Iota Restaurant & Bar, Arlington, Virginia, Family Style Restaurant Details

Food:

Nice bar. Decent beer menu. Love the line music

Food:

Great arlington venue that manages to have beer that isn't took expensive, good that's good, and live music with nice sound. They rock that balancing act. This is a great place to support local music. Do it.

Food:

The coolest bar I always forget about. They have a lot of great bands that come and play, and it's even better now that the back patio is open so you can have a place to get away from the noise for a minute if you need to chill.

Food:

My sister Sunday evening, "What are you doing tonight?"
Me, "Well, let me tell you about the brunch I had this morning."

I've been living a stone's throw from IOTA cafe for over a year (I never threw any stones because I keep it civil, folks) and had only ventured into the funky dive bar joint for their iced tea about once a week. Their iced tea is my absolute favorite. Coming from a girl who's lived in South Carolina, I know some sh*t about iced tea. Theirs is the best. It comes unsweetened (blasphemy, alas! until you see they have simple syrup in addition to packets of in-disolvable sugar to sweeten that baby up to your liking).

Finally, this Sunday (6/16/13), I made my much overdue trip to try their food. My party of 3 walked in, and were greeted kindly by the wait staff. We asked to sit outside and were immediately seated at a high top by the window of their outdoor seating in a perfect perch to lurk on the pedestrians of Wilson Ave. Our server asked what we'd like to drink. Yes, I ordered the iced tea, duh. A friend ordered a Bloody Mary which he got to create at their Bloody Mary bar. He claimed it was bloody fantastic, as was my iced tea, again, duh.

After inspecting their brunch menu, we decided we needed the Generous Breakfast Bread Pudding to share at the table. The bread pudding was pretty decent but I don't care much for sweet food so I could have taken it or left it; I left it.

I ordered the Bacon Egg and Cheddar Smasher sandwich and glory, glory, hallelujah it was not in vain. Actually not quite sure what that means so I will modernize that for you and me, it was AMAZEBALLS. Truly delicious. The sandwich was the perfect amount of crispy, salty, and tasty with nice thick bacon and a beautiful fruit cup filled with the actual good stuff - no honey-mountain-dew-melon in sight. The sandwich was huge though and could easily be split. I also ordered a side of french fries since they had no hash browns/home fries and I needed to carbo-load for my strenuous night on the couch later. The fries were delectable! You know, the kind with that crispy reddish seasoning perfectly encrusting the precious potato parts? Yea, that kind. Yum.

As a testament to how delicious I found my meal, I even took the remaining half of my breakfast sandwich and fries home to re-heat and eat later (I NEVER eat leftovers) . This time, I ate those leftovers, and they were nearly just as good as fresh. So glad I took it home.

Overall, this is a really cool place to come if you're looking for great quality food for a price that wouldn't make your grandfather reminisce about Nickelodeons.

I will be back here many times more to have their perfect iced tea and delicious food.

Food:

On the way to having a brunch type meal somewhere else, but the Lobster Smasher looked kind of intriguing. Really does remind me of those halcyon days of haning out at someplace for breakfast or lunch and really being able to chill. Delightful. Ever been to the Whitehorse Tavern in the West Village? Like that. I mean if you've ever been at a tavern when they're open but nobody has really arrived yet. It's kind of quiet and the light streams in through the windows. The waiter serves coffee and you can see the steam rising over the cup in the streams of light. You can hear the sounds of the kitchen in the background but nobody is making a fuss. The door opens and some street sound spills in alnog with another couple looking to grab a drink. The bartender was old school and told them to sit wherever they wanted.
The food was good. mac & cheese. acouple of pieces of strawberry to take the edge off the tart mimosa. a small stage for a band, but no band. just a good time