The Cantina @ Darlington House

Came for brunch and had to return for dinner. Will probably come one more time before my trip is over. This will be a must stop in the future. Ordered risotto and the special (fettuccine Alfredo with mushrooms and truffle oil). And the best tiramisu ever. Remberto was a fantastic server. Victor was an amazing chef. Don’t miss out.

Nice place, a little overpriced. The bartender/​server was super nice and accommodating and the food was delicious.

The employees were nice but very understaffed. We saw one person to take our order and another person who brought our food. We had to ask the bar tender to tell a waiter to bring us the check. They brought the bread out with our meal, which was pointless at that time. My husband ordered the cheese quesadillas and they brought out chicken quesadillas (would have been worse if it was the other way around at least). I wasn’t very hungry so I ordered the macaroni and cheese, which was supposed to have bacon bits and bread crumbs on top. When it came out it had bacon strips and no bread crumbs. Overall the food was fine. I think if they had been properly staffed we would have had a better experience.

Stephanie Lucero is a fantastic events coordinator. She really walked me through the entire process and what would be required to do an event. I am so appreciative for all her hard work.

Do not order the ravioli. $ 20 for 6 raviolis the size of Chef Boy R Dee? I had to leave and go get a burger I was so hungry after my «meal».

While I don’t live in Dupont, I still feel somehow that the Cantina at Darlington House (one of my favorite restaurants in DC) is my neighborhood bar. It has everything you want in a local: friendly bartenders, good happy hour specials, lots of places to sit at the long bar, great music, and a variety of good sports on the tv’s. I wish their selection of draft beers was larger, but they offer most of the classics. It’s a great place to while away a few hours.

The food tasted awful! It was all so greasy that oil dripped from my vegetable panino. It also had some funky taste to it. I couldn’t taste the vegetables, just that something that tasted horrible.
Their hot tea is apparently around $ 5! Even high quality Starbucks tea is much cheaper. The service was beyond words horrible. I mentioned to my husband something about how lousy their service was, and he immediately replied that to be lousy service has to exist in the first place. After waiting for about 10 minutes for our check, we got dressed and waited some more while our server passed our table and glanced at us several times without getting the hint is was high time for him to bring our check. We finally had to go to the register and ask for our bill.
We will never be back. There is nothing worthy to come back to this place. We go out twice a week, and I don’t remember any other place whose food tasted that bad, plus the absence of service.

Great spot. Everyone is very nice. The ravioli wasn’t a lot of food, but it was good. Glad they gave me read and there were chips on the bar or it woulda been super disappointing

solid bar food for game night (calamari and grilled wings in particular) and the burger is solid. no complaints there. decent beer and decent prices for Dupont.

I really love this bar. Frankly, it may be because I’ve had a good time every time I’ve been here, but it’s great.
Bartenders are nice.
Drinks are reasonably priced IF you choose specials (otherwise, they’re expensive; Malibu & pineapple at 4:30 is $ 11 — nonsense!).
The atmosphere is casual but not trashy (a surprisingly hard balance to strike for most DC bars).
The food is good & inexpensive.
The bar is conveniently located.
It isn’t exceedingly loud.
It’s never TOO crowded.
Have I just described your perfect bar? I have, haven’t I? Go. (and drink only the specials)

I can’t say too much about this place since I only stopped in here for a quick drink. But I liked the ambiance of the place. The décor was pretty cool. The exposed brick, old looking hardwood floors and the dark lighting made it seem like I had stepped back in time to like the 1700’s when old men were thinking of ideas to make this country what it is today. I can picture a bunch of guys sitting in the back discussing how to overthrow the British.
But, the happy hour choices could be better. $ 4 for Miller and Peroni? Couldn’t all draft beers be eligible?

We stopped by to have an outdoor drink. The service was ridiculously bad, the waiter could not keep the drink order straight, I mean it was not that complex: a soda and a beer. We also order spinach and artichokes dip and it was runny, with chunks of artichokes and what was obviously frozen spinach. It was simply disgusting. We ate probably 14 of it and it simply could not eat any more of it, especially because it has some scare fake green color that freaked me out. I really don’t like it when my food has food coloring that makes it looks almost as a glow in the dark color.
But what I found most disturbing about the experience was the behavior of the wait staff. The two male wait staff didn’t know I speak Spanish as a first language so I could understand everything they were saying. They were making fairly lewd comments about the female patrons, one of the servers was commenting on the length of the skirt and shorts of the women on the table next to ours and how far he could see up the women’s crotch. It was immensely disturbing. They also were doing this fairly openly assuming nobody could understand. It was still disrespectful and inappropriate. I really don’t want the staff of an establishment to be commenting on what bits of pieces they can see up or down my clothing — no matter what language they speak, within hearing range. This is probably happening due to a lack of management control and clear rules of what is appropriate behavior.
Overall, gross experience.

Not a fan. A few friends love this place. I found it overpriced, somewhat pretentious, and in the evening there were not enough tables. It was too loud to have a conversation, and had too small of an area for dancing.

Love this bar! And THANK GOODNESS they brought back the old menu! Super friendly bartenders, never too crowded, good food, good beer. not necessarily on the cheaper side but we’re talking Dupont after all.
A great local bar. Two thumbs up.

Nice neighborhood bar atmosphere. Service was quick and friendly at lunch.
Fish and chips were great. They were freshly fried, hot and tasty, with the right dipping sauces — malt vinegar and good tartar sauce. Many places overcharge for f&c, but their larger than an appetizer, just right for lunch, not dinner, –sized plate was just right for $ 10.

Late night scene seemed more obnoxious than necessary, probably because of the terrible sound system. It quickly became apparent that the only spots to set your drink down were free and clear because the speakers blasted right in your ear. Dim, worn-​down feel. Plenty of tellies all around, sports dive feel with an okay bartender. Not the best first impression, if I hadn’t read the other reviews I would never chalk this up as a legitimate dining option.

After a lovely trip to the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market, my companion and I enjoyed a rather relaxing brunch on the patio and people-​watched other Farmers’ Market goers and Sunday strollers. The waitstaff was friendly, the panini we split was tasty and huge, and the price was reasonable.

After obnoxiously expensive drinks at CO2 lounge (Bethesda) my friend and I were starved and the cantina was the perfect dive for our bar food craving. Got sliders which really hit the spot for my slightly buzzed self. Most dive bars make me cringe but this one seemed like I wouldn’t die of food poisoning. It wasn’t terribly memorable but it was devoid of the usual bro-​y crowd that loves Dupont.

I love the bartenders here. I’ve never eaten here but the staff here are great. The drinks were a little diluted at first but once we chatted up the bartenders, they gave us 4 free very stiff drinks.
Super nice people there.
I’m super green to DC but they were recommending other bars and clubs to go to around Dupont circle.
If I’m ever up for a night of heavy drinking, this would be my go to spot!

–Lunch review–
It was VERY busy day at The Cantina during lunch time. We sat at the bar and ordered two pasta dishes and fried calamari and skizza.
Bartender was friendly but wait was pretty long.
Highlight of the day was Pumpkin tortelloni. Other dishes were OK but not worth the price.
I might return for HH but not for regular meal. Burgers looked good though.