Rustik Tavern

This place was a regular but the kale salad has gone down hill and they seem not to be open for lunch. Just went by at 1pm and the patio looked closed. Who wants to sit inside on beautiful summer days? And for those of us with dogs, we can’t even if we wanted to. So, lost one customer to boundary today.

Eh– so many better options close by. Service was unbearably slow the night we were there. There were 3 men standing beside the pizza oven, two behind the bar, only 2 other guests, and it still took 10 – 12 minutes for someone to so much as bring us water. The other reviews mention that it is not busy & I think there is a reason for that.
The booze selection was sufficient and well rounded. The menu was also well rounded, but our pizza was fairly disappointing. On the Pizza amazingness scale, this one would rate about a 4. There was no crispiness to it and it felt like I was eating a tortilla with cheese on it. I know pizza is greasy, but this was a «make you need to drop the kids off at the pool» level of greasy.
Between the poor service & lackluster food, I would not go back. I did like the dark/​tavernish vibe, though.

I really wanted to like Rustik Tavern and after a few mediocre experiences I continued to go back to see if they would have a better showing. But, like in some sort of abusive relationship, I expected change when I had no reason or right to.
The menu is very ambitious and all sounds delicious, which is maybe why I gave them so many chances, but the people in the kitchen are unable or unwilling to execute. The food is often over-​seasoned and otherwise disappointing. I’ve been for both dinner and brunch multiple times and never got anything that was above mediocre. The pizza was soggy or the shrimp in the shrimp and grits were overcooked. Every time.

Three cheese add chorizo and an Eggenberg Pilsner. Stayed within my comfort zone. All were excellent. Crust could have tasted a little more authentic, but the brick oven flavor was still tasty. Great music and staff was more than on point. Not very crowded on a Tuesday.

Rustik Tavern is A-​OK. For a Friday night, they were not busy at all. They probably get a lot of overflow from the Red Hen across the street. My friend and I ordered the Kale Salad to share, the Ward 5, and the spicy sausage and kale pizza. Of the three, the spicy sausage and kale pizza was the only really tasty dish. The kale salad was just okay, as was the Ward 5.
I’d come back for a drink in a very low key environment. I’ll probably skip eating here if I can help it.

I’ve lived in the Bloomingdales neighborhood much longer than rustik tavern has been open and witnessed it pioneer the neighborhood restaurant movement as more restaurants soon opened. Rustik was new, fresh organic and bright. Over the years the quality has seemed to go down. I ordered a margarita pizza recently and I could barely finish one slice, the sauce tasted cheap d they didn’t even out mozzarella cheese. I’m not even sure WHAT kind of cheese was on the slab of bread and tomato paste I ordered. Waste of money.
Brunch used to be my favorite there where I have brought many family members but about a month ago after ordering the shrimp and grits which I could barely finish because it just did not taste good, I asked my visiting family members if they would ever go back their and even though they finished their food said they would not, that something seemed off. And oddly enough we all got sick afterwords. Not sure what it is, but I now know for a fact that the place I once enjoyed is just not the same anymore and now I will no longer return. There has been a lack of consistency on the food quality and taste.

A friend and I ended up here last night after 2 other failed attempts to get food last night. Although it was a quarter til 10 we were still able to walk in and obtain seating… thank you because I was a little on the hangry side. Once we were seated the bartender came and poured us two glasses of water (DC native… love DC tap water).
A few minutes go by and the waiter comes to take our order.
Food: Ward 5 pizza with extra mozzarella & added chorizo. I don’t like my pizza heavily laden with tomato sauce as the acid is not my friend. The crust was thin but there was a good portion of toppings.
My friend ordered the homemade chicken gyro but was a little confused by if she had gotten the wrong meal as there were potatoes with her meal but the menu doesn’t specify that as being part of the dish. All in all she said that she liked her meal and it was very filling as the waiter had informed her upon ordering. She did mention that the seasoning for the pita bread was only on the top piece… boo!
Drinks
Besides the infamous DC tap, I ordered the Texas pear which was little strong for my taste so I had to stop at 1, lol
My friend ordered 2 vanilla vodka & ginger ales and said that the second one was really strong even for her and I wouldn’t say she is a lush but she can put it down
Service
Service was pretty fast. The only thing that was bothersome was that it seemed like when we were enthralled in a great conversation the waiter would pop up in what felt like haste to see if we needed anything else but when my friend tried to ask him something he would be gone in the wink of an eye.
Upon viewing the online menu on Unilocal I discovered they had dessert. Had I known that they served dessert upon my visit I would have tried the pie but it wasn’t on the menu so I didn’t know to ask and it wasn’t offered. l, oh well didn’t need those empty calories.
Parking
Although the neighborhood of Bloomingdale is not downtown DC, parking on a Saturday night can be hit or miss

We ordered take out, so I don’t have much to comment on, but oh my goodness– the arugula pizza gets 5 stars all by itself. SO good!

As the Duchess, I should probably offer my review. Full disclosure: even though I’m rating it a 3, I keep coming back. I’m trying to be discerning with my ratings and not hand out the 4’s.
The reason I keep coming back is the prime location exactly half a mile from my house. Because of its slightly sub-​par everything, you can pretty much always get seated right away. However, take that with a grain of salt because once seated, your service will be slow. It has happened multiple times that we’ve gotten our food before we were given utensils, and while you would expect that to be a lightning-​fast correction, it wasn’t in either case. I think the fact that this has happened twice is the perfect representation of service here.
The food is slightly above sub-​par. We most frequently come for brunch. I recommend the salmon salad if you like the idea of salmon and eggs on a salad for breakfast. The chorizo hash is my other favorite. The biscuits and gravy is heavy on onions and light on sausage – I don’t recommend.
The coffee is good, but slow on refills. Beer selection is weak. Bottomless mimosas are a draw (but not for me). Pizza oven is the draw for dinner. The patio is an awesome spot that they’ve improved over time. If you love dining al fresco, that’s another draw.

This is our favorite spot in Bloomingdale! I love the atmosphere and our servers and bartenders are always great! I love the Ward 5 pizza and their kale salad is my favorite. They also make a great gin ricky. This is a great neighborhood spot!

Decent bar inside while waiting for a patio seat.
Felt like this place was a little understaffed in my opinion because it took awhile for our server to take our order and get the check. (We thought this guy ran away)
Christina was great and enjoyed the pears, probably my favorite.
Next was the Mediterranean Herb Chicken that was good and my #2 choice.
Pep pep had a lot of variety in it was okay, definitely something you can get somewhere else.
Lastly, the Arugula was interesting. The lemon gave it an interesting flavor.
Overall the pizza was great and enjoyed my time here!

Disclaimer: I am neither a hipster nor a kale eater, so if you are, your opinion might vary drastically from mine.
I went here on a Wednesday night and sat outside. Firstly, the service was so bad that I was laughing maniacally at one point. And I am very easy to please (I even eat the wrong meals servers bring out if they look good enough). Hysterically bad service, and no apologies for any and all mistakes. At least try.
Secondly, the food. It sucked. I sadly brought a native of Beirut to a restaurant half trying to serve Mediterranean food — and that is my fault — so he hated his meal. My margherita pizza was about as flavorful as drywall. And the «Cheese and meat board» contained four pieces of one cheese I could have bought at Costco, and one piece of what I believe was prosciutto. Wowsers!
If you enjoy today’s new trend of apathetic wait staff and bland food, then this is the place for you! Otherwise, get in an UberX and go to 14^th St.

Three of us had Sunday brunch in this rustic place. The three dishes were well prepared and good. One of us ordered grits and shrimp and though I’ve never liked them they were offered so I tasted them. The grits are great. The brunch menu had about twenty choices. The service is good. We waited awhile for the check but we were talking and this was fine. It’s a nice place. Like many cities it may take awhile to find a parking spot.

Just my opinion below :
Called in an order for the first time. A Ward pizza. Asked for a large, and they said we only have one size. I assumed it would be big enough to share with friends since the price was 14.00 after tax. Got there. It was a small personal size pizza, with very few ingredients other than cheese. I was expecting some nice vegetables and mushrooms. Only had mushrooms and cheese.
Pizza was OK. Mostly cheese, crust was nice since wood fired. Disappointed for the price.
This place would be good if they lower the price and increase the number of veggies on the pizza.

Two years ago, I bookmarked this place based on this — I just had to try their qofte! Yeah, it took me a long time to get here. You know, so many restaurants, so little time… but I digress. I’m half Albanian and grew up eating both my grandmother’s and mother’s qofte. My grandmother’s qofte was always overcooked, dried out and bland and my mother learned from her, so… Thus, I always wondered if there was something better out there.
After having the qofte here, I’m here to say that yes, there is a better version (sorry Grandma). We ordered some as an appetizer which consists of 4 small qofte patties on a bed of garlic infused yogurt. Qofte (pronounced «chofta») is a meat patty that has spices, parsley and sometimes bread crumbs and egg in it. Rustik serves a juicy, savory qofte that’s nicely browned on the outside but moist and flavorful on the inside. I was reluctant to try it with yogurt but was pleasantly surprised to find that the yogurt was infused with just enough garlic to add flavor without it being overpowering. I told the server that it was better than my grandmother’s and mother’s. She said that the owner was Albanian (to which I told her about my background).
We also got a margherita pizza to share. Their pizzas are baked in a wood-​fired oven which produced a nice crust with puffy edges. It was a decent pizza with enough fresh basil to add good flavor. There was a generous amount of mozzarella, which I appreciated since I’ve had margherita pizzas elsewhere that were really stingy with the cheese. The sauce was good as it wasn’t sweet.
To drink, I had a pear vodka which was okay. It is made with pear purée that, despite being shaken well (I watched our server make it), still settled to the bottom of the glass. My husband had a Yuengling.
We were here at quarter to five on a Saturday. Even though the place opens at 4 p.m., they don’t start serving dinner until 5. Our server was the only one there and she was making the drinks and taking care of customers as one can order drinks at that time. I found myself hoping that extra help was on the way — and it was as a few more people came in around 5 p.m.
You are told to sit where you want and most people chose to sit outside. We stayed inside. With the front door propped open, the a/​c ended up being not that strong.
Before the tip, dinner cost $ 41 + change. For me, it was worth a visit just for the qofte alone! My parting words to the server — If you see the owner, be sure to tell him how much I liked his qofte! She said that she definitely would do so.

Came here for dinner on Monday night. Like most places in Bloomingdale, parking in Street parking which usually means walking a few blocks.
We arrived at 720, shortly after their 4−7pm happy hour had ended the place was incredibly cozy, smaller than we had expected and the servers were very friendly. We were seated in a booth for two and given drink and food menus. We ordered two lose canons (one of my favorites) the cocktails looked great two. This place my have a little issue with their C02 tank as the beers were a little flat.
We ordered the harissa minuscules and shrimp pizza to share. These vane out at the same time and both fell far below our expectations.
1. The pizza had a rather thick crust and absolutely no crunch. The topping were thrown on, the sauce was very heavy and the shrimp were some of those very small cheap shrimp. All in all this left for a very soggy, soupy unappealing pizza.
2. The muscles were good, but nothing special. They had a kick thanks to the harissa broth and we’re doused in canned tomato.
All in all the food left much to be desired and was very salty the ambiance was nice and the service was friendly. This is a nice neighborhood bar, but not somewhere I’d come back for dinner. Since Bloomingdale isn’t my hood, I’ll probably stick to my neighborhood bar!

Loving the trendy-​ness of this place. Went looking for eats in close proximity to my friend’s home. This place is a block away so that was nice. Seems like a good neighborhood spot. It is hot in here. I took off my jacket and sweater and was in a tank during dinner. Great ambiance. Respectful crowd. I had a delicious pizza. Not good as a left over. Eat all your food fresh. They serve artesian pizzas as well as other things. Great brick oven that spins and a huge flame rolls down every once in a while. The cooks/​chefs seem to love it as I watched them more than once prominently prepare and present their finished product with some flare. I love people who enjoy their job. Makes the service better. The old fashion is too sweet for me so I’ll try something different next time but the drinks have a little twist to them. I’ll go again definitely. Love the vibe.

Go here for the pizza… or the patio.
A very unique rotating wood fired pizza oven.
The service was OK, Sue was kinda… meh.

Rustik reminds me a little bit of an après-​ski spot in the mountains (minus snobby skiers). I’ve been a customer several times in the past 3 years, for both sit-​down and take-​out service.
I like watching sports on the TV in the bar area (Rustik would perhaps dislike being referred to as a «sports bar» because it is decidedly not that!). The wood-​fired oven is also found there; it’s fascinating to watch the various dishes being cooked.
Their pizza is thin crust and crispy. I usually go with the Pep Pep, a lamb pizza that’s got some kick. My family also enjoys like Going Green (watercress, mozzarella, no tomato sauce); Spinach and Eggplant; and Perime Pica (veggies).
The kale salad is very good. But this salad is the ONLY one on the menu. Rustik, you gotta come up with some more salads, please!
And the same thing goes for the dessert. There is only one – chocolate bourbon pecan pie. I have yet to taste it; it’s always gone by the time I arrive, so I figure it must be yummy!
The wait staff tends to be on the younger side and there have been some hiccups with that, but overall they have nice attitudes and provide diligent service. Management is easy to work with.
The restrooms can be unkempt – need some more TLC on that.
I am grateful for its presence in Bloomingdale. It wasn’t that long ago that this neighborhood had about zero sit-​down restaurants. Rustik is an important anchor on that block, where T Street meets 1^st Street, in the beginnings of the Northwest quadrant, very near to the Rhode Island Avenue gateway (a major artery in DC). I believe that Rustik’s opening in 2010 (along with Boundary Stone Pub) encouraged other businesses to follow suit.
Kudos to you, Rustik, for being a leadoff hitter.

I think that one of the best things about Unilocal is getting good tips about lesser known restaurants that could be «hidden gems». Fellow Unilocaler Toya J, who’s awesome by the way, provided such a tip about Rustik Tavern. A tavern that offers American Bistro fare with Albanian influences? I’m down!
Perfect opportunity came on a weeknight with a dear friend of mine who was in need of some cheering up. What better way to do that than to force them to try food that they can’t even pronounce let alone tried before?
Rustik Tavern is the perfect name for this place. It’s a smaller, ethnic version of Cheers. There is a warm vibe that permeates from the tavern. The décor offers a certain amount of intimacy, particularly with the darkness of the wood interior, dim lighting and candles. As a major sports fan, I also love the huge flat screen television that was showing the playoff basketball games.
The service is prompt and professional. The server was pretty knowledgeable about the menu, especially given some of the ethnically inspired dishes that we were not very familiar with.
We ordered two appetizers– Byrek and Qofte, as well as two entrees– Fresh Pita with Lamb and the Ward 5 Pizza.
The Byrek are savory Albanian pastries with phyllo, tomato and onion. The pastries were ok but needed a cheese or something inside of it to add another flavor profile. There was a small salad that accompanied the pastries and it was surprisingly good. It was a basic spinach salad but was fresh and the vinaigrette had great flavor balance that added some much needed acidity.
The Qofte are Albanian style meatballs. It was served tapas style with 4 meatballs as well as a yogurt sauce. The meatballs had good flavor but were a tad bit on the dry side. The yogurt made for a nice pairing.
The Fresh Pita with Lamb also consists of pickled onions and potatoes along with a small cup that contained a yogurt based spread of cucumber, cumin, fennel and mint. The pita was large, warm and tasted fresh. Sadly, the lamb was overdone. The flavor of the lamb was alright but it would have been much better had it been tender. The potatoes were a nice pairing that added a different texture, which was nice considering the lamb was basically crispy. The spread was also a nice pairing though it was low on the actual yogurt and high on the veggies, which would’ve been better if they were diced into smaller pieces. Good flavors though.
The Ward 5 Pizza was definitely a pleasant surprise and the star of the show.
The pizza size is comparable to a medium and is cut into eight slices. It had a very thin crust and featured mushroom, mozzarella, zahtar, preserved lemon and tomato sauce. At first, I was worried that there would be an overload of acid with the lemon and tomato sauce but no such problem occurred. Actually, all of the flavors came together perfectly. The zahtar (spice blend) was the x factor as it provided some subtle seasoning. The cheese was gooey and the crust, while very thin, was crispy and firm enough to serve as a great vehicle. Nice to know that in a city with few quality pizza options, Rustik Tavern stands out as a favorable choice.
So how did my friend, who’s notoriously sheltered when it comes to food, feel about her meal? She really liked it! So much so that she actually insisted on picking up the bill! Speaking of the bill, it was only like $ 40! Yes, life is good!