Railstop

$ 7.70 for a draft beer?! On a Tuesday?! I travel a lot for work and this may be one of the biggest rip off jokes I’ve ever seen. Horrible by even hotel standards. Only reason I gave two stars instead of one is because I can take an elevator home instead of driving. Do yourself a favor and take Über to a local place. Also, there was no one in the place (can’t imagine why)

Had the «Hangover» burger with fries. Typical frozen beef Patty with a fried egg on top. Nothing to go crazy about. Fries were typical steak fry variety.
Bar staff was attentive without being annoying. Approximately 8 beers on tap. Clean place, if you are staying in the attached hotel, probably worth visiting, otherwise their are too many great places nearby!

Food is ok, but the service is poor. They only have two people covering about 20 tables.

$ 4 happy hour wings aren’t any good if they come with no celery, no bleu cheese and they’re BBQd with sauce on side. But the service is good, it’s really very good for a hotel restaurant and bar and only 10 floors from my room. I’m still heading to Harry’s!

Decent food I recommend the burgers. Nice selection of alcohol. I would recommend this place if you are staying in the hotel. Food is good, service is not that great.

Finally got a table at Railstop and not because it is a busy place… more to come on that.
Good
— Good beer selection
— the food was very tasty. we tried the fried potato salad — what an interesting thing to deep fry. Then we had grilled chicken, steak sandwich, and a southern fried chicken sandwich. All were great and reasonably priced.
Bad:
— the first time I came here I didn’t understand that this is a bar not a restaurant. Yes, they have tables and waitresses but forget about a hostess who will seat you. So my friends and I turned around and left after the bartenders just stood there and stared at us.
— I decided to give it another shot and made a reservation on opentable for the points but you don’t really need a reservation. The place is empty. maybe that is why they don’t have a hostess.
If you like great food and bad service, I recommend you go here.

A decent place that I don’t feel the need to go back to.
The food was good (hangover burger), the service was nice, and there was a surprisingly decent beer selection (with happy hour deals). The bar area was was warm and cozy, but the dining area does have a dud 2^nd floor view of the parking lot.
In an odd quest to try every place to eat in old town (22 314), I felt compelled to try this place to check the box; otherwise, I’d most likely have never ventured here and will most likely never return to again since it is on the other end of old town from me, is buried in a hotel, and didn’t have anything that hooked me.
If you are staying at the Crown Plaza, consider ducking in for a drink and a snack before moving into Old Town proper. Also, if you’re at the hotel and don’t feel up for walking elsewhere for chow, then I think you’d be happy hanging here. As for locals, consider pressing on…

After a very long day at work (with no time for breakfast, lunch, or dinner) desperation drove me to give this a try. Unfortunately (or, based on the other reviews here, fortunately) the staff didn’t seem to want to pick up the phone. I rolled over the front desk of the hotel, who transfered me back to the same (no answer) extension 3 times. They then transfered me to another extension… where I spoke to someone with limited English skills who could not figure out what I was asking for (food). He then said he would transfer me (again) back to the restaurant (yes, the same no-​answer extension) but must not have known how to work the phone since he disconnected me instead of transfering.
About that point I decided to take a look here and saw the less-​than-​stellar reviews and decided going hungry might be the better (and less frustrating) option.
Long story short, I haven’t eaten at this location… but based on the lack of service this is about as close as I am going to get.

Second floor of the Crown Plaza hotel. Near to the water, but view is of the parking lot. Promising menu, but the kitchen did not seem to be up to the challenge. Steaks were relatively thick and were cooked to requested temperature (not every restaurant in this price range can accomplish this.)

Like most restaurants in hotels, this place pretty much sucks. It has no ambiance and the food is, well, awful. However, instead of giving this place 2 stars, I am going to add a 3^rd star. And that 3^rd star is because 1) the staff are really nice and attentive and 2) they have good beers on tap.
Basically, this is an out-​of-​desperation-​only place when it comes to eating. However, it can be a rather decent place to sit and have a couple of good beers.

**** 3.5 stars ****
Railstop is certainly a fitting name for this gastropub (a descriptor which is quickly becoming as meaningless as the term «ethnic» in DC), as it falls essentially at the end of anywhere someone would want to venture in the North end of Alexandria. Labeling this as Old Town, as the website does, is certainly a misnomer, as it’s at least 5 blocks down Fairfax from what anyone familiar with the area would describe it as. It is however still close to the waterfront, although the restaurant is not suited to take advantage of any views you might get from being this close. It’s actually on the second level of the Crowne Plaza hotel, in what turned out to be a better looking space that I had assumed, but don’t go getting your hopes up for anything along the lines of what you’ll find in actual Old Town or DC as far as restaurant setting goes. This is essentially a better-​than-​average hotel restaurant.
I had already written off the beer list before arriving, based on their website, something which is tragic at a place labeling itself a gastropub. It turns out the draft list in actuality isn’t that bad, featuring some offerings from Lagunitas, Bells, Oskar Blues, Flying Dog, and even Alexandria’s own Port City Brewing. I had already made my mind up on having one of their custom cocktails though, The Conductor, which features an unnamed gin, blackberry brandy, mint and lime juice. The drink wasn’t bad, although I didn’t really taste the brandy, and at $ 10 a piece they should really tell you what brand of spirit you’re paying for. I should also point out that another drink which I didn’t order was added to my bill, but removed when I pointed this out, so keep an eye on your tab.
There are about a dozen options to get your started on your meal, with an unclear distinction being made between «snacks» and «starters» on the menu. The snacks for the most part were cheaper, although this wasn’t always the case, but also seemed to be more basic in preparation. I decided to try one of each, going with the smoked salmon deviled eggs with capers, red pepper and tomato off the snack list, and the lamb kofta with onion and tomato chutney and cucumber mint sauce off the starters list. For some reason the lamb came out long before the deviled eggs, because the chef wasn’t satisfied with them. I was never given clarification on what they meant by this, but they did eventually arrive (after my main course though, so much for a snack). I was pleasantly surprised, although not overly so, with both items. The filling for the deviled eggs was a nice change from the norm, and an interesting twist on a classic dish. The lamb was actually cooked and seasoned very well, but I thought their version of tzatziki could really use some work. It was entirely too runny, usually a sign of not sitting for long enough to settle and firm up if preparing your own.
Since I passed on the in-​house made pork sausages from the starter menu, I decided to go with the pork belly with gorgonzola polenta, asparagus, and Old Dominion lager sauce as my main course. At just $ 14 this is a pretty decent preparation of pork belly, and I have to admit I was really loving the sauce, which almost seemed like a gravy in texture. The pork belly was only slightly overdone, but even the best places tend to cook it more than I like so I wasn’t surprised. The asparagus, although tiny, was actually done really well too, with some sort of butter/​jus that resembled the flavors of hollandaise without the heaviness. Probably the most surprising was the polenta, a dish that is incredibly easy to screw up texturally, but actually turned out to compliment the pork belly really well. The one disappointment I had was that I couldn’t taste any gorgonzola, usually a very strong cheese, but I’m guessing this is due to the strength of the lager sauce. I did try a bite of the jerk burger, which has their own specialty spice blend, avocado and red pepper and comes on an enormous challah bun. First of all, the bun was fantastic, more places should use this bread as a burger holder, and although it looks really basic the jerk seasoning adds a wealth of flavor without being overpowering. It was pretty well executed, unlike the accompanying fries which are wholly pathetic.
I wrapped up the meal with one of the smallest desserts I’ve ever seen, the berry cobbler, with a streusel topping and vanilla ice cream. It was essentially a couple tablespoons of berries with almost no topping paired with an equally small spoonful of ice cream. The flavor was decent, but calling this a cobbler is almost insulting.
Overall I would say this isn’t really a place worth going out of your way to get to, considering it’s really not that convenient to everything that’s actually in Old Town, but if you’re staying in the hotel and don’t feel like going out one night it’s definitely superior to ordering room service or delivery from somewhere else and the happy hour did seem decent.