Hard Times Cafe & Cue

I give it five stars mainly for the staff and great service! Can’t do much chili bc of my sensitivity to beef, but the chicken sandwiches are always yummy and tatter tots?! Duh! Delicious!

If I could give this place 0 stars, I would.
Their tater tots and fries are great (there’s your 1 star).
At the bar playing poker and my brother in law had his Gucci wallet stolen… He asked the employees if they would run the tapes to see who stole it and they wouldn’t. So cops came and tried to handle it. Point blank, the place is sketchy, has no tapes and no type of remorse or care for anything.
The waitresses in the back area are super nice (at the bar). But in the front in the restaurant area, good luck HA.
Anyway, point of the story. Keep your nice belongings at home, no one cares if anything is stolen from you at this place.

I showed up with my boyfriend on a Saturday night, I believe. We wanted some wings, and it was late… probably around midnight or so, and Hard Times was close by and surely open, and we wanted to stop by to visit Damien, who had given us wonderful service last time we visited. We went in and made our way to the back bar area to discover there was a cover for a band that was playing, and Damien was not working. We said we just wanted to grab some food, and asked if it was ok to sit in the café since the back is smoking, too.
The manager, Derek, was extremely nice and went out of his way to make us comfortable and accommodate us. He seated us in the café which was obviously closed and served us the entire time. He spent time with us making conversation and was very personable, but never overbearing.
We ordered 4 different flavors of wings (honey mustard, texas, chili lime and sweet chili) and we really liked the cider IPA they had on draft, even if it was a bit on the expensive side. Derek brought us a chili taster and corn bread and everything else we needed throughout our visit. He really went out of his way to make us have a great experience when we could have easily gotten the «sorry, it is what it is» response you get from most people at most places. We will definitely visit again, and hopefully both Damien and Derek will be working.

tried free samples of all 4 kinds of chili, all of which were really good. i had the frito pie with the terlingua red chili which was delicious! my husband had the whiskey river bbq burger that he said was really good. only complaint is that its a bit pricey but the taste was great.

Two stars is my opinion. The food there came out cold for me, our waitress was tough to get a hold of on Monday and she wasn’t very well trained yet. What establishment places only 1 new female out to attend to 40 customers?

I usually enjoy the experience here. Today, we brought 2 college kids and a HS sr. We had to track down the server (only 1 for the whole pool section) to place our order. When the appetizers came, we had to ask for plates, utensils, and napkins. They only brought 4 plates, «because that’s all they had clean». Seriously? You’ve been open for less than 3 hours and have no more clean plates? Unacceptable. It took 3 trips to get our 5 lunch orders placed (server kept walking away). Who trained these people in server operations???

I’ve been coming here every wednesday with a group of friends (6 – 8) to learn how to country line dance. Brittny is our teacher and she’s very patient in going through each step one by one and then doing the whole routine. It’s really a lot of fun and we’re learning to country line dance different dances each week. She teaches 2 – 3 dances each week depending on how fast people pick it up.
The food here is also pretty good, one night my friend April marie ordered spaghetti and the portions was huge. I usually order cheese fries so that everyone can share it in between line dances. The portions are usually huge too.
The people are not judgmental here so you feel free to join in the dances at any time and the other dancers will help you with steps if you need help.
It’s a really fun place.

Ugh. Cigarette smoke, lots of cigarette smoke. Ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts. More cigarette smoke. Combine that with poor ventilation/​lack of AC. The place was to hot. Agree with Adrienne S. about it being the «Smokey armpit of Manassas.»
I had to leave after one beer. Had an Arrogant Bastard Ale. $ 8.00+ for one beer, plus $ 10.00 cover to get in.
My clothes had to go straight into the washing machine when I got home — they stunk to high heaven.
I won’t ever come back here again!

Smokey armpit of Manassas. They tried to redeem themselves and end the smoking then they brought it back. Big Mistake.

I enjoy this spot for football Sundays with friends and good food

I had a Hard Time understanding why all the buzz about the Cincy Chili.
Less than average.
I’ve had better at Waffle House & Wendy’s.

Me and my friends came in and my room mate got vegetarian chili friesn. The fries seemed old and not crispy at all, just flopping around like noodles even where there wasnt any chili on them. We all tried a few and agreed they werent right at all and the chili on top just made them worse. We asked the waitress if they could bring us some fresh fries, an order of fries cost basically nothing to send out. Instead she argued that we’d already eaten some of it, and she couldnt do anything without calling her manager. Thats an absolutely ridiculous way to run a restaurant if that is in fact their policy.

Great food and Beers I love this place, I go here to watch Caps hockey, football, play some pool and kid friendly

Immediately greeted upon walking in. Wait staff could not have been more courteous. Ordered the chicken Santa Fe wrap. fries were incredible and the wrap was good also. I did have a couple of issues with food temp. However, manager was at my table immediately and rectified the issue to my satisfaction. Actually the manager went above and beyond because I didn’t even ask to see him. All toll, I was there for about 70 minutes and had a good experience.
Wifi hotspot reception was great too

Greeted at the door. Directed to back bar area where the bar keep was personable and service focused. Bar keep asked what I was doing «on this side of town»…to which I simply replied «I came for the chili». Had a bowl. of the Texas Chili, Convinced I had not consumed enough chilli, I ordered and consumed a chili dog (Cincinnati Chili). A perfect pairing with some mixed drinks. Food and drink scored well with me. Staff from door to bar area ALL seemed very happy and wanted to be there working. One suggestion… market some hot sauces with your chili… Keep doing what your doing…

People can smoke in here minus 3 stars but food came out fast … So let’s see if they can make up ground … Asked the waiter about steak tips. He said it’s great but couldn’t answer me if it has fat!!! one last thing is they allow guests to smoke big negative, I can still smell the smoke on me
And Colombia lost so I’m out of the office pool!

The manager there has no manners and is rude as hell AND he talks to the employees with no respect. Terrible way to run a business, buddy.

Someone I know is really lucky I travel to «the burbs», so often! I have never felt like I was in the stereotyped south until walking into this establishment. I think what really threw me off was the smoking indoors at the bar. I was given a heads up about how strange it was going to be, but it still was odd to see people just chain smoking in a bar in 2015. Seems like it would be a place people would go to watch big sporting events. We just had a few beers and played some 8 ball. Nice pool table setup. The waitresses couldn’t have been more pleasant and welcoming. I just felt like I traveled back in time to an 80s pool hall in the south with lots of really skinny tv’s from the future.
I will give it a try again sometime. Everyone says the food is great. Now that I am past the sticker shock, they deserve a more open minded city girl chance.

I came here for a friends birthday, I’ve been to fairfax Hardtimes and it’s not bad there… Now that being said tonight, and I’ve been here for 25 minutes and I’m ready to leave. If it wasn’t for my friends birthday I would have walked out when they told me it was a $ 8 cover charge for a local band, who ruined one of my favorite songs and stopped 30 seconds into it… I’m sorry but not worth it. The staff takes forever and the bartender couldn’t even hear what beer I wanted I literally pointed to it. I will never be coming back her again. I’m sorry to have given them my business tonight. Go to Haymarket or Gainesville if you want to go out, avoid this place at all costs! Total rip off total waste of time.

Talk about bad. I can stand people smoking near me as much as I hate it but I walked in and even people who were with me who smoke cigs alot say its bad. Its literally like walking in the front door and someone just blowing smoke straight in your face. Horrible.
We came here one night because my boyfriend wanted to see a UFC fight that had already started and no where else around us was playing it. Talk about desperate! I agreed and we picked the seat all the way in the corner front, far from the door to the smoking area.
Service was horrific. There were many 3 tables being served to and our server was soooo slow. I have no idea what was going on in the back but it took about 35 minutes for our tator tots to come out. Just tots no chili on it. Unbelieveable! We were pissed and the guy knew it. Right when he came with the tots we asked for a togo box and didn’t even apologize for slow service on both ends. We were only there for maybe 45 minutes and I hated every minute of it. The things I do for my boyfriend.
Anyways, this was the last time I promises myself I’d come here. Food is not all that. Service is sloooow, they work like snails. I prefer the Arlington and Fairfax location a million times over this place. Maybe it’s management? Who knows but they needa get their ish together!