Henry’s Soul Cafe

I’ll keep this short and sweet, as to not make myself angry again. I love Henry’s of Oxon Hill, but this location is beyond bad. The staff is rude, unaccommodating, and lacks a wide range of other customer service skills. The potato salad tastes like they put a pound of sugar in it. And frankly it’s just a huge disappointment, considering that it was the first of the chain.

I really wanted to like this place… maybe I went on the wrong day. But I ordered the fried chicken dinner with greens, dressing, and cornbread, and sweet potato pie. Next time, I will just stick with what a place is known for. The chicken with the mumbo sauce… YUMMY!!! The greens, dressing, and cornbread… I could only fathom 2 bites of each before I threw it all away. The sweet potato pie… YUMMY!!! Customer service… meh! I guess the cashier didn’t want to be there today… I don’t know.
My advice: leave the sides alone and stick with the meats and the pie! I only gave it 3 stars because of the mumbo sauce and the sweet potato pie. Otherwise 1 star for everything else.

Love it! real deal. I will be back. Mac n cheese may need a little more flavor bt still very good.

Ok, so I heard about this place through coworkers and friends who advised me to go a real DC «carry out» so I decided to Unilocal it out. Let me start by saying I went to the location on K Street first, but due to lack of parking, I decided to come to the original on U St.
After parking in Adams Morgan and walking a few blocks I got to Henry’s and it was what I expected– a small, quaint, hole in the wall carry out. They have a small piece of counter that you can eat on (don’t let it fall) and three bar stools. There was a radio playing behind the wall where the cooking was being done and the cooks and patrons alike were singing along to the old school songs. There was one lady, who is possibly a regular, looking «casket sharp» in her full length coat (it was after church so it was semi expected) who assisted me and another newbie on our order. Remember she doesn’t work there, but she was very helpful. She said everything there was good but asked what we were in the mood for. I ordered the ½ fried chicken (don’t judge me), collard greens, and macaroni & cheese, and you know I had to get the sweet potato pie!
I sped down 295 as I feverishly drove home anticipating my taste buds being electrified. I set everything up; tv, food, drank (yes, I said it), and utensils… the chicken was so good and crispy, no sogginess on the inside like I find most other places, just juicy and good. This was also my first tme trying the infamous Mumbo Sauce, it was good with the chicken, but not necessary. The batter could use a bit more seasoning, but it’s already going to cause a heart attack so I guess its ok. The macaroni and cheese was good, didn’t seem to be made in bulk, a lot of time when that happens the recipe loses the flavor. The collards where on point, took me back in the days when I used to clean the sink and help grandma clean the collards!
The sweet potatoe pie was definitely too sweet for me, I can see why it’s a favorite, but I don’t wanna get the ‘suga!
I will definitely be back, primarily bc of the people, the customers were helpful in decision making and there was no pretention… we were a family.

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. This place looks like an all out dump, like the last place you would ever want to eat out of. Lucky for me I’m not caught up on looks and I like to take things for more than just their outwardly appearance.
Once you get past the appearance you can get to the real reason you are there for the food. The menu is pretty extensive, multiple options ranging from chicken, ribs and the more exotic animal parts that I would never eat.
I went with the fried chicken sandwich, to call it a sandwich is a bit misleading as I don’t consider adding two slices of bread to a container with half a chicken a sandwich. Sandwich or not the chicken was amazing. The meat was fall off the bone moist, the breading was well seasoned and cooked well. I can’t say enough good things about the chicken.
Also had an order of fries, nothing to rave about like the chicken but still well cooked with nice natural flavor.
Great place and well worth a visit. Please don’t let the exterior or interior stop you from having a pretty good meal.

Upgrading my review to 4 stars.
The fried chicken here is amazing, I have not had better in this city.
The meatloaf is also awesome. As I grow older I seem to be developing a strange affinity for a loaf of meat with gravy.
My go to sides here are the mashed potatoes and green beans, with cornbread if they have it.
I still don’t like the collards greens — too sour for me. Mac and cheese is standard.
My plans for Henry’s and I in the future include trying some of their fried fish filet and fried okra. I always feel terrible about myself when I think about getting fried chicken and a fried side, hence why I have not tried the okra yet, but one day I will just tell caution to shove it and have a fried foods bonanza.
It is also worth noting that most of the employees at this location are pretty friendly.

I loved it!
Ordered the fried wing dinner with mac and cheese with greens (came with cornbread also).
At first I’m thinking «just 4 wings? I’m still going to be hungry!» no no no my friend. The wings are the wing with the drumstick attached. It’s a huge portion. Also it’s fried perfectly, no thick breading but instead a thin coating fried at the perfect temperature so that you can taste the crispy skin, it was delicious.
The sides were pretty good too… better than average for sure, I liked them.
As others have noted it’s a little chaotic ordering, especially during peak hours. So if you are in a real hurry or you need the comfort of a chain restaurant style ordering system, this might not be the place for you. My friends and I were in and out in about 45 minutes.
But I will definitely come back here when I feel the need for some good soul food!

I had never been nor heard of Henry’s until my friend and I bought the Living Social deal ($ 10 for $ 20), an outstanding deal considering the very reasonable prices.
An earlier reviewer called the service «a little gruff,» which is precisely the correct word. The cashier definitely was not rude… but was also by no means friendly, it was a little strange.
I ordered the baked chicken platter and Braden J. had the fried chicken, both for ~8.50. The platter comes with a hefty piece of chicken and 2 giant sides (I got potato salad and collard greens).
Before we go on, I should emphasize again that the value you get here is outstanding. For that price, the amount of food we got was absurd. Seriously.
The food itself was just okay. I probably wouldn’t get the chicken again, as it was not super flavorful, but was very bony and I am awful at eating things with bones in the first place. (Though the stuffing was great). I didn’t like the collard greens, but I did like the potato salad. Be sure to get the cornbread, not the roll, I hit the jackpot there over poor Braden J. Overall, the food was decent but not great.
Because Henry’s claims to have the «Best sweet potato pie on the planet,» I figured I should get that too. Though I was stuffed after dinner, I tried about half of the pie so I could write this review. It wasn’t bad, but again was not special — if it’s the best on the planet, then Earth should probably just stop with sweet potato pies.
Overall, 3.5 stars. Really tough call, I almost rounded up because of the giant portions, but I will give 3 for now. I will go back at some point and try a different platter and amend if needed.

Listen, when I first bought a Living social voucher for this place I was like «God I hope I didn’t just waste $ 10», and let me tell you no I didn’t. This is one of the few places that serve beef ribs, which I LOVE, the lemon pound cake is to die for, and don’t get me started on that diabetes induced delicious sweet tea. Now, lets get to the «parking» issue, of course located in DC you have to street park, BUT it’s near a residential area so they take up a lot of the parking spaces, and there’s about 3 or 4 meter spots across the street, but those are always filled, I suggest ordering in advance and picking it up.

— Fried whiting fish & trout were delish
— Yum tasted wierd
— Vegetable from can and not fresh… i can tell the difference
— Mashed potato was xoxo
Service? they’re rude. don’t know the manners, they talked so loud, i won’t come back here… just not worth it.

This falls into the category of places I never would have tried if I’d simply passed by it on the street. The outside is very unassuming. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it if I hadn’t been looking for it. I had a Living Social voucher for $ 20 worth of food, and with the portion sizes here, that was more than enough for two people. All the food was really good and really inexpensive. Unilocalers talked about the fried chicken and cornbread, so I went with the fried chicken platter, which came with cornbread and two sides. For my sides I got candied yams and cabbage. The yams really were like candy. The cabbage was more savory and really tasty. We got large containers of three other side dishes: mac and cheese, collard greens, and cole slaw. All of them were great. The cornbread was outstanding.
This is a take-​out only place and the service is a little gruff, but the food is good, the portions are very generous, and it’s cheap! I would recommend it.

The building doesn’t look like much, but I’m finding more and more that this shouldn’t deter those looking for a decent meal.
I randomly purchased a LivingSocial a few months back and decided to walk over on the beautiful day. The menu as you walk in is a little intimidating, but I took my time and order the Fried Chix dinner w/​yams and mac-​and-​cheese. Need to spend a couple more dollars as well so I got the chix wings w/​mumbo sauce for tomorrow as well. Service was great, making small talk, holding the door for me on the way out with my hands full. Loved the vibe I got.
The portions are MASSIVE. Food for days. Price was right. Happy to give this establishment my business.

It’s not the best soul food you’ll ever have but it’ll be satisfying and damn cheap every time you go. Get the wings, the fried chicken and FRIED OKRA, which (when dipped in their plastic tub ranch sauce) tastes pretty amazing — though I guess, everything dipped in plastic tub ranch will too.
Dark horse from our last visit was the fried whiting sandwich. Go figure.

When it comes to Soul Food this place is OKAY! Considering its DC the food is edible.
A hole in the wall restaurant not really a dine in place but you can sit and eat if you like.
My food was not HOT and I was confused on what I waited so long for I expected my food to be hot as if I were eating it at that moment. So room temperature food.
The food was ehhhh… it was very sloppy and Ive had better!
The cabbage was good slightly overcooked but very tasty. The macaroni and cheese was very rich.
The turkey wings made me want to vomit they were drenched in gravy which is not stated on the menu because I would had opt not to have it! YUCK!!!
I was soooo not expecting swimming turkey wings!!! It was more gravy then actual meat which was a disappointment. It was more like turkey bone soup!
You get about 3 small turkey wings but it’s no fun when you have the wingy parts that are nothing but skin not the two bone wing but that flappy piece that connects NO GOOD! They weren’t cooked hard enough for me I felt like I was playing on a plate of mush! All in all I would give another try but I will not be ordering the turkey bone soup.

I recently came to Henry’s because I am looking for a soul food spot to cater my friend’s bday party. I will say Henry’s was okay. I ordered a lot of food because I needed to taste everything. I sampled one chicken wing (I’m not a meat eater so I could only stomach one piece), friend fish, mac and cheese, cabbage, cornbread (it came with the meal), and potato salad, and sweet potatoes
The cons:
The chicken had a weird taste but since I hadn’t eaten chicken in a long time, I had someone else taste it and they also said it had a weird taste. The cabbage was soggy, and I thought the corn bread needed flavoring – I didn’t like it but my girlfriend did as did my coworker. The mac and cheese was okay – just not my type of mac and cheese.
Pros:
The portions are huge. The fried fish was perfectly fried – declious.and great seasoning. The potato salad was equally delicious… I also really enjoyed the sweet potatoes they were really sweet and had a hint of liquor or may alot of vanilla in them… anyway I liked them alot. I really enjoyed it unfortunately I’m trying to stick with the same cater to cater all my food so I wouldn’t use Henry’s as my cater… but I would definitely go back for the fish and potato salad as well as the sweet potatoes hence my 3 stars.

I am so mad I used to live a block from this place and had no idea it was there. I got a clue when I saw the loooong line to pick up sweet potato pies around Thanksgiving.
I only have 5 minutes, so let me make this short and sweet. It IS a «greasy spoon,» but one of the best I have EVER been to. One of the better soul food options in the area, IMO (and to drop some cred, my mom is from the south). 10x better than Oohs and Aahs, to name just one.
People are nice, food is cooked up quickly, and portions are HUGE for the price (which isn’t super-​cheap, merely cheap– but totally worth it even just for the portion size, let alone the tastiness). Here’s what I’ve tried:
Mains (I’d generally go for the fantastic fried chicken, but the rest are at least solid):
Fried chicken– Crispy and juicy, even the white meat. Totally delicious. 5 stars
BBQ pork sandwich– Really surprisingly solid for a place that obviously doesn’t have a smoker out back. 3.75 stars
T-​bone steak– Just a basic, greasy fried steak, but tender and delicious. Tastes a bit like Roy Rogers’ roast beef (which I love). 3.25 stars
Fried pork chop– Solid enough, but nothing special. 3 stars
Sides (Awesome!):
Cornbread– Some of my favorite cornbread ever. 4.5 stars
Cornbread stuffing with gravy– Also tasty. 4 stars
Mac’n’Cheese– Very, very good. 4.25 stars
Yams– Very similar to the sweet potato pie filling and therefore INCREDIBLE– 5 stars
(Fried) okra– Crispy, delicious. 4 stars
Collard greens– Good, not fantastic, but upgraded to very good with mambo sauce. 3.5 stars
Corn– Really basic kernels-​with-​butter. Fine, but why choose this when there’s so much else to choose from? 2.25 stars
Desserts:
Sweet potato pie– Eggy and SO SO GOOD. Not super deep-​dish/​thick, but for less than $ 10 for a whole pie? Sign me up. 5 stars
Banana pudding– Also tasty. I’d say 4 good stars
I honestly can’t understand anyone who would give this a low rating, unless they:
–Are irrational haters of fat and also possibly of America.
–Got some flukey dish I haven’t tried yet that just happens to suck.
–Were there on some sort of off day.
Because, really… It’s Henry’s. I just ate 2 whole plates of food and I would drive back down there right now… except that I still have leftovers in my fridge!

If you want the best prices for Soul Food then you have to go to Henry’s. The best prices hands and the best soul food. They are the only place that I know of right now that still makes original DC Mumbo Sauce.

Momma once told me that if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all… um… the portions were generous. There’s nothing wrong with a hole-​in-​the-​wall joint if they serve good stuff but that wasn’t my experience.
Baked turkey wings — if you think they’ll be lighter because it’s 1. turkey 2. baked. You’ve got another thing coming. Somehow the batter is greasy as if it were fried and slathered in thyme heavy gravy.
Corn bread was corn bread. Green beans were no better than green beans of high school cafeteria of memories long past.
The sweet potato pie that everyone raved about was very sweet. So sweet and spiced, it hid the taste of sweet potato. Kind of defeats the purpose for me.
Maybe I should have tried something more traditional like country fried steak?

This place is soul good! I got the dirty smoke today and hands down is the best hot dog I’ve had. Crispy outer dog, chili not too salty; just the right balance of goodness. Their fried chicken and mashed potatoes are delicious too; cornbread slightly on the hard side. I’m a huge fan of this place!

I didn’t think I would be in the mood for food at Henry’s. And then I saw beef liver and pig feet on the menu and ended up lugging around a second takeout box for the rest of the night. Yup. Not my brightest moment.
I went with the oinker toes with cornbread, fried okra, and mashed potatoes. I contemplated the cobbler, but rationalized that if I couldn’t fathom eating lots of real food, I may as well skip the extra sugar. I reveled in this decision after seeing the frowny lines on Justin C and Mrs. D’s faces at both the hot and cold versions. I tasted everything while it was fresh to pass fair judgement, and shared my leftovers with my pops.
Cornbread: on the dry side, with a reasonable amount of crumb. The flavor was alright, but I prefer a moister texture. Let’s say two and a half stars for this since some of this is personal taste.
Fried okra: nice popper size, no slime at all, but bland. You taste the batter way more than the vegetable itself, which just tastes like fryer oil. One star flavor disguised in three star technical execution.
Mashed potatoes: the gravy was the only thing keeping this from dropping below two stars, and that wasn’t particularly great either. The potatoes needed seasoning– salt and pepper at the very least if you’re going to skip the butter.
Pig feet: yum. Piping hot, it was the right amount of sticky gelatinousness that afterwards made my fingers look like I’d been sneaking some selfy-​selfy. As leftovers, all the good texture was still there, with enough moisture retained in the fat to keep the skin from turning to leather. Most of the exposed marrow had seeped out during cooking and I encountered a shard or two of bay leaf in the nooks and cranies, but neither observation keeps this menu item from an easy four stars. Come on, I’m snarfing this down facing the street, do I look like I mind? Even my da was impressed. «Really? You didn’t get this from Asian deli? Wow.»
Service attitudes ranged from efficient to terse, but I’d probably sound like that if I was working inside a wall of oily air without goggles on. I guess when you’re a grab-​and-​go counter you don’t worry about those standards as much as you should… but maybe invest in a doorstop for your own health? The plastic chair outside is a fairly random gesture. The space in front of the registers is scant room for the formation of a line that most but not all regulars respect. I’ll come back for the trotters again, but after reading other reviews my only deviation from the plan will be an attempt at their fried chicken. And seriously, out of 49 other reviewers no one tried the liver? I guess I’ll have to pioneer that on my next trip.

Seeing the reviews and how cheap it was kind of got me intriqued. Then I realized it was literally 2 – 3 blocks away from me I just had to go. I never had soul food before but I gotta say the food here is great, but im jumping ahead.
The place is basically a hole in the wall. You walk in you see the menu, you turn right your in line already. So checking out the menu I decided to get 2 dinner plates, one for 4pm and one for 10pm. I got the Salisbury Steak with Cornbread, yams, mac+cheese and baked chicken with potato salad and fried okra with rolls. The salis was like 6 bux and the chicken was 9.
The Salisbury Steak was amazing, sitting in gravy and cooked to perfection, nice and juicy. The yams were great and sweet and the mac and cheese was good and diff from others. It wasnt too cheesy but i cant quite put my finger on it, but nonetheless it was good. The cornbread was amazing and they give you a big chunk, nice and crispy/​flaky, a lil dry but not too bad.
I was pretty full but couldnt resist eating the baked chicken like 20 min later (aka my 10pm dinner) The baked chicken came with stuffing and i gotta say ive never had anything quite like this chicken. The bones literally fell off. It was amazingly juicy and the amount of chicken you get is amazing, i thinks its half a chicken, not quite sure. The stuffing was great and flavorful. The potato salad was good, the fried okra was decent not that memorable. The dinner rolls were just sweet rolls nothing unique.
The only bad thing I experienced was the wait after ordering. Dont get me wrong it wasnt too bad but probably around 10 minutes and in that span a slew of people came in and picked their orders up and left. So a good hint would be to order ahead and come pick up. If you’re in the area and just want to get some cheap hearty food (it is greasy, so super health conscious people might want to make this their cheat place for the year) you must try this place. Baked chicken was a feast and salisbury blows those lean gourmets out the water.