Stonefish Grill

I’ve been here twice for lunch and once for dinner since it’s across the street from my office. The food is good and the service is always great. I have yet to try the lunch buffet though.

Don’t let their online menu or website fool you. This place is a time warp back into 1990s Miami, and I’m sure you can buy some cocaine here too. The ambiance is that of an empty nightclub, where they are trying so hard to make be cool. The lighting is horrible, the lounge seat cushions are all stained (I don’t even want to imagine) and the food looked like it came from back of the freezer where the frost was chiseled off before microwaving.
There was only one staff working, she was very friendly, but she was the bartender/​hostess/​waitress/​buffet gate keeper. Maybe that is why we never got any service. After about a 15 minute wait, we decided to leave.
If you are looking for something business casual, avoid. If you want 1990s cruise ship without the water, check it out.

Lunch Buffet Review
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I had an exceptionally great time here. The lunch service is in the middle of a ‘Miami’ style, dimly lit space. I understand that Stonefish Grill is a restaurant, but to me it is first and foremost a night club. I couldn’t help but feel like they put tables out on a dance floor, covered them with white table linens, and decided that they were now also a restaurant.
But who cares? It works.
I was seated and before the server had a chance to welcome me I quickly declared that we were doing the buffet. So I think there was an option to order from the menu, but I’m not 100% positive. Anyway, buffet time! The setup is cute. They have everything on individual small plates, and provide breakfast-​in-​bed-​type trays to assist with transporting everything. They offer enough options to make it feel like a buffet, and at $ 10, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of food. (yes, it’s $ 10!)
My only gripe was that it took ~15 minutes to get/​pay the check. In lunch-​hours, that’s a lifetime. My man had to abandon me and get back to the office so I closed out alone. Not the best way to end such a fun dining experience, but I’m getting what I pay for, right?
I’m going to absolutely come back. I recommend this buffet for anyone sick of the potbellys of the world and who wants to ‘fine’ dine at lunch on a budget. Enjoy!

Great lunch stop. Was quick, and seafood buffet was well done. Would return again if in area

My husband lost something here and it was impossible to reach them by phone. The number advertised everywhere is wrong. The correct number is (202) 827‑4981. I don’t know how a business operates with a non working number published on Unilocal,their own website and other review sites. The only place it was correct was on their facebook page.

Pretty good food for reasonable prices. Service was prompt and staff was friendly. The wings and the grilled shrimp are good choices. The cornbread was decent but not as good as I was expecting. I love the outdoor patio.

Stonefish Grill becomes Stonefish Lounge at night. This is for the Lounge only.
Here’s their Facebook page:
Stonefish Lounge is a basement lounge/​club. There are seats and small tables along the periphery and a main dance floor in the center. The lounge is lit with several shades of neon lights. The music last Saturday night was mostly modern African beats.
The cover alone, which was a strict $ 20, was not worth it. One of our friends was denied entry because he was wearing flip flops. Status seems overly important here. It’s about what you’re wearing and who you’re with… Too pretentious for my taste.

Happy hour was great, affordable food and drinks. Get the catfish fingers!!!

I’ve order takeout a couple of times here purely out of convenience (it’s near the metro). But both times were seriously underwhelming, especially considering the price. What I’ve had:
Crab bread: Layered in cheese. If you need a comfort food type treat, it’s good, but it’s nothing special and the crab is completely outdone by the cheese.
Ribeye steak: Maybe it was just a fluke, but this was a really tough piece of meat with more gristle than I’d expect at that price. Hardly seasoned at all, too. I mean, ribeye should be tender! And fat, I’d expect some marbling. Not gristle though.
Roasted Half chicken: Good, but at the price, I expected more than just «good». I mean, the chicken at Chix is better — and costs half as much.
Ultimately, I’d call this bland, American, overpriced food. Is it passable? Sure. But I’m unlikely to go back a third time, however convenient it may be.

I came here with a friend for Happy Hour and I was pleasantly surprised. The place is decorated really chic. The DJ was awesome, the food was good, and the drinks were strong. We got the crispy fried chicken wings, they were delicious. The service was good, we sat at the bar and the bartenders were friendly and attentive. I was surprised that there was not a lot of people here. I would definitely come back here again for Happy Hour!

Ugh! Where do I begin? The location of the place is not an issue. Down a flight of stairs off L Street, pretty easy. The décor is not set up for dining! Cheesy wall padding, strobe lights and a main stage. It’s a freaking lounge not a restaurant. The only reason why I even ate here was because I was given a living social coupon from my mom for $ 40. I knew there was a catch. The greeter/​waitress was the only person I saw working on the floor so due to staffing service was a bit slow but she was ok. I wouldn’t recommend this place to my enemy. Food was sub-​par I ordered a cheddar cheese burger with fries. I figured it would be impossible to mess that up and they proved me right. It was cooked to the correct temp and the old bay fries were good. Again if your downtown avoid this place trust me.

Pretty good. Ordered Stuffed Salmon. Salmon was a little dry but the crabmeat was tasty. The ambience is nice but missing something; maybe a bit of a homey touch.
Also ordered fish trio which comes with fried calamari, tilapia, and shrimp with fries on the side. The fries were yummie and crunchy. The shrimps were fresh and delicious. The wait was a bit long.

Worst service!!! We been here for an hour and we ordered an appetizer as soon as we sat down and an hour later we received it. This place is empty!!! They have 2 waitresses and none of them. came to check on us. Really??? And our food is not even ready! An hour and a 15 mins later, yeyyyy our food is here. Well, what can I say about it. Really, really yummy and well presented. We did like the food.
My recommendation, have a snack before coming, because your food will take forever!!!

Was going to go here because we were in DC for the weekend and bought a Groupon ahead of time. Tried to go there Friday evening for a nice meal and the phone number in the Groupon was out of service. The second phone number mentioned in the Groupon was not picked up. We went there to find out that they only have appetizers after 8 pm and they turn into a club. I went in to find out that it was far too noisy for any conversation anyway. The next day we won’t be able to go there as we are busy during the hours they would have had a full menu. Then on our last day they will be closed. I am very angry that we will most likely not be able to get our money on the Groupon. Wish there was a way to give less than one star.

I’ve posted my full review on my blog:
Needless to say, there are good things about this place, and bad things. The service was less than stellar, some of the food is delicious while other parts were so-​so, and the atmosphere feels like an empty club than a fancy seafood restaurant.

This is not a spot for over 30 I am still trying to figure out the plastic glasses. I ordered the catfish Tinder’s and they were just terrible. They had no seasoning my girlfriend ordered the grilled Shrimp and they were a funky gray color.

«So many questions; So little answers (???)»
Quite an experience. I’m going to abolish my usual restaurant format and just freehand this one.
Groupon led me to Stone Fish Grill and something about this place seemed suspect from the jump. Firstly, I couldn’t find it on Unilocal.I think I made the «Stonefish» 1 word. Secondly, the website said that it was not open on Saturday and Sunday (???). I saw WKYS hosted, so I figured it must be a Café Asia restaurant/​club type place. It was also suspect that I tried to make a reservation on Open table, but it wouldn’t let me.
The suspicion continues, when we enter and have to go downstairs to the establishment — fair enough. I go in and the host asks me if we want to sit at a table or a high chair table in the bar/​lounge area. I say that we would like to sit at a table, but then he tells me that I have to sit at a high table in the bar area because they were taking up all of the tables up at 6pm (it was about 5:40). That’s perfectly fine with me, but it confused me as to why he didn’t just tell me that up front instead of giving me the fake option (???).
Anywho, the decorum is definitely club appeal with the faux luxury that only the club can offer. It’s decked out in all white with florescent lighting, and «VIP» sections for the very important people. It wasn’t packed at all, but the crowd was an interesting mix: The b-​day VIP section, which featured a girl in hot pink hair and matching pink dress (??? I’m praying she was the b-​day girl). Then u had the old creeps that got off work. They weren’t even playas. I can appreciate an old school playa trying to get some coody-​cat, but these guys weren’t cutting it. There was a girl apparently having her bachelorette party there (???), and finally a few working professionals. This gave me some major nostalgia from my clubbing days. The DJ was bumping 90s and 2000s jams, trying to get me to backslide.
While deciding our order, we were informed that there was no lobster, no oysters, and no rib eye because they usually don’t carry these items on Fridays (???). Keep in mind, this is a seafood place, but I wasn’t getting those anyway, so I didn’t trip. We ended up getting the calamari to start. It was par. I got the fettuccine with pork, chicken, and shrimp. It was very high pork in flavor — so much so that I let my gf try the noodles only and she could taste the pork. The waitress offered me a non pork option, so I won’t rag on this dish too much. It tasted okay, just strong pork flavor. My gf got the crab cake sandwich and fries. she thought it was basic. Our waitress was helpful and everything went smoothly in that regard.
In closing, this was an interesting place. It definitely is trying to go for the club/​restaurant feel, like STK perhaps, which I was not expecting. I have not been in a club atmosphere in a few years now, so the entire experience was comical, from the fake luxury, to the pink hair chick, to the song lyrics that I used to praise so much. I can only imagine how it gets from 10 – 3. I will admit that the DJ was playing some of my old favs from my BC years (before Christ). I wanted to stick around and see how ratchet the place could get, but I knew once I started bobbing my head and singing the lyrics that it was time to go. The devil is a liar! Shame on you Groupon for trying to get me to backslide like that smh.

I came here recently for a friends happy hr bday celebration. I’d previously heard about this spot via WPGC. It regularly hosts a Scandal watch party when it’s airing.
I was pleasant surprised by the lay out. It’s very spacious and offers a miami club kind of feel.
The happy hr specials were exceptional. Offering everything from mixed drinks to wine. They also had good happy hour food items. I tried the wings and catfish. The wings were good but, the catfish left a little to be desired. I also ordered the pizza, as well as a ceassr salad with shrimps. Both equally deelish.
Combined with food and drinks, I spent a whooping 30 bucks. Not bad for a Thursday night.
The wait staff and bartenders were courteous, efficient and friendly.
Will come again.

Late night review only!
This restaurant becomes a club at night. I’m still undecided if that is a good thing. I swear I must have come on short bus night because I have never seen such a collection of goblins, gremlins, oompa lumpas, chunky monkeys and mudducks in one place. Now I don’t go to clubs looking for women but I do at least like to see some eye candy when I go out and this place was not satisfying at all in that department.
I’ll give credit where it is do, staff was very good, the bouncers and door people were friendly and helpful, they were quick with checking IDs and handling security. The list and table service people were also on their jobs and the waitresses inside were quick with the bottles and generous with the pours.
DJ was decent, standard hip hop but also added some go go for the DC folks, some old school R and B to smooth it out for a quick second. He did break one of the cardinal sins of DJing, you are to never ever play the same song twice in one night. Now I like to do the Shmurda dance as much as anybody but if I’ve already got my Shmurda on I shouldn’t be doing the Shmurda again an hour later. There is no excuse for that.
All in all, place was decent but I wouldn’t pay to return. Luckily my dude has some kind of hook up so I got in for free so I’m sure I would return but I can’t in good conscience promote it.

«Expected and Unexpected»
Expected:
Not so smooth service.
An Error in our bill.
Unexpected:
Pretty good quality salad, sautéed spinach, and grilled swordfish.
Un-​coffee-​like coffee in plastic glass.
NY Strip Steak was served Well Done but my friend clearly requested «Rare».
I will wait and try the place again some time.