Capitol Lounge

Sam is the best bartender to ever grace this establishment.

Also, bring back Stella Cidre.

After a visit, I am still confused. Is Capitol Lounge for the tourist or for the local? For the tourist:

1) It draws upon every political stereotype of Washington, D.C. The signs quote famous American founding farmers and political art decorate the walls (including the bathroom with their political campaign stickers).

2) The food doesn't represent the thriving food scene of the city. Revolting against the foodie movement, Capitol Lounge serves basic American bar food with nothing on the menu standing out.

3) It may be the closest bar to the US Capitol so it attracts the tired tourist after a long day of site seeing.

For the local:

1) Their happy hour prices and draft list is impressive. They even have a hard cider on tap for $5.50 for a large glass during happy hour.

2) It's a dive bar, which DC locals find refreshing. After a long day of lobbying, you just want to retreat to a dark, dingy bar.

3) It's one of the only places in the area that can host a large group. They have a basement with a separate bar that can hold dozens of people.

Let's see which team wins out. If you're a tourist, vote this review with a "useful." If you're a local, mark it with a "cool."

This place is ok. I was hungry, had a little cash, so I sit at the bar.
barmaid takes my drink order, menu is pretty good for a small place like this. I order a burger, with fries. I can't do salad and burger. Food comes, second brew poured, pretty good.
My reasoning for three stars vs 4 or 5 is the fraternity/sorority feel to the place. I am not a patriots fan, but it seemed everyone in the place was. No football anything anywhere. The game was on and the brady fan club out in full force. Maybe in the off season i will visit again. Lots of bars and clubs in this neighborhood.

5 stars for being a patriots bar!!! We saw the Super Bowl there last night. It was packed but had good vibes. Bouncer and bartenders were nice

options options options, ok let's stop at the first dive bar that we found. opened the door only to find a bouncer standing at the door, took me a little by surprise epically for a Tuesday night, but what ever,

The menu is some what limited but enough for a bar, I got lucky and it was 25 cent wing night and they did not dissapoint. the wings were saucy and hot!! like lip tingling hot. I got a order of sweet potato fries were crispy and served with a horseradish dipping saunce!!

first time staying down here but this will be added to my short list of places to come to

A few of us were looking for a DC bar with a Wednesday trivia night that didn't start too late and stumbled across this place. There's a good selection of drink specials, but the highlight of Wednesday happy hour is the $1 soft shell tacos from 4-8pm. You can choose from chicken, beef, or veggie tacos but have to order at least 3 per order. They come out quickly and are a solid deal for a $1.

The trivia is run in a small space downstairs; in addition to the small bar, there's only about 3 high top tables and 4 regular tables. It was empty when we showed up shortly after 6pm but got pretty busy by 7pm. There's no table service so you have to go up to the bar and order, which actually worked really well because there was not enough space in the room for servers to mill around. The numbered tables made it easy to tell the bartender where to send the food. In addition to a bunch of delicious tacos, I got an order of sweet potato fries (a little pricey at $8) and thought they were AMAZING. I will definitely try the entrees and other food next time that I'm here.

Trivia begins at 7pm and is run in an interesting format: for almost all of the questions you choose how many points you want to wager, and for other the questions you "guess-timate" a number and try and get as close to the actual answer as possible. There were some pretty quirky categories as well. It's not my favorite format, but our group had a fun time. We were out by 9:30pm.

I liked the bar a lot and thought it was unpretentious but not a total dive. My one complaint is that the downstairs has absolutely zero cell phone reception - I couldn't receive or send any texts or calls at all while I was downstairs.

Fairly mediocre bar which caters to Hill staffers and locals. I guess tourists could also come here but I know it more for the Hill vibe. Drinks are nothing special but there are nice happy hour deals on food and drinks.

Cap Lounge! A Capitol Hill favorite, seriously, everyone that works on the Hill is here like ALL the time (well mostly the staffers).

They have daily specials and drink specials, which for Cap. Hill aren't too shabby. The service is okay, but I mean it IS a busy bar so it's more the food and the drinks that make Cap. Lounge the home to so many DC residents.
It's not too clean and it's kind of divey but to go to Cap Lounge is to experience the Hill after hours.

pretty chill place. came here for trivia and had the wings and fries. nothing amazingly special, standard bar fare. the ambiance was fun and beer was a-plentiful.

Went here for brunch while visiting DC for the week. I ordered the Bourbon Pancakes, and they were phenomenal. Pancakes are hard to make poorly, but these were above and beyond good. They also have a cool "Build Your Own Bloody" thing with dozens of different types of hot sauces to choose from.

It was a pretty sizable space with lots of seating. Good place to watch sporting events as there are many televisions around the place. Definitely a on the dive-y side, but in a good way. Staff seemed very nice and accommodating.

Definitely would recommend Capitol Lounge for an easy American food meal and a drink. Would certainly come back.