for restaurant week. There were excellent vegetarian items for one of our party. I have to say that though everything was excellent, the pomegranate dessert was OUTSTANDING!

Six of us went for Restaurant Week. Main courses included tortellini, salmon, hake, hangar steak, chicken. The portions were substantial. They were not overwhelming. They were very adequate. Along with an appetizer and dessert, the amount of food was very good. The taste of the food was also very good. The wait staff was very attentive. Overall, the experience at the Oval Room was very positive. We will return.

Great food, great service.