Matchbox: Chinatown

Matchbox is a self proclaimed "vintage pizza bistro." Call something a bistro and it becomes totally chic and fabulous and when you are located on 713 H Street a.k.a. Chinatown, Washington DC you need to be as chic and fabulous as possible!

I arrived at Matchbox on a Sunday night with 3 other people and no reservations. There was about a 20 minute wait (no big deal). I decided to stick around with the buzzer while my party walked around to see Chinatown as two of the people I brought had not been in years. About 15 minutes after waiting my party calls to let me know that they are a block away and should be back in a matter of seconds. My buzzer went off right then.

Here is where I had a problem. I brought the buzzer to the host and let him know that my party was not here yet. The host got really irritated with me and stated (I kid you not) "we don't seat people unless their parties are all present, you're lucky that we are already walking to your table or I would push you to the end of the list." I completely understand, they are busy. However, it wasn't like my party was still on it's way, they were seconds, literally SECONDS, away. So I nicely said, "well, they are less than a block away, can I please give you my name so you can let them know where I am seated when they arrive?" The server responds, "No, we don't do that. You can worry about that when they get here." I sat down at the table completely blown away when my phone starts ringing. My party is here and can't find me. Now, Matchbox used to be a grocery store and it is really easy to get lost in, it is a maze of levels and staircases. It took me at least 10 minutes to find my party as I tried to direct them via telephone, then walking around to find each other. It was a complete mess.

Lucky, things got better from there. The food is great!! We began by ordering the 3.6.9 mini burgers. the 3.6.9 are the quantities, we did the 9 ($18). You have the ability to choose the cheese that you would like, so we got all three cheeses. They arrive with a big pile of onion straws, amazing :)

Next, we ordered two large pizzas. One Matchbox Meat which is: pepperoni / spicy Italian sausage / crispy bacon /zesty tomato sauce / mozzarella. That will run you about $20.
The second large pizza was half Fire & Smoke (ire roasted red peppers / spanish onions / chipotle pepper tomato sauce / garlic puree / smoked gouda / fresh basil) (very spicy) and the other half was sausage and sun dried tomato (ricotta / mozzarella / fresh basil / balsamic reduction).
Everything was great! Watch out for the Fire & Smoke if you can't handle spicy food. I love spicy food so I love this pizza, but it is truly spicy!

 The two slices on the left are the sausage and sundtried tomato, the two on the right are fire and smoke. Here is another angle:

We finished our meal off with dessert. We got one order of coffee and doughnuts (cinnamon doughnuts / espresso kahlua crème) ($8) I drank the coffee (amazing) and everyone shared the doughnuts. It was definitely enough to get one order and share with 4 people. After the mini burgers and pizza, we were already pretty full!

Overall Matchbox was a good time. I am not the type of person to let a host ruin my night. I just let it go and enjoyed the food and the company and had a great time!
For families, it is  kid friendly. It is a good place to bring a date, or a large group. Plus, when you walk in there is a bar if that is what you're looking for. No excuses, go check it out!