Sharon "Sharonoke" C.'s Profile

My husband and I have become Friday happy hour regulars.  Love the $5 mangoritas and pomegranate margaritas in HUGE glasses.  Strong and tasty and just three of them (really I could stop at 2), ends our week on a happy note and in a lovely drunken stupor.  The Bangkok Wings are cheap and tasty, too...although I have a bit of cognitive dissonance when it comes to the accompanying dipping sauce.  The sauce is decent but smells awful.  Oh well - still a fun happy hour place and the bartenders, waitstaff and owner are very friendly.

These five stars are really just for the "Super Grilled Cheese".  I love it so much, I want to marry it.  Seriously, it's like ecstasy on buttery Texas toast with bacon, tomato and fresh red onions.  And lots of gooey, wonderful, delicious cheese.

Had a great, great time at D.I.K. last night.  

My husband and two of my girlfriends met up at the restaurant for some appetizers and pre-karaoke drinks before heading upstairs.  The appetizers - mussels in white wine sauce, fried ravioli, mozzarella sticks, and fried calamari were all tasty...at least I killed my bowl of mussels (and the bread).  No-frills, but decent. The drinks downstairs were okay...one of my girlfriends had bad luck with all of her drink orders for some reason (her mixed drinks were too weak/too much sour mix in the margarita), but everyone else's drinks were fine.  

We picked this place because it was the only place that had karaoke in the District on a Saturday that wasn't in Adams Morgan (yuck), didn't have a room minimum, and didn't have awful reviews.  It wasn't a big deal that the upstairs happened to have a majority gay crowd, although it was kind of humorous that several people approached me, thrilled that I brought my [straight] husband and that we were "cool".  It also helped that everyone was really cheering everyone else on while they sang, no matter how good or not-so-good they were.  The bartenders were really friendly and made excellent drinks, and every time I stepped out onto the roof deck, I was guaranteed a good conversation with some of the regulars.  Great night!

My husband and I have pretty much been regulars at this bar since we moved to the neighborhood two years ago...out of convenience though, not because it's great or anything.  

Food: The food was never impressive by any means.  I judge a good sports bar by their wings and burgers.  The "naked" buffalo wings are sub par, soaked in vinegary and mild mediocrity.   They serve their "Fish and Chips" with actual potato chips, and looked at us funny when we said we were expecting french fries.   The "cheeseburger" looks like two massive meatballs stuffed in a gross, over-toasted long sub roll.  Don't even get me started on their "Philly Cheesesteak".  If you've read my first Yelp review, you'll know how passionate I am about Philly cheesesteaks, and Old Dominion's made me want to cry in my blah microbrew.  Really, the only food items that are any good are some of the mid to high-priced menu items (tuna steak sandwich, crab cake platter and sometimes the rib-eye), which sucks, because a good sports bar should have good cheap bar food to keep people at the bar and drinking more beer to wash the food down.

Service: The thing that kept us coming back was the service.  At least at first.  This place has a MASSIVE turnover rate.  We loved our old servers, but they left because the manager's a jerk (which we had to experience first hand, after seeing how he treated the servers and other customers).  Only 2 of our original favorite servers are still there, and one cool hostess, now waitress.  When we had the old staff, they pretty much all knew us by name or at least by face and gave us a huge hearty welcome, talked to us for a bit...one of them even gave us a huge bear hug when they found out we got married.  The new staff's fine and eager, but I feel bad for them, because I don't think they know what they're getting into.  

Friday was the last straw though, re: the jerky manager.  He KNOWS we've been coming to that place regularly forever now, but still acts like we're just random tourists and never greets us or says hi, and is extremely rude and dismisses us if he sees a large group of tourists (translation: $$$).  I like their jukebox, so I ordered a bunch of songs, but one song that i payed a buck for wouldn't play, even after taking my money (twice!).  I notified the bartender, who told me to talk to the manager - bleh.  He didn't want to really pay attention to me, quickly gave me a "credit" with the remote, not listening to me when I said that it didn't 2 credits, and then ran off, saying he'd be right back, and I had to wait 20 minutes, while he was on the phone outside.  For Godsakes, if you don't have time, take 2 bucks off my bill, or tell me you can't do it now, or whatever, don't freaking AVOID your customers.  He went back into the bar, standing in the back, avoiding eye contact with me, even though he wasn't doing anything, and finally, after I gave him the nastiest of looks, he came by all innocent surprised that my song never came on.  If I was just a tourist out of one of the conventions, I wouldn't really care much, but it just really boiled my blood how he treats regulars, and I'm sure he doesn't treat the tourists that much better.

Decor: AWFUL.  As much as they try to be a college-themed bar, there are not many college students that frequent the place.  The demographic is late 20s to early thirties, but mostly mid thirties and above, people just wanting to chill at a sports bar with a ton of awesome big screens playing games (which IS pretty cool about the bar).  But why the heck do they feel it necessary to plaster cheesy and ugly bar special and beer ads ALL over the place.  The bar decor looks fine without all the big posters and specials catering to the nonexistent drunk college seniors.  This bar has so much potential, I just wish they didn't get lazy just because it's a guaranteed source of money, due to it being connected to the Convention Center.

My husband and I got our first tattoos ever today - Gilda did them, and she was awesome!  Very professional, very talented, and answered all of our questions/made us feel very at ease.  I've gotten a few of my piercings done at Fatty's before, and Jason is also very professional and talented.  Great work!  We're really happy.

We took our two newly adopted cats to see Dr. Gross today.  She is awesome, and so is the rest of the staff.  You can tell that they all love and really care and are very knowledgeable about animals, and they took great care of our kitties.  I liked the fact that the vet techs were so patient while applying Soft Paws claw covers on our cats, even though the cats didn't really make it easy for them.  A bit pricey, but you get what you pay for.

More like House of Awful.

Before I get into the actual food, let me start with their whole "Philly" gimmick.  Total BS.  I am a Philadelphia (proper!) native of 20+ years, and I know that the first thing to a REAL Philly cheesesteak is that you do NOT call it a "Steak and Cheese" or a "Sub".  Also, the beauty of a real Philly cheesesteak is that you are able to customize it.  It's not your standard McSub with no options.  They told me that it comes with mayo, provolone, lettuce, tomato....

Lettuce and Tomato??  Are you serious?

That, my friends, would make it a HOAGIE, not a CHEESESTEAK.

Second of all, a real Philadelphia cheesesteak comes with the option of Cheez Whiz (and not the generic stuff, but Kraft, baby).  When I asked the guy if they had Cheez Whiz, he acted as if I was speaking Martian and responded with, "Chizburger?"

Granted, having a Steak "wit' Whiz" isn't mandatory, but it should still be an option out of tradition, especially if you're going to slap Philly to your name.  I was relieved that they at least had Provolone, which is also acceptable.  

The guy also gave me hard time when I told him I wanted salt and pepper.  Again, not all steaks come pre-seasoned, and you're supposed to have the option, as opposed to not having a choice in the matter.

The bread should be Amoroso bread in order to be a real Philly cheesesteak. I know this is probably difficult to get shipped, but if you're going to have Philly in your name, you HAVE to have bread from this Philly Italian bakery.  Every cheesesteak joint in Philly gets their bread from there, even the hole-in-the-wall joints.  

Actually, South Street Steaks in College Park, MD does exactly that.  They have real Amoroso bread, the option of Whiz, and they let you customize your cheesesteak.  So just go there, if you can.  I'm so mad, I'm not even going to talk about this place's crummy "steak and cheese subs".  

Argh.