Chef Geoff’s Downtown

Came here starving for a late lunch post checking out the monuments. Our entire group got burgers and fries and were not disappointed. Burgers were cooked perfectly to temp and the fries were hand cut and salty goodness. Seriously I wish I lived in DC just to come back here for what sounds like an amazing happy hour, something like $ 5 burgers?! Hell yea!
The brunch menu overall had a nice variety and there were definitely a few other options that stood out to me as well (hello chicken fried steak and gravy).

One of the best happy hours in DC, too bad it’s closing at the end of the month. You can get a gourmet burger and fries at the bar for the same price as a mystery meat combo meal from a fast food place. Be sure to wash it down with a supermug of your choice of about 6 – 8 tasty mostly craft beers. Get some plantains as a side and you’ve got about the best happy hour food in town. Service is friendly but goes downhill as happy hour fills up and tables do go fast so be warned. Hoping they find another place to open downtown and if so I’ll be there.

It’s been almost 3 years since I first visited Chef Geoff’s and I re-​visited the restaurant again with a couple friends on a Friday night. We were able to get a table easily. Service was decent and the food was, as last time, good. Not my favorite ever, but definitely tasty. Since I’d had happy hour and drinks elsewhere, I ordered a side of brussels sprouts. Tasty and filling! And it was unique too, as it was a Cantonese style brussels sprouts and came with scallions and sesame seeds. One of my friends ordered a pizza and said she enjoyed it as well. I also got a drink — the Candy Apple Sangria (red wine, apple brandy, apple cider, cinnamon, lemon juice, orange juice, pineapple juice) on their Crafty Cocktails menu. Very delicious! Chef Geoff’s is still solid (I’d rated them a «4» a few years ago as well) and I would certainly visit again.

This place was extremely efficient at getting you in and out the door. Fast efficient service but the worst most disgusting crab cake I’ve had in my life. It was extremely fishy tasting. The house made potato chips tasted like fish as well. I sent beck the crab cake with my apatite ruined. Apparently they don’t change the grease or extremely poor quality crab. The service was mediocre. They messed up my wife’s order but quickly corrected it. We were a party of 7 and no one in the group was impressed with their meal. I’m not sure why the hype for this place but I would never spend another dime in here. The beer selection isn’t bad but the bar service was slow. Maybe the Tysons location is better.

My wife has been here before for happy hour and loves it. Tonight was different.
The host sat everyone in the bar so they were slammed and the regular tables were empty. EMPTY!!!
FOOD was Ok. Kids pasta was just pasta with a little Parmesan on top. Nothing else. Gnocchi was ok. Bacon on it was great!!! If they served just the bacon I would get it. The wings were borderline undercooked. Wings should be crispy, shouldn’t they? I sent mine back and new ones were better, barely.
Sorry, but I had high hopes when we went in. May try them again.

This is my second visit. My first was about 8 yrs ago. This is one of my fav DC dinner spots. This visit, we of course made reservations through Open Table. Sadly we were seated on the winterized screen-​in porch and there was a noticeable draft. Service was amazing. Our server, Yassar, not only professional, friendly, expedient, but handsome. The food was amazing. The candy apply sangria was sweet & addictive. My only other grievance is: The prix fixe menu seems to not be utilized anymore. Additionally, the risotto, sautéed Brussels sprouts & the chicken croquet was taken off the menu. I actually wanted the risotto. No worries, I did enjoy my meal but I do feel this new (to me) menu is lacking of the comfort food they previously had. Given that it’s Fall and approaching winter, I’m sure it will be well received. Oh and please add a cheesy cauliflower mash to the menu.

Came to Chef Geoff’s after we were told our entire party wouldn’t be able to sit together at another restaurant. We came here and were seated pretty quickly for the size of our party, and even when the number grew (eventually 18 of us) the managers and our waiter Collin were very understanding. Collin handled the table by himself and well! The food came out and was delicious, no one had any complaints. Thanks so much again for accommodating our large party and giving AWESOME service!

Ok so after more than decade since I first came to DC, this may still be the best happy hour. I know that’s a bold statement, but you can take or leave my reasoning.
1. They have giant beers at affordable prices. For like $ 9 you can drink out of a 32 oz beer mug the size of your head. That’s just good fun. Oh and they have good beers to boot.
2. Cheap pizza. Rock solid for $ 9
3. Extensive hh menu. Unusual still, sadly, to find a solid hh menu with real food and not $ 5 olives and nuts as mainstays. You can easily make this a meal.
Expert tip: Service is always solid, but much quicker if you sit at the bar.

Great food and good service.
I had a salmon burger with potato fries. My friend had a crab cake burger with fries and both were tasty. However the salmon burger isn’t like others I’ve had (normal). Still good but was almost like ground meat instead of the more fleshy burgers I’ve had.
Our server was friendly and was helpful with a birthday cake we brought and even gave us candles when I forgot to bring them.
The only thing I didn’t like was that they moved us multiple times (three). It was somewhat reasonable because the size of our party changed, but it was cold where they moved us. Nevertheless it seems like there wasn’t great communication between the hostess and the servers. Overall a good dining experience. I would go back.

happy hour just around the corner from our hotel at the JW Marriot!
we sat in the bar area to enjoy their happy hour, they also have TV’s if you need to catch a game at the bar
—sangria $ 6: pretty tasty but essentially no alcohol
—crispy plantains with guacamole $ 5: the plantains could have been crispier but over all can’t go wrong with guac! interestingly the plantains were sprinkled with cinnamon
—mushroom pizza $ 9: not bad but nothing special as far as pizza goes
NOTE: the burgers and fries are $ 7 if you prefer that over pizza!

The food was great. The honey sesame Sriracha wings were sauced just right and the fries were hot and crispy. It came pretty quickly too.
However I have to deduct one star because the service wasn’t the best. I don’t know if the waiter was new or just had too much happening at once, but we had to ask for a menu and silverware. My drink (a Zombie — pretty good) arrived about 20 minutes after I ordered it (after receiving my food and asking the waiter where it was). Also we were never offered refills or asked if we wanted more drinks or dessert. We were finished with our meal for about 20 minutes before receiving the check — after flagging the waiter down for it.
Apparently this location will be closing at the end of the year. If it weren’t I would still revisit if I were in the area. You should still check it out.

Chose this place because we were seeing a show at Warner Theater. Brought out food and app at the same time. Asked them to hold off on the burgers so we could enjoy the appetizer. Brought us back the SAME burgers, wilted fries, and sauces that were skinned over due to sitting under the heat lamps while we had our app. Was told they were made fresh just now. I know it takes longer than 5 mins to cook 2 medium rare burger meals, fully dressed, with fries. Had like 6 different servers, had to get up and get our own silverware. It was just very unimpressive. Old food, multiple servers, none of which really seemed care about our food, our service or our experience. I don’t plan on a return visit.

Great food but service was shockingly bad. Our server was like a zombie. She had no expression on her face. She took our orders methodically and forgot a cup of coffee ordered. Never came by to check in. I had to stop her and ask for more coffee after she stopped to check in at a table adjacent to us. Even the woman coming around topping off coffee was in her own world. It’s too bad because the host was very friendly and the food was really good. The menu had great choices for breakfast. It was an all-​star menu with the best options you could imagine. Maybe the servers were just having a bad day or hadn’t had a chance to wake up yet.

Wow. I can’t say anything bad about this place.
Our server (her name escapes me), was so amazing she made the experience so much better than their food — which was incredible! We came here for a celebration meal. When we told our server why, she was genuinely excited for us. But she had a great personality and added it to her descriptions of all the foods. Cute.
I ordered the bone in pork chop and my husband ordered the sweet potato gnocchi. Both dishes were so incredibly amazing. Juicy pork with crazy delicious Guinness butter, soft pillowy gnocchi, huge thick chunks of bacon. Wow, not a meal to forget!
We will be back.

My husband and I came to Chef Geoff’s to check out their happy hours special (all day Mondays + Tuesdays) through opentable promotion (complimentary $ 20 credit if you pay through your mobile phone).
First impression — the place smelled like shoes. My husband and I weren’t sure if the food was worth sticking around for. But then we saw the platters of the happy hour burgers and pizzas passing by, we decided to let our nose become desensitized.
My husband ordered the downtown burger with regular fries while I went with their salmon burger with sweet potato fries. Both burgers were well made and perfectly seasoned. In fact, my husband thought it was on par to the Monk’s Café burger he had in Philly (award winning burger). I, too, was impressed by their salmon burger (especially by the portion of the salmon patty — reminded me more of a jumbo crab cake!) The sweet potato fries was worth the $ 2 surcharge — freshly made, crispy, not one bit oily — so good.
Although we enjoyed our food, the service wasn’t as impressive. My husband and I placed our order at the same time, my burger wasn’t served until my husband was ²⁄₃ way through his dinner. Additionally, we weren’t given silverware or condiment until second/​third requests were made. I understand we sat at the bar but our requests weren’t outstanding. They were the bare minimum to allow us to eat/​enjoy our food.
Overall — $ 7 dollar (not your typical) burger platter special — can’t get any better than that! Although not dying to return because of the service, I would consider to return to check out their HH pizza specials!

I ONLY come here for happy hour specials which can get crowded near the bar area. the best part is, they offer happy hour specials all night long on monday and tuesday. this review is only for HH specials
burgers are pretty awesome for the price you pay during happy hour (7 bucks or so). The chef geoff burger has bacon and cheese on it. the bun is also very firm and chewy which i liked.
plantains with gauc were also pleasantly crispy. doesn’t come with enough guac. they also have a bunch of pizzas on HH special. Sweet potato fries were bit too salty.
service was awful this time when i went. i told the host i wanted happy hour specials and he sat us down at a regular table (which in the past would sometimes honor hh specials if it wasn’t too crowded which i thought was the case). after seating us, I asked him for the hh menu and he told us we couldn’t get the specials in the restaurant… that left me scratching my head… didn’t i just ASK you for HH specials? so i got up and moved to the bar.
The waiter at the bar table was also very MIA for much of the night. but that could have been because it was getting late on a tuesday night.
This place is more like 3.5 stars but because its decently priced food with cheap booze during happy hour, I’m rounding to 4

My birthday brunch at Chef Geoffs was awesome! Our party of 8 ordered nearly every entrée on the brunch menu and it was all wonderful. The prices are reasonable and the service was great. The décor was classy but not too stuffy. On the weekends the parking is free.
I will definitely be returning for dinner at some point.

This review is for their Happy Hour.
It’s a good happy hour. Decent drafts for $ 5…or a SUPERMUG for $ 9. Draft list isn’t huge, but varied and pretty solid.
But the really great deal is on the food, where you can get large, juicy, delicious burgers and fries for $ 7. That’s a really tough deal to beat, especially for a burger that was really good. We also got the crispy plantains with guacamole ($ 5), which is great like everything that has guacamole, as well as the wings ($ 10), which I wasn’t as big a fan of.
HH is only available at the bar area, which is fair, since all the food is half the price as the regular restaurant… but kinda a hassle since it leads to an awkward (and potentially aggressive) jockeying for the handful of «bar area» tables. I wish they just kept a separate waiting list to keep that more orderly. Service was pretty poor; our table joked at one point that the waitstaff was playing a game of «hide and seek» with us, as we looked for someone to take drop-​off and pick-​up our check.
I’d definitely go back for a burger and a SUPERMUG (which seems like it should always be written in all caps)

Stumbled upon Chef Geoff’s while walking around the city showing some family members the city. We understood walking in at 6PM without a reservation would bring some wait-​time but we were willing to wait. We tried to find a spot in the bar area (first come– first serve) but to no avail, even standing room was hard to come by. After a bit, we were able to make our way to the bar area.
There were multiple bartenders circulating the back-​bar but never making eye contact. I feel that’s a main area of how successful bartenders work. Lots of communication can be had just by making eye contact — but I felt they were purposely not lifting their heads. After about 10 mins of hand waving and eye staring, one guy came by to take our order.
My girlfriends mother wanted to order something different: a cucumber martini. I called out the drink and said, «I know it’s not on the menu, can you do that?» and he responded with, «yeah but it’ll just be a pain in the ass to make.» Excuse me? Who’s the customer here? After another 10 mins of him chopping a few pieces of cucumber and shaking her drink up, voila, he made her one drink that was mainly just vodka and she could hardly drink it. But we didn’t make a fuss, we were just happy to have a drink since it was hot within the crowd.
Then movement happened and we found 3 seats at the bar (you can order from the full menu). After waiting MORE time to just get someone’s attention, we asked the bartender for the full menu where she quickly threw over the drink menu that had been sitting in front of me the whole time. Don’t you think I would have seen it? I clarified I wanted the food menu and then she grabbed a few. I ordered the shrimp and grits and my two friends ordered the veggie burger and regular burger (bartender took our order on a scribbled napkin rather than paper). The food was perfect and great portions as well.
While we waited for our meal, my girlfriend’s mother asked the same bartender if she could have a few more cucumbers. He started to grab her drink and she said no, I just want cucumbers. He then started to argue with her saying he was going to re-​shake her drink up and give her a few more. She relayed to him that she didn’t want that — she only asked for a few more cucumber pieces for her drink. I’ve never had such a combative (and he looked extremely young) bartender. He was very sweaty but never really thinking of wiping it off. Kinda put a sour taste in our mouths when he kept touching our drink glasses, etc.
I had heard great things of Chef Geoff’s from other friends. Granted we didn’t actually have the opportunity to enjoy the full restaurant feel, the bar area has a lot of work to do and especially training in the customer service area. I’m a bartender myself and knowing that there’s a balance that needs to be played when behind the bar, they need to be informed of that balance while remaining composed in front of customers.

I have a great time here every time I go.
It’s never been too crowded to get a seat, and the waitstaff is always very helpful in pulling seats together for large groups.
The popcorn is delicious! I wish the had other flavors, but the one is very tasty. I’ve tried a bunch of the flatbreads, and they’re all great.
Best part about this place is the super beer mugs. During happy hour, these are not expensive at all, and can be filled with almost anything. They can get a little heavy to drink from, and will get warm if you don’t drink them fast enough!