Hard Times Cafe

Came here to watch the UFC fight. They have split up their restaurant into non-​smoking in the dining area and smoking where the bar, pool tables and big TV’s are at. I would have been happy to watch the fight on a small TV in the dining area but they were only showing the fight in the smoking area. I had to drive about 8 miles to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the fight.

My second visit to their Springfield location, server was very nice, we had to wait a long time before getting any service, the food was good, a bit overpriced for what you get! If you want a better burger I recommend Fudruckers in Fairfax. Hard Times Café was known for their good food at low prices! It’s not like that anymore!

I love hardtimes. Especially the Chicken Alamo. It is my go to dish here. I usually have to share it with someone because the portion is so big. Either that or you can ask them to pack half of ut for you to go. Their appetizers are ok too. We’ve tried the fish and chips, the wing platters, cheese fries and nachos are HUGE. If you ask they will bring you a sampling of all the chili’s and corn bread. The corn bread is good. Our servers are always pleasant and efficient. They have a decent amount of foods if you can’t decide. It’s America fare with a slight Texan twist. Prices are reasonable in regards to portion sizes.

Server was sweet, wings were shitty, and there was a nasty, curl my hair in my celery. Won’t be coming back here for food, maybe for booze.

I love hard times, especially the one in old town. But this one isn’t my favorite. Their food is alright, but not stellar. And the worst part is that smoking is permitted. It’s also very shabby looking. I don’t recommend bringing kids here.

4÷27÷16
Hardtimes raises their prices again! Wings on Wednesday used to be $ 5.99. Last year it was $ 6.99 now for some reason they want $ 7.99 for a pound of grilled wings? Where’s the special price? They made all their «Specials» $ 7.99 there’s nothing special about that! J.T.‘s has $ 5 burgers guess I’ll be hitting them up for burgers or 5 guys, maybe BGR. I guess they think we’re too drunk not to notice the price gouging for salty food. They should call them «Wallet Stoppers» instead of «Traffic Stoppers»

I consider this to be my definitive hard times. It’s the first one I went to after moving here from new jersey. At first I was put off by it but now it’s become like a home. The food is pretty good the service is usually attentive but unprofessional. The definition of a chain dive bar. Pool tables up front and in back and upstairs. Shuffle board, darts and beer pong. Good times and good deals.

I love Hard Times, but I hate this location. It’s run down, and absolutely reeks of smoke. I had to leave with a crying kid who wanted Hard Times but I couldn’t let her breathe that awful air. Stick with the Old Town location.

Love this spot. my home away from home… always got a happy hour special to enjoy each night and cheap and delicious food.

Had a great lunch here today. Tasty chili over white rice; complete with sweet tea and cornbread. Allyson our server was great; she kept the cold tea coming to quench the spice from our side of diced jalapeños we decided to order.

The atmosphere at this location isn’t as nice as others but it’s a Hard Times… this one smells like smoking used to be allowed.
Food is good and service at the bar was good. The other wait staff also spent an inordinate amount of time chatting instead of working.

Kind of a weird restaurant and bar. The front has a smallish restaurant and the kitchen and is smoke free. The back is a huge pool hall and darts smoking bar. The clientele is not the best and not a nice atmosphere overall at all.
Saving grace is the lack of other options in Springfield and the amazing chili. Can’t beat their food in many areas for bar food.

I am a fan of the Hard Times Café brand in general but for several reasons this location is not at that level. The first time we visited this location we had such a bad experience we stayed away for a really long time. Recently I was in the area for events that wrapped up near lunch time and as a result have stopped by with folks for lunch and am happy to report the food was better than my first experience, although not as good as the Fairfax or Clarendon locations.
While we were there I thought I smelled smoke but figured it must have been another guest when they entered. But now I am not sure that was the reason I was smelling it, and here is why.
My other issue with this location is the layout, especially if you need to find the restroom. The restrooms are in the back. To get to them you need to go through the pool table area. Here is the kicker, the pool table bar area is separated by doors and is a smoking area. When I had to walk through it I began thinking it was their primary attention point. It had better lighting and its own bar with two bartenders. It was lunchtime and the smoke was noticeable so I can only imagine what it gets like on a weekend night. I do know it makes my visiting this location again, especially in the evening, much less likely.
My conclusion, this location is catering to different clients than myself but the eats are pretty good if you are in the mood for chili/​burger type food — just don’t have too much to drink if can’t stand smoke or better yet visit Fairfax or Clarendon.

Been here a few times and the service has never been the greatest, and today started out a little bad being we sat for a Lil being the host sat us without notifying a server… after a brief debate of who would take us when one of the servers, a waitress jessica came over asked if we had been helped then quickly took our order. She didn’t want to give the boys big cups being kids cups are free reach fills (weird being I thought normal sodas we’re free refills as well) anyway food took a bit for the food to come and when it did my wife’s buffalo chicken wrap had blue cheese vice ranch (no bueno) the wife muscled threw being she wanted to eat with us vice wait for a new wrap. Burgers were a. little small but decent, the server tried to make up for the poor start but that’s a challenge after your left sitting to long waiting to order…

Used to go every Sunday and Wednesday for $ 0.25 wings, but then they kept raising the price it wasn’t worth it anymore. Their Chicken Alamo pasta is still my favorite, and different types of chili on hotdogs, but that’s about it.
The pool hall was renovated a couple years ago which opened up the place, even room for poker tournaments. They keep up their pool tables too. But everyone mostly goes their to drink and have a good time w/​friends. It’s the local spot to play pool.

Hard Times Café is a local franchise of 16 restaurants in the DC-​Maryland-​Virginia area. This review is for the Springfield, Virginia location.
Hard Times is a multi-​room restaurant/​sports-​bar where you can play billiards and watch the game. It has an old Texas/​Western saloon flare, with dark wood accents in the booths, bar, and blinds.
They have daily food and drink specials which include the weekend. I got the chili salad: greens and tomatoes on the bottom, and vegetarian chili and shredded cheese on top, and a huge dollop of sour cream. The vegetarian chili was spicy, but lacked depth in flavor. I would have liked more beans and spices like papprika in the chili. Also, the lettuce and tomato was not properly dried, so my plate has excess water accumulating at the bottom.
Pros
— Billiards
— Daily food and drink specials
Cons
— Few healthy options
— Lackluster food with low-​quality ingredients
— Few vegetarian options (vegetarian chili and veggie burger)
Boring food that lacks freshness and flavor.

This is my first bad review, I hope my last.
I ordered the steak bites and the tatters.
1– The order took longer than expected after asking for it, finally came.
2– The steak was cold, on top it was overcooked (due that was on the window for some time)
3– The steak was $ 8.49…CRAZY! for what I got. I have got better service and food in a $ 5.00 happy hour on other places.
3– The tatters were cold in the center and a little undercooked.
–The server knew about my disappointment, they did nothing about it.
–I asked around people agreed their food and service is not good except when they serve you alcohol… only then the service is good and quick.
***Please note this is a smoking place*** I don’t smoke but I think they should divide the place.
I will not come back… sorry.

How unfortunate I have to write a review like this, all because of one person’s stupid mistake. Oh well I hope they learn their lesson.
We went to celebrate my friend’s birthday on Sunday Feb. 15^th. She ordered food and when it came out she noticed there was an extra ingredient. Look closely at the picture below. THERE WAS ACTUALLY A CIGARETTE BUTT! Eek! Methinks not! Someone actually smoked a cigarette and accidentally tossed it in one of our dishes! How does this happen?
After asking for the manager and staff, they all took a look at it and instead of apologizing, we were told «None of our employees smoke.»
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
Never again Hard Times Café
I truly hate writing reviews like this.

This place had some awesome food! I got a burger, wings, and fried oreos. It was just a great place to ho to pig out on fattening food and leave happy without any regrets.
The burger was tasty– I got the Whiskey River BBQ Bacon Burger and it came with an order of fries. The burger was so tasty and flavorful and you have to try their pepper vinegar! This thing made my fries taste a million times better! I even put the vinegar on my burger because I was so obsessed with it… Haha… I love vinegary things, so that might explain my obsession.
I also got the honey bbq wings, which were good! I loved hoe they were grilled because it was slightly charred and wasn’t oily at all. I loved how the honey bbq had a slightly sweet tang to it.
I also asked the waitress for a sample of all their chili and she came to out table with a sample of all four of the chili for us to try. I dipped them with the crackers and all of the flavors tasted great. My favorite chili flavor was the vegetarian one– make sure you asked them for the samples of chili!
The fried oreo was good and we got a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make it even better.
They had great service and great food. This is an awesome place to eat!

Of course I would go to DC and eat Texas style chili.
Lets start w/​the actual restaurant. It looked more like a sports bar, w/​a Texas twist, than a restaurant. Theres also a pool hall in back. We sat at the actual bar, sometimes its safer.
The server/​cook we had was great. He told me about the chili sampler and was very helpful. I decided on the Texas chili (really, the only way to go), and stole a few of my husbands Old Bay wings. The chili was great. Really, really good. Hot, homey, and spicy. The cornbread was decent as well. The wings were not delicious. We had them grilled and the skin and seasoning was soggy. They also tasted old. Hoping this was just a «this location» thing cuz all I hear about Hard Times is that their wings are great. So far, not so much.
Im not sure we’ll be returning to this particular location.