Hard Times Cafe

Virginia Native

Hard Times in Springfield, Va. has great wings. Crispy, available with mixed wings or all flats. All flavours are delicious in their own way. My chose is Texas. The corn bread is moist and melts in your mouth. The chili 5-way is the best in any flavour of chili.

fran leone

Excellent buffet! I haven't eaten at a buffet in a while. Delicious! There were omelets, cereal, chili, hot dogs, sausage, bacon, biscuits, gravy, and probably more that I didn't mention.

Matthew Hanna

The buffet was great! I haven't had a buffet in a long time. Delicious! There were biscuits, gravy, sausage, bacon, hot dogs, chili, spaghetti, omelets, cereal, and more I probably missed. I found out the reason for all the "no smoking" signs too. 🤣

BElsberg1

My family has been a customer of Hard Times Cafe since the Texas Chili food truck was on F Street in Washington DC in the 1950s and my Dad drove there. We followed them when it moved to Arlington. It appears to have fallen on hard times. Saturday, 5:30 PM they only had one server scheduled for the dinner crowd. He was overwhelmed by having to wait on 8 tables. Predictability he wasn't up to the task. It took 15 minutes before he came with menus. I told him that we knew what we wanted. Since several tables were already waiting for their orders he said that he would be right back. After 10 minutes i told him we were leaving so he told the cashier to take care of the other tables. It was 15 more minutes later and our order was brought to us. The quality was still up to what we expected. But the portions were not, including the cornbread. My chili mac was only warm as was my wife's grilled chicken on her salad appeared to be precooked and was as cold as the salad. I had also ordered a take out order and asked for it to be brought with our meal. It was not. When the bill was brought i asked where it was. I told a manager that i was not happy, he listened and offered us a drink while we waited. When he returned i told him about our history with Hard Tmes and also that we were very disappointed. He apologized and said that he didn't schedule enough help and was waiting for more to come help. We will come back but only to call ahead for pick up