Ted’s Bulletin

First timer at Ted’s. Stopped in after a bike ride with some friends who raved about the homemade pop tarts. I had the blueberry cheesecake tart. I’m not a big fan of sweet pastries so probably not the best reviewer, but I found the crust to be undercooked, almost raw. Maybe that’s how they’re supposed to be?
I had Jon’s omelette which was good but they didn’t have any ham so I had the sausage links which I don’t really like.
We got to eat outside which was quite pleasant.

Fast, friendly service. Rainy day seemed like a good chance to try their toasted cheese and tomato soup — very tasty. Just the right amount of checking in. Looking forward to returning.

We came for dessert and coffee but we’re definitely coming back for a full meal. They can make all types of coffee drink, their desserts are great, they have homemade tarts and I had an adult milkshake, a grasshopper, that was out of this world. A cute, diner style restaurant in Reston Town Center with a family story, loved everything about it!

I’m a huge fan of Ted’s, but this location was unimpressive. The 14^th Street location in DC has much more character, and the service seems more focused. My mom and I like the DC location, and we were going to be in Reston, so we made sure we came by for Mother’s Day.
So I have never run into a problem before in the 14^th Street location where I questioned the food’s integrity when it came to vegetarian items. I always ask if things are fully vegetarian before I order them, and I never taste or smell a meaty aroma in my food.
This location, while everyone was nice and honest, did have an issue making our food vegetarian. Tomato soup was apparently made with chicken broth, and the menu does not mark it as such. We ordered the pancakes stack, which I was really looking forward to, and they told us that they cook it on the same surface as meat items without cleaning in between.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss, I will admit… and I am glad they were honest with us, but being the paranoid vegetarian that I am, still eating this food after they told us this did not sit well with me. They did go out of their way to clean the surfaces before cooking our items, but I still wasn’t comfortable.
The waitress we had seemed like she was annoyed they had to go out of their way for us, and I felt more like a nuisance than a customer with a valid concern to her.
The manager came by and told us that he personally handled it and made sure the surfaces were clean, which I very much appreciated. Even if they didn’t actually, the gesture was nice. Just the fact that it was made into a big deal though, made me very uncomfortable eating the food.
Also, when we go to the 14^th Street location, we ask for our order to be split and they make two separate plates for us with generous portions. When they split this one, they literally cut the pancake in half, which I thought was a tad rude to be honest. The waitress just seemed to really hate us.
Also, it was hard to see the projector playing Popeye from where we were sitting, and the place lacked character and class for me like the 14^th St. location so brilliantly does.
To be honest, this may have ruined Ted’s for me all together being that I will now question if my food is actually vegetarian — but I hope it was just the location in Reston.
My mom still had a great time and took it like a champ. So did my dad, surprisingly. I don’t want to ruin anything for her by being a Debbie downer, so I am channeling my frustration in this review.

Tomato soup was a hit — smooth and flavorful. Grilled cheese was «Meh» — small, greasy and american cheesy. Kids liked the pancakes. Punishing bill for not much food. Everyone raved about the pop tarts.
Service was A-​OK. They are very helpful at first, but definitely herd you along.

The food was good but I feel it was overpriced.
I love that they serve breakfast all day but I am a breakfast person.
The hot buttered pretzel appetizer was really good.

Best things to get: Oatmeal (I know, crazy thought with all their great brunch choices), french toast, chicken biscuit minis, tater tots. All these things sound simple, but here’s why they’re each great.
Oatmeal: Semi guilt free option. Very filling. Creamy and tasty with lots of good topping options.
French Toast: It’s different (read «better») here than other places. The sugary crust and the flavor here are sincerely better than most other french toasts I’ve tried other places.
Chicken and Biscuits: My go to savory option… Perfectly seasoned. Just enough food. And, kinda fun to eat! The mambo sauce to dip in is also a plus… Though personally, I prefer just honey.
Tater Tots: These are like your old favorite on crack. Just get an order, you won’t be disappointed.
Side note: It’s always fun to try the pop-​tarts, so if you’ve never been… You should get at least one.
All that to say, it’s a reliable, consistent option… And, if you have people in from out of town, they tend to love it.

Came here last Saturday and had a completely different experience as compared to my first encounter. We had a great server who was friendly and we weren’t seated at a wobbly table smooshed in-​between two big parties (so that probably helped a lot). After reading the Unilocal reviews we tried the ted’s tarts with our meals. The cinnamon sugar one was so good we had to take the blueberry cheesecake one home as well (woops). We also tried the mochas which are yum and extra points for how ~fancy~ the milk was poured on top to create the design.

First, I have to recommend that everyone go to Ted’s bulletin — while I’m only giving them three stars on this review (for what should be one star service), it is because I’ve had many fine meals there and am hopeful this past meal was the exception.
My wife and I stopped in for Sunday dinner and in general the waitstaff were talking among themselves behind the counter area rather than tending to the customers. My wife ordered chicken parmigiana and when it arrived, it was far too spicy for her to eat — which was unfortunate (but different people have different tastes.) I suggested we take it home for me later, and that we promptly order her another entrée.
That proved impossible to do — our waitress never came to us after the food arrived, checked in, anything. My wife’s plate sat there uneaten, and even after trying to get our waitresses attention, we had no luck. She did show up at the end with the check & was surprised that we had any problem with the order.
For the record, my sandwich was well-​prepared and tasty. I generally eat at Ted’s bar but in any case I’ve never failed to have my server check in with me after the food is delivered to see if everything is OK. Give Ted’s a try and hopefully you’ll have the same experience, rather than our Sunday night fiasco.

1. Hostess seats us at a dirty table with no silverware. Hostess haphazedly cleans the table but it happens.
2. My friend ordered scrambled eggs with her breakfast. Her eggs came out sunny side up.
2. My mac and cheese came out with a black, curly hair right smack on top.
3. My burger was ordered medium rare. It was completely raw inside.
5. Finally decide on the meatloaf sandwich since I figured it was a safe bet. It was not very good at all after all that waiting for a decent meal.
6. After an extremely disappointing outing… the waitress did not seem to care one bit, quickly puts the check down and makes no effort to apologize.
The manager was thoughtful and kind in fixing the situations. Things happen and we might be back, we might not. Unfortunately, the real issue was the waitress who seemed to not care at all that this was a bad dining experience. I hope you teach your staff that they can recover from any situation with a good attitude.

My family and I went there for brunch and boy were we impressed with everything except for the long wait. Unfortunately we did not have reservations so it was approximately 45 minutes to an hour wait. We ended up sitting at the bar area which is first come first serve. If they have seats open, sit down there. We end up getting milkshakes at the bar prior to sitting down at our table.
After about an hour waiting we finally were’s seated. I ordered the coffee however my family members ordered the mimosas. The mimosa wasfair I was told nothing special. The coffee was actually not very good. I would not recommend getting coffee here. We started off by getting the pretzel appetizer which was actually very tasty. We shared this one among four people.
I ended up getting a breakfast burrito which is actually very tasty and well packed with filling. I only can eat half of it. My wife ended up getting the grilled cheese with tomato soup which was also very tasty.
Overall it was a solid choice for brunch and likely a place I will go back. Unfortunately our waiter was actually not very attentive and only brought a refill on the coffee once and this was just prior to us paying the bill. I had asked multiple times for refilling the coffee and he unfortunately kept forgetting. We did get a pop tart on the way out which is also very tasty. I would not leave here without getting or trying one of the pop tarts.

Stopped in for breakfast on a cold Friday morning as I’ve been wanting to try this place (since they named it after me, ha). It was early and not many folks there yet, so we were able to get a table with ease and experienced good prompt service.
I ordered the MARK ON AN OFF DAY breakfast which consisted of (2) eggs, sunny side up, shredded hash browns, bacon and sourdough toast. The eggs were cooked well, but the shredded hash browns stole the show, delicious! It was a tasty breakfast, just what I was expecting.
This is one of those posts that needs the half star as it should be a 3.5. But, I rounded up as i will come back for dinner or lunch. The only negative here is that it is overpriced for what you get, based on the breakfast I ordered.

This place feels like an awesome 50’s NYC diner! Except with a little flash here and there!
Service was awesome first of all! The food was very hard to pick because everything sounded so good!
I had the Walk of Shame burrito with hash browns which was especially filling topped with an avocado for a little extra flavor and texture.
I also had the T.U.B.S. Sandwich (Ted’s Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich) which was awesome especially with a hint of maple syrup thrown in there!
Blueberry Cheesecake homemade pop-​tart was good, but nothing to write home about honestly.
Heath Almond milkshake to top it off! YUM!

Breakfast review. Biscuits and gravy was excellent. Biscuits were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Sausage gravy was very flavorful. Bacon was prefect. Crispy but not dry. Service was also perfect.
However the hash browns had little flavor and the coffee was very weak. Tasted like maxwell house.

Reston Town Center has a number of options for Sunday breakfast/​brunch. This place gets okay reviews, I noticed, but I wanted to try their food because the setting looks so interesting with a very retro ’40’s look which I love. So we decided to give their breakfast a try.
We walk in and there’s a 20 – 25 minute waiting list. We put our name on the list, then settle at the bar area like everyone else. As we do that, a couple sitting at the bar settles their bill and leaves, so we forego the waiting and sit at the bar. Long story short on service, Jamie & Carlos will make your day with what I would have to consider as close to perfect service as you would want for a casual atmosphere. Very pleasant and social without being chatty, on point on knowing when to serve, refill, and clean, and just really knowing how to have fun at work without skipping a beat on service.
As for the food, we had a couple of uncommon dishes for breakfast — crab cake benedict and chicken & biscuits — and both were great. Crab cakes were more of a fuse between crab cake and has browns, with plenty of crab meat inside. It comes accompanied with spinach salad and extra scoop of crab meat covered in dressing. Yum! The chicken & biscuits is more of a sandwich with chicken fingers between the biscuits. 3 of them, with a side of hash browns. Both chicken and biscuits were light and doesn’t weigh you down like most biscuits would. Again really good.
This was sort of a last-​minute choice for us, and we were highly satisfied. I would say the food is at least 4-​stars for what we had, but the service, setting, and the atmosphere really kicked it over to a well-​deserved 5-​stars.
Table-​for-​1 Factor: The bar area seems quite appropriate for eating alone, especially if all bartenders are like Jamie & Carlos. They’ll do their best to make you feel comfortable.

Ok I went on Wednesday as me and a few friends had the day off. We decided to meet up and be ladies that do lunch. We were there for a good while as we were catching up, so I’ll cut the serve as little bit of slack, the food is solid there, this go around I got the bowl of chili. It was good although for $ 8+ for a relatively small bowl it was a bit disappointing related to its price tag, but it was flavorful and hearty, it wasn’t a soupy chili which I’m not a fan of that type of chili. They actaully had carrots in the chili which was a bonus. The chili did come with two yummy pieces of corn bread as well. My friends got the grilled cheese and tomato soup which they all enjoyed.
The service still is a bit lackluster, each time I’ve been either service has been slow or they don’t respond to our request. My friend had ordered a cup of coffee and didn’t get it. She finally did get it when she asked again when she ordered dessert.
I did get a pop tart to go, which was one of their seasonal ones, it was a maple pop tart, with pecans on top. I didn’t eat it until today and it was quite yummy! This place is good food wise but the service isn’t quite as good as the food, which is a bummer. I’d still be willing to return again though.

I admit I didn’t do my homework in advance of coming here with my wife for dinner on an early Sunday evening and had no idea what to expect. Ok it’s a high end diner with some extra unusual items like beer fondue pretzels and pop tarts on the menu both of which we tried and loved BTW. Each night of the week there is a special and tonight it was Spare Ribs. The specials also seem to change week to week.
The restaurant was fairly empty around 5pm probably because the Skins’ game had just finished and folks were in shock that they actually had won. There are a couple TVs in there if you want to watch a game while you eat or drink though. We were promptly seated in a booth towards the back. We liked the Art Deco? look of the place and in particular the old B&W TV in the corner with rabbit ears. In some ways, I was reminded of dining at the 50’s Prime Time Café down in Disney World.
We both started with a beer to go along with the pretzels. They have a great house branded IPA on tap but no lager for my wife. She got something in a can that was just OK for her. The pretzels were warm and chewy but the smoked cheese and beer fondue to dunk them in was truly awesome. Best dish of the meal for me.
For our main dishes, I saved room for dessert and just ordered a bowl of their chili while my wife selected their specialty of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich with maybe Mac and cheese with ribs?! My bowl of chili was more soup like than I cared for and not impressive. The wife’s loaded grilled cheese sandwich though was tasty and delicious.
Service was excellent throughout. Our server provided help with the menu, shared his favorites and checked on us frequently. Probably helped that they weren’t overly busy at the time.
We both saved room for dessert and fell for the banana cream pie. It was a huge slice but seemed to lack something and was not very enjoyable at all. Maybe it was the crust? We whined to our server who hooked us up with a home-​made strawberry pop tart that was much better. We scraped off most of the jimmies on top to cut down on the sweetness but other than that it was warm and delicious. I wouldn’t hesitate to select a couple pop tarts the next time we visit.

After hearing so many great things about this place, I decided to try out the brunch with some friends. Thankfully we came early enough that we beat the Sunday crowd and the wait. The atmosphere takes you back in time a little and I enjoyed the old movies playing on a screen in the rear of the restaurant. The restaurant appeared to be a little tight. There is a long aisle that leads to the back of the restaurant with booths down the one side. In the back there are only a couple of tables and the rest of the seating are booths.
I had a difficult time deciding what to eat. I decided to go with the breakfast burrito and it was delicious! It was a pretty big and I wasn’t able to finish the whole thing by myself. We decided to get a couple of the famous Ted’s tarts to share. For how much everyone raves about them, I thought that I would be more excited. They were room temperature and broke apart when we tried to pick them up. My favorite part of the meal were the milkshakes. I should have had this first! We chose to order the Hazlenut adult milkshakes and it was deliciousness!
Teds Bulletin was a decent place for brunch. I would go back to try the French toast and have another milkshake.

Been here many times for all meals of the day, and the fact that Ted’s Bulletin has me as a frequent customer every time I come to Reston Town Center, makes for a 5 star review. It’s a great option for brunch, lunch, or dinner in Reston Town Center. In general, the food here is simple, diner-​esque American food.
Breakfast is served all day. The Walk of Shame Breakfast Burrito is a good option to go; filled with fluffy eggs, a good amount of steak, and potatoes. Also on weekends, they have a decadent super-​sized cinnamon roll where the icing is served in a gravy boat.
They have weekday dinner specials. Thursdays is probably my favorite special because it’s the Chef’s choice TV dinner. They serve the food on a plastic tray and it even comes with a dessert. SX likes the Friday/​Saturday weekly special of prime rib. Burgers here are always juicy, tender, and cooked to order. The chicken parm is similar to my childhood diner memories. Out of their choices of sides, my top contenders are the fried brussels sprouts with blue cheese and the side salad with green goddess dressing. Food here is consistent each visit.
There has been ups and downs with the service. Overall, service here is on point, but can be harried at times. There was only one visit when our server was extremely awkward, which made our dining visit very awkward.

I got the chance to come here for dinner last week.
Love the warm homey feeling Ted’s has with its interior. I went with friends and we started off with some drinks. Our server was great! She let us know that if we were not happy with the drinks to let them know and they would find something else for us. She let us know this as we were trying out some of their special cocktails. I had the MR. RUPERT and it was great! The definitely do not take a light hand with the cocktails which I appreciate when I am paying so much for one.
For dinner I was going to get the Country Fried Steak but our server got my mouth watering with the special of a half smoke chicken with your choice of 2 sides. I really liked that you can really chose any side to go with this. A lot of places try to up-​charge for different sides. I got the onion rings and the blue cheese bacon Brussels. The onion rings were massive and crispy and the Brussels were absolutely delicious! The chicken was moist and fell off the bone. I did not care for the white bbq sauce that came with the chicken as it had mayonnaise in it and I am very sensitive to that. Our server saw that I was scraping it off and kindly brought me a different sauce (the one that comes with their meat loaf) and it was much better for me!
We were too stuffed to get dessert but it all looked so good, especially their home made pop tarts.
Our server was great (the manager even checked in on us) and the food was delicious, I will definitely return in the future.