Commonwealth Gastropub

3.5 stars
Came for lunch.
— Beer battered fish n’ chips: I had beer battered fish before but this one was much better. more tempora-​like light crispy outside. Comes with 2 big pieces of fried fish and big hand-​cut type potato fries. Pretty satisfying!
— Maple roasted butternut squash: if you like sweet potato but don’t want too much sweetness, try this one. lightly sweetened feel-​good side dish.
— Sticky toffee pudding: Have you ever had Cinnabon and wish that you can have only inside? If yes, get this dessert. The whole thing is like inside of Cinnabon. Very sweet but balanced well with a touch of cinnamon flavor. Get a glass of beer or milk to go with it.
PS: Parking is a pain but I guess you can do metro or just park at Target parking lot for $ 1.

FYI — CommonWealth Gastropub is closing at the end of this month, February. It’ll be 60 days until a new owner comes in, opening a new pub-​style place.
So you have less than one month to enjoy some mediocre, over priced pub food and average service.
Redeeming factor: Outdoor seating — enjoy it when we have a few nice days this month.

I’ve noticed that this place has less than stellar reviews but I’m not sure why. It may not be the best bar ever but it’s not bad.
First off, the prices are surprisingly reasonable, especially for a gastropub. While the scotch eggs are not bad, the sauces that they come with are phenomenal. So good that I would probably get the scotch eggs again just for these sauces. Also try the buffalo wings, they are really quite tasty.
Their beer selection is decent and the bartender seemed to know what he was talking about.

CommonWealth boasts «the best happy hour in Columbia Heights». Maybe not the best, but it certainly is pretty darn good for the after-​work crowd. (Although I’ve been here numerous times, my experience is solely limited to happy hour eats & drinks).
Here’s the run-​down:
–Service is friendly, but not always the most attentive.
–Great deals to be had. Domestic drinks are ½ off — wooo!
–Pub food is satisfyingly yummy.
I would personally recommend getting one of their burgers — my favorite is the grass-​fed beef ($ 12, but half off on Wednesdays — sweet!). With a side of oh-​so-​perfectly crisped chips (steak fries), it is certainly a winner.
And while I have read reviews that the beer selection is lacking, my friends and I always find it to be more than ample.
Nice atmosphere — dark and cozy. Soccer and other sports show on the tv’s around the bar area.

Really not sure how this place survives in this location for the prices it must pay in rent, but maybe it is all the people who shop in the surrounding stores that decide to check it out that keep it afloat.
The hostess was unsure if they had high chairs. She brought one over for my nephew, when we noticed that there was a whole stack of them within view of where we were sitting.
The server did not mention the specials that night that were posted on a chalkboard type wall. We did not notice them until after we had ordered, and wished we would have seem them before placing our order.
I think most of their business must definitely come from their beers. The only way I would revisit this place would be for a drink with friends. Their food was totally unmemorable and I would not go back for it at all.
I had fish and chips which were ok. The best part was the tartar/​dill sauce they came with. The fries were really bad. My brother had the meatloaf which was extremely dense, lacking flavor, and were served with mashed potatoes.
There are plenty of other tasty places in the area, and for the money, you will get a much better dinner elsewhere!

A good neighborhood institution. Excellent beer selection. Food seems to be solid pub food although «gastropub» is rather a reach for a fairly standard bar menu.
We had a decent dream of carrot soup and fried oysters (highly recommend to start and a good but certainly not memorable fish and chips.
Called the restaurant before coming and asked about parking. The receptionist knew nothing. There is cheap paid parking in the mall across the street you have to know where the entrance is (on the opposite side from Commonwealth). Guess she never been there…

We came here on Sunday for the Sunday Roast. The greatest ethnic food in the history of the world, and only available in 4 places in DMV:
— Majestic, where the High Priest Cathal Armstrong has a waiting list longer than that for Minibar and where they sell out every week.
— Ri Ra, where poor cuts of meat are badly cooked by people who have not been properly taught how to make a roast
— my house, which is better than all the rest when I can be bothered to cook it
— and this place.
Except when they don’t.
We walked in at 1.15 — we had a reservation and they gave us the big old table in the central room. They had foaming cask conditioned ale — a massive improvement from my last visit. Our server told us it would be another 30 minutes before the roast would be ready. No problem, I can wait, I’ll have a few more beers. He comes back.
” Sorry — it’s gonna be two hours.“
Pathetic, Disastrous, Horrible, a breach of trust and confidence, a disaster of biblical proportions.
Our server was great — he comped us a couple of mimosas and a bowl of soup for soccerball girl. Thing 1 and Thing 2 loved their food. I was distraught, and even two pints of Oliver’s finest cask conditioned bitter could not improve my mood. I had the Butcher Breakfast — a poor consolation, but the aptly named coda to my butchered afternoon.

This place just feels too polished, to well put together. It has no character, no soul. And when you think neighborhood bar, that’s what you think. Or what I think anyway. I also tend to think greasy, cheap food. Sadly, only one of those is the case here.
The outdoor area is definitely pleasant and allows you to be near, but separate, from the hustle and bustle of one of D.C.‘s busier foot traffic areas. But it all just feels Stepford Wife-​ish. The server was nice and she attended to us well enough.
But even if you don’t mind the décor, the cold hard fact is this place is just too expensive. Sure, our food was tasty, but it wasn’t enough for the cash. There are other great bar experiences all across the district that offer similar fare for less money.

Scotch Eggs (beautiful trio of sauces).
Butcher Board (deviled sweetbreads to die for).
If weekend, (lamb) roast + mimosa.
And if in luck, chilled carrot soup.
Do it.

I only come here ocassionally for happy hour because it has some good drink prices then. Any other time? Hell to the no. Why? Because I feel like I might as well take a lighter to my money and light it up. Average food, high prices– it just isn’t worth it.
So happy hour: 5 stars
Any other time: 2 stars

Came for brunch one sunny Sunday morning. The staff was friendly and helpful. Even though the place was packed, we were seated after a minute or two. I had the baked pancake (which tasted lighter than a regular pancake), a popover and a side of bacon. Now, I’m pretty picky about my pork — don’t like burnt to crisp, don’t like it raw. Echoing Goldilocks’s fickleness, I like it *just* right. Commonwealth delivered bacon cooked to perfection.
When back in DC, I’d like to experiment.
With the menu at CommonWealth.

I really wanted to love this place, but after all was said and done, I only found it to be ok. Here is why:
To start, I am a huge fan of gastro-​pubs and have almost always enjoyed what I find on their menu and beer list. I wont name other places that I like better, because I’m not really comparing this place to other restaurants.
I haven’t spent a lot of time in the newly renovated and booming Columbia Heights area, and this place, however good, is a great addition. The area is filled with tons of new restaurants and its good to see that.
Commonwealth has a great interior and has the nice pub-​feel. You have chalkboards lining the walls with specials, beer flights and events. The chairs and benches are all wood, to add to the English pub experience.
Now lets get to the beers. They offer all drafts in 16 and 20 oz (British Pint) sizes. I’m not a fan of this. Id rather them offer a small taste size and a regular size beer. The beer prices are reasonable, though, not great. I do know they offer some cheap beers on special at HH and evening HH, but Id rather see an across the board discount of .50 cents or $ 1 on Guinness and the like.
The food. Here is where there was a bit of an issue. The menu definitely has a lot for everyone but, I think that the servers need to gain a better grasp or the menu. My fiancé ordered a salad, followed by the Vegetarian Sheppards Pie, which was the best thing of the night, with the smoked tofu and potatoes. The problem here is that it COMES WITH a salad, the exact salad she ordered to start. The waitress should have informed us of this, allowing us to chose a different appetizer, rather than getting two of the same stupid, and boring salad.
I opted to get the pork belly sliders, as I can’t resist the delicious pork belly, and I found them to be mehtastic. The flavor of the pork was fine, but they were served on heavy, challah type rolls, taking away from the flavor of the meat. This too came with a salad, which was ok, but not mentioned on the menu.
I went for the bangers and mash as i had recently had a terrible version at the Elephant and Castle, and these, while a lot better, still were not REAL bangers and mash. Where were the peas, mashed or regular? The potatoes and sausage were good, so I’ll give them that.
Overall, I wasn’t blow away here and the meal was a bit pricey considering what was ordered. I guess 4 dishes and 2 beers is a fair amount. Anyway, i might be back, but i doubt it.

***Warning: this is going to be a LONG review!***
So if you read my review for The Heights also located in Columbia Heights very close to Commonwealth, you will read that I have been planning a «dining etiquette lesson/​event» with a nearby non-​profit org with my corporate firm. Thus, we needed a venue to hold it that was close to this non profit org’s community center which was located in Columbia Heights. We also had a budget we had to stick to and that was something that was a bit difficult because these places aren’t sandwich shops! I’m not going to bash the Heights in this review, but just RAVE about Commonwealth Gastropub.
We had originally set the event for beginning/​middle of February, but due to the crazy snowstorms during that month, we had to reschedule. We had reservations for 20 – 25 people and they were so accommodating and friendly. They made the date change easily and even was willing to work with our budget even though there were entrees more pricy than our total price for each student. We were able to get a delicious 3 course meal due to the HUGE accommodations the restaurant was able to make for us — they were either able to throw in a soup/​salad or even make portions smaller (say a typically HUGE burger would be a normal sized burger instead).
Here is the menu they came up with for us!:
Appetizers to choose from:
— Rocket Salad (arugula w/​shaved sheep’s mild cheese)
— soup of the day — I can’t remember what it was called but it was a white beans with kale soup… this was actually VERy delicious and clean — I regret barely drinking/​eating it because it was so good! I just wasn’t so hungry.
Entrees to choose from:
–Fish n’ chips!
–grass fed beef burger
— chicken & brown rice
Dessert:
— two icecream flavors for choosing (vanilla or chocolate)
— sticky toffee pudding
WOW!!! they were able to work WITH our budget and even give us CHOICES! also, in terms of a venue, they were able to provide a private room for us that fit all 20 of us perfectly and be able to hear a dining etiquette lesson perfectly… now…onto the rowdy kids that attended… that is a different story (i felt so terrible for the dining etiquette instructor. I forgot what high schoolers were like!)
okay, now onto the food…
I got the bean soup… already said this was YUMMAY!
The fish n chips… DELIGHTful! I don’t think I’ve ever had REAL fish n’ chips before because I like my fish fresh and not battered/fried.WOW! delicious fresh fish AND the batter was light and I could still taste the big chunks of fish inside. the chips that came with it… YUMMY!!! I can’t rave more about this dish.
My favorite of the NIGHT (as always. dessert): the toffee pudding… now this is more like a bread pudding/​cake type… and it was AMAZING! just the right amount of sweetness and stickiness. now the only thing that was missing was the icecream scoop of vanilla… if i were there on my own, i totally would’ve ordered this dish… but…on a work budget, i restrained ;)
Food was AMAZING and I totally can’t wait to go back on my own with a frend to try their other foods!
Also, the greatest thing about this place is that I’ve been working with Sean for the past 2 months (Shoutout to the best server!!! sean!) and he has been so helpful in helping me plan the event! In addition, I actually had a family emergency this week and wasn’t even sure if I could attend the event, but everyone was so understanding and the rest of my team took over and worked with these friendly people from commonwealth with an amazingly smooth transition. Luckily, I had been planning this event for months and just did not want to miss the event so i left the hospital for a few hours and came to the event! I’m so glad I didn’t miss it!
The food was served very promptly and went along well with the Dining Etiquette Lesson!
I just want to give a HUGE thank you to Sean and Amaya! Everyone call Amaya and book your next event there! they are so accommodating and friendly and absolutely the best people to work with! i absolutely have them as a future reference for any future events I have!
Absolutely love them! 10 stars!*****************

The main problem with this place is its at the Columbia Heights complex (14^th and Irving). And that whole area bums me out. I’m happily biking along DC side street and then bamm, suddenly I am in suburbia with a giant bed, target, best buy, and beyond complex towering over me. I’ll admit I use that target on occasion (hey they give 5% of their profits to charity — not bad), but that doesn’t mean I want to drink or eat where I can see one.
And the place itself is clearly a commercial undertaking. Brand new, well furnished, and painted in a modern style. Also not my favorite thing (I like mom/​pop holes in the wall with weird histories).
All that said, the beer selection wasn’t bad, they have speckeled hen on tap, and also cask conditioned ales, two big pluses. The food was good as well (but a tad pricey). The ceviche was very tasty, and the scotch eggs were cool to try.
So, if you don’t mind the feeling of a chain bar in a suburb location this might be a good destination. But personally I have many more bars in DC I look forward to trying instead.
I started off planning to give them **, but they didn’t really do anything wrong and they seem to locally source some of their foods, so I’ll give ‘em ***.

I really wanted to like it! But my fish and chips were not at all spectacular. The portion was small considering the price and the fish wasn’t as crispy on the outside as I would have liked. However, my boyfriend really liked his hamburger despite being disappointed by its smaller size at first. The beer selection is pretty good and I like the fact that they have cheese offerings despite how typical places like this would look over catering to a crowd that likes cheese with their alcohol.
This place is straight up meat and potatoes. Don’t bring your vegetarian friends here and don’t expect to order a salad for dinner. Come when you want to eat like a man on a woman’s size plate.
I will probably be back to give it another shot.

I cant say too much about this place other than my friend lived right above it on the balcony looking up from the restaurant. It was always packed and it was just a happy place to be at.
I had the fish and chips which are the best i’ve had since i went to Europe and I also had their burger. One of the best burgers out there as well.
Good drinks and a good time.

My friends and I had attened the Cochon 555 event in which Jamie Leeds was a participating chef. And because her dishes were the stand out of the event, we decided to swing by and grab some dinner because we were still hungry.
The restaurant is conveniently situated right next to the Columbia Heights metro. The menu is a variety of British fares. I started of with the ales and mussels which was a bit disappointing. The sweetness of the mussels was underwhelming. The pork pies (empanadas) were better with a nice tangy sauce. My entrée was the bangers and mash. The meats was savory and the gravy was very good. My friends has the Smithwick battered fish and chips that was very generous and good.
The variety of beer was very good. I had the Victory Pilsner that was very refreshing. The service was very good and overall it was a decent experience.

3.5 stars
Went here for brunch on Sunday, as the boy is half English. Although he was highly tempted by the Sunday roast, while I was tempted by the authentic gastropub-​style offal offerings on the butcher’s plate (black pudding w/​sunny side up, grilled pork belly, deviled sweetbreads), we decided to eat lighter. Beer takes up a lot of belly space anyhow.
We liked the beer selection — he ordered an authentic English pumped ale, and I ordered the Lancaster Strawberry Wheat from Lancaster, PA. We were both happy with those choices — the strawberry wheat was a refreshingly lemony, unfiltered hefeweizen with a subtle hint of the strawberry.
We ordered the fried olives stuffed with lemon — a comfort food of salt meets tart. They were interesting, but a little on the salty side for me… I would have liked some sort of unsalted dip for them (but that’s just how I was raised — they reminded me of southern fried pickles that you dip in buttermilk ranch).
I ordered the ale steamed mussels, which were delicious and plump. Even the boy liked them because most of them did not have that chalky texture that he dislikes. It was a smaller portion that I’m used to; whenever I’ve had mussels as a meal anywhere else in the world, it’s been a large bowl since the amount of protein is otherwise quite small.
He ordered a frog in the puff (I believe they called it that, which I call a ‘toad in the hole’, or a egg fried inside a slice of bread), with rashers (bacon) on the side. I was still a little hungry and ended up stealing a few bites of his hearty breakfast food — which was also pretty tasty.
With an extra beer each, we were completely full. Too bad, because I should have traded it to try their version of sticky toffee pudding — one of my top 2 favorite desserts. I may go back just to try that (and a couple of offal meats). I also liked being outside on the sidewalk and watching all the varied people of the area walk by :).

As a Columbia Heights resident, I had high hopes when this place opened — and haven’t been disappointed. This place is a quality meal, classic bar atmosphere, and comfort food all wrapped up in one. I’m not a meat eater, so first I was weary about the Brit-​heavy menu, but there is plenty to keep my happy here (there’s even a veggie tiki masala that I have yet to try). Every fish I’ve had has been delicious. The salads are crisp and fresh, and the sides have always been tasty. Also, the pickled snacks they have on the tables are always a refreshing start.
Commonwealth also puts together great — and very affordable — menus on certain holidays. On Thanksgiving, there was a $ 25 3-​course meal that was perfect when I ended up back in town on a change of plans.
I would urge others to keep an open mind about the location. Yes, it’s in Columbia Heights. Yes, it’s next to Best Buy. It’s also surrounded by Pete’s Apizza, a Five Guys, and hopefully soon-​to-​open sushi place. Bottom line, regardless of the Target complex across the street, once you’re inside, the atmosphere is great. Almost pub-​like.

After buying accessories for our 80’s party outfits, we wandered over here from Target to grab some dinner. We were seated at the table that is right next to the window where you can see in the kitchen. (More to come on why this was such a great spot to sit…)
I read through some of the reviews and can see why some people are so lukewarm about the place but I happened to really like it. It was dark and cavernous but still felt cozy. It was dimly lit and seemed like it could be a good place for a date. It’s like a British Pub that’s been modernized a bit.
Our server for the most part was pleasant, though I felt at some points that we felt more like an inconvenient last table of his shift than a welcomed guest. I can sympathize — I know what it’s like to get that ONE more table when you’re ready to cash out checks and peace out but really, it wasn’t THAT late. So (–1) star.
My dad is British and my mom is American but my mom makes a bangin’ Yorkshire pudding. When I saw it as a side, I knew I had to have it. So I ordered the bangers and mash + side Yorkshire pudding. My friend went with the ever classic fish ‘N chips. I have to say — I was really happy with my food. The Yorkshire pudding was just as it should be and was served with a side of onion gravy. The fish ‘N chips appeared to be the exact opposite of what I had experienced earlier in January at the Irish Pub, O’Sullivan’s in Arlington (at O’Sullivan’s — it was over-​breaded and soggy!). My friend gave me a few bites and it was delicious! Hot, crispy batter on the outside and tender, flaky fish inside. I thought it was cute that they served it over «newspaper».
We shared the lemon trifle with berries for dessert. It was a light, refreshing dessert that didn’t leave us feeling too heavy and full.
Back to the window. So yes. Ask for this table. (This is the reason why I gave 4 stars instead of 3.) My friend and I had a good time eye-​ing up two of the chefs in there. Sure it was embarrassing as hell when they caught us and laughed (and waved!) but it was also very entertaining. I will always request this table should I return with my friend. You should too =P.