FireFlies Restaurant

Zero stars for this place! It’s Friday night, a band is playing, the place is packed, and the three (?) employees manage to run out of GLASSES. Plenty of empties on the tables but nobody bussing. My husband made 2 unsuccessful attempts for drinks at the bar; I tried to order once. One hour later and still no drinks, what does this place have plenty of? Employee attitude and sass. I guess it was our fault for being thirsty! I guess we should have done what other patrons do — walk down the street to Walgreens to bring our own. Like the Bermuda Triangle, it remains a mystery how this place stays in business.

We’ve loved this place for years. The best is their weekend brunch. Can’t beat it. Dinner is also tasty.

Never got the chance to try the food. Totally ignored by staff to the point we just got up and left.
We arrived at 6:45 on a Friday evening and there were two tables of people (one was having drinks only). We stood at the host table for a few minutes while we watched the staff (6 people) talk behind the bar near the kitchen. I finally walked up and said we would seat ourselves. Waiter came over and gave us water and menus then left. For the next 15 minutes, we watched the staff talk and joke not 10 feet away and never wait on us. We even try to flag the guy down but no luck. Finally, totally ignored, we left. Food might be good but we will never know. It was a Friday evening during Restaurant Week and they acted like we walked in 1 minute until closing on a Tuesday. Don’t waste your time. There are a lot of other great places in the area that will actually be happy you came.

Went there on Friday for a concert The show was great so much fun and
Very friendly staff I got the pizza it was so good it came out pretty quickly definitely go there again for the food I would recommend this place anybody who likes pizza they also have very good brunch on Sunday very nice bluegrass music
also if you have kids very friendly friendly
They have some toys and books to keep the kids occupied while you wait for the food

A year ago, Firefly was our go to spot for a quick dinner and beer any day of the week. Also go-​to spot for weekend brunches, especially when the bluegrass guys were in town.
However in the last year, I’m not sure if it’s new management/​ownership — but the staple food dishes have changed for the worse for dinner, and the service has gotten worse as well (weekdays). It’s unfortunate because this was our local hangout, but we always come back every 6 months or so to try it again, maybe next time it will be back to its former glory!
As for brunch, it’s still pretty great and the A team is on staff. The changes to the brunch menu have generally been for the better!

When we visited Fireflies last winter, it was great. So, when friends living in Alexandria wanted to do dinner, we wanted to go back. I wish we hadn’t.
Red flag: we were one of only two tables on a Saturday evening at 7. The staff even made a comment about not expecting much volume.
While looking through the menu, a lot has changed and not for the better. No dinner or drink specials, which was a shame.
The food was just okay. Salad came out with what looked like green puke on the spinach (it was dressing, but it was coagulated from being kept too cold). I had the steak frites. The steak was tender, but most of the flavor was A-​1. I expected more; very disappointing. The calamari was rubbery and bland. The wings, which the waitress asked if we wanted «hot», to which we said «no», came out lightly seasoned. On the menu it said it came with a sriacha vinaigrette. I asked for it on the side. It was the stuff from the bottle, not vinaigrette. Seriously?! The last nail in the coffin may have been when I ordered the cheddar biscuit. The waitress told me, «I must warn you, it’s not like the ones from Red Lobster». Ugh, come on!
Put some pride in your food, please. Train your staff on the menu and tell them not to compare it with a chain restaurant. Get some specials back on the menu. And please PLEASE, work on the presentation of the food on the plate.

I was writing this over the course of the visit, so events are sequential:
They apologized for being understaffed, but that doesn’t excuse the disorganization that lead to us getting ignored while new people were seated ahead of us.
Ok – now my coffee cup came out caked in dust and my partner’s is leaking. And my water is so cloudy I can’t see the bottom of the cup.
Now they are mixing up everyone’s bills. I’ve never seen so many problems.
The food was pretty good, but the coffee replacements came after we finished eating. They had the sense not to charge us for those.
It’s really sad that multiple parties left after being seated because they got tired of waiting.
I wouldn’t try this place unless it’s a rainy day early in the week. They can’t handle the customer load if half of their seats are full.
I honestly think the wait and kitchen staff were trying, but it felt like the manager was missing.

We stumbled upon this joint on a walk immediately after we decided it was dinnertime, and we were not disappointed. The portion sizes were perfect, and the staff was thorough and friendly. This is your traditional American fare at a reasonable price. I’d go back for a casual meal out.
Sit outside if you can and the weather permits.

The bluegrass brunch here is great. My family loved their food and the group that plays on Sundays is excellent. We felt that we received great service and the menu has awesome selections with a southern flair.

Great service. I ordered the breakfast burrito with bacon and homefries for brunch yesterday (Saturday around 11). It wasn’t too crowded, and we were seated outside right away. Gorgeous day for it, too! Can’t complain at all! The homefries were perfectly crisp and the seasoning was on point. The breakfast burrito was flavorful with the pick de gallo, and there was enough bacon to satiate the bacon lover in me. I will definitely return.

Fun little restaurant in Alexandria famous for their «Bluegrass Brunch» where there is a live bluegrass band inside during brunch time. Gigantic menu, any kind of higher end diner food you can imagine. Awesome waffles and eggs benedict. Tap list is certainly craft beer focused, just nothing too interesting. Decent craft bottle selection. Only strange thing I saw was a couple of Kentucky beers on the list including a BA stout. Taps will be stuff like PBR, Shiner Bock, Fat Tire then some local things like Port City. In bottles expect Stone, Founders, Green Flash, Devils Backbone, Bluegrass.

I really wanted to like this place. I forced my boyfriend to come here because I was feeling a little homesick, and what makes a southern girl happier than a nice southern brunch with live bluegrass in the background?
The music was a little loud, but there really is not anything anyone can do for that, bluegrass is loud. I think if they would have put the band outside in the shade, the music would have sounded great when sitting inside. Our server was slow, she wasn’t busy, but clearly wasn’t motivated to hustle.
My boyfriend ordered the biscuits and gravy while my attention got diverted to the fiesta burger. The food took a while, and once it came, it was overwhelmingly disappointing. My burger was over cooked and slathered in too much mayo and the bun was cold, but the french fries were solid tasting. Unfortunately my boyfriend was served what I assume was the corn beef hash (with overcooked ‘over-​easy eggs’). I went to tell the server that the food was incorrect, but I couldn’t find her and we really did not have time to wait another 25 minutes for the correct order to be made.
When the bill came, I checked and the waitress for sure had written down biscuits and gravy, which did which left me a little baffled. Overall the dining and food experience was underwhelming. The staff seemed like they did not want to be there, the food was mediocre and I will not be returning.

Two stars is probably a stretch, but I’ll explain later.
At first glance, FireFlies should be a regular spot for me. It is super cute and has a hipster-​y outdoor seating area. In fact, things seemed fine until after we ordered.
Saturday nights are buy one, get one pizza half off. My friend wanted to do that, but I wasn’t in the mood for pizza. We ended up going the seafood route and got the crab & shrimp dip for an appetizer. He ordered the crab cake sliders with a cheddar biscuit instead of fries and I got the lobster po’ boy with fried corn instead of fries.
Our drinks took a while, he had a beer and I got their Firefly mixed drink. It looked delicious but did not live up to its appearance. It was REALLLY strong (which might be a good thing to some, but for me it was undrinkable) and the flavor wasn’t great either. Just muddled and not refreshing as I had been expecting.
Our dip easily took 20 minutes to arrive. We started cracking jokes and he was about to go inside to ask where it was when our server arrived. Again, it looked delicious but the disappointment that followed seems to be a trend at FireFlies. It was bubbly on top but lukewarm when we began eating it. The mixture didn’t seem well blended, there were big globs of what seemed to be cream cheese in the dip. And while the crab was prominent, we found one shrimp (and decided it should be advertised as crab and A shrimp dip).
The entrees were an even bigger disappointment, however. For $ 15, his crab cake sliders were TINY. And the «warm cheddar biscuit» that came along was more dry than warm. And it came with a wrapped pat of butter as you might get at Cracker Barrel. The crab cakes were actually pretty tasty, but he had spent an entrée’s amount of money for an appetizer amount of food.
My lobster po’ boy was equally disappointing. For $ 18, the lobster was a REALLY unappealing fake red color. It was on a plain roll with a slice of tomato and some lettuce. On top of that, I had to go inside (we were sitting on the patio) to get salt, pepper, and hot sauce because the sandwich was so bland. I know I ordered lobster, but I truly expected to enjoy my meal for what I paid. But I felt like by adding the seasoning myself, I had done more to prepare my own meal than the chef. Side note, the fried corn was yummy with salt!
Now, why the 2 stars? Well, a guy at a table next to us did do the buy one, get one half off pizzas and I wish I had been in the mood! Honestly, the pizzas as described in the menu didn’t sound all that great. Nothing any different than a chain. However, the pizzas that arrived to the man who ordered them smelled and looked REALLY good. So I decided on 2 stars because: the atmosphere is nice, the servers were friendly, and I want to try the pizza sometime.

I like to keep it simple when writing a bad review. Kind of like ripping a band aid off.
What really stuck out was the bad service and stale breakfast hash. And when told, nothing was offered or done about it. Plus, the waiter barely checked on me. So by the time I told him, I was done with my brunch!
The menu, food, and presentation wasn’t that incredible. So nobody is missing out. I like the play area for a kid. But I don’t have a kid.

We came here for dinner since they had a sign indicating crabs daily. There were only 2 other couples at dinner time. As we were to order, they told us that they were out of crabs. We ordered the asparagus fries to later be told they were out of those too.
We ordered the calamari, fish and chips & jumbo shrimp. The calamari took a long time only to be disappointed. It lacked flavor and was over cooked. It was chewy. The sauce was from a can and no lemon to drizzle on it. The jumbo shrimp was 4 very large shrimp in a plain fried batter over bland rice. The cod was either previously frozen or overcooked as it was overly flakey. Overall the food was disappointing.

Fireflies seems to be going through another metamorphosis and is now rebranding as a crab house/​surf and turf? But they still have a pizza oven and that seems to be a problem the place always changes but never for the better.
Six years ago, a great place for a burger or sandwich (wheatball sub was great) and also a good outdoor brunch spot. Nothing stays the same, which is good but for this place — at least the same would be steady and edible.
The service was bad, the server while nice became distracted (she had three tables) — took 15 minutes for a drink order. The menu tells the story — you are either going to get great crab/​surf and turf or you are going to pay a lot for bad fish. It is the latter.
The fish and chips special was essentially one ounce of fried cod broken into ten pieces, no lemon, no vinegar — nothing to appeal and at $ 18, that’s not good enough.
I had a OBX sandwich, again no flavor and everything just tasted fried.
Our son got pasta, no pasta sauce and the highlight of the meal was warm housemade applesauce. So after $ 60, we went home and had cereal.
It may be time for a change at this location — new owners, new menu and let fireflies die.
Sorry for the bad review — they had no manager on staff that night and the offer of gift certificates was kind but it would mean going back and we are not going to do that.

First time being here in a looooong time. Sadly, I’ll never go back.
Service: server was very nice. Tried her best under the circumstances.
Food: I had eggs and hash. Defiantly was Hormel canned hash, but I expected that. Didn’t have an issue at all, but figured you’d all want to know. My mom used to make it all the time.
Worst part was what we thought would be the best… The Apple Streussel Waffle. Ooooo it sounded good. That crumbly top… The gooey apples. sadly, we got what you’ll see in the picture. It was kind apples tossed on top of an apple. No crumbles at all! When we brought it up, it was sent back to us with brown sugar, obviously, tossed onto the center.
To top all of it off, the hash browns tasted old and we’re almost mushy. Even with ketchup we couldn’t change the fast.
My guess is that they’re losing customers and are compensating by skimping on the food in order to get bigger margins. Makes everything taste cheap though or downright inedible.
Sadly, bad experience. If this restaurant wants to stay alive, I’d recommend a better cook or better recipes.

When looking at the menu for fireflies it seemed to have solid options for our family lunch but I was surprised when we drove up to the restaurant. They have a small parking lot of only 3 – 4 spots which are super close together and only accessible to small cars.
We were the only table in the restaurant and service was good but the food left a lot to be desired. I had a burger without cheese but it came to the table with cheese, wasn’t cooked well enough and the fries seemed overcooked.
They have a patio outside that’s probably nice during warmer months but it looked awkward with their chairs and tables stacked outside.

Ate here on a Sunday afternoon for brunch. The place is located in a neighborhood so don’t think you’re lost. You aren’t.
Parking is a bit annoying in the tiny lot so use the street if you can after checking the signs.
Seating was pretty close outside (and hot when I went — why metal chairs!) so we escaped inside. They appeared to be in the middle of renovations so navigating around was tricky. I hope they’re updating the décor because it could use a facelift.
All that aside the pancakes, waffles and and other brunch goodies (such as cocktails) were pleasantly good. Our waiter was attentive and answered all our questions. He even gave a side of hashbrowns for the outdoor hassle.
I noticed there was a bar and wondered what this place might be like for dinner.
Definitely willing to check it out :)

I was not impressed. I came here with two others at around 4 PM. Kind of a weird time… Not quite dinner, but far too late for lunch. Because of this weird time, the restaurant was almost completely empty. There were plenty of wait staff on hand (though this was probably because they were getting ready for the dinner rush) despite not having a lot of people in the restaurant at the time.
We were seated very quickly, and our waiter was very gracious. We were handed a menu, and it was a very small menu. It was a single paper, front and back, with limited selection. In the end, we all agreed on the burgers. Because I don’t eat red meat, I’m glad that they had turkey burger options. All the burgers, no matter which you got, came with an order of fries (regular or sweet potato) for $ 12.
The food didn’t come out that quickly, but again I attribute that to the slowness of the time we went. However, we didn’t get our waters filled at all the entire time we were there, despite us all having finished them within the first 10 minutes of sitting down.
I was a bit disappointed when the burgers came out. The burgers themselves looked good… They were of average size, but there were only about 8 fries plated with each burger. My burger-​to-​fry ratio was completely thrown off! For the amount paid, I expected at least a handful of fries.
The burger was good. The bun tasted like it was made in-​house. It wasn’t a standard burger bun, which was nice. My turkey burger was cooked as I asked. However, they were stingy on the toppings of the burger along with the fries. I kid you not… The burger had the smallest piece of lettuce imaginable on it. It was like one from the very center of the lettuce (the part you throw away).
Overall, it was an okay burger, but I don’t think it was worth the amount paid at all. The service was okay, but I don’t know if it was just because the restaurant was empty. (Like, there were at least 6 employees just sitting down around the register in the back near the bathrooms just talking with each other.) The ambiance was pretty nice… I did see a playpen type thing in the corner, though, so I imagine this is a pretty hot spot for parents with kids, if that’s something you want to avoid. I don’t think I’ll be back ever again, but I’m glad I tried it.