Hard Times Cafe

This dated place does not fit well in the modern area it is located. Service was just ok and maybe what earned a second star… Beer was a a little flat, black and bleu burger was bland and cheese not even melted served with homemade soggy fries. I had to add salt to everything. Bartender was openly more attentive to her phone than to customers then disappointed when we decided to move on to a new place to finish out the night. Maybe an okay place to stop for a quick beer but that’s it.

I’ve been to this Hard Times repeatedly in the last few years and it’s become a standard for lunch meetups with friends. Great place to watch sports, great wings and chili, and nice folks. Get a Hard Times Chili Dog, it’s the best.

The reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because the service is often iffy, even if there is no one at the bar. If you sit at a table, it will definitely take you more than 15 minutes longer to get served than if you walked up to the bar.
Other than that, Hard Times have always been good times for me.
The prices are fine, happy hour specials are great, and the food tastes just right. They’re not trying to be a fancy restaurant, so any complaints about ambiance or not-​perfect food is just uncalled for. The chili is great, I usually get chili tots.
One time though, I ordered chicken tenders as an appetizer. $ 9 later, there were only three thumb sized tenders on my plate. Not cool, Hard Times.

The food is going through hard times. The décor and cleanliness is going through hard times. The only time you should eat here is when you are going through a hard time or just really drunk.
Had the sirloin tip appetizer. That’s all it was: Pieces of chewy sauteed steak. My my teeth were going through hard times trying to chew that shit. It came with shredded lettuce and diced tomato. So I guess it could be a salad of some sort?
So, 3 stars since this place is true to their name. No false advertisement here.

I stopped by here with some friends for late-​night bites. There were plenty of seats before the crowd hit before 11pm. I ordered the Texas Chili over rice. There was not enough chili to mix in with the rice, thus it was very bland. We also got onion rings, fries, and chicken wings. All were below average. On top of that, service was very slow because they were understaffed. Nonetheless, our waitress was nice enough and diligent.
I was going to give this place a 3-​star but decided it only deserved a 2-​star when I remember the wet stairs. There was water/​drink all over the stairs and no one cared to clean it up.

If you get too drunk in Arlington, come here. The food will save your life. Chicken wings, fried macaroni and cheese, southwest egg rolls, and fried pickles are great options for dulling the impact of your pending hangover.

I got food poisoning, E. Coli, from this place on October 13, 2015.
I’ve been here before for drinks without any prior incident. Typically I like dive bar types of establishments, and usually I don’t order food, but I was with some friends and we were watching baseball and hockey, and after a few beers, around 9:00 PM, I ordered the Texas Chili over white rice. It tasted okay, and I felt fine the rest of the night.
Wednesday morning I get woken up by my stomach at 6:00 AM, and have to use the bathroom. I could tell things weren’t normal, as it wasn’t a normal bowel movement. I felt fine the rest of the day, and around 5:00 PM that night I could feel myself getting a fever and headache. It got a little better before I went to bed that night, and I woke up Thursday feeling better. Thursday afternoon, at around 5:00 PM, I started feeling completely floored again — headache, fever, dizziness. Then came the bloody bowel movements, nausea, and the WORST abdominal cramps I’ve ever had in my life. This lasted through SUNDAY morning.
These symptoms are exactly consistent with E. Coli. I don’t know if it was from the ground beef, the handling or washing of the glasses, or the server. But I am absolutely convinced that Hard Times gave me E. Coli. I will be reporting them to the proper health department.
AVOID this restaurant. You are warned.

One of my little hideout spots when I’m off during the day. I visit this location for lunch and I’m never disappointed. The service is good and there is a 7.99 chili buffet daily from 11a — 2pm. It’s such a good deal! You can make chili dogs, nachos, chili «Mac», or just a bowl of chili with all the toppings available. There is also an all day special in addition to the lunch buffet.
This location has much more to offer than the one in Old Town Alexandria and the service is much better. I’ve only ever been to this location for lunch and I’m hoping to become a regular!

Came here for a fundraiser event.
They have 2 floors, I’m guessing most events take place on the upper floor. Upon entering, the host was friendly and welcoming. It’s quite spacious upstairs. Since it was a fundraiser event, they had a buffet style layout for us. We didn’t really have a server, a friendly gentleman did bring us over some water.
I like the relaxed vibe of this place. Great for meeting up with some friends and watching some sports. The buffet items were all delicious, especially their chili. It was seasoned just right. They had a bunch of toppings for the chili laid out as well, which were all very tasty.
The event was a hit and everyone had a great time.

Want a quiet meal? Stay downstairs. Want a more vibrant bar type of atmosphere? Go upstairs.
The food was typical of any bar food. But I can say, the wings which I got «atomic» hot were to my liking in spiciness level. This isn’t on the menu but they will make it for you.
The food came out quick, the bartender is very nice and hard working. Also, I like that they don’t up charge you for extra ranch or blue cheese sauce :)

I 100% FUCK with my server tonight. Great service and entertaining. He really made my friend and I feel at home. it’s my birthday weekends and this is a great way to start it. His name is josh by the way so ask for him.

My good friend, essentially a true meat-​itarian, is a chili connoisseur and loves this place so much that he came here at least twice (possibly thrice) on a recent 6-​day trip to DC. I, on the other hand, generally avoid beef and previously never visited despite having lived in the DC area for 5 years. Over this past Labor Day weekend, I ended up coming along on a trip to Hard Times and was pleasantly surprised!
The Monday specials included an all-​you-​can-​eat chili bar for the actual price of $ 7. I might’ve gotten this but my friend directed me to the chili mac, which was also on special at around $ 5 and ended up being more than I could finish in one sit-​down. I had the four-​way [spaghetti, chili, cheese and onions] mac with the vegetarian chili [soy flakes cooked in a tomato base with fresh mushrooms, onions, green peppers, jalapenos and peanuts]. There are also three other meaty chili options: The Texas, Cincinnati, and the Terlingua Red. My entire order, especially the chili, was really very good. It was medium-​spicy and super flavorful. I was a bit surprised that the «mac» was spaghetti, though. Isn’t «mac» supposed to be short for «macaroni»? But no matter. We were also served a complimentary order of cornbread, a lovely extra, although I was too full to enjoy much of it.
The service was also notable. We first asked for four separate checks, then changed our minds (one person offered to foot the entire bill), and our poor waitress didn’t seem to mind this a bit, though I would’ve.

A normal sports bar in clarendon area. First floor is for dining, second floor is the bar area where you can watch sports and have some drinks. They have daily drink special, saturday is 10 bucks pitcher of domestic draft. Mixed drinks was not well made, no garnishment on martini? seriously? Besides, the interior needs some upgrade, at least bigger flat screen TVs since it is a sports bar after all. Also, the table, the floor and the seats seem to be a little dirty and greasy. Overall, not very pleasant expeirence.
Honestly, there is fierce competition in clarendon, hard times café needs to bring some game to attract more people. Among all the bars in clarendon, this is probabaly my least favorite, even clarendon ballroom is a better option.

I am visiting from California and literally stumbled on this place while we were looking for a place to eat dinner. I had not yet read any review about this place as I usually do because we simply needed to eat and get on the road to the airport.
I’m glad I didn’t read the reviews because they are absolutely misleading.
We arrived and were pleasantly greeted by Nata our server. She was very friendly and attentive to the fact that we were in a hurry. She brought out our drinks immediately and hot cornbread. This was great because the kids were hungry!
The tables come stocked with oyster crackers too, so if you’re really hungry you can always munch on those.
We ordered two BBQ Chicken sandwiches, Fish and Chips and two kids burgers.
The fish and chips came with two sides, I got the fries and side salad. The side salad was huge! It came with tossed greens, tomatoes and shredded cheese.
The chicken sandwiches were mile high piled with bacon and onion rings and the patties were grilled to perfection.
The kids both devoured their burgers and even commented on how the bread and meat practically melted in your mouth.
The fish was breaded with the most delightfully tasting breading spiced with something I can’t put my finger on but it we divine.
Our server kept our drinks filled and was always asking it’s if we needed anything else. I have no idea how anyone could complain about the service. The service was excellent, the food was amazing, the place was clean. The atmosphere was homey, it worked well for a family but I could see us going without the kids and having an adult only dinner and drinks in the pub area.
We give this place our highest recommendation!

I’d been wanting to visit Hard Times Café in Clarendon for a while and my fiancé certainly talked it up. We finally had a chance to visit during our recent mini bar crawl in Clarendon. Hard Times was our last stop on the crawl and we were once again hungry, so we ordered some of their famous wings with ranch dipping sauce. I ordered the original spicy Texas bbq wings, while my fiancé ordered the regular bbq (they were nice about letting us get the wings half and half). I highly prefer the spicy buffalo — style sauce and really enjoyed my wing experience there. I was actually pretty impressed and I liked how the wings paired with the wine I ordered (a riesling, as is the norm). I did try one of my fiancé’s regular bbq wings and didn’t really enjoy it… it was a bit burned and left a bad taste in my mouth. I would recommend sticking with the original spicy wings, if you can tolerate spice.
Hard Times Café is exactly what I expected — a down-​to-​earth bar and restaurant with some excellent wing options and good sports viewing opportunities. I’d visit again if I was in the mood for a dive bar and was in Clarendon.

A solid three stars.
Service was pretty good. I enjoyed that our server had a tattoo circling his forearm that read «F*** you.» If you can appreciate the irony of this situation you’ll probably enjoy eating here.
This is a straight up greasy spoon dive of a place – which is great if you’re looking for that sort of thing. There are tons of individually wrapped saltines and oyster crackers out for you to help yourselves to as well as warm cornbread served when you first arrive. We were given a sample dish with each kind of chili, which was awesome since it this n00b pick one. I went with the Cincinnati – a slightly sweeter chili with a hint of cinnamon – and topped it with sour cream and onions (which I then tasted for the rest of the night!). One of my dining companions got a plate of chili dogs which looked awesome. The fries I managed to steal were a little soggy, but still edible – I might suggest ordering them well done. Also, I really liked the wings. They were perfectly cooked and the (old bay I think) seasoning was not too salty. Finally, the $ 5 beer that my friend got was giant – I believe it was 32 – 34 oz.
Had I read the reviews noting bugs before visiting I might have skipped this place, but I am proud to report that I did not encounter any during my 4÷7÷15 visit!

Is this the best food you’re ever gonna eat? No. But do they have the best bar junk food menu? Yes.
Everytime whether I’m craving mac n cheese or chili or wings. This is the spot. They’re open early to late and the prices are very reasonable. They usually have all the major sporting events on the TV so u can snack and enjoy.
They also have pool and alcohol and during happy hour their drink specials are pretty good as well.

I tried this place while I was visiting DC this weekend with some friends. We tried to go to some of the other restaurants in the area, but this was the only one without a huge wait.
The menu isn’t huge, but there should be something for everyone (though I wouldn’t recommend this place for vegetarians as one of my friends was not eating meat for Lent and he was super limited on his choices).
I got the fried pickles as an app and split a wrap and some chili cheese fries with a friend. The food was brought quickly and the service was pretty good. The warp was good, nothing special and the chili fries had a bit too much chili for my taste, but overall everything was decent. I would come here again, but it wouldn’t be my first choice in the area.

Chili nachos! That is all I recommend here. Well, that and the beer of course! After having the amazing Hard Times nachos at many sporting events (wizards and nats games), I decided to check out the restaurant in Arlington. The beer was cold and poured in frosted glasses which is always a plus. The nachos were HUGE and delicious as always. Plenty of crispy chips and lots of cheese, chili, and sour cream. Way too much for one person but great for sharing. I sat upstairs to watch a college football game with some friends and the atmosphere was perfect. Not too crowded and the waitress stopped by at the optimal times to check in on us.
The location is right off the Clarendon metro and the bar was not too crowded upstairs for a Saturday night. Towards the end of the evening there was a DJ setting up so this place may get a little more packed /​lively later in the evening.

Eating at Hard Times Café is not something I would decide, but I was vetoed as it seems to have a greasy-​spoon following of college kids and dudes. I went with boyfriend’s family (his brother ate there in his college days). Oh well! I will try anything once!
So the chilli is pretty delicious, and it is cool that they offer each a table a sample of all four chilli. They are all good, even the veggie. If you are getting nothing but chilli, I say go for it.
The rest of the food is not that great. Even their world famous wings, which are grilled and fried, or fried and grilled, or something, were nothing special at all. I actually prefer Buffalo Wild Wings to this place. The french fries were a soggy mess, not crispy! And my entrée, the chilli dog, was dripping in grease. I couldn’t finish it and then definitely felt ill afterwards.
So all of this probably only warrants a 2 star review. But they lose a star (and if I could have given this place zero stars I would), because of the SCARY BUG that ran across our table, running under my plate of food and over someone’s sun glasses. I definitely totally freaked me out. I was sitting on the inside of my both and almost trampled my boyfriend and his niece sitting on the outside as I tried to escape.
Come to find out, other Unilocalers have experienced the same thing. They called it a blonde roach, and I am not sure if it was a roach or what. But the fact that is also happened to other people is just unacceptable! They need to fix this!