Tackle Box

I was really impressed by this place when we went a few months ago. It was better than its related restaurant in Georgetown, with a larger venue and more food and drink items available.
The food is very good for the prices. If you want to eat fresh seafood that seems like it comes from an expensive restaurant, while having to pay only Red Lobster prices, this is your place.
Try the Bluefish.

1.5 STARS: Oh brother, it pains me to write a review about a place I really wanted to like, since I am a fine connoisseur of seafare. So I called my baby up and said, «Lets go to Tackle Box for some seafood,» since I had tried this place earlier in the day when it was empty and I found it to be good.
Here comes dinner! The place was packed with other diners complaining as well. What a disaster this was watching a slow moving train wreck which entailed malfunctioning computers, waitrons forgetting what we had ordered, and the worst offender being the arrogance of the manager whose unskilled martini making was so awful, the drinks were swimming in vermouth and had a scent of very cheap perfume so, they made a return trip to the bar and we had to settle for beer. With the arrival of our meal taking an hour, Jesus Christ, you will be better off paying a little more and dining at Hanks or Johnny’s Half Shell! But I have to admit, the waiter tried everything in his power to overcome this disaster but it was not possible!

The website’s hours are incorrect. They say 11am-​11pm Sun-​Thurs, so I went to Cleveland Park for lunch today (a Monday). Surprise! The door was padlocked. A sign in the window says they open at 4pm. Huge difference. And, I’m assuming the sign in the window is correct. I tried to be nice and contact them throught their website, but that doesn’t work either.
Maybe the food and service are good. Getting to that point is definitely a challenge.

I have mixed feelings about this place. I recently had dinner here on a weekday night. There was a ton of employees around but it was still very slow. I believe they were training new people, which slowed the ordering process and eventually led to an inaccurate food order. I’m sorry, this places isn’t McDonald’s with their prices, so I expect that if I’m paying over $ 15 for a fast-​casual meal for it to at least be right.
I ordered the Maine meal, which included grilled fish (I got the blue something or another) and two sides. The sides and fish were actually really tasty and a nice size portion. However, they seasoned the hell out of the fish and veggies with salt. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE salt, but even I could taste it and felt the bloat afterward. Also, they used so much oil on the fish (after I asked for it dry), it made something that was healthy and light (Blue Fish is a very white/​light fish) taste overly indulgent. Note employees who cook: grilled fish should not use the same amount of oil as the fried fish. What upset me about this situation is I mentioned this to an employees (who looked to be a manager or at least not a new person) midway through the meal, and his response was «I’m sorry, the kitchen doesn’t always listen.» WTF!
I’ve read other reviews about the price point. I don’t mind paying this amount for good, healthy, quick food, but when they can’t abide by simple requests it’s just not worth it. They do serve a wide range of alcoholic beverages, which is a huge plus for this type of place. Love the concept but execution needs to be improved. This location has been open long enough for them to not have this problem.

I asked my family when was the last time we had food this bad? My daughter replied, «OCB.» (Old Country Buffet)
We had eaten at the Georgetown location the year they opened and liked it a lot. So I purchased the Groupon deal. Then I saw on Unilocal that this location was 2.5 stars… what did I learn from this… re-​check out reviews before making an impulse purchasing decision.
This location gets a star for being a comfortable restaurant, with a cool atmosphere (full bar, nice beer selection) and a nice staff… but heed the reviews here management staff… please…the food is TERRIBLE!
We had three of the «tackle box meals.» Each had a grilled fish, side and sauce… The fish, for all three was cooked well, but served luke warm-​cold and GREASY… looked like they had been sitting under a warmer for a while. Cold and greasy does not make for a good flavor combination.
The only thing worse was the sides. Asparagus that was a $ 6.00 add-​on, also not hot and limp as if it had been sitting since lunch. The fried green tomatoes, while looking beautiful, had zero flavor, but were hot. The hush puppies were too salty and so undercooked that they tasted both doughy and powdery, very hard to describe, but inedible either case.
A huge disappointment!

I went this past Saturday because I was visiting All Fired Up a few doors down, which I’ll review next.
If I could come up with one word to describe this place overall it would be: Average. The ambiance was cool and had a relaxed «come on in, watch sports and eat seafood» feel. However THAT feeling stopped at the door. The man who took my order lacked personality and instead of asking specifically what I wanted, decided to make a lot of my ordering decisions for me. Speaking of my order, I order the catfish, broccoli, sweet potato fries and a bottle of water. The BEST thing I ordered was the bottle of water. It helped tremendously in washing down the bland catfish, over grilled broccoli and raw-​unseasoned sweet potato fries.
This is a restaurant I never have to visit again.

Finally made it to Tackle Box for Happy Hour. $ 1 oysters, $ 2 Natty Boh, $ 3 calamari, $ 4 wine, $ 5 rails, and the reggae playlist was pumping.
The $ 4 wine turned out to be Pepperwood Grove Chardonnay. I usually don’t care for Chardonnay because it is too oaky for me. But this one is barely oaked at all in my opinion.
The calamari? Lightly fried with peppers and lemons included. These were very tender. Not like rubber bands at all. The marinara was warm and tasted deeply smoky. Yum.
This will be a favorite happy hour spot for me for some time to come!

Now at the outset, I will say I don’t love seafood, so I’m kinda being a d-​bag by writing a review for here, but the non-​seafood and service were subpar.
First, I’d never been here, I placed my order and ordered a beer… but I did not receive the beer at this time because the guy who took my order failed to pour it. When I went back a couple minutes later when i realized I should have been given my beer right when I ordered it the response from a different guy at the register was «you’re supposed to get your beer when you order it.» Thanks champ, that’s why I’m back here asking for it. Anyway, that eventually got sorted out.
Second, I had the grilled chicken. It was bland and it was dry. I often roast chicken at home myself… mine is much better and doesn’t cost $ 15.
Third, both the wife and I had ordered corn bread with our meals, but when we picked up our food there was only one side of corn bread. No big deal. «Excuse me,» I say to the gent at the counter, «but we had another side of cornbread» The guy responds, pointing at the one thing of cornbread «yea it’s right here.» I shake my head «no, there were 2 orders.» He looks annoyed and says he has to check… it took like 5mins to get another fucking piece of cornbread. I just paid you $ 15 for dry chicken, you can’t afford the other piece of cornbread? Do you think I’m lying and this is all part of an elaborate scheme to get more cornbread?
On top of that there were screaming kids running around, getting in the way of the bus boys. And one kids who was just tall enough to put his chin on the pick-​up counter was dragging his chin down the length of the pick-​up counter mouth-​breathing on everyone’s food. Now, I do actually like kids, i just don’t like it when their parents let them run around a crowded restaurant and breathe on my food.
And no, I don’t know what’s like to be a working parent… however, I do what it was like to have working parents… if we went out to eat when I was kid my ass was in the chair and I would get a good talking to for getting in a bus boy’s way. Rich parents in cleveland park apparently think it’s ok for their kids to ignore the working class who are in the way of their play.
Oh and the reason why I was there is because the wife likes seafood. During college I was the stock manager at a seafood place… it was a good job and I liked it, but you see how much you like seafood after a few years of sticking your arms into raw fish to sniff for freshness.

I had to try the Lobster roll (Connecticut style). My impression? Average. For $ 19 it is not worth the investment. Red Hook Lobster Pound’s version is a) meatier, b) cheaper ($ 15) and c) has a better bun.
I’m glad I tried it, and it wasn’t terrible. There was no line at lunchtime like RHLP. I just won’t order it from here again. I did replace the french fries (Alicia G. would be proud of me) with grilled portabellos for no charge. I did not realize that all you get are two small grilled caps. These mushroom caps are also not worth ordering as a side order for $ 5 (!) if all you get is two, but they probably only gave me a half order.
On a brighter note, I loved the wood-​grilled catfish. For $ 7.50 with the popular garlic aioli sauce it was the best meal I’ve had here. The fillet was about the size of my hand and well cooked. It had a smoky flavor from the grill and maybe whatever else was grilled on the grill previously. However, my all time favorite meal item is their fish tacos. Disclaimer: I haven’t had them at this location yet, but you can bet I’ll be back on a Wednesday when they are half off. Two for $ 4 instead of $ 8. Yeah, like a shark during Shark Week, I’ll be all over that.

I guess I must have suffered from Groupon remorse, since we put off coming here till the final day to take advantage of their offer. After reading the less than stellar reviews, I figured we should hit the spot up early in the day to avoid crowds/​confusion the staff could suffer. I figure being first ones in, the food should be fairly decent, which it was.
The major complaint about the lobster roll is that yes, it is very underwhelming for what you’re paying for, which was mostly the heaping portion of fries I got. No issues with how it tasted, but there are better options to find a lobster roll in the city. My wife had fried tilapia fish which she found to be alright. There’s a very large menu for their grilled and fried options, and lots of different sides and I think I would mix it up next time with the other sides and a fish.
In the end I really didn’t suffer buyers remorse, since everything tasted ok and no mix ups. I’d definitely purchase another groupon for the same offer. I would just be a little more selective of what I ordered.

Meh is right…
I wasn’t too impressed with this place to say the least. I came here on Sunday afternoon to use a Groupon. The place has a very nice atmosphere, with bar stools and picnic tables and crab like/​seafood memorabilia all over the walls. Very cool, and they also have some enormous plasma screen TV’s which adds to the ambience.
That’s pretty much it though. The place doesn’t have waitstaff and they give you a crab shaped disc that lights up when your food is ready. If I’m paying this much money for sub par food, I would like some service?
My meal was interesting, I got the lobster roll ($ 19) which was good but overpriced. Should be about $ 10 in my opinion. The sides are way too expensive at $ 5, my mac and cheese was sub par. The sweet potato fries and regular fries I had were just okay, nothing special. I would have liked some sort of sauce to go with them, but saw they were charging 50 cents for it (WTF?) which I refuse to pay. Also, they charged me $ 8 for a Guinness. Believe me, I’m not rushing to come here again.
One thing that really stuck out to me though was how friendly the staff were behind the bar (I ate at the bar). For this alone, I will bump them to 2 stars.
However, I still won’t come back to this foo foo hootity too place again…

For a quick, super casual, reasonably healthy meal, this is an OK pick.
I ordered the rainbow trout with grilled zucchini. It was fine, nothing special. The portion size of the fish could have been bigger. The zucchini could have been cooked more and served warmer.
S ordered shrimp with grilled zucchini. 6 medium sized shrimp is pretty pitiful for a meal.
We split a dozen oysters and those were definitely the best part of the meal, as they were cold, very fresh, and from Virginia.
Our total bill was $ 56, a little pricey for the atmosphere and the amount of food we received. I left feeling like I wished it had been $ 10 less or that they had given us each about 3 more ounces of seafood. When my food is served to me on a cafeteria tray, I like to leave an establishment having shelled out less than $ 25 a person.

Meh.
I went against the better judgement of my fellow Unilocalers and tackled this Tackle Box. The Georgetown locale has since been «closed indefinitely» due to fire and I had to hot foot it (no pun intended) over to Cleveland Park. (We actually had to use up a Groupon in lieu of cooking on a Sunday night.
This location is open until 11p.m. on Sunday evenings and appears that the crowd is sparse after 9pm. Other Unilocalers have complained of the crowd and ETA of their food but this was a non-​issue this evening.
The food was just okay. Nothing outta this world. For some reason, I kept expecting this location to offer something that would cater to Ernest Hemingway. I was hoping for something fresh along the lines of a beach shack.
We ordered the grilled calamari and grilled shrimp accompanied by a side of sweet potato fries and grilled carrots.
Our food arrived in less than 10 mins, again, without issue.
The calamari was appropriately tender but much to my chagrin there was a light «ectoplasm» that covered their little bodies. Maybe all ghostly squid does this when you grill them. Maybe it’s my punishment for eating this little family of cephalopods. I don’t know, but I lost my appetite. I felt like I was licking the «Old Man and the Sea.» Believe you me, I did swallow, but I eventually spit. Once you get «ectoplasm» in your mouth– it’s hard to get the taste off your tongue. Thank goodness for beer.
The shrimp was slightly undercooked but their taste was well within normal taste bud limits sans «ectoplasm.»
The rest of the meal was okay. Actually, I gave the rest to my homeboy because I could not take another bite.
I have to agree with Navegante D.‘s review: «this place has tremendous potential.» With the Georgetown location indefinitely on hold, I hope they have more energy and love to help this little fishy swim upstream.
P. S. Georgetown Tackle Box: Get well soon.

My friend had the grilled calamari which she said was just burnt calamari. I had the lobster roll which I thought was delicious — toasted butter roll, warm lobster meat on the instead. A little on the pricey side for $ 19 though.
I had french fries with my lobster roll, they were ok — nothing special. My friend’s fried green tomatoes were pretty good though.
It’s much bigger than the Georgetown location and staff was really friendly. I probably won’t be back without a Groupon — it’s not worth the full price.

It’s been a while since I’ve given a restaurant two stars, but this place definitely deserves both of them. No more and no less. If I had read the Unilocal reviews prior to going I probably would have proceeded with more caution.
Here’s what is right with the place: Great ambiance, big menu, seemingly good happy hour specials (although I wasn’t there during happy hour). Good concept too!
Here’s what sucked: I ordered a $ 19 lobster roll with fries. The lobster tasted like it was from a can. I didn’t see any tail or claw meat in the tiny bun that it was served in. The fries tasted like they came frozen from a bag — covered with heavy seasoning. My fiancé got a piece of grilled tilapia that was overgrilled and tasted of charry, burny goodness — along with three fried green tomatoe slices which were very dry and should have included remoulade sauce (or someone should have at least suggested sauce along with them). The fish definitely had a fishy taste to it as well. The server/​bartender we had was scatterbrained and we had to ask for multiple things multiple times. The people next to us said their fried oysters were awful and that their fried shrimp were just so-​so.
The verdict: My guess is that the owners of this place came up with the following plan…“Let’s sell shitty seafood for high prices in Cleveland Park since no other restaurants around have seafood.” I think the plan will work for a little while until the cat is out of the bag — then Tackle Box will become the next restaurant to wind up in CP’s restaurant graveyard.

I was pretty excited about Tackle Box opening on my side of town. I had read about the Georgetown location online and it seemed pretty popular. I even bought a $ 30 gift card for $ 15 from Groupon.
When I finally made it down, it was disappointing to say the least.
My fiancée and I walked in and made it to the cashier to order pretty quickly. I got the grilled tilapia and she had the fried scallops. We both ordered the same sides (grilled corn on the cob and mac & cheese), plus a side of hush puppies to share. We each had a beer, ($ 6/​bottle for Dogfish Head 60… which you can get a pint of for $ 5 at the Dogfish Alehouse).
Once we ordered we took our beers and lobster buzzer to our seat to wait for the food to be prepared.
35 minutes and two beers later, our buzzer finally went off.
I got the food and brought it to our table. The tilapia was good and the mac & cheese was ok but that’s about it.
The corn on the cob was completely charred on one side and cold at the same time (I uploaded a pic), wtf?
My fiancée’s scallops were cold, tiny and flavorless and consisted mostly of Long John Silver-​esque pieces of deep fried fat. The hush puppies were terrible. Not sure what they made them with, but they tasted like ass.
And I forgot to mention while we were waiting on the food, I went down to the bar to buy us another couple of beers and the bartender told me he’d be right with me, left from behind the bar for 5 minutes, came back, served two other people who came up after me, then finally came back to me.
All of this for about $ 50 total made for a pretty bad time. These people need to get their shit together before they end up as just another failed CP restaurant.
Cliffs notes:
–overpriced
–nasty cold food
–long wait times
–bad service
–overall a shitty place

What happened?!? I live for the days when I can get to the original Tackle Box, but this meal was totally disappointing and a big waste of my Groupon. My crab cake sandwich was bland, and its bun wasn’t warmed the entire way through. The fries are completely different and seemingly out of a frozen bag. I also realized I paid $ 4 for an no-​refills Arnold Palmer. Uhhh.
But worst of all: No Old Bay shakers on the table. What the hell? Did I leave the mid-​Atlantic?
I’m so disappointed. I just don’t understand why they don’t have the same quality food; they’ve already got a model that works.

Nothing very positive to say about our visit aside from the excellent and friendly service in the door. I also like the row boat décor, which is amusing.
First off, our order got a little screwed up, but I will accept some fault in that since I didn’t catch it when I looked at the receipt. Ended up with the:
Grilled Tilapia: Overly grilled to the point that it was dry and the grill/​burn marks overpowered any possibility of enjoying the fish.
Fried Scallops: These were okay, tender, but a little small. Upside was that there were a lot of them.
Mac and Cheese: Highly recommended by the gent taking our order, but fell totally flat and without flavor. Not even salt and pepper saved this. Your kids will not like this.
Portobello Mushroom: Huge! Quite good and with a hint of garlic which was excellent. Recommended.
Overall not a good first impression, and am not inspired to try again. Not even Groupon can save this.

Finally upper NW DC gets casual dining option for freshly prepared seafood. Cleveland tacklebox has almost same menu as Gtown but it comes with bigger space (2 story) and a real bar.
Friendly service, fresh and well prepared seafood and side-​dishes (sweet potato fries is my fav) and various kinds of beer.
Will definitely return.
PS: If you like tartar sauce, try garlic aioli sauce!

So the Tackle Box Cleveland Park opens today and last night they were generous enough to offered a soft opening, letting us sample the menu. I have not been to the Tackle Box in Georgetown but my friend had and she said this location was not only bigger but the staff was a lot friendlier. This Tackle Box location is two floors, with a long fully stocked bar.
This is the first Tackle Box to offer a raw bar, as well has the standard grilled an fried fish menu. The raw bar offers a selection of oysters from around North America. The best part was the sauce offering. The lemon aoili was pretty outstanding as well as the spicy marinara. I can’t say that the shrimp from the raw bar were particularly amazing, they were the standard issue cocktail shrimp, a little on the smaller side but the oysters for the price is the way to go.
For dinner, I had the tilapia with grilled broccoli, and grilled corn. Absolutely outstanding. The table had calamari which was cooked with peppers, but maybe a bit soggy but had an excellent flavor. The only not so hot things on the menu were the mashed potatoes that tasted like the kind that come right out of a box.
For the pre-​opening, the staff had their A-​game on. They were particularly enjoyable to talk to. I even learned a new Tackle Box will be opening in the new wing of Montgomery Mall by Bobby Flay’s new steak place, with what promises to be a record breaking raw bar. Can’t wait to get lunch time eats there at work.
I will definitely be back.