Jake’s American Grille

We stopped here around 10pm on a Saturday night to have a drink or two and a quick bite to eat after a long drive to DC. We had to be seated downstairs because the dining room was closed upstairs. The atmosphere was okay but it definitely felt like a basement. Our waiter wasn’t the most attentive but it seemed like he was the only one working down there so it was kind of understandable. The fried green tomatoes were good. The burger was cooked to order.

Slow Service, Understaffed and Sub par food. The space is great and considering the limited amount of options in the area it is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. However, the restaurant seems to constantly be understaffed which results in long waits for food and seating– this coupled with the inattentive staff is a bit annoying.
The food was below average if you are expecting restaurant style food, but probably on par if you expect bar food. My only complaint regarding the food is that cooks had a hard time figuring out how exactly to prepare a burger that is cooked medium. Im not a food snob and hate sending food back but the first burger received was well done and the next burger I received was blue– eventually I just opted for the hummus.
They have a great beer selection and are a family friendly environment as it seemed to be a pretty welcoming place if you want to bring your toddlers. The day I went it was either kiddie happy hour or after school snack time because kids were everywhere.
My Advice: Come here for a beer or two during happy hour and then go to Comet Pizza across the street. Not worth the travel if you don’t living walking distance.

Chill place. Very cool. The young lady that helped us at the bar was very hospitable. The burgers are good. One thing I wish they used is lettuce that is more green for better nutritional content. Sweet potato fries are perfect!

Really friendly and efficient service. Food is okay, but has little flavor. Hummus is excellent and homemade. Wagyu beef is an aquired taste.

I’m a local, live about three blocks away. I would love to have a local bar where you’re greeted as you come in, offered a menu, and so on. Well, just now I sat down at the bar, place is ¾ths empty, bartender doesn’t even notice I’m there. He’s sauntering around doing stuff, but I might as well be invisible. I started timing it just out of curiosity to see how long it would take him to throw me a menu. Fifteen minutes! I walked out. Way to go, Jake’s, alienate your local customers.

Had brunch here around 2 this Sunday. The restaurant was pretty dead, but you would have thought they were in the middle of a huge rush. I was part of a large party, and one of the last three to arrive. The waitress seemed super confused and asked if the last two of us wanted to eat at a table that was kind of far from the rest of the party. Um, no. We ended up squeezing in with our friends, which was super uncomfortable since the table was small, but at least we were able to sit with our buddies. It took forever to get drinks, and order food. Once we had ordered, our waitress came back several times to double check our order. But when the food came out, things were wrong (including one order the waitress had checked on) and one member of our party got their food well after the rest of us had. Then it was an extra trouble to spilt checks. Definitely do not recommend this place.

I went here for brunch this past weekend. The décor and ambiance is great for a relatively casual place and the bathrooms are easy to find and clean. Our waitress was okay. She was pleasant enough, but wasn’t particularly intuitive and didn’t check on us as often as I would have preferred. My water glass was only refilled after I asked, way into the meal, I wanted hot sauce but she didn’t do the customary check-​in a couple of minutes after the meal arrived, etc.
The three mini muffins (free on arrival) were just all right, and dry. My omelette (The New Yorker) was extremely dry. I barely ate half of it, and all I could taste were the many, many capers inside of it. The mimosas were small but good, and the Bloody Mary was well-​seasoned. My friend found a hair on his glass, but he decided not to say anything and drink around it.
I will say that the home fries were amazing. They were perfect in every respect and had I known I might have just ordered a plate of them and skipped the dry muffins and omelette.
I think the two-​star Unilocal description perfectly sums up brunch: «Meh. I’ve experienced better.»

Been there a few times. The most recent experience was so negative we won’t be going back. The waiter was young and completely overwhelmed. Can’t blame him they were completely understaffed! Bill came and we paid, but when the charge came thru it was for more. Tried multiple times to get ahold of management to clear it up, but they never call back. Eventually I gave up. Understandable accidents happen but it’d be nice to hear from them. Under very poor management.

Wow. Just wow. Negative stars… Trying yet again to support a local tavern — miserable fail. I’ve deducted it’s management, not the staff who are incredibly young and untrained. I won’t go into how terrible our meal was because I felt so bad for all the tables around us.
A couple who had been there at least 15 – 20 before we were sat is still waiting for their food (two salads) as we left. The couple across from us was not so lucky as a margarita they ordered came out 3 different ways and always wrong. To boot, they got the wine order wrong and, bless his soul, the «server» (every table had 3 – 4 different servers including a table-​bus and a completely confused and overwhelmed hostess) spilled the last attempt to compensate. Shit happens, but it was so pathetic. Other tables had the thousand-​yard-​stare of regret. Even if the food was okay (wagering that it was at best average if being generous) the wait and chaos surrounding the dining experience had sucked all the life out of them.
Ok, our meal. We ordered the kids mac and cheese for the kid immediately upon sitting down because Jake’s has done this to us before… wait…wait…wait…tell the server we’re waiting. 10 mins. later, voila! To their credit, it’s probably the best (meaning, consistently not crappy) thing on the menu. My appetizer came out with my meal (I refused it — I feel terrible but I didn’t want it at that point…) and my chicken fingers were passable for Army mess. My wife’s salad was passable as well, because at least she got it… that poor couple was chasing their 7^th or 8^th ice tea as they waited. My beer was London warm. Not a compliment.
I saw table after table waiting on subpar food at DC prices. This place could be a gem with the right ownership and management. The neighborhood is clamoring for another casual American dining spot but man, is this place screwed up. Barely fine for a beer and tvs.
I again want to let the kids who work there off the hook — they’ve been given no tools to succeed and the same might be for the kitchen which I think isn’t working with the best produce. It survives on market share, not choice. Just terrible. Talk to your neighbors up the street at Blue 44. We’d love for you to turn it around.
PS
As we left, the couple who had waited an hour for plain salads and ice tea were just served and not comped… oy.

I live a stones throw away from Jakes so I really wanted it to be good. The food is awful. Never fresh — always stale should be their motto.
Pro’s: service is usually pretty good and they have some fun events that go on (live music, stand up comedy).
Con’s: The burgers (which is supposed to be their claim to fame) are disgusting, frozen fries, and subpar produce. The wings taste like tysons wings from the Giant freezer section.
Overall: if you’re going here for a few drinks with friends — by all means enjoy. If you’re going here for good food — stay away.

Went there this morning for brunch. Food, service, and atmosphere were great! We really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to going back!

Went and got drinks there the other night… Bartender was very friendly and on top of her game. I think her name was Sky. Ask for her! Atmosphere was good too — they had board games and darts and plenty of stuff to do to keep drunk buddies entertained. Would go there again and most certainly will.

Jake’s is everything I want in a brunch place — centrally located, great for groups, affordably priced, staffed with attentive servers, and fast with the bottomless mimosas.
Over the span of two trips I’ve ordered or eaten someone else’s steak and eggs, chicken and waffles, and the breakfast burrito. The steak is on the small side, but flavorful. The breakfast burrito is huge and tasty. The fried chicken is so crispy and juicy on top of its large fluffy compatriot that it’s hard to order anything else…
I love the people who work at Jake’s; they’re quick to refill waters, ask if you need anything, and refill your mimosa carafe. They’ll even up the champagne to OJ ratio if you ask nicely. Now that’s five-​star service.

I recently moved into the neighborhood, and I have been trying out the restaurants in the area. My mother and her friend came up from New Jersey, so we decided to go here for a late lunch.
I had the build your own burger and my mother’s friend ate the breakfast burger.
The burgers were actually really good, and they were cooked perfectly (medium rare and medium well). The fries were nothing special, but they were very crispy, which is the way I like them.
The beef was extremely fresh. I cannot speak about anything else on the menu, but I was please with the service and food.
Bri was our waitress, and she was very attentive.

Ate here yesterday and the food was great. Their pork sliders are a must. Also, our waitress Bri was super attentive and nice. Great place!

Painfully mediocre — when we got the bill, I wished we had just picked up some groceries instead. Service was slow and inattentive (asked for cream for my coffee twice at brunch — I know that’s an unusual one, but I’m high maintenance like that) and the food was barely serviceable, in a cafeteria kind of way. I want Gordon Ramsay to visit the restaurant for an intervention for a «make it from fresh» lesson. Give me SOMETHING to be a tiny bit excited about eating! The game room for kids is a really nice touch, and may lure us back in the dead of winter, but I’m not going hungry.

Just ordered from here for lunch. We were pretty disappointed. I ordered the soup and sandwich. The crab soup (which was suppose to be a full soup) was only halfway full. It was okay– but had a little too much salt. The chipotle BLT was very sad. The bread was burned and had too much bread compared to the filling. The sandwich was very thin. Same goes for my coworkers grilled cheese sandwich. Burned and thin. The salad my coworker ordered was inedible– the salad was wilted and soggy. With all the choices close to here we will not be going here again.

Bartender was cool, and drinks were good and not 2 expensive. I had a cosmo and my significant other had on old fashion both good. Was able to watch a football game in comfort and in a good environment. I believe they also have food, so I’d like to try, because the place was cool.

3.5 stars — «We can do brunch there because they have free child care» –Are you kidding me? Can’t be real…
Ohhh but it was! I came here on a Sunday to catch up with my girlfriend, with the selling feature being child care was available for her 6 year old. In the rear of the restaurant there’s a play room with movies, toys and a table for eating– where do they do that at?
As I struggled to move on from my childcare amazement, I realized this Jake’s just kept giving. Here’s the skinny on the food:
–Complimentary warm mini muffins. Are they store bought and reheated? I doubt it. While I inhaled mine pretty quickly the flavor that was coming through that banana muffin was much better than any mini I brought at Giant.
–They do have a $ 16 unlimited mimosa option but I opted for the $ 6/​glass since I was the driver, I’m cheap, excuse me frugal and I’m only drinking 2 anyway
–Lots of options like, sweet potato pancakes (pretty good), chicken & waffles, omelettes (Clevelander was tasty). No matter what you want breakfast or burgers, it was available. The overall taste– it was cool. I don’t think there’s any stellar food item or nothing to make me say, dang I gotta keep that place in my brunch.
Now the service was okay. I think the lady was either hungover or did the unlimited mimosa option because she moved like a snail with delayed reaction to every question. Since I was sitting outside enjoying a cool breeze at about 75 degrees this didn’t bother me too much.

Do yourself a favor and get the cream of crab soup. Huge pieces of melt-​in-​your-​mouth crab swimming in a spectacularly creamy and flavorful soup. Green onions and veggies with the perfect amount of bite finish it off. I also had the Caesar salad, but unfortunately, it was very underwhelming. Too much cheese, too many of the bitter romaine ends, and I wasn’t a huge fan of their dressing.
Husband had the turkey burger with Gouda and a garlic aioli on a pretzel bun. It was probably the best turkey burger we’ve ever tried.
Great happy hour drink prices went perfectly with dinner. The prices in general were to our liking. Our server was friendly and attentive, but we were the only people sitting in the restaurant other than those at the bar. Overall, a solid spot for dinner and happy hour!