Really BAD Food

[carpetbagger, esq.]

Hands Down: The Alamo in Georgetown.

Let's just say I remembered it...in not a good way.

UGH! Between that night and the next morning, I think I dropped about 10 lbs.

[rosebud]

I suffered some of the worst dining and service experiences of my life at Food for Thought when they were open.

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There was a time, about ten years ago now, when I wanted to go to Timberlakes and drink a beer and smoke from 4 to 600 cigarettes (Busboy, I stole this from you ) and found that it was closed for renovation! Really. So, I walked up the street to Food for Thought. The SMELL in that place was nauseating. I couldn't believe it. There were people in there (this was in the afternoon), staff members and hangers-on from what I could gather, but MY GOD! How could anybody stay in that place for longer than five minutes! Needless to say, I was THRILLED when Bistrot du Coin took over the place. For the longest time, there was a sign saying "French Food Without the Attitude." What an improvement! And absolutely NO pretense to being "healthy."

[Eric Brach]

Re; Georgetown being a generally bad place to eat, I'm not so sure...

There are good places on the East side of G'town - those southeast Asian spots on M near 27th are pretty serviceable, I think.

Has anyone tried mama-san, the place that is owned by the Japan Inn people?

Worst meal in DC: Sake Club. Our waitress was stoned and couldn't bring us our food. Seriously. Physically unable to pull it together. Eventually, someone else recognized what was going on and picked up our table. I hope they fired her.

[Busboy]

Re; Georgetown being a generally bad place to eat, I'm not so sure...

There are good places on the East side of G'town - those southeast Asian spots on M near 27th are pretty serviceable, I think.

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You're not seriously touting those two Vietnamese places next door to one another, are you? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I think that, if you walked through Georgetown and picked a restaurant at random for dinner, you are far more likely to get something overpriced and mediocre than any other price/quality combination.

I like LaRuche on a warm afternoon; Mendocino -- though it's been inconsistent when I've eaten there -- Clyde's for martinis or burgers and Citronelle every other year when I'm feeling rich. The other 840 restaurants in the neighborhood? I can take 'em or leave 'em. Much better areas of the city to eat.

[Mark Sommelier]

Re; Georgetown being a generally bad place to eat, I'm not so sure...

There are good places on the East side of G'town - those southeast Asian spots on M near 27th are pretty serviceable, I think.

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You're not seriously touting those two Vietnamese places next door to one another, are you? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I think that, if you walked through Georgetown and picked a restaurant at random for dinner, you are far more likely to get something overpriced and mediocre than any other price/quality combination.

I like LaRuche on a warm afternoon; Mendocino -- though it's been inconsistent when I've eaten there -- Clyde's for martinis or burgers and Citronelle every other year when I'm feeling rich. The other 840 restaurants in the neighborhood? I can take 'em or leave 'em. Much better areas of the city to eat.

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Saigon Inn closed last summer. Only Vietnam Georgetown is left.

[chappie]

Those side-by-side "Vietamish" places are so bad I have to wonder if they either share the same kitchen or at least a room in which a delivery service brings bland AmeriChinese takeout for the staff to add lettuce leaves and white pepper to and call it Vietnamese.

[JWest]

My worst meals were in Colorado Springs.  All of 'em.

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I hope one of the meals didnt include The Broadmoor Hotel?

[JennyUptown]

My worst meals were in Colorado Springs.  All of 'em.

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I hope one of the meals didnt include The Broadmoor Hotel?

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We had drinks at the beautiful Broadmoor, but not dinner. Our loss.

Tonight's bad meal was pretty far up on my gross meals list: Sly Horse Tavern

[pork]

The worst one I have ever had is at a Tex-Mex place in Sterling called Los Toltecos.

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They make good tamales. That's about it. You have to look at a place like that and figure out if they really know what they're doing or if they're faking it. These guys are faking it, hence the total lack of understanding about what fried ice cream is about. The falutas and tamales are good because they know how to make them. The "jalapeno poppers" are sysco brand, I'm sure.

You're right about the tablecloths though.

For good texmex, find an "Anita's." It's a local chain, but I remember when the original one in Vienna was the only one, in a shack on maple st.

Edited February 14, 2006 by pork (log)

[Haggis man]

The hotdog vendor at 17 & I made a terrible half-smoked for me today. This really is a bad meal......

[slygirl]

LOL, I work in Georgetown.I never really know what to say when people come in to my store and ask me to recommend a restaurant. But to its credit, I've had decent meals at Filomena's (during Resturant Week, however... their desserts are yummy, though!), Cafe LaRuche, Clyde's, Pizza Paradiso. Harmony Cafe, Moby Dick, Tu-o-tu, and Snap are good as well if you want a quick bite.

I did have a craving for some wonton/char siu noodle soup one cold day, and since the closest place that served it was Vietnamese place across the street, I called them up. I rattled off my order in Vietnamese and was about to hang up when the guy on the other line said, "Uh, miss, I don't speak Vietnamese." Whoops. I guess it's wrong to assume that when you call a Vietnamese place, don't expect the guy to speak the mother tongue.

The worst meal I've remember to date was when my friend told me he was craving a "real" Philly cheesesteak. He isn't from Philly but he is from PA and used to go up to the city all the time. He found out about the Philadelphia Cheesesteak Factory in Georgetown, and we went there. He ordered us "two whiz with onion", took a bite, and told me they were the "real thing". I was only able to eat about a third of that. Ugh. Good thing I took some Lactaid, otherwise I'd probably be sick the rest of the day.

[finecognac]

Those side-by-side "Vietamish" places are so bad I have to wonder if they either share the same kitchen or at least a room in which a delivery service brings bland AmeriChinese takeout for the staff to add lettuce leaves and white pepper to and call it Vietnamese.

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I think you're pretty close there. The cook for the place that closed was a chinese cook. They served Chinese inspired Vietnamese. Which roughly translates to Vietamish. I think the owner also used to work as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant.