McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon

I miss this bar! So many free happy hours and fun college nights. Sucks when stupid people ruin a good thing. Come back! :-(

Where to even begin with this place…
The bar smells, the bathrooms have those blurry mirrors, it’s a dingy dark basement downstairs where they have chairs stacked at 7pm instead of out for people to sit, they use those teeny tiny plastic drink cups. This bar would have no doubt let me in at 16 with a fake ID.
I got dragged her by a friend who won a free happy hour and apparently her friends got $ 2 drinks. Now I see why this place needs to give away free happy hours.
The people next to us were definitely 18 years old frat boys that were possibly the worst beer pong players I have ever seen, the type that has ping pong balls flying into your table 15 – 20 times.
The rest of the crowd is just sketchy.
The food was ok: Mac and cheese bites, wings, chicken quesadilla.
Service was ok, kind of slow. The waitress seemed slightly annoyed but then again I would be if I worked there. The bar tender was sorta smart with my friend about her ordering a cran vodka instead of a vodka cranberry, he made fun of the bud light choice, and told me as a 80lb girl I’ll be throwing up unless I drink gin and ginger ale instead of gin and soda… Well actually excess sugar can make people nauseous but whatever unnecessary, not 80lbs either fyi. Also when I went to close these drinks they were $ 4 a piece, not $ 2. I mean I’m not one to argue about already cheap drinks but it was inaccurately advertised.
This is dc, with so many delicious places don’t ever come here.

This place is alright. Its a great place to hang out at for big groups, especially since they have so much space downstairs. A couple of my classmates have won happy hours here. So we would go after class on Thursday evenings, which is a great way to relax after the long week.
I shared some wings and sweet potato french fries with some of my friends. It took quite some time for the food to be ready, and the portions were not that big. The one thing I hated at this place was the floors. They were so sticky that I thought I was going to loose a shoe when I was getting a drink. I really hope that they could fix that. I could here the majority of the people complain about it.

Came here for a Tuesday night while I was in town for the week. I bought a $ 3 drank and kept my tab open in case I was going to buy another drink, but I ended up not doing so. When I wanted to close my tab, the bartender told me I had to spend at least $ 10 in order to close.
… It that a thing around here? I asked him how much shots were and he said $ 7 even though my friend got it for $ 5 and then he charged me $ 7 for a rum bowl even though my friends got it for $ 6. I guess he was trying to help me get to the $ 10?
Lame, I wasn’t even in the mood for another drink.
P. s. This place is crowded with the local college kids at 11pm

I am sure this could be a total frat boy place late at night.
I was here only to drink and watch the Giants National game. Bartender was awesome and turned the game on.
Try the ultimate Guinness pint: Guinness with a shot of hazelnut vodka put into the pint… actually was really really good.
Eww factor of sticky floors and trashy bathrooms.

If your friends ask you to go to this place, you need to find new friends. The place is a dive, a true dive, and not in the cool trendy way. I give the place some credit, since they can bring in a college and wannabe college crowd and make a pile of money. With rent prices in DC, who can afford to have a party house? The basement bar is creepy and awkward, like the crowd feels the need to hide from their parents or campus police. To the people crying about the lack of craft beer, college kids are there to get drunk and they need to save some money to get drunk at the place again later. Bud Light suffices for this goal. If you are a responsible adult, or semi-​responsible adult, just avoid this place.

Yikes. This place is great if you are looking for a ratchet frat party disguised in a dirty bar. It’s might be worth it if you or a friend wins a free happy hour but I would otherwise skip this place.
Pros: The space is huge and has nice bouncers. Easy go with a big group of friends.
Cons: Attracts a sketchy crowd. Maybe it’s better during the school year when there are actual college kids, but it’s pretty empty otherwise.

If you’ve never been to a frat party in college, you’re in luck! This place is a pretty good replica of what that experience is like.
From the moment you interact with the aggressive bouncers and descend into the murky abyss (the bar is downstairs), you feel like you are stepping onto the set of a modern-​day Animal House. The bar is actually quite handsome, with wood-​paneled walls and stylish indirect lighting, but that’s pretty much where the list of positives ends. The young, sweaty mob of people, blaring pop music, and sticky floors ruined any chance of me having any kind of decent experience with my friends.
If you enjoyed going to frat parties in college, you’ll love this place. Everyone else should stay far, far away. It’s not worth it.

1.25 stars.
Frat boy central. Besides that, they overcharged me on drinks despite the fact that I had half price specials for my friends party they had won at this place for the two hours I was there. Yah, if I drink 65 dollars worth of beer at half price in two hours, I would likely not be here writing this. When I called to complain about being overcharged, they took my message, receipt number and cell number. A day later I got a text saying «Congrats, you won a happy hour special, friends drink half price, you drink free on «so and so date» or something to that effect. I called to reschedule and that never worked out. In other words, never did get that happy hour special. Which I guess was there way of saying «We screwed up on the bill». But then they screwed up in trying to make up for the initial screw up. Sub par food fit for extreme drunkenness only.

It was a nice bar and live bar that compared to College Parks cornerstone. The floors were sticky but the dj was great. It wasn’t too hard to get a drink from the bar and the drinks were cheaper than other DC bars. We got a ½ off drinks wristband the night we went so that may have also been the ok rating

I have only ever been to this bar during drunken St. Paddy’s day bar crawls in my 20’s which i do not miss. My sober experience here reminds me of why i don’t do this anymore. I mistakenly went here as a second choice since the bar i wanted to go to was packed at 8:30p on a Monday night (we forgot the NCAA championship game was on).
It seemed pretty empty so we decided to give it a shot, my date recommended it. This should give you all the insight you need into his character and why he thought this was a good idea.
When I made the mistake of walking in i was accosted by the smell of urine. I ignored the smell for his sake and went downstairs to the bar. There were no waitresses so we had to go to the bar for service. The bartender was pretty uninterested in helping us and more interested in the plastic tubs of watered down beer he could fill and take to the tables around the corner. Even when he was in between orders and just standing there watching the game it took forever for him to serve us.
It was a dirty place and i love dive bars but something about this place seemed beyond unclean. It was the kind of dirty you don’t get to see on friday nights when you are shitfaced. The food was actually pretty good, he got mozz sticks, and i got the Independent burger.
However the service was horrible, i spent most of the hour i was there waiting at the empty bar for the bartenders to come back from watching the game. Even though the food was good it was not worth the smell and lack of interest from the staff. Looking at the rest of the reviews on here i see that i am not incorrect in my feelings of not wanting to come back. Also that was that guys last date with me, he has terrible taste.

Came here for a happy hour reception. Aside from the fact that everyone was talking, the music was so loud! They did turn it down a bit when I asked, but it’s still unpleasant to be yelling at the person next to you.

If negative stars were possible, this would be the one place that deserves it.
Don’t go. Ever.

Alcohol:
The drinks are well priced. However the bar seems to have hired bartenders based on looks and not necessarily competence. The girls working the bar on Friday night (I’ve been twice) are good looking but they are awfully slow.
Music:
Negative stars on this front. Horrible selection, horrible progression, horrible everything in regards to the music. Any randomly selected Pandora station would be better by several orders of magnitude.
Crowd:
As other reviewers have made clear. Frat house central. Mix in corporate douches who come dressed in full business attire at 10pm, the occasional loner creeper and whores in self denial and you got yourself the Friday night here.
Conclusion:
I would say this spot is OK for pregaming but drinking at home, alone, with NPR in the background would be a much better decision.

If you’d like to observe young kids who are desperately in need of a couple exorcisms, this is the place for you. To facilitate reading this review, I will highlight the pros and cons as neatly as possible:
CONS:
— White frat boy/​bro haven. Yes, this means popped collars, hats, button ups, and meat-​head personalities. Deeply watch and take note of the primal bro species in their natural habitat. Observe the way they do their ritualistic mating call to find a potential partner for the night.
— Air head teeny-​bopper girls. I’m talking recently-​turned-​21-​act-​like-​slutty-​college-​girl chicks (which might actually be a pro for some of you). These crazy mfers were nearly dancing on the floor, swinging their hair all over us and our drinks, bumping into us, stepping on our shoes, dancing on the bar, and making out with seemingly random bros. They were also way overdressed, which is typical for that group of people (wearing tight cocktail dresses and high heels – to a SALOON).
— The DJ… SUCKS!!! This was hands down the reason why I left. If I stayed there any longer my head would’ve exploded into little pieces. It was a young Black guy who admitted into the microphone that he grew up around all white people and was always the token black guy (figures). He tried to appeal to the few blacks that were there but failed miserably. Seriously, the guy would play T Pain, then right afterwards he played Taylor Swift. Right after Taylor Swift, he played Jackson 5! Right after that he went back to Ludacris, following it up with some other random pop love song. That’s not even the bad part: HE PLAYED COTTON-​EYED JOE. But it gets worse! He announces on the mic that black people have their own version of the Cotton Eyed Joe song, then he proceeded to play the… Electric Slide?! Black people DO NOT jam to this. I left.
— The bathrooms are disgusting. Ladies beware, the toilet shoots water directly upwards after flushing.
PROS:
— I found a dollar on the floor.

Great place to go for cheap drinks. Stop by for happy hour then head to your late night spot. Very live crowd. You’ll have fun with the right people.
Several of my friends have won happy hours here and you can’t beat the half priced drinks.
The food is average, but it’s really good after you’re drunk, which is perfect. You only need it for soaking up alcohol anyways.

Fried Mac & Cheese Bites $ 7 (⁵⁄₅ NOMs)
because everything should be fried, Whoever came up with this bites idea is AWESOMEST! Yes of course we want our mac and cheese deep fried!!! Love the roasted garlic aioli dipping sauce. Great mini bites to enjoy with few drinks —

It’s meh, at best. The floor is always sticky. It’s usually full of fat ugly women, and frat bros in hats. The drinks are priced well, and the music is ok… If you like Journey, you’ll like McFaddens.
Pros
–Walking distance to Foggy Bottom Metro
–Professional and Respectful Door personnel
–Cheap Drinks
Cons
–Ugly crowd
–Crowded
–Gross, and hot as hell

My coworkers and I were out for a farewell party. Two of my coworkers were moving on to another office so figured since this place is located right down the street from our building we could meet here.
Due to flex scheduling the first to arrive was a little after four on a Friday. There was nothing exciting going on but we did banter (yea I used that word) with the bartender while enjoying our drinks and a bite to eat. Next thing I know this place around 6 turned into packed. It was hard to get a drink from the bar because so many people were ordering. Maybe have another bartender during busy hours?
The bathrooms were ok I guess by bar standards. It was a place to use to break the seal
Be sure to get a wrist band off of someone free happy hour for better drink prices upstairs. It saved me a few bucks for sure
Overall I probably would come back but I wouldn’t eat here. The prices were high and nothing looked or tasted extremely spectacular

McFadden’s for Sunday football & DC Panthers fans!
I’ve seen a lot of haters write about this place.
It seems your expereince can go multiple directions depending on the time of day or day of the week.
For wathcing football it’s great.
Our DC Panters fans group totaled about 40 and we were all anxious for the beginning of the season and our new QB, #1 pick Cam Newton.
We had the upstairs room reserved and had multiple plasmas to watch.
It was great since we had our own decicated bartender as well.
David worked his butt off and did a great job for us.
It’s easy walking distance to the Foggy Bottom Metro.
The floor’s were a bit sticky.
The wings were good, the chips and salsa were average. They don’t really serve salsa it’s actually pico de gallo.
I will be going back for certain, I can’t afford Direct TV, Sunday Ticket!