Alexandria Restaurants

The Tiffany Tavern has become one of my favorite spots in Old Town. It’s appearance is easy to disregard, from the outside it doesn’t look like much. Inside, however, is a small bar and restaurant with a great atmosphere.

On tap you’ll find Yuengling Lager only, which is fine by me, its brewed 20 minutes from my home town and a long-time favorite. Wine and liquor is available for drinks. The menu is fairly simple and the kitchen is known for great burgers. The staff is friendly and service is quick, even on crowded nights.

The best part about the Tiffany Tavern is the live music. During the week there is open-mic in the evenings. This ranges from excellent to mediocre to awful, but is always entertaining. Weekend music is bluegrass, which packs the place so get there early.

Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 5:00pm - 12:00am
Friday and Saturday: 5:00pm - 2:00am

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You thought you could only get that pre-made sushi in a plastic tray at the local supermarket or the airport? Think again! Bumblefish is attempting to become the McDonald's of sushi with its pre-made sushi served in environmentally sound plastic packaging. My small lunch included two plastic grocery bags, two long plastic trays with lids, two small plastic cups for soy sauce, a styrofoam bowl and plastic lid for miso, and of course three tiny packages of soy in--what else--plastic pouches! Al Gore would cry himself to sleep after a meal here.

The food? It was OK. Microwaved pork dumplings that were a little chewy and left some odd residue on the tray. The miso was tasty and the rainbow roll wasn't as terrible as I initially feared.

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Lavender Moon; my first official cupcakery. What better place to take a seven-year old girl for her birthday? Not too many places are better, with its pink and burgundy walls in one room, blue walls in another, and a nice selection of cupcakes behind glass for the kids to excitedly ogle.

We arrived one quiet Sunday afternoon around 1pm, worried that they might be closed, because they don't seem to have set hours. We were in luck; they had about 10 varieties available, and we chose a selection of six cupcakes including the mocha, triple chocolate, mint, and four others. The cupcakes are $3 each, or $18 a half dozen, very expensive and sadly, no discount (unless you buy a dozen for a whopping $30).

The cupcakes were excellent, and big enough to hold seven candles for my niece. I tried a few different varieties and was pleased with the moist cake and the fresh, tasty toppings.

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Al's Steak House is not your typical steak house with table cloths, heavy white napkins, big knives, and a fancy wine list. In fact, Al's doesn't even serve steaks. What they do sell, and in great abundance is their cheese steak sandwiches. The only problem is the popularity also brings long wait times!

I stopped in for lunch one day around 12:30 and there were a handful of others eating, waiting for their orders, and in line to place orders. Within about a minute, I ordered my medium-sized mushroom, steak, and cheese sandwich with "everything." I stood waiting for about 15 minutes, enjoying a sunny afternoon, while numerous people came in and grabbed boxes of sandwiches from phone-in orders. Finally, after about 30 minutes of waiting I got my simple sandwich.

It was excellent. Far bigger than you'd expect, probably 8 or 10 inches, packed with meat and gooey melted cheese. The "everything" toppings were merely lettuce and some small diced tomato. Very tasty, and only $8.50.

Lesson: Call ahead at lunch time to save 20 or 30 minutes. Another lesson, no restrooms on site.

Al's opened in Alexandria in 1956. Their menu is mostly cheese steaks, but also includes hot and cold subs, dinner boxes, and side dishes.

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I first went to Hops Brewery back around 1998 when I lived in Colorado Springs. They had great staff and awesome drink specials during happy hour.

When I saw Hops had a location in Alexandria, I decided it was worth a try. As always I enjoyed their famous honey butter bread, but the beer was not as spectacular as I remember, and the food was only average. Maybe I'll stop in again to try a few more of their beers, but skip the dinner.

The first Hops was established in 1998 in Clearwater, Florida, and by 1995 it has expanded to 13 locations in Florida. The next year it was purchased from the original owners by a large Applebees franchisee, and it began it expansion across the country. Today it is considered the country's largest brewery restaurant chain with about 70 restaurants in 13 states.

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I had been to Murphy's a few times before finally deciding to have dinner here. We arrived for a friend's going-away party around 7pm with a pretty big crowd of about 20 people. We had made reservations and were given a few tables upstairs with a good view of the TVs, and later we enjoyed our view of the stage.

Around 8pm many of us ordered dinner. I decided on the fish and chips alongside my tasty old Sam Adams Winter Lager. It arrived rather quickly, and I was impressed with the look of the crispy fried fish and the slices of whole potatoes lightly fried. Both the beer-battered north Atlantic Cod and their so-called cottage fries were excellent. Highly recommended!

Murphy's also offers griled chicken breasts, steaks, clams, shrimp, burgers, sandwiches, appetizers and salads.

Their beers include Guinness, New Castle, Harp, Corona, Mooney's Irish Stout, Rolling Rock, Yuengling, Michelob, Smithwicks, Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Light, Murphy's Blonde, Murphy's Ale, Widmer Heffeweizen, Harpoon IPA, and Killians. Murphy's is also one of the area's New England Patriots' bars on Sunday's (unless they don't make the playoffs! Ha, ha!).

I would have been very impressed with Murphy's, had they not stuck us with a huge bill as we were walking out the door. After we all ate, each of us paid and were good with the waitress. Many of us stayed a few hours longer to watch the live music, and just before leaving we paid up. As we walked out the door, the waitress said, "wait guys you still owe money." We walked back upstairs and were presented with a $180 bill. I paid, but was a bit disappointed they held this until we were too drunk to argue and were heading home. Not a good way for them to end our evening or make friends.

For St. Patrick's Day, Murphy's gets huge crowds. To accommodate these party-goers, all of the tables are removed, no food is served, and there is a cover charge. Despite this, the lines went out the door and down the block 100 feet or so.

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Majestic Cafe is my favorite place to eat a nice dinner in Alexandria. The staff is outstanding, the decor is classy but not over the top, the food is excellent, and the overall experience is top notch, if a little more expensive than most places in town.

Four of us arrived around 8pm on a Saturday night, and the Majestic was pretty busy. They checked our coats, and we ordered a round of drinks at the bar. The attentive staff noticed we wanted some drinks and that all of the tables and bar stools were full, so he came around and took our order. After pouring our beers, he also kept our bottles behind the bar, refilling our drinks when necessary. It was the nice touches like this that make the Majestic a great place for a nice meal.

We were seated after perhaps 20 minutes. Our waiter was young, but extremely professional, efficient, and well trained. Throughout our meal he kept our waters and beers filled and ensured the used dishes were promptly removed. He even refolded our napkins for each of us when we headed off tot the restroom. Now that's service.

The menu here has a nice, but small, selection of main entrees including seafood, lamb, chicken, steaks, and even calf's liver. For dinner the four of us had the seared rockfish ($25), the seared scallops ($23), the whole grilled branzino fish ($25), and the cauliflower ravioli ($19). Two of us also started our meals with creamy celery root soup, and we all shared the fresh bread ($8). My fish was excellent, large, but a little too bony for my taste. The other meals were a little smaller, but very well prepared and nicely presented.

The Majestic Cafe is easy to find because of its huge neon sign that looks like a theater marquee. The original Majestic Cafe was opened in 1932 and moved to this current location in 1949. The restaurant was closed in 1979 but reopened in 2001 with many of the original exterior elements of the previous Majestic. In 2007 the owners of Restaurant Eve, Eammons's Dublin Chipper, and the PX purchased the restaurant, a nice mid-ranged addition to their already outstanding family of restaurants. In 2009 the Washingtonian named Majestic Cafe the 49th best restaurant in the DC area, and the 4th best in Alexandria. Their sister restaurant, Restaurant Eve, was named number 6 in the DC area and the best in Alexandria and Northern Virgina.

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La Madeleine is a good spot to get a relaxing, somewhat expensive breakfast in Old Town. We met some friends here one Sunday morning, primarily because they had a couple of young kids, and they knew the youngsters wouldn't get into too much trouble here. We met my friend near the door, grabbed our trays and started down the cafeteria-like line. After a quick glance at the menu, a hostess took our order on a little computer gizmo, then we continued down the cafeteria line, where we looked over the heat lamps warming the croque monsieurs, croissant sandwiches, and other pre-made dishes. We grabbed a couple of empty coffee cups then stopped at the cash register to pay for our omelet and French country breakfast. Last, we crowded into the corner to get coffee before finding our seats.

My country breakfast was very tasty; it came with scrambled eggs, a nice croissant, fried potatoes, and slices of tomato for about $8. Laura's omelet also looked tasty, and it was also around $7 or $8. After brekafast we relaxed for about an hour with free coffee refills and free toast and jam.

This place is a few dollars more expensive than most other local breakfast spots.