SoBe Bar & Bistro

Decent place for a happy hour. I recommend you carry bug repellent during the summer. You’ll be eaten alive while trying to enjoy your Rum and Coke.

Came here with friends for the Friday night Karaōke. It was my first experience here since I am from out of town, but they were all regulars. The bar itself was nothing special and sat in the middle of a courtyard that had several other bars as well. The outside was quite crowded with all the smokers from the bars, but you could talk and move about no problem. The interior went from pretty empty, to having a nice size crowd to dead again in about a 2.5 hour period. There are 2 bars and its easy to get a drink even at its most crowded, and you can move about and even talk without much difficulty. The crowd is definitely young, primarily in the mid-​20s, but the scene was pretty cool all around. The only thing that seemed to be difficult was actually getting to sing. There was so much demand that it was tough to get a spot.
nothing special here, but still was a good time.

The employees at Sobe are bottom of the barrel. I was there for a friends party and was DDing my friends home. I spent a lot of money there throughout the night, as did my friends, but the female bartender was fed up with me ordering water and an occasional soda in the latter half of the night. Her anger about me ordering water (so I could drive several of her friendly drunk tip-​friendly patrons home) was palpable.
That alone wouldn’t prompt me to write a bad review, but later we had a run-​in with another rotten employee. We couldn’t exit our parking spot because of construction and police activity — so one friend and I came back to Sobe to use the bathroom before hoping to get on the road. Sobe looked completely open still, and we made our way to the bathroom. A large employee, presumably a bouncer, jumped out of a bar stool and pushed us out of the bar while yelling at us. We tried to explain that we had been there all night and just needed to use the bathroom, and he didn’t care — he just kept saying «cool bros, too bad we’re closed». I said «we’ve been here all night and JUST walked out but can’t leave our parking spot for the time being — we’d like to just use the bathroom quickly please — the place looked open», and he just mumbled obscenities at us and made an intimidating stance in the doorway. I said «good luck treating your customers this way», and he just gestured for us to leave while mumbling «eff off» and more.
So, I’ll never go back to this cesspool of rottenness, and I wish employees had numbers like police have badge numbers so I could complain about this guy specifically.
In short, the food stinks, the people are awful, and I predict it will go out of business before too much longer.
AVOID SOBE!!!

We came to SoBe Bar & Bistro with a group of friends last Thursday fro Trivia night. It was a fun time with plenty of drink and food specials for happy hour.
The overall atmosphere was fine for Trivia night and there was a decent crowd. The $ 5 food menu consisted of cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, fried pickles, Hot Dogs and other grill items. The $ 3 drink menu included mostly domestic drafts.
Overall, the staff was attentive and nice. The food was standard for a bar with your normal offerings. If you’re going to come here, definitely come on Thursday’s Trivia night!

I like this place, foods good and good selection of beer. Unfortunately with this place as well as is parent bar Mister Days their is an issue with their Point of Sale machines (at least for me) where I will end up being charged twice. This most recent time I was operating on a tight budget and and this double charge caused me to accrue $ 70 in overdraft charges. This is not the first time it has happened either. The additional charge will go away but the overdraft charges will remain, very disappointing…

Worst karaōke DJ ever. Usually come here for awesome karaōke on Friday nights because of Harry Carey karaōke, the guy they have tonight is just awful… I love karaōke and he just killed it for me. awful.

Lindsey – the host – makes District Trivia here on Thursday nights great. Sidenote: My phone wanted to correct «Trivia» to «Tricia». Unfortunately I can’t speak to how awesome or not she is. She seems fine enough but I’ll reserve judgement for now.

The happy hour trivia prices are great, the food was good, the servers are friendly and the trivia is challenging. I’d come back!

I went to SoBe Bar & Bistro for happy hour on a Thursday night. In truth, Clarendon isn’t my scene, but I was meeting a group of friends. SoBe doesn’t have much curb appeal, looking like many of the dive-​ish bars that I recall from my younger days, but wouldn’t look twice at now before walking on by. However, the bar and its staff did good by our group by reserving the patio and having a couple of bartenders on duty out there to take care of us. Happy hour specials were pretty standard; however, the food specials were surprisingly solid. I ordered the Chili Cheese Nachos ($ 5 HH priced) and received a huge mound of nachos topped with a generous amount of real cheese, chili, guacamole, jalapenos, tomatoes, and sour cream. Others in our group ordered some of the other HH food selections and gave them positive comments. Of note, Thursday night is trivia night. We didn’t participate, but SoBe seemed to draw a good crowd for trivia. SoBe wasn’t bad place, but unless my friends decide to do happy hour here again, it isn’t a place that I can see returning.

came here on a Saturday night to watch a live band perform. The set-​up was very intimate (ie., small stage, big crowd hovering around the band so close that we could feel them breath) but it was awesome to be up close and personal. the rest of the venue was a tad bit uncomfortably small. The pluses about this bar — even though it was crowded, the bartenders were still attentive and awesome! the drinks here are inexpensive — $ 1 – 2 cheaper on average than other bars in Clarendon. Also, they have a cute little courtyard for those warm summer nights :)

I’ve now had 2 experiences here (both for Thurs. trivia nights) and sad to say the average only rates them 2 stars.
They do have some nice drink and food specials on trivia nights. Sadly the food is barely worth its $ 5 /​item price tag. I’ve had the nachos (do yourself a favor and order them without the chili), the fried pickles and the cheese pizza. With regards to the pizza — if you’ve ever dragged your ravenous self into a 7-​eleven at 3 am and gotten a pie out of the freezer case and heated it in the in-​store microwave — then you’ve experienced SoBe’s idea of pizza. I’d come to trivia post workout with my trainer so the pizza at least stopped the tummy grumbles. The fried pickles are pretty decent however but are a bit too thickly sliced.
On an average night, service is quite attentive and good. On Halloween night it was down right awful. Apparently despite it being a big box on the calendar at the end of the month and the bar having advertised a bunch of specials, etc for the nigh, Halloween took management completely by surprise and the bar was beyond understaffed even before the post-​trivia Hallows eve revelers arrived. We waited nearly 45 min for our check and the poor service was capped by the manager who finally brought bill telling us «we don’t have anyone who can pick up the check — so if you want to pay you’ll have to go stand at the back bar» (which was 4 – 5 people deep with waiting patrons. Seriously if I wasn’t horribly honest I would have walked out.
I’ll probably be back again for another trivia night, but otherwise I doubt I’d be headed here any other reason.

The only use this place has is it provides shelter from the cold when all the other cool places have a long line. The bartender I had to deal with was the worst I’ve seen in the Arlington area. If you like karaōke, check this place out on Saturday. Other than that, avoid it. I hate terrible service and will not be the least bit surprised when it goes under.

After reading some of these reviews, I’m a little embarrassed to write a review because I don’t want anyone to know that I hung out here and had a fun time.
My boyfriend and I came with some friends for Thursday evening trivia last night. Trivia was pretty awesome. The place itself provides half ass service and a happy hour menu that I was pretty sure they printed on a 97 bubblejet printer right before we got there.
Based on how the menu looked, I was pretty sure the food was going to kill me but it wasn’t bad at all. We had wings, nachos without chilli, pizza, and fried pickeles. The wings weren’t on the menu but we asked for them and the waiter was able to get them.
There was only one waiter/​bartender in the entire place and he was kind of a lunatic. I guess he had an excuse though. When I first got there he rushed us to order drinks off their little-​ass, limited menu. I couldn’t even do it. I just got my Goose and Tonic. He kindly reminded that it wasn’t a special. That confused me. I wondered if he thought I couldn’t read or if I just looked that young and clueless :-). I guess I should have reminded him that we were there for the trivia and not the drinks. My blood and liver only tolerate top shelf anyway.
Try the trivia, it’s a fun time.

SINGING THE NIGHT AWAY:
We are big karaōke aficionado’s. We just left the karaōke scene in Sacramento, CA which consists of a few amazing dive bars committed to their craft. We live in Pentagon City and checked out Champps. It was decent but not quite what we were looking for. Out with friends, we stumbled upon SoBe. We loved it! The only reason it is not getting a 5 out of 5 is because it was a little young for us. But lets be honest, once you are performing it doesn’t matter. We had a great time, and the crowd was great!
We will definitely be back!

#39
Karaōke anyone?
Came here a few weeks ago to meet up with some of my cousin’s friends to grab a drink. It was a Friday night and we got there around 10. By 11, the place was pretty packed. Drinks were decently priced $ 8 average and not too strong but strong enough.
So it was Karaōke night, and you’d think being filipino I’d be all over it. Naaaaaah. I’m down to don’t get me wrong. But I don’t fit into that typical stereotype. BUT my cousin does. hahah. Her friend, herself, and I went up and sang I believe it was Ace of Base, «I Saw The Sign.» We had the crowd GOING, we were so good! Hahah, naaaah again. But we did get the crowd going.
Small bar, ideal location, great drinks, and great entertainment especially when a few of them get some drinks in them.
Wouldn’t be my first choice to come here but wouldn’t ever rule the place out either!

Normally frequenting Mister Days next door for Thursday night trivia, my friends and I were a bit surprised to find out it had been moved to SoBe for the remainder of pro-​football season.
Not to be discouraged from fun (and potentially winning), we walked next door and grabbed a spot at SoBe. The ambiance is very welcoming — low lights, candles, beautiful wood furniture, large windows, and artwork on the walls. While all very beautiful, on the other hand, however, the windows and lack of light ended up making it pretty darn cold!
They have an all-​night happy hour on Thursdays to compliment trivia. It ranges from $ 1 oysters to $ 3 gazpacho to $ 5 wings and pizza. While impressed, we were a bit taken aback when the waiter told us that if/​when we wanted to order food, we all needed to do it at the same time so to «not overwhelm the kitchen». Wouldn’t ordering 6 people’s worth of food overwhelm the kitchen more so than doing it piecemeal?
Anyway, the pros are a great HH, friendly staff, and great ambiance. The cons are temperature, odd menu requests, and a bit hard to find from the road. We’ll be back tho!

Went here last night to watch my friend Ashley’s band. Kicking Norma was AWESOME and the guitar player was amazing.
The bar wasn’t bad and for me who isn’t looking to go somewhere where i can’t move around because it’s too crowded, I enjoyed it. If you’re looking to go out and pick up guys or chicks it was not really the spot, but Mad Rose is next door and it’s a great break from that environment.
I’d come with a group of folks if you go on the weekend, but the drink prices are relatively inexpensive in comparison to other bars in the area and if Kicking Norma is playing the music is good. Don’t know who they normally have. I“ve also never been to their karaōke night because apparently they do that too. Because I’ve only been here once, this review is a little limited, but take it for what it’s worth. Kicking Norma rocked last night. hope to see them there again.

I’ve been here many times and I’m writing this review not as an overall knock on the establishment because in the past I’ve had some pretty decent times there. But there isn’t anything spectacular about Sobe that would make me want to come back after dealing with an exceptionally rude member of their staff during my last experience.
I went to the bar on Friday evening and as usual the establishment wasn’t remotely packed but sometimes that’s what I admire about this place. I’m not going to go out of my way for an evening at Mad Rose Tavern (the bar adjacent to Sobe) as I really don’t like waiting forever for my drinks and the clientele isn’t exactly my type.
I entered the bar and ordered a shot of jäger and a whiskey-​coke. The bartender asked me if I wanted to open a tab or close out.
«Run it on the card, I’m not sure if I’ll be here long. Thanks.» I said in a pleasant tone as I handed my credit card to her.
She came back moments later with my whiskey coke, my card, and my receipt to sign. I looked down at the tab and noticed she hadn’t charged me for my shot of jäger. I attempted to get her attention but seeing as how I’ve worked in the service industry before I wasn’t about to start snapping my fingers or frantically wave. I tipped her $ 1 on the $ 6.50 drink as I watched her chat with other customers and staff while she unknowingly left me wondering if she had forgotten about my other drink.
A few minutes later I made a bit more subtle efforts to grab her attention as she began helping a few others that had walked up to the bar along with my friend that was joining me for drinks.
After everyone had gotten their drink orders I said, «Hey! Sorry, I think you forgot my shot of jäger.»
She looked confused for a second, «It must have slipped my mind.» She said, «I’ve got it, it’s on the house.»
«Works for me. I appreciate it.» I told her while I sipped my drink.
I turned to my friend next to me with a big grin and said, «Hey it looks like I’m having a pretty good start to a Friday already huh? Shot on the house before we even get going.»
A short while later she returned with the shot in hand.
«By the way you’re paying for this shot. You tipped me a dollar on your whiskey coke.» She said in an aggressive tone with a holier than thou type posture (that’s a fancy way of me not using the word bitch to describe a woman).
«Is she serious?» My friend asked laughing at the audacity and the combative tone the bartender had taken with me over a tip she had deemed insulting.
«Excuse me? Did I miss something here?» I said calmly, «I tipped you a dollar because you forgot my shot. And a dollar on $ 6.50 is pretty standard.»
I pulled my card out of my wallet again and held it up. «Are you really going to charge me for the drink that you just said was on the house?»
Without saying anything she snatched the card out of my hands and ran it again. As you might imagine the tip I really wanted to give her was «google the term: tact» But I wasn’t in the mood to cause a problem and opted to draw a line through it and leave just the total cost of the drink.
I get it, you were having a bad night. However, if you’re a bartender and you don’t want to work, don’t go in– find someone to cover for you. Don’t bring your problems with you to work. You missed an opportunity to capitalize on a repeat customer. Instead you insulted that patron out of something that arose out of your mistake.
If it had ended here I would have been fine with it, but the bartender took it further and began walking around telling members of the staff and other bartenders about our encounter. I know this because she walked around pointing at me from a far while speaking with others. It was childish, immature, and unreasonably low class. I don’t go to the bars to be demeaned by bartenders that think they’re above everyone else around them, I go to clientele across the fence at the Mad Rose for that. After I finished my drink, the rest of my friends arrived. I wasn’t in the mood to stick around for a few more rounds so I convinced the group to take our business elsewhere.
As a bartender you really don’t have anything to gain by burning customers and as a result I’ll be keeping myself and friends away from that establishment for long time. Show a little class especially if your bar is having difficulties filling out on a Friday as is.

We headed here on weekend night for one reason: karaōke. And not just karaōke — live band karaōke with a gong. Which is pretty much the most awesome type of karaōke there is. And big kuddos to this spot for having such karaōke.
The space itself is ho-​hum and not particularly interesting. There are two bar areas, one with a small restaurant area. There’s also an outdoor patio.
We arrived too late for food, so no commentary on that. The bartender wasn’t exactly attentive or particularly friendly (at least to non-​male patrons). And the drinks were served in plastic cups (not exactly the sign of a classy establishment).
However, I had a great time. It wasn’t too crowded. It was just the right amount of crowd to allow for a good time. And everyone was into the karaōke and was dancing around. So while I can’t say I would come here for other reason, I so definitely recommend coming here for the live band karaōke.

Came here on a Friday night with my friend. She was meeting her pack of girls. This place was pretty dead for a friday night.
Compared to Mr. Days, it really was an older crowd, and wasn’t as bad of a sausage fest. That’s saying alot for Clarendon. Lotsa older dudes in suits, and ties still, so it seems a little uptight.
This place is kind of hidden from the street, and is connected to Mr. Days if you know how to sneak through the back way.
They allow smoking here, like many of the joints in VA, and that’s another reason why I always cross the river when I want to hang out. Plus there’s a little more diversity in the district.