Tune Inn

Wednesday, 8:30PM.
Seat yourself.
TVs strategically placed all around the venue.
Quickie:
+ Drink quality
+ Friendly staff
+ Hygiene
— Turnaround
— Menu variety
And then???
I’d order the roast beef sandwich again. With salad this time, it’ll beat the guilt.
**********
Stuffed my face in:
1. Roasted beef, cheddar, toasted rye, fries
+ Tender meat.
Constructive comments:
*Option to compost
*Source ingredients
*Expand non-​fried options

My wife and I happened upon this place on our first ever visit to DC. We didn’t really expect it to be as good as it was. Amazing food. Great atmosphere.

Today I had a great burger from here! Honestly one of the best burgers I’ve had. Very poor service, waited a while to get served, the place is too small to breath and the server is too busy to get a refill. Once we ordered the food came out fast though!

Shockingly rude service on NYE.
I’ve been coming here for over 5 years and have always loved the atmosphere. However, marginal fried food is NOT worth bad service and exceptionally rude staff. Saddened by the loss of a local favorite.

Amazing mozzarella sticks. Burgers were good but fries were average. Cool dive in the heart of Washington Dc. A must stop for a quick bite to eat.

Old DC tavern that used to be a speak easy. I’ve would recommend the burger or the deep fried burger. Phili cheese steak was lacking. Service was slow, but the burgers were worth it. Also 4 meals with waters that tasted great for under $ 45 in DC was great.

Sadly, I was underwhelmed. My parents wanted to come here after seeing it on DDD, but I didn’t think there was much special about this place. While they have some funny décor pieces, it isn’t anything that you can’t find in a dive bar in every other city across the country.
We all had a couple of different things to eat and it was all just kind of «meh.» The servers were nice and prompt, but again — you won’t find anything here that you can’t find in every other pub or dive bar.

The service was friendly with a smile, and our server was a pleasure. She was warm and inviting, without being overly attentive. The food was delicious. I had a Joe’s West Virginia, and it was a total foodgasm. My husband had the catfish po’ boy which he thoroughly enjoyed. Overall, scrumptious eats, phenomenal service, reasonably priced drinks.

Best pancakes I have ever had and I could have gotten a vodka tonic with them which would have made it perfect!

This place has character and history to spare. I like a bar that doesn’t NEED you – if you fit in and like it, stick around. Or don’t – they’ve been going strong for like 60 years. The bartenders are cool, and the food is greasy good. The wings in particular are a good value at like $ 8. There’s a bunch of taxidermied animals all over the place, which gives the place an odd musty smell. You’ll get used to it. Or you won’t, so beat it, punk.

@guyfieri #dinerdriveinsanddives
those that know me know i am picky about the way my food is fixed… this place is totally amaze balls!!! as a texan chicken fried steak has to be a particular way… this is an awesome version… i have fallen in love!!! only in d.c. THE SERVICE IS VERY PROMPT… THE WAITRESS IS VERY SWEET & THE BAR TENDER MATT IS FUNNY SWEET & OH SO VERY KIND… A TRUE GENTLEMAN… YES I WILL BE BACK WHEN I VISIT D.C. AGAIN!

Actually didn’t get to eat anything here, so I’ll comment on atmosphere.
It’s tiny, but had a down-​home divey feel, even though families were in there too. Lots of hunting trophies and stuffed animals on the walls. Others in my party took forever to get the food they ordered because of a kitchen miscommunication, but our waitress was very informative and apologetic. They serve a fried burger, if you’re into that!

Great food and cheap drinks but if you aren’t a regular you can feel like an outcast at the Tune Inn. The homemade mozzarella sticks and Belgian waffle might be the two best things on the menu and those alone keep me going back despite the feeling that I’m bothering the staff by being there. The kitchen is also open late night for a bite after a night out at the bars. 5 stars for the food, 2 stars for the staff.

I am a college student and enjoyed this place.
The crowd was a nice variety of different ages and attire.
I made friends with the old lady sitting at the bar that probably goes there every day, very nice.
The bartenders were cool.
You must Order the fried oyster special with fries, it was the best.
I will return.

DC is gentrifying. New gleaming high rise luxury apartments, new fancier-​sounding names for old neighborhoods, and new swanky eateries springing up like pretentious weeds. Even some of the old haunts aren’t immune. Case in point, the venerable dive bar Hawk ‘n’ Dove renovating into a respectable establishment that grownups might actually frequent.
Fortunately you can escape all that at a place that almost burned down and rose from the ashes just as dingy and dark as it was before. If taxidermy and relative surliness don’t put you off your appetite, if you drink Natty Boh unironically, if you wear that camouflage that looks like tree bark or just want to observe others who do in their natural habitat, this is your place.
The food is genuine tasty down-​to-​earth diner fare, with solid Southern breakfast choices like chicken fried steak and gravy or sausage and biscuits (ordered them last time, I estimate there were 2500 calories on my plate when it came) and more deep-​fried goodness for lunch and dinner than you can shake a triple bypass at.
You won’t run into any power players, fatcats, or bigwigs here, and that’s just fine by me. If they’re still making actual dictionaries in book form, look up «dive bar» and you should see a picture of the Tune Inn.

I’m glad places like this exist. If you are in the mood for a historic dive bar that serves average diner food, this is the place for you! Don’t come just for the food, the service or the drinks. But it you take them all together it’s a great place.
It’s the kind of place you come when you either A) have been drinking, want to keep drinking but need food or B) want to start drinking while you get some food. If you come just for the food then you will have nothing to do while you wait 45 minutes for a fine, but not otherwise noteable meal.
I don’t want to make this review sound like a pan, I really iike the place, you just have to come in with the correct expectations or you are going to get pissy, and there is no room for pissiness in the Tune Inn!
We got a couple drinks, a cheeseburger, a tuna melt and a PBR draft. $ 41, before tip. The bloody mary was average. Not great, not bad, just fine. The cheeseburger was the same. The menu said they serve ½ lbs. burgers and it looked on the small side. It was served with tater tots (score!) and it was just fine. A cheeseburger. Nothing to write home about but nothing to send back to the kitchen either. $ 8.50
The tuna melt was a grilled cheese with tuna in it. And I know some of you are thinking, «Duh, that’s what it is supposed to be.» You clearly have not had a tuna melt that exceeds expectations like many diners will surprise you with. This was tuna, a little on the sweet side, heavy on the mayo, grilled up on your choice of boring bread with american cheese and a lot of butter. It was fine.
Chased the tuna melt down with a PBR draft. Like the food, the PBR met expectations. It didn’t exceed them… it’s a PBR, it was just fine!
Bartender was friendly. Server said she had 20 years in the place and she was a bit in the weeds. Place was ¾ full and everybody’s food was coming out 45+ minutes after ordering. It’s a small place so it really didn’t seem that busy to warrant the service time.
So here is the thing, if you are coming to have some drinks with friends and socialize, you won’t care if the food comes late or isn’t a home run. It’s a great place to hang out and knock one back. I liked it a lot. I give it 4 stars for «the place» and 2 stars for food… so we’re at a 3 up there, but I like it more than most other 3s if that makes sense.
They also have the TouchTune jukebox thing which lets you control the music without leaving your table. That’s another good way to pass the time, back to back Tom Jones songs until they unplug the thing (eg. John Mulaney). Have at it!

Very divey and historic little bar located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on Pennsylvania Ave. My bf and I happened to be on the National Mall that day, so we decided to grab a late lunch on the Hill. Of course, the National Mall does not have amazing food options and the closest thing we could find was a mile or so away. Tune Inn had been on my list of bars to visit for some time and I’m glad we had the opportunity to do so yesterday.
For the food, I would give this place 5 stars. Very excellent food — filling portion and delicious mix of ingredients. We both ordered burgers. I ordered the Tune Inn burger (hamburger topped with Tune Inn’s signature sauce, american cheese and onion straws) with bacon added. I loved how generous they were with the bacon portion. So perfect. My boyfriend ordered the Swiss Mushroom Onion burger and also really enjoyed it. I seriously hadn’t had a burger that good in a long time, so I left a very happy camper. We also ordered drinks — beer for my bf (per usual) and a glass of wine for me (per usual as well).
The restaurant itself is quaint, divey, and reminiscent of another time. They’ve been open since 1947! I loved the cozy and cute little booths.
Service was good too — quick and efficient and friendly. Only thing is that they really need to use gloves in their kitchen. We sat in a back booth and could see the kitchen area and it was sort of… gross. Also, the lady carrying out my wine glass held the glass with her fingers at the top (where I put my lips on the glass) instead of by its stem, as people normally do. There were smudges all across the top of my glass. It felt so gross that I decided to use my straw to drink my wine (have to say that’s the first time I’ve ever done that). But for the gross-​ness of some parts of my experience, I would have given this place 5 stars.
Besides the unsanitary conditions I witnessed, the food was amazing (and I certainly did not lose my appetite), the place is historic and perfectly divey, and we had a great time. Oh, and Guy Fieri (of Food Network’s Drive-​ins, Diners, and Dives) has visited this place and it was featured on his show back in 2010! He even has a signature item on the menu. My bf and I watch that show on occasion and found it amusing.

Everything we tried from the menu was a bland, battered something deep fried into a greasy, tasteless mess. And from the looks of it, the rest of the menu held true to that description as well. If you like beer battered everything, then this may be the place for you. Now, don’t get me wrong I love a good tasty fried morsel, but when done well. Sadly, not the case here.
This place is awesome for a drink. Loved the atmosphere, with walls full of interesting things to look at, comfortable booths, and a long narrow lay out. It was perfect for a late night beer or cocktail, and the crowd was pleasant and upbeat all around. The waitress seemed hurried and unfriendly, but I don’t fault her as she seemed to be the only one working on this particular night and it was a very full house. There was also a guy roaming around, doing various things such as helping run food, or grabbing drinks from the bar. He may have been a manager, and he was very friendly and greeted us as soon as we made our way from the crowded front door area past the bar into the table section.
Overall, I liked this place, just not for a meal.

Ehhh… Compared to the other options in this area, this place is decent, but overall I’m not the biggest fan.
My biggest gripe was the service. Very rude server. I get it, it’s a local spot, but oh well, yeah I’m a tourist and I decided to spend money at your restaurant. Get over it.
Food wise, the burger was a bit overrated but not bad by any means. Decent fries. Pretty big list of food options in general. Maybe the breakfast is better.
Overall I would probably eat here again if I was in the area, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.

2.5 stars
Looking for a place to eat near the capitol, I was pretty excited about the Tune Inn due to its rich history and of course the visit from Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-​Ins and Dives.
The server didn’t see us for a good 15 mins but then took our appetizer order and brought us some water. I was really disappointed in the fried macaroni and cheese wedges, it was literally the cheap mac n cheese you get from the grocery store.
We ordered a veggie omelet and grilled cheese as entrees. I couldn’t bare how much processed cheese was incorporated into these dishes as we were hoping for REAL cheese. The grilled cheese may have been understandable but the veggie omelet was just too much. We also were hoping for some home fries but were told that they ran out right before we came in and could only serve fries at the time.
I really would like to come back here but the food just wasn’t that great. If they put some real cheese in their food, I’d negotiate my overall star rating.