Citizens & Culture

The service could of been better, the food was average I had a crab cake and my date had shrimp pasta. The service was poor the server took forever to get our drinks and bring out the food. I had a pineapple mock-tail, he had a lemon drop and Margarita that wasn’t strong enough and too bitter. She checked on us one time. The price was average for this area for two people. We got lucky with parking, give yourself time to look for that if you don’t plan on being in the garage. It wasn’t packed either for a Friday night, which was the best part. The aesthetics are there for a nice vibe. Open to trying another time, maybe there other choices are better.

Came for Super Bowl Sunday. They were clearly not prepared for the crowd they received. 2 of the main side TVs were not playing the Super Bowl game. The service was slow because they were not properly staffed. However, our server Briana, was amazing. She was as attentive as she could be considering the number of tables she had. She was extremely kind. The host was nice and did her best to get people seated. The manager eventually came in the floor and helped all night, serving drinks and passing out food.

I decided to try Citizens for Sunday brunch. I dined downstairs where the decor and ambience had warm and welcoming vibes.

The staff are efficient and professional and appear to have good teamwork in place. I ordered a bottle of house champagne and a carafe of pineapple juice to make my own mimosas. To eat, I ordered scrambled shell eggs with cheese and spinach, steak and mac & cheese. The champagne was delicious! Not too brut. The food on the other hand was beyond disappointing. Each food menu item is $5 sure, but the steak was flavorless, luke warm and TOUGH. I could literally hear my teeth grinding hard to try and break a sliver a part. The eggs were not shell eggs but rather a premix (maybe boxed?) despite me specifically requesting shell. Overall, it felt like the brunch items were precooked and in a buffet tray in the back then scooped and served. The spinach was concentrated in the center so they may have sautéed and added to the top, with cheese. The Mac and cheese is definitely not BPM&C so don’t get your hopes up there.

Overall, despite the mediocre dishes, the service was good and I will likely try to come back for dinner to see what that produces.

** I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that they mass produce for brunch because of the rush and that these items aren’t individually prepared upon order. **

I tried this place for the first time but honestly, it will be my last. I should’ve known I was in for a bad night simply by how it was damn near empty on a Saturday evening. Me and my friend decided to check it out as we’ve heard mixed reviews about this place. My friend was running late but I was seated at our table immediately. No shock there as the place was near empty. The waitress came immediately to me with her hand scanner asking me what I wanted. No hi, no welcome to Citizens and Culture, no nothing. I ordered a simple margarita. The drink came back and was weak at best. Normally when I ask for a margarita, the waiter always ask what kind of tequila I wanted. She never did so I assumed it was their rail tequila. I ordered the shrimp Alfredo and the double crab cake for my friend. Food came rather quickly but the food was mid at best. The Alfredo sauce was so runny and the portion was super small for the price! Then gave me 4 shrimp in a bowl of pasta! The crab cake was equally horrible. Who puts bell peppers in a crab cake?! It was loaded with yellow and green bell peppers. My friend wanted dessert but was told by the waitress that all they had was cookies and ice cream. Really?! Honestly I’m not surprised. Silver spring restaurants are normally a bust so the service and food was expected. We get our bulk and it’s $130 for 3 drinks and 2 entrees. The simple margarita I ordered was supposedly Patron. I didn’t ask for Patron! I didn’t even TASTE PATRON!!! They charged me $16 for a patron-less margarita and 2 nasty entrees. I definitely WONT be back.