Went with friends. Chilies are excellent and highly recommended, but so are their other choices. I had an appetizer for dinner: sweet chili sauce bone in wings with blue cheese dip. They have many choices for the wing sauce. My wife had a chicken wrap and our friends had burgers. My wife loves their sweet potato fries. Service was good and quick. The food was excellent. The waiter was attentive and funny. The restaurant part has a door between it and the pool room. Getting a table was no problem without a reservation. A few TVs in the dining area are almost always tuned to sports without the sound on. Talking at the table was easy. Portions are generous. Lots of convenient parking. A good deal and long time favorite. Family and friend friendly restaurant.
We got some delicious corn bread (well cake) that made me wish dieting was just a fairy tale. Great service, and just so happened the special was fish! Awesome battered fish, but everything we ate was tasty! I kinda forgot to take photos, next time I will get some. There will be a next time!
Fish tacos were amazing and everything that came out of the kitchen looked great. This will definitely be a new go to restaurant. Our server Aggie did a really great job too, we had a very good time… plan on playing pool next visit, which will be soon.
Hard Times in Springfield, Va. has great wings. Crispy, available with mixed wings or all flats. All flavours are delicious in their own way. My chose is Texas. The corn bread is moist and melts in your mouth. The chili 5-way is the best in any flavour of chili.
My family has been a customer of Hard Times Cafe since the Texas Chili food truck was on F Street in Washington DC in the 1950s and my Dad drove there. We followed them when it moved to Arlington. It appears to have fallen on hard times. Saturday, 5:30 PM they only had one server scheduled for the dinner crowd. He was overwhelmed by having to wait on 8 tables. Predictability he wasn't up to the task. It took 15 minutes before he came with menus. I told him that we knew what we wanted. Since several tables were already waiting for their orders he said that he would be right back. After 10 minutes i told him we were leaving so he told the cashier to take care of the other tables. It was 15 more minutes later and our order was brought to us. The quality was still up to what we expected. But the portions were not, including the cornbread. My chili mac was only warm as was my wife's grilled chicken on her salad appeared to be precooked and was as cold as the salad. I had also ordered a take out order and asked for it to be brought with our meal. It was not. When the bill was brought i asked where it was. I told a manager that i was not happy, he listened and offered us a drink while we waited. When he returned i told him about our history with Hard Tmes and also that we were very disappointed. He apologized and said that he didn't schedule enough help and was waiting for more to come help. We will come back but only to call ahead for pick up
I am giving this a three star rating as a combination of my "one star" experience and my spouse's "five star" experience.I had read the reviews of this location and seen some people mention the smokiness in the restaurant, which was concerning, but the owner reported that there was a new ventilation system, so I figured I would give it a try. Immediately, when we walked in, I was overwhelmed by the smoke. We were seated in a booth at the front of the restaurant, as far away from The Cue as we could be, but it was still unbearable so I left and went to the Chipotle on the other side of the parking lot for dinner.If you have a strong sense of smell or are sensitive to the smell of smoke, I would advise not to come to this restaurant. My spouse on the other hand, did not smell any smoke, so this experience will vary widely from person to person.We came to this restaurant because my spouse is a chili lover so he stayed to eat some chili while I left. The server brought him a sampler and he loved all three, but ended up with the Cincinnati as his favorite when he thought the Texas would be.
As usual, good service and good food. Had the Sante Fe wrap and while the wrap itself was good, the fries were off. Not too busy during a holiday and they got our business since another restaurant was PACKED. A good last minute go to for a nice lunch with the fam. You have to be in the mood for the cuisine though. Definitely a "speciality" restaurant.
At the I was there I was a customer there that was 20 years ago from 1999-2002. It was a great atmosphere everyone that worked there at the time were very friendly and I got along with everyone. I met alot of people and made friends there. I live in North Carolina permanently with family I left Washington D.C area in 2017 and I regret not visiting back at Hard times before I left. Hopefully when or if I come to D.C (Springfield virginia). I will definitely stop there again for a visitor. Does anyone remember me? Jeremy Page
Grilled wings always. The tacos at this location are actually pretty good (and not available at all of them), would recommend!
Great service and atmosphere very good food also