New Location, Same Great Food, Same Long Lines…

The original Matchbox in Chinatown was one of the first restaurants I dined in when I moved to D.C. four years ago. I thought I’d found a gold mine—ahh, those buttery mini-burgers covered in fried onion strings, and that thin-crust pizza topped with giant meatballs! Plus, considering I’d just moved to this humongous city (comparitively), the prices seemed great. And then, visit after visit, the appeal slowly faded. It wasn’t that the food ever declined. It was the fact that—despite a huge expansion, in which the restaurant seemed to triple in size—getting a table (even on weekday nights) became impossible. Well, you could always wait for an hour, but was it really worth that? And the worst part was, if you walked through the restaurant while waiting, you’d see about 10-15 empty tables. I realize this probably has to do with lack of staff, but this does not bode well when you’re starving. And these empty tables become even worse when you see this on 6 or 7 consecutive visits. Get more waiters already! The last time I experienced this hour-long wait despite a seemingly empty restaurant, I swore off the place.

And then we got hungry one day while roaming around Capitol Hill. We hadn’t tried the new Matchbox up here, so what the heck? We were lucky enough to walk in at the right time. We were seated immediately, and our experience seemed just as fortunate. We had a great waiter; the food was delicious; the prices were still reasonable. The interior looks much like the original, but has a better layout, we all agreed—and we loved the design of the bar and the way they tactfully remodeled this old building, while keeping that same old Matchbox aesthetic. We left excited that this new Matchbox was the solution to all our problems until we saw the congregation of 20-some-odd people waiting at the doors, despite many an empty table inside. Thank goodness that wasn’t us, but still? This Matchbox policy of making folks wait despite available tables must have migrated to this new location, just like those onion-covered mini-burgers. We personally had a great experience, so I can’t complain. But, eh, why does this policy make my blood boil? Even though I love the food here—top picks are 1) the mini burgers, $8 for three; 2) spicy meatball pizza, $13 for the small; 3) chocolate chip bread pudding, $8—I have a hard time recommending this place now. Anyone else want to weigh in?

Matchbox