City Winery DC

I went here for a lovely Magnetic Fields concert (with my now-ex boyf, 😥 -- but the concert was good!) and it was overall a very nice venue, good seating and good visibility (although a little cramped, as you might expect). The food, however... I got a Marg pizza, as it seemed safe (and the waitress confirmed it was, which was nice), and it was really terrible -- cold and definitely not fresh and homemade -- but it was still pizza, so like, not that bad as food goes. The wine was also solid - I got chardonnay. Was the meal worth 100+$ for two? No way. But as a concert venue, it's nice, and it's nice that they let you eat there beforehand. I'd definitely go again for a show, and even eat the bad food there first, I would just never come here as a restaurant. 

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 6/10
Music: 10/10
Sad feelz: 8/10

Darlington House

A friend recommended this restaurant, and I was excited because Italian food is safe and I like it. I made a rezzo and showed up and . . . we were the only table in the whole place. On a Saturday at dinnertime. It was super weird. Also super expensive. There was a basement bar (called DIVE) that we went to before dinner and it was great - cool, quiet, and the bartender was nice. But upstairs the restaurant was just super weird. Even though no one was there, the service was slow and not very friendly. I got ravioli, it was OK. The drink I got wasn't strong at all, but the same drink in the basement was. The dessert limoncello was TOO strong. Ultimately disappointing.

Overall
Cost: 3/10
Taste: 6/10

The Dubliner Restaurant and Pub

Sometimes I take the train to DC for work, leaving very early in the morning. But then the train back isn't until 4.30 and I often have hours to kill. Luckily DC is a pretty cool place and there's plenty of restos near the train station (Union Station) or even inside it. I saw this place on a list of good places and they said Obama goes to it! Pretty cool. I also like Irish pubs because they are casual, rare-to-have-nuts, and have beer I like. Plus, outdoor seating! So this place had all those nice properties, and it was also good food. I got the Irish Beef Stew, which was really great - it had massive chunks of beef, potato, and carrot all in beef gravy. Super filling, no peas, amazing. Also came with a little bread and butter, and I also ordered a nice Yuengling (I'm not really a Guinness girl). It was really nice - the waiter was even Oirish (or fake Oirish) which was endearing. I enjoyed the stew a lot and thought the place was great.

The downside was that I was there with my dad, who got fish and chips (his review: fish good, cole slaw bad) but then he noticed a small piece of plastic on the plate. So of course as parents do he complained to the waiter and promptly stopped eating it. I would have just kept eating, but whatever. The waiter apologised and took it off the bill and said it might have been fish skin or packaging. It did look like packaging, but the fish was def fresh, so whatever. Anyway, that made my experience less good, but mostly due to awkwardness about the fact that we complained. I left a big tip though. I think this is an interesting generational divide, because parent-agers ALWAYS complain about food quality, plastic, hair, etc, and people my age really rarely do. Sometimes if I get the wrong order and I'm allergic to it I will complain, because that's deadly, but it's weird, right? I wonder why.

Anyway! A COOL PLACE!

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (Good for DC, average for a pub, ~$18 per person entree+drink)
Taste: 8/10