Zoo Bar Cafe

The Zoo Bar is no more. After many years it has closed. One only hopes that a new owner will throw open the doors soon.

A little pricey but it is across from the zoo and on conn ave. I would recommend stopping by the food isn’t to bad and the staff are friendly. Great service!

Looks like this dump is now closed. Hallelluhia. Hope something decent is put in its place.

Good music and burgers. No attitude bar. And good people working there– Some how I left my drivers license. And low and behold it showed up in the mail 3 weeks later. Return address Zoo bar.

Awesome food and good people. The drinks strong and Lindsay, the bartender, best in town. In a district full or pretentiousness, it’s nice to know where I can go to escape it. Lovely neighborhood establishment.

Solid little no frills bar with quality live performances. Zoo Bar is nothing to look at but still has it’s perks. The number 1 thing is the live jazz/​blues music they have several nights a week. Some nights they have bands with set performances but Thursday is extra special especially if you’re a musician as they’ll let you come through and jam with the house band for a few songs of your choosing.
Service is excellent, you can tell most of the people here are regulars and the staff go out of their way to make you feel part of the family, everybody is friendly and accommodating.
Food is nothng special typically bar food, I had a fish sandwich and fries, fish was straight out of the frozen food selection but wasn’t bad, especially with fresh tomatoes, lettuce and onions as toppings. Fries were fresh and cooked well.
This isn’t a posh upscale establishment but it is a good little spot to kick back, have a few drinks at decent prices and listen to some band jam the night away. Definitely my kind of place.

I love the live music and the people at night. You can tell it’s people’s little neighborhood Cheers. I just moved to the area a few weeks ago, and the people were very welcoming and made me feel like I fit in perfectly.

The food here was gross. If you walk down the street you will find a lot more better restaurant options. For a place with a great location you would think they would try a little harder to perfect their food. The fries were very oily and needed to be wrapped in my napkin before I could eat them. My friend got the quesadilla which was basically overlooked tortilla. I would not go back here unless I wanted a meal I though a kid cooked.

This place is such a missed opportunity. We got here at 12 o’clock on a sunny day and the place was empty and smelled like old cigarettes. They didn’t have high chairs or kids proof cups despite having a kids menu.
I understand that this is a jazz club/​bar at night, but they are completely missing out on the thousands of people that walk right across their door every day at the zoo.
Such a waist. Prime spot for a good restaurant that would be rolling in menu. You can still do the Jazz bit at night if you are hung up on that aspect.
Food was average and a tad on the filthy side. All I could think to myself was john taffert of bar rescue coming into this dump and turning it into a cash cow.

Staff here was very rude. I called up to ask about their happy hour info and the guy very loudly sighed, and proceeded to scold me for calling during their rush hour. I get that restaurants can get busy, but that’s not an excuse to be so rude for a call that just took 1 minute. Was planning to hold a big party here but changed my mind! Will take my business elsewhere.

This place is horribly slow! The food was below average. I ordered a med burger it came well done. The chicken quesadilla was so bland it was unbelievable. They server served the drinks with his hands all on the rim. Touched the tip of the straws when he placed them in the cups and while serving the plates had half his hand on the plate! Disgusting we didn’t even touch those drinks! Oh forgot to mention he has a disgusting wrist brace on that covered half the thumb he kept touching the cup and plates with! Yuck do not go here!

Great service from the waitress and good location across the street from
the Zoo, probably better prices too!

Who knew they have live jazz in front of the ZOO, out of all places! Free entry and no charge for the show! Intimate and casual place. Recommend!

I would call this a solid 3-​star experience.
I came here with 3 of my work team mates/​friends for a bite to eat before hitting the zoo.
I ordered the Swiss mushroom burger which came with fries and cole slaw.
My DCs ordered the Reuben sandwich, the 4-​cheese pizza as well as another pizza (can’t remember which one though :/​).
The Reuben sandwich was plentiful and came with fries and cole slaw.
Unfortunately, it was pretty messy since the sandwich came apart and had to be eaten with fork and knife, but my DC said it was still enjoyable.
The girls enjoyed their pizzas, but mentioned that the 4-​cheese was really extremely cheesy.
As for my burger: I had ordered it medium-​rare and it came as ordered.
I think it would have benefitted from a few more spices, but overall it was pretty enjoyable while — again — pretty messy to eat though.
Fries and cole slaw were decent.
I think overall this is a decent spot to grab some food before heading into the zoo.
I wouldn’t mind eating here again if I were in the area again.

The food was average but the service was impeccable. We had the cheese steak and the Club 3000. If you like Philly Cheese Steak, pass. The fries were homemade and amazing. I was sick afterward though.
I loved the bartender, he was very personal and worked the entire restaurant all by himself. If you don’t want to eat inside the zoo, I recommend this location.

A group of us stopped in after our visit to the zoo. We were seated right across from the bathroom… nobody should have to look right into the bathroom when eating.
We waited quite a bit for our food which was understandable being that we had a 5 adults and 4 children in our party.
The quesidillas were horrible — friend’s mother didn’t eat all of hers. Friend only ate it because she was hugry. The fish and chips I had tasted like something from the frozen section at the grocery store .
The frozen lemonade was great! I would recommend trying that.
18% gratuity was automatically added and I don’t remember seeing that posted anywhere.
Owner was a little bit short with us when someone had to use the restroom and pushed one of the strollers out a little to get out of the booth (bathroom by the way is in need of major upgrade). He said — you need to find a better spot for that. Well you are the owner/​manager so why don’t you help us. I won’t be coming here again and sure don’t recommend this hole in the wall for a place.

A semi-​divey spot. I would go back for the live music and cold beer but would skip the food although the loaded baked potato was pretty good.

2.75 stars
I lived in Woodley Park for 15 months on Cathedral so this was kind of my go to for a post work drink, waiting for a friend to get to my place or if I was ever too lazy to go somewhere else that was better but further out. Food is decent for what it is, bar food, don’t expect anything else. They seem to have a few waiters and that is it. The big dude Seems nice enough but kind of aloof, I mean, how many times do I need to be ID’ed before you realize I am a local! ha! Than it would go a few months without being ID’ed than I would have to give it again… Hmm, any way, if you live in the area and are too lazy to go out on the town or just want one drink, go here!
edit: I forgot to mention they also have free live music. A lot of the time it is not too bad at all. I think usually Thursday-​Saturday night, generally blues rock.

After… a bit too much thinking, I realized this is called «Zoo Bar» because it’s across the street from the zoo.
Came in after work for wings and drinks. It’s a funny place — a small, dark bar with a small menu that caters to kids. Smallish beer list, mostly bottles. The wings were fine, super spicy. Besides that… just general, non-​special bar food. What was fun was the live blues music, which is featured on Thursday nights.
The service was attentive, but slow. They have notes on the tables that food is «made to order» and could take 20 – 30 minutes. But… that’s no consolation when it takes 25 minutes for an appetizer to be prepared.

Zoo Bar is a solid 3-​star. Nothing to write home about, but it’s good for what it is. I’m not going to travel across town to eat or drink here, but when I’m at the zoo with some out-​of-​towners, exhausted, and the hunger starts to set in, Zoo bar is just oh-​so-​satisfying.
Food is your typical bar food (burgers, fries, wings, etc.). Draft beer is your boring old lineup of Light Beer and a Sam Adams option. Prices are maybe a buck or two better than the average DC bar, if that means anything.
If your expectations are reasonable, there’s not much to complain about.