Johnny Pistolas

Negative brunch experience. Okay, the food was good… Unfortunately we were all scavenging over one lonely biscuit. totally unrealistic expectations placed on the servers. Server/​bartender was polite and accommodating. 1 menu for a party of 12, unable to order from the menu, plates never bussed from table. Again not the staffs fault for negative experience at this Establishment but will never return for brunch.

6 of us came out. We couldn’t get our drinks for an 1 hr food didn’t come out until 2 hrs and all of it was wrong. When I finally got my food, I got it with pork, the one thing I asked for! NEVER COMING BACK!!!

This is a perfect place to go for happy hour and stay until 12am. Staff are always gracious and helpful. Drinks are really good and so are tacos. I always have a lot of fun when I come here. Last time, I celebrated my birthday and they booked a place for 20 people in just a minute. They were taking care of my friends very attentively and everyone seemed satisfied. They made my birthday celebration a good memory. Thanks so much! I totally recommend it!

Came here a couple weekends ago with my friends and am finally getting a chance to review it.
When we told them that there were 8 of us without a reservation and the restaurant was pretty much empty for brunch, we got looked at with such confusion as if we had made a strange request. We sat down and were handed menus. I thought it was strange that there were «real» menus and also paper menus. They were kinda the same but kinda not, so it would’ve been nice if there had been an explanation for us or if they just had enough menus for everyone considering the lack of people in the restaurant at the time. The «real» menu that I had was also really dirty and sticky. I’m not sure what was on it, but I had to go to the restroom to wash it off.
After telling our waiter that we needed a few more minutes, we were left unattended to for another 10 – 15 minutes. Also without water. When our food finally came out, two of the orders were missing. When one of my friends got her dish (i forget which one, but it was a bowl dish), she had a significantly smaller bowl than her meal should have been served in. Maybe it would’ve gotten by her if two other people hadn’t gotten the exact same dish. The waiter just said, «it’s just in a different bowl». My friend said that it looked like less food, and the waiter said, «there is a little less rice, but a threw a biscuit on there for you.» After getting the «oh hell no» look from her, he took it back and said that he’d fix it. He apologized when he returned and gave her a ton of rice to make up for it, which I think we all appreciated.
The food was very good, but we were just generally super thirsty the entire time because of the lack of refills we were getting!
I think I’ll try some other options if I’m in the area again!

Went for my birthday brunch this past Saturday. When we arrived, the entire restaurant was empty including the hostess station. I figured out where we were supposed to sit because I had some friends already there and I just walked around. Got to the table, the waitress showed up and was very polite and had a good demeanor. We immediately told her that we were going to do the bottomless brunch, with the booze. She says no problem, we’ll get that started right away, and gets us some pitchers of mimosas and white wine sangria.
The issue with this place is that the food and the service were incredibly slow. We were a large group of about 18 people. When we told the waitress we would like to order something specific, her response was that she already put in an order for it. The plates are small, and sometimes over salted. But overall the food was quite delicious. The huevos rancheros, was misnamed. It should have been huevo ranchero because it had one small tiny egg. Same thing with the chicken and waffles. It was what seemed like the tiniest chicken leg over half a waffle.
The two hour time limit was excused because the food was taking so long.
Also, they ran out of white wine for the white wine sangria after 3 pitchers. How does that happen for a business that does bottomless brunch?
Would probably return in a few months with maybe one other person to see if they got any better. Wouldn’t recommend for brunch or large parties though. Seemed like our waitress was the only one working.

I’m being a little generous in my review and giving this 3 stars because the food is decent and the waitress we had was friendly and accommodating. A party of about 20 people came here for a birthday brunch on a Saturday around noon. The restaurant was pretty empty which was surprising considering their AYCE and AYCD deals ($ 24.99 and $ 14.99 respectively). It slowly filled up after we were there for a while but it still wasn’t exactly busy. We told her to bring everything out so we could try all of it and she agreed. We also had pitchers of mimosas and sangria. I’m not a fan of either one so I asked her for a screwdriver. Even though it’s not included in the AYCD deal, she said it was comparable to a mimosa so didn’t charge me extra for it, which was nice. All the drinks packed a punch so you get your money’s worth on it!
Now for the downside. The food came out extremely slow and the portions aren’t big, so many people at the table had long periods of waiting in between dishes to be able to have anything. Considering everything is small, I’m not sure why it was taking so long. After noticing the speed with about 3 dishes we had (and they were only lukewarm), we asked the waitress if it could be sent out any faster. She said she had no idea what was taking so long in the kitchen and apologized, but also didn’t make an effort to go find out what was going on either. She at least said she wasn’t going to limit us to 2 hours considering we were already close to the limit and didn’t even get through half the menu yet. Eventually, we told her to just bring out the cake for our friend so we could proceed with that.
We all sang happy birthday and passed around slices of cake to everyone. Then a busboy brings out a quesadilla (obviously very late) but we accepted it anyway. They also brought out churros and donuts which were honestly some of the best items, I think. They were warm and tasted fresh; absolutely delicious. We then asked for the check and she actually gave us a little break on it considering the bad service, which was nice. It wasn’t her fault but I’m not sure why there wasn’t more of an effort on her part to try to speed things up in the kitchen, especially when they weren’t even that busy!
Overall, I think it’s a decent place if you only plan on ordering maybe one or two items for yourself but if it’s a large group and you want to sample everything, there are probably better places you could find. I think this place either needs to hire more people to speed things along or just get some kind of a system down in the kitchen so the food will be brought out faster. If you can’t accommodate a large party, then don’t advertise AYCE.

Came here for a birthday brunch and was pretty excited for the unlimited food/​drink special. It was a large party of about 18 people so figured we’d be getting a lot of service considering there weren’t that many other people at the restaurant… wrong.
Food looked amazing and I was particularly excited for the chicken and waffles and the biscuit with pork gravy. Server was friendly but for some reason she had to play bartender as well since the place was understaffed. For the unlimited drinks, we got the Sangria and Mimosas in pitchers. Pretty strong drinks that tided us over for the food. Unfortunately the meals came out EXTREMELY slow. On top of that, each plate coming out was the size of your normal tapas. Fine for a couple of people, not okay when it comes to a large party. As for the food itself, tacos were meaty but salty, huevos rancheros were a joke, chicken and waffles were good if they gave us more chicken, and the desserts were easily the best part. Considering the food was coming out so slowly, we got an extra hour for the unlimited meal, but overall wasn’t worth the price ($ 40).
I would say I’d go back with a smaller group, though there are so many other options for unlimited deals that I wouldn’t see a reason to.

I have been here for brunch a few times now, and this is review is for the brunch I had today.
The food was fine, but I cannot say the same thing for the service. My table had the most inattentive wait staff I have had at a DC brunch. We had to REPEATEDLY ask for water, and had a solid half hour from the time we ordered our food to the time we saw our waiter again.
When the food finally came out, two of the seven orders was missing. There was a chunk of time till the other two dishes came out, and one of the rice bowls was significantly smaller than the others that were ordered. One person then had to ask them to fulfill what she had ordered.
I cannot overstate how annoyed the entire table was, and I cannot say that I see myself coming back in the near future.

Although the top floor bar area with the exposed roof was very pretty, it was very hard to find anywhere to sit. We tried a variety of the menu items and were not happy with any of them, not very good. Very overpriced too. They had the usual beer selection.

BRUNCH REVIEW
Wow, this was a mess – and I knew better. After months of making fun of «bruncharia,» I found myself seated on their patio, at 10:30 in the morning drinking bottomless mimosas. I guess the whole experience was worth the hilarity that ensued after leaving the restaurant with my very, very intoxicated friend from out of town – but that certainly doesn’t offset how bad the dining experience was.
The food: miniature portions and bland. If you’re doing tapas style or smaller portions, that’s great – this is my preference. If you’re serving small, expensive plates of utterly flavorless food, I’m not certain what you want me to do here.
Chicken & Waffles: («southern fried chicken/​homemade belgian waffles/​bourbon syrup») The chicken and waffles was okay. The mushy, flat, heavy, bisquick-​esque waffle told me I should have stayed home.
Huevos Rancheros: («fried egg/​black beans/​red salsa/​avocado/​radishes») Luckily most of the party was drunk by the time this arrived. This dish was boring, and lacked anything you’d expect from a dish with the word «Rancheros» in the title.
Guacamole: Truly the most offensive part of the whole thing. They bring out this miniature serving of guacamole with three fried tortillas. Not like in a good, freshly fried, break-​apart-​yourself way. Like three miserable looking, flavorless, flattened taco-​shells – reminiscent of what you’d find in a Taco Bell crunchwrap. What are you doing?
Bottomless: the only redeeming thing was that you can alternate between several beverages when you opt for bottomless: mimosas, sangria, bloody marys, and I think a few cheap cans of beer.
Service: our waitress was great, the rest of the staff seemed confused. We were one of two parties there for the first hour. someone ordered coffee and it was delivered to the wrong table. I supposed the odds were a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ guess, but still. Your restaurant has a total of 6 people in it right now.
Alternative suggestions:
If you want bottomless + chicken & waffles: the Madhatter in Dupont Circle
If you want bottomless + decent breakfast items: Bar Charley just down the street
If you want bottomless + decent tacos: have Super Tacos or Pica Taco delivered, and open some bottles of champagne.

Great place to go for tacos! Good food for a good price and I’ve always had friendly service.

Wow! This place is great!
I’m here for a birthday weekend and so far this is the best thing we’ve eaten in DC! Bottomless brunch for $ 24.99, full food menu to chose from and Bottomless Drinks for $ 14.99…including Red & White Sangria, Tecate, Mimosas and Bloody Marys.
I had the Chicken & Waffles. The chicken is perfectly seasoned and marinated. The Chicken Eggs Benedict was wonderful as well. You can not go wrong with this place. Think I’ll have another white sangria now.

Came here for a late happy hour, which ended up being dinner. $ 4-​$ 5 tacos?!? Count me in! But seriously, the shrimp tacos were de-​lish! The shrimp was cooked to the perfect consistency where it’s fully cooked but still soft to the bite. They top off the tacos with a combination of cilantro, onions, and some white sauce. I’ll def be coming back!

My boyfriend works a few feet away from Johnny Pistolas, so on Friday night I met him there for happy hour (5 – 7 pm). We’ve gone there once before for dinner, and he loved it so much, he wrote a Unilocal review (his only one, LOL)!
So the happy hour is awesome here. How awesome you ask? Well there are $ 2 Tacos and $ 5 margueritas! Si, por favor! LOL!
I ordered 3 fish tacos and 3 chicken tacos and they were delicious. I tried the shrimp tacos (not on the happy hour menu) and they were good as well. We also ordered the guacamole and chips, becuase we remember the guac being amazing the last time we were there, but we were underwhelmed.
If you’re looking for a lowkey spot to have good eats and drinks in Adams Morgan, check this place out. You can sit at the bar, eat and drink for hours and not spend more than $ 50. That’s a great deal.

Well, that was unexpected, though for a chain restaurant I don’t know what I was expecting.
Last week, I hit happy hour with a friend. We were super excited to try this place out because the deals seem stellar.
Because they do a 2, 3, 4, 5 Happy Hour from 5pm — 7pm Monday — Fridays. Allow me to explain the 2, 3 4, 5:
$ 2 Tacos (chicken, carnitas, veggie)
$ 3 Tecate
$ 4 Pacifico
$ 5 Margaritas
Sounds great, right? Well, I guess looks can be deceiving because it’s not that great.
Upon arrival, my friend was already at a table and the staff was sitting chatting at the bar. Mind, you the lights were low. It was like the lights were light for night AdMo life, but it was 5:30pm on a Monday. I will say the waiter did see me come in and was right over, but greeted me as «Hey, Man. What do you want?» Um… I’m a lady and let me check the menu. He quickly brought my Tecate over, but then we didn’t see him for awhile. We knew that when he came over next we needed to be ready with our order: Chips and Salsa with Queso and El Elote.
+Chips and Salsa– these were three large corn tacos deep fried that came with three tiny mason jars of three different types of salsa. Now, I like options so the three different types: green, mango habanero and regular salsa was pretty cool, but having them in small jars not exactly easy for the consumer.
+Queso– honestly, I could make this on my own. They cut cheese up, put it in a microwaveable dish and popped it in the microwave. There wasn’t anything other than cheese in this. Adding jalapenos would make this top notch.
+El Eote– YUM! I love el eote. This one was pretty solid, it had Parmesan, spices and cilantro on top. Sadly, the corn wasn’t hot when it came out to our table.
Over all, I expected great things from this place and it just didn’t deliver. I’d come back for dancing and margs if I was in AdMo on a weekend evening.

I wasn’t blown away by this place like I expected to be.
I walked in at normal happy hour time on a Monday and there was almost no one inside. The servers were all seated at the bar chatting, and didn’t seem that welcoming when I walked in.
Once seated, I was told about the happy hour specials. Unfortunately they were out of about half of them (what?).
We ordered the elote and some chips and salsa. The elote was very cheesy which I loved. The chips and salsa were… interesting. There were 3 large rounded chips and 3 different salsas in jars. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried dipping chips in jars, but it’s pretty difficult, especially when the jars are filled less than halfway. We had to be clever about breaking off the right sized pieces.
Overall I wasn’t impressed, but their brunch might change my opinion!

Dropped in on a whim for a mid-​day meal around 3:30pm this weekend. Since bottomless brunch was just winding down, the kitchen was still busy with brunch turnover and we had to wait a little longer for our food.
I had the pollo, chorizo, and fish tacos for $ 3 each. It didn’t seem like too much food at first but it was very filling, especially considering I hadn’t eaten all day. The tacos were decent, but not amazing.
Not sure if I’d come back because there’s so many awesome food options in Adams Morgan and this place just didn’t wow me — but perhaps one day for bottomless brunch? (~$ 24 + $ 12 bottomless mimosas)

Before I get lengthy with this review, let me say: server Sarah is the $hit.
Service — Stellar. Very friendly, laid-​back, and accommodating staff (thank you, Sarah!). Also the manager Johnny was around and I love seeing management interact with guests, so thank you too.
Drinks — Standard bottomless for $ 15 between your choices of mimosa, bloody mary, tecate, and red or white sangria. I especially like their white sangria!
Food — Bottomless for $ 25 or a la carte. My friend and I went a la carte and I thought both of our options (Mexican enchilada $ 12 and burrito $ 11) were pretty solid.
The only reason why I didn’t give 5 stars is for $ 40 for AYCE & AYCD seems a bit much for my wallet… but maybe when I’m making millions I’ll reconsider ;)

Consistency is everything and I will have to say that Johnny Pistolas lacks that.
Took a friend here since I really enjoyed my first brunch experience at Johnny’s. Well, I was quite embarrassed by how much I raved about it because the food was pretty much mediocre the 2^nd time around.
It was about 12:00PM on a Sunday and they ran out of meat! What in the…
My friend and sibling got the carne asada bowl, which they were able to fulfill this request but instead of carne asada they used barbacoa. The thing is. they didn’t even tell us that they were replacing the meat choice! I understand it’s both beef products, but the taste is different and it would’ve just been a nice gesture to give a heads up. Also, the bowl overall just wasn’t as good as before. Undercooked rice and not as many toppings.
So, I’m the one who got completely screwed during this trip. First, I ordered the arepas de carnitas. About 10 minutes after I ordered, our waitress came over to tell me that they ran out of carnitas. So, I changed my order to the chilaquiles. Everyone else got their food and then the waitress came over again and informed me that they ran out of meat completely. WHAT?! Absolutely absurd. Now, I know it wasn’t the waitress’ fault… so I didn’t give her a hard time at all. I went ahead and ordered the Earthy Bowl. I wouldn’t have been so upset if the bowl was actually good, but it wasn’t at all. The rice was hard and the vegetables lacked any flavor.
The one good thing was the bottomless drinks. The waitress kept those flowing and even left a full pitcher of mimosa at the table for my friend. I got the sangria, which was delicious and always filled to the top.
This recent experience definitely changed my mind on this establishment.
It would’ve been nice if they gave a discount or something to make up for not having enough food available. I most likely won’t be coming back. Not worth the risk of having another terrible experience.

I found this place on Unilocal while leaving the zoo and we decided to give it a try with our table of 8– we showed up around 530pm on a sat night and the place smelled great because they’re using an old oven to burn wood. We were promptly greeted and sat and they went over the menu pointing out some of their favorites and describing the dishes.
We ordered drinks, they have a variety of interesting specialty cocktails (the girls liked their blood orange jalapeño margaritas, but they were small glasses and full of ice so you don’t get much of a drink). I had an evolution batch no. 3 which was delicious and then a heavy seas loose cannon. Beers are priced 4 – 8 dollars and cocktails 6 – 10. Happy hour prices are a lot cheaper but it wasn’t happening while we were there.
They serve complimentary round tortillas with 3 different salsas in these cool little jars. A mild green one, a yellow one that starts sweet then slams you with a super spicy kick (my fave) and a red medium salsa. These were neat and we really enjoyed these.
My girlfriend and I split a small platter that came with 6 tacos, 2 tamales, and a few sides (guac, cucumbers, and a slaw). the fish taco was battered a little excessively but it was super crunchy and tasted pretty good. I’d say the lease favorite but still a satisfying taco. The carnitas and chicken were both super flavorful and I really enjoyed them. The tamales were thick and corny and big chunks of tasty chicken in them. Best of all is that it was 24 $ for both of us. It’s not often I find a meal at a nice environment restaurant with good service that fills me for 12 $
I’m going to get back here for brunch soon! It sounds delicious. I really really enjoyed the service, food, and atmosphere. The rest of our table spoke very highly of everything they had too.