The Greene Turtle

Say goodbye Turtle. Bartender says this is the last day for this location. We came in for a drink and to watch penguins flyers game. Only a few people here. Manager of the person with the remote control kind of had a attitude about tuning one of the tvs to the hockey game now that I think about it. He said he had the hockey package but not that he would actually put it on a tv. Had to read his mind I guess. But everyone lose was real nice considering they may be out of a job soon. But not the guy with the remote is my bet.

Stopped in a few months ago while in Arlington for a Caps game. We just wanted drinks as it was late and we were tired. The bartender was very friendly and did not presure us to make a selection. She was the only person working and the place was pretty packed. We had a frew drinks and left. No complaints at all. I don’t know how their food is, but what I saw looked like typical bar food.

Came here last Sunday for our friends birthday around 5/​6pm. It was very dark inside, had to use my iPhone flashlight to read the menu. The food was very pricy. We ordered nachos and there was barley any toppings on it, we all were disappointed. My angry ordered was 8 $ (I thought that was pricy).
The only thing I liked about it was their $ 12 bucket deal. You get a bucket of ice with 5 beers for only $ 12. That was worth it.
They waiter was very nice though. Just don’t think it’s going to be somewhere on my top list to go too.

Such a horrible experience!
I needed to grab something to eat quickly before a meeting at work, and I remembered loving the chicken tenders I’d had the last time I was at a Greene Turtle (which was in Fairfax), so I figured I’d pick some up to tide me over in lieu of a «real» meal. Because I was in a hurry, I decided to call in and place the order so they could have it ready for pickup by the time I got there — little did I know the mess I was getting myself into!
I told the person who answered the phone that I wanted an order of chicken tenders to-​go and she asked me whether I wanted a full order or a side. Previously not knowing there were two options, I inquired what the difference between the two was. I was first told there was no difference, which obviously could not be the case (I assumed the full order would be a bigger serving and would cost more) so I probed her again to find out what the difference in price and serving size was. She proceeded to tell me that the serving sizes for both were the same but that the side order came with a choice of sauces, whereas the full order did not — which seemed completely counterintuitive to me — and then insisted that the price between the two was identical as well. Extremely confused (and frustrated with trying to get an answer to such a simple question) at this point, I figured I would cut my losses and just ask for the full order to be safe. In the time it took for her to take my order on the phone, I had already arrived in person to pick up the order — so I reiterated in person what I wanted just to be safe.
After fifteen minutes of waiting by the counter, I began to get a little impatient knowing that I had to get back ASAP and it doesn’t usually take that long to get an order of chicken tenders out the door. I politely asked roughly how much longer the wait would be — at which time I discovered that oh wait, the order may never have actually have been put in after all (the staff present were talking amongst themselves and seemed confused and eventually a manager said he’d make sure my order was in). It should not take that many people to register one simple order accurately — and that too, at a time when the restaurant was practically empty!
Thoroughly annoyed and now even more anxious to get out, I hurriedly left as soon as I was handed my bag of food. I got back to the office and, excited to finally eat after the customer service debacle I had just gone through, I opened the bag only to find that the sauce I had requested (and paid for) had been forgotten entirely. Talk about adding insult to injury! The tenders weren’t as good as I remember them being either (though this was likely partially the result of the terrible customer service leaving a bad taste in my mouth) and I pretty much vowed never go to back to this location in the future. Shame too, because the proximity to where I work would have made me at least a semi-​regular customer had this experience been better!

Avoid this place!
The worst service EVER! We are still here waiting for our check payment to be picked up. Not many customers in here now, but everyone is complaining.
Where to start. Tried to order a beer, server kept saying he would go see how much it costs. I want the beer, there was a back and forth for me to convince him that I want to order the beer and was not concerned with the cost.
Then he ignored us. Manager finally sent someone else to take our order. New server repeats order. I don’t hear my son’s burger so I confirm. Almost 30 minutes later when the food actually came out, including my soup that also took 30 minutes. …guess what? Right, no burger for my son.
We also ordered 18 wings for the table to share, they brought 5 in a basket and the rest in a To Go container. Who does that? We had to hunt people down just to get drink refills. I would NEVER return! I advise you don’t ever go. Consider yourself warned!
The 2 stars are because the food actually tasted decent.

The worst service I have EVER had paired with poor quality food. We are never coming back here. Our waitress was SO SLOW getting our drink orders to the table and ended up forgetting one. Before we had a chance to order, our waitress was cut but never came back to the table to tell us (who does that??). We were sitting there for about 20 minutes trying to flag someone down so we could order. Ended up having to go up to the bar in the back and wait for the bartender to return so we could actually get some food. Big mistake. The chili nachos came out cold, the wings were chewy, and the pretzels were meh. It took so long to get our check and get out of there that our total time spent dining came to about two and half hours just for drinks and appetizers. Don’t come here!!!

Worse than Applebee’s. The advertised fast lunch menu was not fast. Not the servers fault. The hostess assigned our server to tables inside, outside, and across the restaurant. Food was meh but not worth going back for. Fast food with slow service.

Gosh, I don’t know if the service here is ALWAYS terrible or what, but tonight confirms we will not be returning. I normally love GT this location just sucks. We actually got a server tonight which was an improvement I guess… Food was inconsistent, service was painfully slow despite the place being near empty.

We stopped in for some drinks and to kill time. Our bartender, Kevin, was great! He made a great Moscow Mule and kept the drinks coming. Nice little sports bar with a great atmosphere.

I have had the fish tacos and they were thoroughly ok, they use tilapia which is part of the problem. I had the chili the next time I was there. It was kind of bland as was the chicken wrap. They do have Dogfish Head 60 on tap, which was nice.
The main reason I keep going back is that the Ballston Green Turtle has a car charger in the parking garage and some days I can use a few extra kWh’s of electricity for my electric car.

First let me start by saying they have tvs at every table, but they only play sports channels including ESPN.
I have had the crabby melt 3 times and it’s still amazing!!! If you love REAL lump crab meat, cheese, and bacon then you will love this sandwich as well. Only think is it comes with chips not fries. It’s $.99 extra to swap for fries :(
The buffalo chicken sandwich is great as well!!!
Second, KIDS EAT FREE w/​adult entrée but everytime I go the waiters act like they didn’t know. Everytime I go I ask if my child’s meal is free and the waiter says classically «I think so, I’m not sure, but I’ll double check. However, if you go on the website it says in big bright bold letter «kids eat free.» Now I don’t blame the waiters, I blame the management for not making that a clear cut piece of information to know and to tell to customers. I have noticed that back when they first opened the waiters knew, but now with new waiters in and out they do not know most of the time.
Last thing, the crab pizza (appetizer) is not good at all to taste. It’s basically crab slob put on a flat bread and sprinkled with old bay seasoning. It’s definitely missing a culinary touch. It needs chopped tomato pieces, bacon, maybe chives, or something. It’s just so plain and so bland.
Service could be faster but they are not as slow as other places. I’d say medium service speed.
Good for families, good for business meetings, and good for a lunch date.
There’s barely any parking, so it’s better to walk or park somewhere in the area and walk or park in the ballston mall parking garage and walk across the street to the restaurant.
Hopes this helps! :)

My boyfriend and I agreed to never come back to this Greene Turtle after our service last night. We had four different servers, which felt as if no one wanted to take care of us. One of them, who we assume was the manager, never came back to us after he sat us outside. I saw him on my way to the bathroom on his phone and he didn’t seem to see the spilled ketchup on the floor. Anyway, we ordered two rounds of drinks — he got a jack & coke and I got a Long Island. There was no consistency in the drink making process — the second round tasted different from the first. And getting our check was a struggle. When we were first seated, I gave them my card to swipe and have on file. When we finally caught a waiter’s attention to pay the tab, he had to take my card and swipe it again because whatever server who took it when we sat down didn’t do it right the first time.
Especially in an up and coming neighborhood like Ballston, customer experience is everything. I was underwhelmed with the wait staff. I can’t speak on the food, and unfortunately I won’t be returning to find out.

I went to Green Turtle with several friends for the Women’s World Cup final game. Admittedly, we made the decision to dine here after it was too busy at another sports bar.
We were seated right away. As sports fan, having your own personal TV at the table is nice and gives everyone a good view of the game. There are also plenty of TVs mounted around the restaurant as well.
We ordered appetizer specials including the chicken strips, loaded potatoes, and boneless wings. The strips and wings were okay, but the potatoes were very salty.
Overall, a decent dining experience, elevated by the fact a great game between USA and Japan.

I’ve been to this Greene Turtle 10+ times in the 2 years I’ve lived in Arlington. It’s about ¾ mile from my house so it’s an easy walk if I choose to go that route. It’s easy enough to get to with a cheap parking garage underneath the building if you want to drive!
GT has unfortunately gone down in customer-​experience a little for me in the past few months.
For starters, they changed the happy hour for the worse. They split the happy hour food up into $ 3, $ 5, and $ 7 (Used to all be $ 5) which is fine, but the drink specials really took a hit. It used to be $ 4 single mixed drinks from 5 – 9 pm and now it only goes until 7 pm. This being the place my friends and I liked to frequent to get cheap drinks, it really bummed all of us out knowing we’d have 2 less hours to drink here.
Another unfortunate change was the format of the trivia on Tuesday nights. I think most places in the area have conformed to using the same format. 3 to 4 questions per round with rotating categories, and a bonus at the end. It used to be about 10 rounds of 10 or so questions with a specific category for each — and then there were chances for bonus points between each round. Getting used to the new format but it was an unwelcomed change.
This review isn’t all doom and gloom. I maintain that the best chicken tenders I ever ate were from Greene Turtle. The way they fry them is amazing — they are ALWAYS crisp and juicy and the sweet BBQ sauce that comes with the tenders is on point. These are tough to beat during happy hour when they’re only 5 bucks.
Another positive for GT is the amount of TV’s on the walls. They’re everywhere and the screens are often showing different things at one time — depending what season for sports it is.
Even though my love for GT has waned lately, this is still a great option for a few cheap drinks and eats if you can get there for HH.

This review is on the wings.
Had 12 wings on a Sunday afternoon. Go to Buffalo Wild Wings 3 doors down if you want wings!
I tried 6 Buffalo wings and 6 Garlic Parmesan wings and the whole order was basically dry and the sauces and seasonings never stood out. I also received Ranch dressing with the order. The waitress never asked if I wanted Ranch or Blue Cheese so I assumed it came with Blue Cheese. Wrong. How in the world does a standard order of wings come with Ranch!?? Blue Cheese should come standard!

***3.5 stars for a beer, a margarita and the buffalo chicken nachos***
We were early for a party and decided to stop here for a quick drink. I wasn’t sure if the food at the party was going to be plentiful or good, so we erred on the ‘safe’ side and just had nachos.
I’ve only been to one other Greene Turtle in Fells Point and I liked it there even though the vibe that night was very bro-​ish. I digress. Me and the hub sat at the bar and the bartender was nice, she gave us space, but was always nearby to make sure we could get help if needed. The margarita was good. It hit the spot, but wasn’t anything that would make me say it was one of the best. It wasn’t too tart or sweet and the tequila was noticeable enough to tell me the bartender isn’t heavy handed or a skimper. The nachos came hot and crispy. I was a little skeptical as many of my friends dislike TGT, but our experience was good. I thought the buffalo chicken dip with the melted cheese was tasty and savory. If I were to ever stop into another TGT, I would order it again.
I’m glad my visit was not negative and would be open to having drinks here again.

So I’ve been coming here for trivia on Wednesday nights. The trivia is pretty fun, and moves relatively quickly, but the restaurant leaves a lot to be desired. It seems like no matter how far away you get from the door it’s really cold inside. The service is pretty poor. It’s usually not super busy, but it takes forever to get a server’s attention, and then from there it takes a long time to get drinks, food, etc., if you get it at all without asking a second time. The food is fine. I wish they had some other healthy options besides the veggie wrap, although I do really like that wrap. If they didn’t have trivia I wouldn’t go here.

Came the second time order the same «Hog Hammers» and the quality still the same, flavors, texture… makes you sing. Thanks to my server Rocio, she let me have a taste of the BBQ slaw. In my opinion the BBQ slaw need to be has staple on the salads section… is amazing and is unique.
Highly recommended… again.

We went to the Greene Turtle to try something different that we don’t have in San Diego while on a business trip. The menu was decent and I would have loved to try some of their deep fried, or cheesy choices but I opted for a grilled shrimp salad with blue cheese crumbles and vinagrette. The shrimp was kind of salty for my taste and it was overloaded with blue cheese. Personal preference though, if you like that much blue cheese then go for it!
We also ordered the cheesy crab tator tots (i’m not sure what they were called). They were ok, I would probably eat another one if someone else was to order it, but I wouldn’t order them myself.
The service was great. No complaints there. The bathrooms were clean, the restaurant was clean, the staff was friendly. They were hosting a trivia night which was interesting…
There are plenty of TV’s if you were wanting to watch sports. Being a big football fan myself, I would definitely be ok going back here when a game is on.

Green Turtle is always a great place for bar food and cheap drinks on tap. The «spiked» strawberry lemonade was amazing $ 7.99 and 4.99 refills
You can be guaranteed there will be some type of special going on.
There was a corn hole tournament on Thursday night outside.