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Tue-Sun. 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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There goes the neighborhood. Or at least that's what the Advisory Neighborhood Commission ("ANC") thought when they saw Comet Pizza and Ping Pong move into this normally placid section of Connecticut Avenue.
I know it's unusual to see young people in this part of town, but come on. It's not like the hipsters are going to go all Children of the Corn, and ritualistically murder all of the adults in Forest Hills. Or maybe that is what they think: Quoting ANC Commissioner Frank Winstead, "Comet is trying to turn this neighborhood into Adams Morgan with its murders and rapes." (!!!) Now I hate on Adams Morgan as much as the next 30-year old, but this ANC guy clearly has a screw loose.
Frankly, Comet is a breath of fresh air in stuffy upper Northwest. The entire restaurant has a cool vibe centered around the ping pong theme. The dining tables are designed to look like ping pong tables, amongst an otherwise minimalist interior. The bathrooms are "hidden" secret passageway-style in a nook in the back. (Hint: there are two, and push, don't pull) And there are murals on the wall of old English-folk playing ping pong. Super cool.
Comet has a nice selection of beers, highlighted by my personal favorite the Allagash White. The drafts will cost you $6 each though, but I still prefer that to bottles and cans, ranging from a $2.50 PBR to a $6 Shiner Bock.
The price is also my primary complaint about the pizza too. Averaging about $15, they all come in one size, intended for a single person. The thin-crust has a nice texture, and an appealing smoky flavor. Comet seems to go pretty light with the toppings, including the sauce, but the ingredients are fresh and well-prepared. I have to mention their delicious wings too, they have a little kick to them in a yummy hot sauce.
Much to the ANC's dismay, Comet also provides entertainment, besides just the food and drink. They will occasionally have live music in the back, as well as providing free ping pong tables and paddles so you can play. Yep, good luck finding the socks that just got blown off your feet. The ping pong is FREE. Hooray! Unfortunately, this usually attracts a lot of little kiddies and families, but if you wait it out past their bedtime, they'll lose steam and go home.
Unlike the ANC, I think fun, neat places like Comet are exactly what this neighborhood needs more of. I know if we all work together, we can have drinks, pizza and ping pong without any murders and rapes, thank you very much.
We hit Comet Ping Pong on a Friday night before a Politics and Prose reading. Great space and fast, friendly service. It's *very* casual (the server asked me if I wanted a glass for my Dale's Pale which comes in a can); I think a glass is a given, but hey, maybe it's part of their schtick.
My friend picked a pie with butternut squash, potato, pancetta, garlic and fresh mozzarella. An extremely mild pie, but tasty and the crust was crisp. The pancetta was so thinly sliced that it, and its flavor, pretty much disappeared, but ultimately, the pie disappeared as well, so all was good.
LOTS of kids running around so if you're looking for a kid-friendly space, this is it. If you're looking for a trendy, but quieter pizzeria, keep looking.
I am sure this place rocks if you are into games and drinking lots of PBR but a cool concept can only get you so far.
Please dont try the breadsticks/crackers (someone please tell me what those things are) unless you have an experienced dentist in town. I cannot even believe they put these on my plate.
I ordered "the ace" thinking that for $15.00 I was going to get a lot of the eggplant and roasted peppers. There were four small slices of eggplant and four pieces of roasted pepper ON AN ENTIRE PIZZA.
Adding to the mix it's location makes this place somwhere I will not be rushing to get back to....eh probably ever.
I love Comet, this is where you will typically find me on a Thursday or Friday evening just chilling with friends in a very cool and relaxed atmosphere. It is nice to know that you have a local bar in the neighborhood, and no, it is definitely not like Adams Morgan!
The pizza is not just good, it is amazing! My Boyfriend rated Comet's pizza as one of the best he has had... and believe me that is tough for him to say since his mom prepares the best pizza. Coment's pizza is not your conventional pizza, they have really creative topics and flavors.
The ping pong tables are also a great feature of the place. After eating pizza and sipping so much Allagash beer ping pong always sounds fun!
Nice atmosphere. Casual, crowd was friendly and having fun.
I thought the pizza was pretty good. I stuck with plain cheese and pepperoni. That's what I would do here. Don't get fancy with the pizza ordering. I liked mine.
The "coke" however, tasted kind of gross. The waitress acknowledged that the coke always tastes "weird" because it's not real coke, it's some generic. I found this candid response amusing and I'm still laughing about it days later. There is no pretentiousness here and it's a nice little something in upper NW. Maybe they have decent iced tea, I'll see next time.
I really love the interior space and the trompe l'oeil on the wall to the bathrooms - but impressed mostly with their WINGS!
indian-spiced, unlike any(w)hing I've had before - so tender, so juicy.
nothing like having your pizza topped with seasonal ingredients - and there was never a better partner for these pies than Anchor Steam!
Saturday night, stop #1.
Two surprises:
1) This place is bigger than I thought it was.
2) HIPSTEEEEER CEEEENTRAAAAAAAAAAAL! Seriously? I had no idea they ventured this far north!
I was there only briefly because we were to meet some people in Adams Morgan (oh joy), but, from what I can tell, Comet can be a fun place. I only had a Pabst before we all peaced out (I was feeling cheap that night), so I'll leave it at three stars until I go back for the pizza. Like, soon. ish. Maybe.
No ping pong that night, just hipsters dancing to bad techno.
Also, I used the men's bathroom by accident (no, the urinal apparently did not tip me off) -- ladies, why is it that the men's bathroom was cleaner than most ladies' rooms I've seen? This is SHAMEFUL.
Fun. simple. great pizza, although inferior the the likes of pete's apizza, 2 amys, and vace. But has a fun bar, and carol greenwood is gone, and now it's probably fun and better without her (IMO). anyway, worth going to, for sure.
The bottom line: Bad service and so-so food. The industrial sheik decor is cool but perhaps the place is better for a family with young kids? (it was packed with this demographic)
About a month ago, a friend wanted to try out Comet for her birthday. It's not too far up the road and we (wife and I) had never been and were excited to try it out...that was our first mistake.
As it was our friends birthday, we had brought up a cake as a surprise. When we walked in the door we tried to give it to two "hosts," noting the reservation and the fact that we had called ahead and mentioned we were coming. The "hosts" said, "Oh, we can't take that. You'll have to find your server to help you with that." Incredulous, we eventually coerced them into handling the cake but that was certainly strike one. Not to mention, they charged a $20 sharing fee for the cake we brought (all they did was bring out plates)...strike two.
The "hosts" and the rest of the service was surly and aloof (it seemed to be primarily privileged teens at summer jobs.)
The atmosphere was a very pleasant industrial sheik.
The food
The Comet Hot Wings were awful. Tender, yes(though I prefer crisp hot wings), but the flavor tasted like a muddy mess of pepper and mud. Not that I wanted more of these wings, but, it was $6 for approximately 6-7 smallish wings. Strike 3.
The Caesar Salad had fresh, sweet romaine hearts and was decent, on the verge of good, and probably the best thing we had at Comet.
The pizza was pretty pathetic. We had the "Smoky," which was small in size, sparse in toppings and average in flavor. For $13, I wouldn't order it again. Strike 4.
Won't be back to Comet.
It's just OK. The ping pong is fun, if you can get a table. It's pretty busy here. I live across the street but rarely go over because it's hard to get a table, the beer is on the expensive side, and the food menu is extremely limited. The pizza is good, but again, very limited selection.
I love the IDEA of Comet, but the execution is sort of less than stellar.
The pizza is nothing to write home about... on Saturday night, we tried three different pies and none of them were all that impressive. The "Steel Wills" was practically devoid of flavor; even the spinach and garlic struggled to make any impression on my taste buds. The ricotta cheese was thrown across the pizza in several big lumps so that in one piece you'd get a huge mouthful of bland cheese and in the next, not a spec of cheese to be found. The "Smoky" was a better effort, with plenty of cheese and some bacon and onions adding flavor, but I'm not sold on having soggy bacon on my pizza. The plain pepperoni pie was probably my favorite of the night, but even here the crust ranged from a paper-thin crunchy thing to thick and chewy - I'm more of a bready crust fan, but there wasn't much flavor in the crust to make it worth eating. The prices are attractive, though: the four of us split three pizzas and added three beers to that for about $16/person, before tip.
Fortunately, the beer was chilled and tasty and somewhat made up for the so-so pizza. There are only three options on draft, but they are all good ones (Victory Pils, Allagash White, and North Coast Red Seal Ale), and there are many other bottles to choose from.
The real reason we came all the way up north to Comet was to play some ping pong, and here was the real disappointment - by the time we finished our dinner at 9:30pm, the ping pong tables had been cleared away for some live music! What?! No ping pong at a bar that bills itself as a ping pong joint?!! We didn't stick around long enough to find out if the music was any good, instead heading south to Buffalo Billiards in Dupont for some pool action. Not as cool as ping pong, but we had to make do. The Comet music schedule is linked to through their website, so you might want to check it out before heading over with hopes of playing ping pong (http://www.reverbnatio...)... especially when it's raining like it was this past Saturday, which made the outdoor table a less viable alternative.
I love the game of ping pong. I tend to get hurt in every other sport I play but so far, knock on wood, I haven't sustained any injuries in this one. That means I can keep playing, which is something I take the opportunity to do every time I come home to DC.
Comet's a great spot. Their pizza is delicious. The staff and bar tenders are good and friendly - my best friend's family has sent both of its sons to this establishment as managers. And they have ping pong tables in the back.
Free ping pong? I'm definitely there. Should this place also offer fantastic food, great.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of either the Comet hot wings or the smokey pizza. Despite the fact that the wings looked like they were showered in spices and sauce, the flavor was seriously lacking any kick. The pizza was very sleepy; I was bored and tired of eating it after the first slice. Its dry crust was painful to eat. I definitely need to explore other items on the menu.
Somehow, even the Diet Coke was undesirable as well. Oh, and the service? Slow.
The ping pong tables in the back are in good shape (unlike the banji paddles). But there doesn't seem to be a way of regulating a line for the tables. Some people will stay on for hours while others just play a game or two. Say good-bye to your sanity if children are running around.
I had been meaning to get here for quite a while, but rarely am I in the upper Connecticut Ave area. Having checked it out, I will definitely come again. I must say this is not quite the gourmet pizza you will get at Two Amys or Pizzeria Paradiso, but the place is laid back and friendly, the decor is funky in a good way, the beer selection is good, the pizza is pretty good and I love the idea of ping pong after pizza. This place is very kid friendly, but as others have mentioned there is a balance of young hipster and professional types as well. When I say kid friendly, I mean in the sense that they serve pizza and they have ping pong, the obvious. They don't have a kids menu or coloring paper and crayons. Nevertheless, a very worthwhile location for a family outing.
**I forgot to mention the ping pong is free, but balls are sold from a gumball machine for 50 cents. There is also an arm wrestling table - perhaps to break any tied games in ping pong?
Cadence R and I were on a Monday night Manhunt. A manhunt of the hipster kind. Sophie's review had made us hopeful for the bearded, tattered t-shirt type. And they were there---just serving, not enjoying. My bad, Monday meant that Comet was family central. However the pizza, atmosphere, and ping pong made for a great evening. We decided we will have to come back on a Friday to get the real vibe.
Funky space, but pretty decent pizza at a good price. The waiters are all good looking, and know what they are doing. This is one of those places you can take a date, the kids, your mom and dad, or pick up someone at the bar!
Comet Ping Pong portrays itself as a gourmet pizza place, which puts it into the same catagory as Two Amy's, Mia's, Pizzaria Paradiso, etc... Unfortunately, all of these places serve better pizza. Yes, the pizza here is better than Pizza Hut or Papa John's, but when you're spending $15 on a personal pizza, you expect better food what Comet has to offer.
Besides for the food, the menu needs some TLC. They only offer a tiny one-page menu, with four or five signature pizzas and then a "make your own" list of toppings. Even for a pizza place, this menu is sparse. No meat or fish dishes, sandwiches or pastas.
I started out with the greens salad, which was dissapointing. It was a $5 bowl of lettuce, with nothing else. My friend Dave had the chicken wings, which he said were special, and came with a horseradish dipping sauce. These were the best part of the meal. For my main course, I had the meatball pizza and he had the "Yalie" pizza with clams. Mine only had a few tiny meatballs on top of a Celeste-like crust. Dave's crust was also undercooked and lacked any texture.
The pizza isn't terrible, but you could do a lot better elsewhere, for a lot less money. I'd eat a $1.60 slice at Vace any day over Comet.
You know what, I like Comet, and I feel like the pizza has gotten better.
I went here last night for a ping pong tournament. Yes, a ping pong tournament... don't judge. I had the Marty Reisman pizza, which comes with roasted butternut squash, melted onion, wood-grilled rapini, garlic & mozzarella, and I added bacon to that. Yea, that hit the spot. I went with a Dale's Pale Ale, which I'm all about, plus it comes in a can which is way rad.
I made it to the Elite 8 in the pong tourney and then had my ass handed to me by a 14 year old kid who was a little ninja. I'm pretty sure I could have beaten him but I was off my game... I think his small stature was throwing me off. Which brings me to my next point, what the hell kind of parent allows their child to enter into a ping pong tournament at a bar that starts at 9:30pm and doesn't end until past midnight? Isn't it past your freaking bedtime little boy? He should have been forced to drink as much beer as I had been drinking.
*bitter*
Great service, even better atmosphere, better than average food. I'm not a huge fan of the pizza… Read more »
I was so happy to discover Comet Ping Pong. I still haven't ventured over for one of their weekly band performances, but you can still have a great time without their live music. The free ping pong is great fun and both times I stopped by, I had no problem getting a table. I also like the warehouse feel despite the uncomfortable cafeteria-like seating. The pizza was great and nicely priced. I'm not sure what the occasion was, but the server was nice enough to treat us to three glasses of wine on the house!
Despite the fact that the back ping pong room was closed due to a private party on my first visit, I really enjoyed myself here a few Fridays ago.
The boy and I grabbed a couple of seats at the bar and ordered a couple of beers. The bartenders were friendly and prompt. As soon as we finished, they were on top of it, asking us if we needed another drink. Practically no wait at all.
I didn't get a chance to try the pizza, but I did see Chris Matthews and his wife Kathleen enjoying some with their friends, so that's enough to get me to come back right there.
On a side note: I don't know who does the hiring here, but the entire wait staff was nothing but attractive young men. So kudos to them. Of course... I barely noticed since I was on the arm of the most handsome man on earth who could probably bench press all the waiters at the same time... with one arm ;).
Disclaimer: I would give Comet Ping Pong three stars if it were merely a rating for the food and for the service. However, I would give the place six hundred stars for the completely knock-your-socks off ambience! Comet Ping Pong is on the cutting edge in its approach to providing a great alternative to the traditional bar/restaurant/venue. It not only hosts ping pong tournaments and provides dinner, but it also serves as a space for art shows and music events. Recently, top billed music acts played there for FREE! (Eh hmmm, Morgan Geist!!!!!!! He would normally headline at some huge festival, and patrons would have to pay mucho mullah to see him, but here, you just had to saunter in and enjoy the show. How is that for cool? Needless to say, check your events calendar; Comet assuredly will have something worth checking out in the near future.
That being said, the food and service need improvement. If the pizza isn't burned, it is ok. Usually, however, the crust is so burned that it cracks off and is inedible. The menu is very limited, and the portions are small. The worst, however, is the service. Most of the staff are young hipsters who probably think they're too cool to be serving people. It's too bad because this place has SO MUCH potential. If they would refine their menu a bit and talk to their staff, this place would be a diamond in the sky!
I do love this place. Combine pizza, beer, ping pong and live music and you have a winning combo; what's not to love? The menu is short, and the pizzas are small, but the taste is divine. I do admit to having a thin-crusted Neopolitan pizza bias, but I can tell you, you'll never find a pizza like the "Softie" (pizza with soft-shell crab on it) in Naples! The look is industrial, the bar is small, and there are only three beers on tap (currently Victory Pils, Anchor Steam and Alagash White), but they serve pitchers! Yes, you heard me, pitchers in snooty Forest Hills (where a former ANC representative tried to get the outdoor ping pong banned). Who'd of thunk?
I couldn't find the dang bathroom in this place. I looked behind curtains. Wandered into a store room. Accidentally walked outside at one point. So when I did find it, it was a cool little surprise. It was like a hidden panic room full of urinals and classical painting featuring aristocrats playing ping pong. It was worth a giggle while I peed.
The place has a unique style. It's a limited menu but the pizza was very good. Eat it all in one sitting though. I packed a bit to take home and it's not so awesome the next day.
It cost more than I like to pay for pizza and beer, but they had PBR in a can for a couple bucks a pop. For that, I tip my ping pong paddle.
Comet deserves two stars for it's food, but earns an extra star for having cans of PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon, $2.50 each) on hand. Their wood fire pizza is okay, but I think it's overpriced -- $12 to $18 for it's signature personal-sized pies (perhaps you can share one pizza with your date, but then make sure you order a salad, too). Playing ping pong is fun, but if it's not your thing this will not be of any added value, obviously.
Also, the bathroom doors blend in with the walls of this cubby-holed area between the bar/kitchen and the ping pong area. You may want to find the bathroom before you eat or drink -- only because if you really need to go and have no idea where it is, you will have an exercise in bladder control ahead of you.
I still love Comet after several more visits. The staff is so nice and they love kids. My cousin's twins are pretty rowdy and on a crowded night, our server was so sweet and helpful to them even though we were there for a long time and frankly, making a lot of noise and mess. When we came back with our niece, the servers again were so nice. One even brought us a free "mistake pizza" -- which may be my new favorite. In lieu of tomato sauce is a roasted butternut squash puree, carmelized onions, mozzarella, and sauteed rapini. It was smoky and fantastic. We ended the evening by playing several rounds of ping pong on full stomachs -- our niece loved every minute!
And the previously reviewed below-average Caesar salad improved as well. It's definitely now a completely adequate Caesar.
We had a good experience here, but it was Monday night and the servers were both attentive and… Read more »
Atmosphere: Kind of unprepossessing exterior belies an interestingly-designed, spacious interior. I can't really remember that much about the interior, due to the fact that I was at a bar getting drunk. There's a photo collage of regulars on one wall, which is a nice touch. The bathroom is exceptionally well-hidden, which was kind of annoying, but that's a lesson you only need to learn once.
Food and drink: I really liked the pizza here (especially the smoky pizza). It's that crispy thin-crust style, which is my favorite. The chicken wings are good in terms of their flavor, but they are super-greasy (not that I have any problem with greasy food in general, but there are limits). The food is a bit pricey, though -- if I lived in DC I would probably just come here to drink and not order a lot of food. Decent beer selection -- I was pleased to see that they had Victory beers on tap.
Ping pong: Possibly the best thing to do at a bar ever.
Feh. Comet is the definition of under-delivering.
The pizzas here sound extremely fancy, and are ridiculously expensive (much more than Matchbox or 2 Amys). We didn't order one, because we had heard they were a huge disappointment, and after seeing a few that got delivered to the table next to ours I'm really glad we didn't. They are very small, and pretty much flat, with almost none of those premium toppings you pay for visible. Considering this is one of about 3 food options on the menu there isn't much else to pick from unfortunately.
We decided to go with a few orders of wings to tide us over til we could make it to somewhere else, since we had the intention of playing a few games of ping pong while we were there. There is only one type to choose from, and it turns out they're actually really tasty, a bit on the pricey side for wings, but still loaded with flavor. I'm not sure how they are cooked, but I would have to guess they are roasted in the oven, because there was no visible batter, and the meat just falls off the bone. There was a great herbaceousness to them, and I wish we had gotten 4 orders instead of 2. The bleu cheese they give you is a bit funky, and doesn't exactly go well with the wings, so I recommend eating them as is.
The beer selection is pretty much shit here, so I suggest going somewhere else before or after if you want some booze. Unless you're happy with the piss that passes as lite beer here, in which case drink to your hearts content from about every variety in the grocery store these days.
As far as the actual ping pong goes, that was another huge let down at Comet. Despite converting all their dining tables into miniature ping pong tables, they managed to forget to purchase an adequate amount for people to actually play on. There are only 3 tables in the back, 1 of which is essentially broken. I don't want to imagine this place on a busy night, because the queue must be out the door, as it was midday when we stopped by and could not manage to get a game to save ourselves.
A helpful hint for anyone looking to visit Comet for the first time: the bathrooms are hidden inside the wooden wall just past the bar. It looks like a camp locker room, with no visible entrance, but keep pushing and you'll eventually find your way inside to enjoy the walls covered in naked women murals.
Food is good but limited...the jerk seasoned wings are off the hook. Literally cooked for so long that it falls off the bone...pizzas are about a 7 on a 1 to 10 scale BUT a 10 on the fact that I do not have to deal with whiny fucking kids and d-bag suburbanites who read about how it is "Time Out DC's "pizza of the century"" making it a must for the suburban scensters at 2 Amy's. Tonight was probably the last 2 Amys unless it is a 3 pm afternoon of a big travel weekend.
Comet's solid food and beer are a welcome alternative especially on a Saturday night in December with the economy in the shitter and no patience for the volvoland that 2 Amys has become (eeer always was...). Add to the concerts and free Ping Pong (or cheap ping pong?) this is a fun, relaxed place with an amazing Darrow Montgomery mural that is one of the best large-scale art projects I have seen in a restaurant.
Visual:
The interior is pretty funky, more U Street then Upper NW, compared to the grungy outside (I thought it was a dirty old man bar for years)...
It also seems that they hire only attractive male waitors - extra good eye candy.
Food:
the pizza was okay, but on the small-ish side for the large price, the dough had a strange taste to it -familiar, but not exactly 2 Amys level.
Overall
Hm.... if I were to have a fondness for children I might have enjoyed the fact that they were screaming, bumping into me, and overall completely unmanageable here (basically, I am petrified of small human creatures).
Try to get a table in the front, and NOT the area between the restaurant and the ping pong and you will be fine if you have the same quirk.
This small 'hood pizza place has a lot going for it and plenty to be bummed about as well. I give it four stars only because it's been a fun experience for me and mine more often than not. I can only hope that the owners/managers/staff read the yelps of the masses and rectify some of the issues here and make this place a bigger winner.
On Pizza: The pizza is good and made from fresh, yummy, mostly local produce. The pies are a bit on the small side and are limited to the one size choice. I usually prefer more sauce, but these pies were very tasty in the crust department.
On the space: Roomie and calm. The high ceilings are nice and the lighting is chill. The Ping Pong room gets a bit crowded especially on early weeknights and on live music nights. My only major gripe is the hidden bathrooms. Why hide the toilet...seriously.
On service: The service has always been great and the workers polite and easy to talk to. Yeah it's a hipster paradise, but the people are nice and good at their jobs. Why gripe?
Ping Pong: What a great way to while away an evening with friends or strangers! I've had a blast sipping on a PBR or a Dale's and playing into the wee hours. The only problems are that sometimes it can fill up with kids on the early evenings and sometimes it's just hard to get on a table. Still, I say it's worth the wait.
As a bar: Good staff, good drinks (though selection is somewhat limited), Dale's and Old Chub, lot's of space, and friendly regulars. My only major gripe is that they sometimes close very early on weeknights making them not so dependable as a regular bar hangout in sleepy Van Ness/Chevy Chase.
I see the potential. I hope for some small improvements. I will be there playing Ping Pong, sipping a Dale's, and having some pie. FUN!
We finally ate dinner here, and I'm sticking with 4 stars. The food was great, I really enjoyed my pizza (I think it was the basic tomato/mozzarella and I added mushrooms and olives). My husband had the white pizza, which was really good. The pitchers of beer were a bit pricey, but hey, it's Chevy Chase. The service was fantastic - our waitress was really nice, laid-back, and attentive.
However...I didn't realize that this place turns into Chuck-E-Cheese in the early dinner hours. HOLY SHNIKES that place was PACKED with little kids, and the ping pong area was a total zoo. Which is fine, I can wait till 8 for my pizza/beer/ping pong. Just be warned that if you're going here for an early dinner, it's much more of a family/kid atmosphere than it is later in the evening.
I've never eaten here - just drank (and drank, and drank) and played ping-pong. Because of that, I… Read more »
First off: we knew the hostess and were sitting with someone who occasionally serves there so we tried a lot of different things and automatically had that 'part of the family' feeling.
This place is really fun! What kind of place has ping pong tables?? While there was a wait for table (both for playing and eating), my friend said it was the first time he had to wait to play. It was a friday night at 8:30ish though.
Drink:
Lots of different beers including nice tap beers( I had the allagash) and PBR in a can. They also had Dale's Pale Ale from a tiny brewery in colorado near where I went to school.
Ginger beer! A true treat for me. : ) I always forget how much i love it until I crack one open every once in a while.
Food:
Pizza was very tasty but a little pricey. I like how the crust was on the thinner/tougher side, but I can see how not everyone would love it. The prices/sizes were comparable to Matchbox style and the flavor was pretty close.
Wings- the only way i can describe them (and i said this like 100 times at dinner) is that they taste like spicy Christmas. Like the smells and tastes that go along with xmas made spicy and put in large quantities on wings. I think they must put nutmeg or something on them. Granted, they come out and you're like 'wait, sorry i ordered wings not a bowl of poo?!?!' But, alas, those are the wings. And they are awesome. Eat them.
Chick pea salad- very yummy, no lettuce, lots of chick peas and green beans.
Yummy chocolate dessert!
Its fun to go hunt for the bathrooms (although i don't know how you'd tell mens from womens, someone just told me to go in the first one...). The atmosphere is very chill. Its warehouse-y so it gets loud when its packed.
If this place was closer I'd go more often, but its a bit of a trek.
The "Jimmy" pizza with its wonderfully savory tomato sauce and tiny meatballs is far and away your best bet at Comet Ping Pong.
The boys I ate dinner with enjoyed hunting for the loo, but I did not have occasion to go on a search of my own.
(Generous 3 Stars)
While flipping through the pages of a slightly outdated Washingtonian magazine, I found an article about the area's best pizzerias. Such hotspots like 2 Amys, Bebo, and Mia's Pizza were compared. Comet Ping Pong was rated eight slices (or a full pizza), the highest score a pizzeria can achieve.
As a pizza lover, I wanted to experience Comet Ping Pong for myself. Unfortunately, it did not live up to its positive reviews..
This place is a madhouse on Friday night. I skipped the wait line and sat at the bar. The menu is very limited; there are a few appetizers, salads, and a select number of pizzas. Fortunately, you can build your own pizza, which is what I did. I ordered a simple tomato and mozzarella pie ($7.5) with extra sauce ($1?) and fontina ($2). The reasonable price was deceptive.
(Innuendos ahead.)
After one to two innings (my phone has live baseball simucast - great time consumer), my pizza finally arrived. I don't think "size matters", but in this case, it did. It was a 10 inch pizza on a 12 inch pan. What a disappointment! 10 inches just isn't large enough for me (Chicago style pizza is an exception. Mmm, so deep.). Regardless, I continued to satisfy my cravings. Oh so hot, but oh so tough. I had urges to bite off a large piece of my slice, but I resisted. I nibbled and slowly worked my way up to the hard crust. Was I reaching the peak of my pizza experience? Sadly, no. All was left was a little sauce on my mouth, but no regrets leaving the hunk of dough (which took forever to come) onto the pan.
Post failed foodgasm, I concluded that Comet Ping Pong's pizza was unimpressive. The sauce tasted like it came from a can of Spagetti-O's, half the crust was burnt, and the pizza size couldn't ... fill a small woman. Thankfully, I didn't spend much at Comet Ping Pong. With dozens of pizza restaurants in the DC area, why come here? Comet Ping Pong is very popular among families, but if I was a kid, I would rather go to Chuck 'e' Cheese. I'd take a bag of fake coins over a pizza in a rustic/urban decay-themed restaurant with ping pong tables any day.
(Side note: the bartenders were *nudge nudge* *wink wink*-worthy.)
The first time I went to Comet several months ago I really enjoyed it. I ordered the chicken wings, the soft shell crab pizza and washed it all down with an Allagash. The wings were unconventional. I want to say they use a cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar (just taking a guess) with red, crushed pepper marinade. The wings also come with a horseradish dipping sauce. The combo is yummy. I loved the soft shell crab so needless to say I was pleased with a new take on pizza.
However, each time I've been there since has been more and more disappointing.
Number 1: I have yet to play ping pong because the tables seem to be monopolized by middle aged men who are clearly still waiting for their balls to drop. (pun intended)
Number 2: the wings aren't that good anymore. Something happened because they are just "Meh".
Number 3: the service....oh, the service. Apparently many other reviewers like eye-candy from their wait staff. I however prefer good service, warts and all. Every time I eat there I feel like I am being served by twenty-something children who feel entitled to a good tip after they ignore me, bring me the wrong order because they weren't listening and cut me off in the middle of a question. I just feel like everyone who works there is just waiting for their band to be discovered. This alone will prevent me from ever going back.
Number 4: Pricey!!!!! The pizza isn't that good.
Number 5: As already stated in other reviews...where are the bathrooms?
I wanted to like Comet but after giving it several tries and a lot of money over the past year, I'm just done. I rather drive to NYC for a good slice than deal with their mediocre, over-priced pizza.
If you want to go out for pizza AND play ping pong, this is the place to go. I mean, this is the only place to go. Other than that, I was pretty unimpressed. Comet serves the same trendy single serving gourmet pizza that plenty of other places serve--each pizza costs $12-$18. Our table of 6 got 5 different ones, and they were ok. The service was pretty much non-existent. We hung out at the bar while waiting for a table, and there was nothing special there, in terms of wine or beer. And the service there was similarly non-existent.
If I lived within walking distance, I might frequent this place. But I won't drive there again.
I guess these guys get extra credit for their foodie owners and ambiance since they seem to garner alot of love for a place with decent but very pricey pizza. Like the reviewer below, I had a smoky which was OK but virtually devoid of toppings, which is particularly puzzling and galling since the pie is so small and slathering it wold take maybe half the toppings of a normal size pie.
The green salad is a tiny bowl of lettuce (just lettuce!( with an overly tart vinaigrette - for $5.
On the plus side the crust is nice and tasty and the pie is nicely cooked.
Bottom line - the food barely passes one star, but the cool laid back ambiance and nice beer list merits the second. And its nice to let the kids play ping pong while you chill with a beer or 2. And you certainly won't get filled up on too much pizza so assuming you're not concerned about budget this would make a nice stop for a beer and snack on the way to dinner somewhere else.
Gave it another try. Overpriced. Lazy service. Pizza was pretty good, but not worth the aggravation.
I actually likled the pizza. Very good thin crust. Good cheese. Not sure why it cost so much. … Read more »
Good Pizza... a little overpriced, but the ambiance makes up for it!
Love the crust and the staff is quick and friendly.
Ping pong tables! - innovative and cute idea
Location - next to my favorite bookstore in the area!
Very busy on a friday night, but while we waited for a table we went to the back to play some ping pong. We didn't wait long to play, and I got to play my first real game of beer pong - and I may be hooked.
The pizza is expensive but it is good. They use fresh ingredients and and are so flavorful. The wings are like nothing I have ever had in my life. They are spicy and the meat falls right off the bone.
A really cool warehouse-esque astmosphere - a very fun, casual place. Dinner is over around 10-10:30, but you can still come in to the bar and play some ping pong/see a band in the back
The L2 goes from adams morgan to the front of comet, and the H2 goes from columbia heights metro to the van ness station - it is way north west DC, but there are definitely great modes of transportation to get there!
Definitely check it out!!
Neighborhood: Spring Valley
Category: Restaurants
Washington, DC
Category: Pizza
Neighborhood: Chevy Chase
Category: Caterers
Neighborhood: Chevy Chase
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: Cleveland Park
Category: Grocery
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