Bar Louie

Not impressed. I expected the same as the location in DC near Verizon that is much better. The drinks here are overpriced for ARL CC area. I could have a martini for the same price nearby as a call brand on the rocks which was measured — thimble size.

Avoid… I don’t know what happened here… My buddies have been to this place several times before and it was great… The calimari was like rubber… and the drinks arrived way after the food… and watered down… This place will be out of business if they continue on this course.

Great bar, great food, excellent service!

The bartender was very attentive but within the 20 minutes after we arrived and sat at the bar we saw a baby roach crawling across the table and we were staring at it for at least a couple of minutes before realizing it was in fact a roach. The bartender also noticed it and was deeply apologetic and offered our drinks on the house. I would be highly leery about ordering food here. Beware! Oh, and the bathrooms are filthy.

I went here with a friend for a quick drink and a bite to eat. We seated ourselves as no one greeted us. The waitress came over quickly and took our order. The drinks and food were prompt but we had to get our own silverware and ketchup. We were never asked if we wanted a refill or any type of checkup. Our plates were never cleared and it took 20 minutes to get our check (the restaurant was not busy). The waitress did give us the happy hour price which was nice since we arrived after happy hour but the food and service was below par.

This is a neighborhood gem and a great place for food and drinks. I stopped by Bar Louie for some late night bites as well as Happy Hour. First… Let’s talk about the Mac and Cheese sandwich with pulled pork… Omg!!! So effin great!!! Who makes this kind of sandwich?! They do!!!
Their happy hour menu is pretty decent and I love how you seat yourself here. So grab a dining table, a high top, our lounge in the comfy leather sofas. Either way you will have a nice time drinking and definitely EATING!

Loaded fries very good. General tso chicken wrap amazing. Chicken is shredded not fried & it’s light & delicious. Very fresh bright favors. I got a double vodka & cranberry. It was expensive & terrible. It came in a small glass instead of a tall & was almost clear. If I wanted a shot of vodka I would have ordered one. I hear the service is terrible, but it was fine. I didn’t think it was great, but didn’t notice it as being bad either. Really 3.5 stars, but food was good enough and we can’t give a half star :)

I really enjoy the Tennessee Whiskey cake especially with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

I really like the quality of the food. Melvin and Birdie are awesome hosts. You can’t go wrong with this upscale establishment.

Pros: comfortable seating, distance to hotel, ?
Cons: No prices on the drink menu, waiter not displaying interest or enthusiasm, Carding everyone in their fifties. Annoying little things, like these, seem too abundant.

If you are there now i suggest you walk to the sports bar just a couple of blocks across Jeff Davis Hwy on 23 street instead.

I simply couldn’t agree with the review as most people are so quick to pull the trigger without giving anyone a chance.
I came here tonight randomly and although I only dine in places that has much better review but everything was closed near by so my only option was Louie ! And I have to say I am so glad that I came.
Tuesday’s they Have $ 5 burger and totts/​fries deal, not just hamburger but chicken, turkey, and veggie. I mean c mon, you can’t even buy good meal at McDonald’s for that cheap ! So I thought the portion might be small but it’s actually decent size burger and very tasty as well. The place was clean, management was on point, good bar music. It felt lively even with not that many people around.
Nia is a great server along with Travis the bartender, both are very knowledgable and super friendly. Spend a long time with us and explained the menu, usually servers rushed but it was quite pleasant here.
My opinion, this places deserves much better review but once again, most Unilocalers trained to write bad reviews than good. Sad to say ! Wish this business all the success in the world and hope more people give them another chance

It’s five stars if Krisi is working the bar. She makes great drinks, fast, and is friendly (and gorgeous). Unfortunately, it seems she only works a couple nights a week and I haven’t seen the other great bartender, Victoria, for ages.
If they aren’t working, it’s mediocre at best.
Why do I keep going? If there is another place in Crystal City where you can get a martini after 11pm, I don’t know what it is.
It’s been up and down in the year and a half they’ve been open. Some nights very good, others terrible. Krisi and Victoria are great bartenders. If they are working the service at the bar and quality of cocktails will be great. Otherwise it’s a roll of the dice. Some of the bartenders are terrible, many of whom don’t know how to make a proper martini.
One recent visit it was closing early on a Saturday night! They advertise that the kitchen is open late as the bar, but for unexplained reasons at 11:30pm one night they were only serving 10% of the menu. This place needs new management.
Another night, the kitchen was open late as advertised but the bartender was gone doing Heaven knows what most of the evening. I waited 20 minutes for a second beer and only hung around for it because I had not finished my tater tots. 25 minutes later I was bailing out without a second beer. I bet the bartender wondered why he didn’t get a tip.
It is a nice space. High ceilings, bar in the center tables and banquettes around the sides give a open feeling. Free wi-​fi. Uptempo music but not very loud. Actually possible to hold a conversation– at least during the start of Happy Hour. After 6:30 or so they crank up the decibels quite a bit. Still not too too loud but at a point where a raised voice was needed to talk or order a drink.
Nice Happy Hour prices but at times my server wasn’t sure exactly what drinks qualified. One night my first martini was very good but the bartender committed a major faux pas by pouring my second martini into the same glass as the first (despite a row of iced martini glasses sitting three feet away). Thus, it wasn’t as cold as it could have been and did not have a fresh twist.
The loaded tots are great, as is the shrimp tempura and the chopped salad. I wish they had a better dessert selection.
If Krisi or Victoria is behind the bar, I highly recommend it. Otherwise, expect to be disappointed.

I’ve been here twice. Both times were terrible.
Against my better judgement, after having a bad experience the first time I was convinced to come back. It was a semi busy night and no tables had been cleared. Not even one.
We cleared the plates onto the table beside us. No one came around for 20 minutes. I went to the bar only to be told that it was table service.
We left. No food. No drinks. Nothing after 25 mins. Not going back which is a shame as it’s right across the road!

Yuck.
We ordered the baked macaroni and cheese with grilled chicken. Let me tell you… it was NOT baked. Baked usually means a browned cheese on the top crust… nope. It was just plain pasta mixed with cheese not enough for a sauce. Then the chicken… cubed chicken sprinkled on the top of the pasta… seriously I could have done that at home!
My husband ordered the Voodoo chicken… he didn’t need to take a bite to know this wasn’t going to be good… the chicken was served cut in the middle:
1.) you don’t do that– you take out the moisture and it dries up the chicken
2.) you don’t do that– because this says to me you were checking if it was cooked properly and you should know this as a chef without cutting into it.
Certainly won’t be eating here again. Cheap food for a pricey dollar.

This was one of the only spots open after 11pm on a Thursday night. I am on West coast time so it was still early and wanted to have some fun. Lots of music, guy playing guitar and singing 90s alternative hits. Drinks were inexpensive and wide variety of drinks. The group I was with had lots of fun. Not sure why this place has so many negative reviews. Try it out. Happy drinking!

Your food is lousy. Your beers are 8 bucks. There are no liquor prices on your menu.
Get a grip. «Bar Lousy»

Biggest waste of $ 50 since I bought a play station 2 game.
Horrendous service.
Awful food.
Worse atmosphere.
Unclean.
I’m not exaggerating. I have been in cleaner rest stop bathrooms.
I would sooner eat warm tuna fish on a hot metal bench in shorts than return to this «establishment»… Ever.
Yuck.

Okay, so after that first horrendous experience, my coworker asked me if I wanted to go back.
I agreed, again it was a Friday and we arrived at the bar around 345. Yeah, it was the first Friday of January so we got off early and after 2 weeks of being out of the office we needed a drink.
This time was COMPLETELY different. Our server was sooo sweet and really funny. We had a couple glasses of wine, flat bread, and salmon sliders.
Funny thing is when we sat down the server told us happy hour was going to start in 8 mins and if we waited, we’d get ½ priced flat breads and $ 5 wines. UMM… he RECOMMENDED we waited. He brought us some waters and when the clock hit 4 he came back RIGHT away to take our order.
Amaze.
Flat bread — we choose the roasted veggie. SO DAMN GOOD. If you love roasted veggies, this will be your jam. Trust me.
The only really weird part was the fire alarm went off… in the middle of happy hour. We had to wait outside in 30 degree weather for about 20 mins. we both had wine and food left so we really didn’t wanna just leave. Plus we wanted the wine. Nay, WE NEEDED THE WINE.
Woot. I am glad we came back.

[WHEN THE BAR WAS HIGH]
There were a number of things that Bar Louie did right – a solid menu of various food and dranks to appease picky eaters, a friendly server who gave us separate checks without our asking, the posh but comfy furniture that couldn’t be any more appropriate for happy hour.
I got the lomo saltando ($ 17) which seemed to be a gamble at a place that was not the least bit Peruvian, but it turned out quite well with juicy steak, non-​soggy fries, and veggies to make me feel marginally less guilty about eating steak and fries. I also got the whiskey splash ($ 10) which was good as well – not too sweet to be like girly cocktails but not too hard-​core to border on undrinkable like scotch.
[WHEN THE BAR WAS LOW]
Overall the food was not bad, but I was slightly underwhelmed by their signature loaded tots. The tater tots were uniform and obviously previously frozen, and I found it somewhat unimaginative to pile cheese, bacon, and jalapenos as it just tasted like a deep-​fried baked potato.
Other issues I had were what I initially thought to be culture clashes but now appear more to be rant-​able faults.:
Apparent culture clash #1: At first I thought I was just undergoing some sort of culture shock after coming from the busy city of SF to find the service here painstakingly slow, but after reading other reviews expressing the same opinion, I realize that my Unilocal restaurant critic side job may not be so narrow-​mindedly amateur after all. It wasn’t too busy, yet everything came at a snail’s pace. To use my last benefit-​of-​the-​doubt forgiveness, it might have been because of the nature of the bar that they don’t want to rush you, but it was difficult even to just flag them down because servers did not walk by often and when they did, it was brisk.
Apparent culture clash #2: Coming from the hometown of Instagram, I thought it might be a strange request in Virginia for me to ask the server to take a picture of us, which would have explained why they put it off. I had to ask two different servers (both of whom said they were busy and would come back) and had to wait so long that all our food was halfway finished by the time the first server finally came back to take it. But snapping a picture hardly takes a minute, no matter how anti-​Instagram Virginians may be.

On the plus side… our waitress was a STAR! So the place deserves a bump to 2…
After a successful Hesi (nursing exam), we all decided to celebrate. We started with drinks. My friend ordered a watermelon margarita, it was so sweet she had to send it back for a blue moon. Our drinks initially took over 10 mins to make, which included draft beers (Haram!). This was annoying because we were the only ones in there at 11am. Don’t judge us! It’s 11pm SOMEWHERE.
Food
Calamari– was OK but the menu says cocktail sauce, it was more like spicy ketchup.
2 Burgers, friend’s med-​well and mine was rare and still moo’ing (I’m a savage I know). The burgers were pretty good for 10 – 13 bucks it should be.
The Four Tacos Plate was very bland according to my friend. I felt bad for her because she was the one that ordered the Watermelon Kool-​Aid margarita.
The Verdict: For prices that high I don’t think we’ll be coming back. Drinks took too long to make (in an empty place) and the food was bland or «just OK.» Worst part is I spent 20 bucks (892.22 Philippine Peso) there with tip!!!