Lesly’s Grill

This was by far the worst dinning ever. The place is dirty the music is loud the food is tasteless and guaranteed to be served cold. We waited and we waited for sub par margaritas and crappy food served by a waitress who was clueless or just did not care. When the bill came she had decided that she would add her own gratuity of 20% to the it. It was just me, my wife and our son. When asked why she added it she said it was standard. Well not where I’m from and defiantly not when the service and food is as bad as theirs is. We had to get the manager and 4 other staff members involved to resolve the issue. There is a room next door to the dinning room that blares music so loud you would think you were at a eating at a night club. The place seems more like a brothel than a restaurant. In fact a strip club is the only place I have been to that gets gratuity added in automatically.

Sunday may 22 2016
DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE
I was regular at leslies grill i used to go there at least 3 times a week, i been working in restaurants for over 20 years
Today i went to watch la copa del rey final and have dinner With my girlfriend
Our server was a very nice girl i could see that she was new i ordered chicken salad it was delicious my girlfriend by mistake got something that she did not ordered she sent it back and tried to order something else but the manager an old lady on her early 60^th
Came back with the food to our table in a very unprofessional way trying argue with us i said we did not order that. I can pay for the food money is not the problem but that not what we ordered .She made us pay for the servers mistake
This unprofessional manager has no idea how work in a restaurant she was rude and ignorant i will never go back
I DONT RECOMMEND THIS PLACEj

I don’t speak Spanish. I’m working on that, but I’ve got a ways to go. Unfortunately this shortfall on my part resulted in a lackluster dining experience at Lesly’s.
I visited on Cinco de Mayo and was hoping for a margarita. The hostess/​server said she didn’t know English but I thought I’d muster through. Who doesn’t like an adventure and, well I know some Spanish nouns!
Margarita was a little too complicated to order – somehow – so I settled on a «Cerveza por favor» which resulted in a Heineken (I should have emphatically stated Tecate or Modelo). After translating some words into my server’s phone, and some gracias on my part, I pointed and ordered a «carne asada» taco.
Fifteen minutes later I ended up with a carne asada platter with baked potato and flavorless vegetables. I didn’t have it in me to try and resolve the error – hey, things happen – but I would have preferred to not have had a pricey platter lacking in many ways in lieu of a taco.
I don’t think I need to give this place another try. Again, not knowing the language was a small roadblock, but the food just wasn’t that great. And even error food should taste good.

This is the best restaurant on Baltimore ave. Leslys grill. They have have the bombest chicken and the best grilled chicken salad.

One of the top five worst meals I’ve had in the DMV. Music was loud although we were the only patrons there. They only accepted cash? WTF this is 2015 how do you expect to survive with cash only? The waitress was no where to be found (although again we were the only patrons). When she did show up she didn’t bother to write down the order which would have been fine but she got it wrong — TWICE! When the food finally came out I was over it. The Coke was completely flat and tasted like they used whatever was left in the lines from The Calvert House. I ended up with food poisoning that night so god only knows what the kitchen did to the food. I’d give this place zero stars if I could. It sucks bc I’d eat here all the time if it were decent but there are way better places with the same menu in the area. Really disappointed.
Calvert House had similar issues but when it was good it was really good and when it was bad it was inedible but hey at least they took AMEX.

Was optimistic about coming to a relatively new, local establishment, and always looking for great «Mexican» food. Had a little trouble finding our way in through the back door — there was a sign which said something in Spanish about using the next door. Being able to read a bit of Spanish, we made our way in, and music was *blaring*. They eventually figured out how to turn it down for us, and the smattering of other customers in the restaurant.
Even though the place was almost empty, it took forever for our drinks to arrive (I hate seeing them at the bar, waiting for our server to notice… tic toc). And we waited again for service to replenish our drinks. It was dark, but we managed to read our menus enough to find something to order. Appetizer and 3 entrees.
Our appetizer came out late, without plates to eat off of (she placed a plate of food in the center of an otherwise empty table) — and at the same time as our entrees… but minus my husband’s meal.
Our young waitress didn’t write down our order, which was fine, but she got my order wrong. I was still fine up until this point — I didn’t send my food back, because our food took so long in the first place. But once I got to actually eating the food I was served (for which I would be expected to pay) — it was terrible. It wasn’t even cooked all the way — it wasn’t hot.
That’s when I kind of lost it. Our server hadn’t been keeping very good care of us up until that point, and I wasn’t planning on waiting for her to come back. So I retrieved her and explained that the food was not just wrong, but it was also bad (see: not cooked/​not hot). She did her best to address my concerns, but once things go wrong to this level — the service, the food, the follow up, everything — it’s really hard to come back from that. She offered to remake my food, now that I was actually kind of full by this point, and my family was done eating. It was all they could do, so I said ok, and asked for another margarita! Not because I wanted to hang out and enjoy the absolutely terrible service and food, but because I needed another drink by this point. I was definitely… upset.
When the bill came, we were kind of shocked, and after reviewing, it turned out they charged me for the last margarita ($ 10!)… I always review the bill, and asked the waitress to take the last margarita off. She gave me *ample* attitude and told me she could get the manager if I liked. Of course I took her up on this. But I never did see the manager! Instead, our young server came back with the bill, revised, minus the last margarita. Thanks.
When I looked closely at the margarita, which was supposed to assuage many ills, there was a little fly in it.
As I pulled out my phone to write this review, the waitress decided it would be a good time to «pre-​bus». And with a table full of half eaten food, she chose to take the margarita with the fly in it. You can have it. Cheers.

I really want to like this place — if it was the food alone, I would have given it 4 stars. But the atmosphere and oddities in our experience bump it down.
Not much has changed in the furnishings from the old Calvert House Inn, which is either shabby or retro, depending on your spin. I’ll give it the benefit of retro, since the old booths are comfortable. However, it was 7:30 on a Tuesday, and the blaring music (played over the sound of the blaring TVs) was enough to give anyone a headache — which it promptly did. My husband and I (the only two customers in the place) signaled to the bartender to turn the tvs down when he went to adjust the sound (up — mind you) which resulted in an added layer of feedback through the speakers.
The waitress was friendly, and her English was about as good as my Spanish, so we compromised a bit to get our orders in. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any limes for margaritas, the white wine selection was Moscato (not my taste), so I settled on a vodka soda (which was delivered as a watered down $ 9 Absolute). The side of guacamole I ordered to go with the chips somehow resulted in a sliced avocado delivered with my tacos and the beans were salty, salty, salty. The salsa had nice heat, but was very watery and served in cups so small that we had to keep asking for more, leaving half-​filled dishes of tomato juice. But the chips were good, carne asada tacos delicious and yucca fries light and crispy.
To paraphrase a neighborhood listserve posting: «I’d rather have a mediocre restaurant than an empty storefront» so I’ll give them some time, and a few more chances — but with earplugs and advil in my purse.

From the outside, you can never really tell if it’s open. Here’s the deal with that though from what I gather. The old Calvert House Inn had two «rooms». Lesley’s essentially is just one of those rooms, so if you park out back, go in through the door by Lynn Animal Hospital. It’s been seemingly maybe open for a few months now, but I can never tell if it’s actually open, and there are NO reviews about it anywhere.
We walked in the door, and the gold cup match between Panama and Mexico was about to begin on the four huge TV screens. The faces of both of the people that work there were had the faint glow cast from their phone screens reflecting back. The Latin music was loud. I mean loud like a sports bar loud. We were the only patrons on a Wednesday night. This did not bode well.
We were about to choose our table, so we sat at a booth. The booth seemed like the table was just a few inches too narrow for how far away the seats were though. I thought that was kind of weird. We were given multicolor tortilla chips with some salsa. Hmmm. Not homemade chips, watery salsa, the only patrons and loud loud music? We were willing to stick it out. I’m very glad we did!
The watery salsa was actually quite tasty. The chips were standard thin tortilla chips, nothing special.
We got the fried yuca and chicharones appetizer, and holy guacamole! The yuca was fried to absolute perfection. You know when you get fries and the outside is crispy and the inside is almost creamy? Yeah. That. The chicharones were great too. Not too crunchy and not too salty with a nice balance of meat and fat.
Up next, the sopa de res. I’ve had this dish at a number of places, and it’s never been as good as I had here. The broth was also not as salty as many other places. It was delicious and totally hit the spot. There was yuca, corn, beef ribs, cabbage and a few other veggies and a ripe plantain that I initially thought was an eggplant. It’s sweetness threw me a little bit, but I eat weird things, so whatever.
My wife got carne asado tacos, and they were yummy too. They come with a green sauce that is a little creamy. Do you eat Peruvian or roasted chicken at some of these pollo places? Do you know that green sauce? Well, it’s just like that but creamy. A little less green, but just as much rock and roll spicy. The frijoles were the only thing that was pretty salty, but not too badly. Honestly, I feel like they kind of balanced out the salt nicely.
The only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is the sound system and music issue. It was mega loud in there. My wife and I had to lean in to hear each other speak, and granted, it was the Gold Cup game, but there were clearly at least two zones, one for the bar, and the other for the dining area. We asked the guy that was taking care of the sound to turn it down a little bit, and he did. After a few minutes, the music started up very loudly again for like two songs.
I really do hope that they figure out the music and sound levels, because the food was spot on, and we could use another great restaurant in that particular area. I’m not claiming that I know what authentic Salvadorean or Latin food should taste like, but it was straight up delicious and I’ll definitely go back. After all, they do have desayuno! (breakfast!)

In short: dark, loud, dingy weird ambiance, terrible service, mediocre food.
So we went to Lesly’s at about 4 on a Sunday, so it was pretty dead except for a private party in the back. However, the music was still blaring. Inside is dark and scary-​looking, and we were seated at a dirty table. Right as we were seated, my husband ordered a beer. Also, the menu was from the other location, and they didn’t have everything on it.
A while later, our waitress took our order (one app, two entrees, and a margarita). A while after that, the beer came. I had nothing. Then the app and one entrée came out. Still no margarita. Then, eventually, just when we thought they had forgotten, the second entrée came. Oh, and finally, after that, the margarita came. Basically, my husband and I took turns looking forlornly at the other’s items.
The food was OK. Tacos were decent but certainly not great, and the chimichanga was super greasy.
Oh right, and then at the end the price for my tacos on the bill was almost .50 cents more than the price on the menu.
There are a bunch of other restaurants in the area; don’t bother with this one.

The worst dining experience I have had in many years. We ordered Margaritas; they tasted like they were made with bottled mix rather than fresh lime juice; one had salt not only on the rim but in the drink; and at $ 10 they were relatively expensive. We ordered the carne asada with shrimp entrée; it took an 40 minutes and arrived at our table cold; it must have been languishing in the kitchen for 10 – 15 minutes.
The best part of the meal was the mini-​snickers that came with the check.
Go to Samantha’s – much better food and service, at a lower price, great chips and dip included.

Visited for the first time last week; judging from my order, they don’t serve those humongous plates of food such as chains like Chevys; portions of the sides especially are pretty small. However — service was a bit disorganized, but friendly and quick. (seemed to be only one server on the floor at the time and they were pretty busy). Had to remind server that I’d ordered tres leches cake and when it was brought out, it was so cold it seemed they’d just taken it out of the freezer. No big deal, really, was rather like a tres leches ice cream sandwich! Quite a variety of food on the menu, I ordered the camarones al ajullo, shrimp in cherry wine and garlic sauce. Was very good however, as I say, a bit pricey for the amount I received. Side salad was no big deal, rice and beans were good, also got 2 warm tortillas. Horchata (ground rice drink) was very nice. Décor was so-​so, but a change from the «grandmas’ house 1953″ décor of Calvert House Inn, which occupied the site for many years. Lunchtime crowd seemed to be mostly families, several with small kids. All in all, I liked Lesly Restaurant; hopefully they’ll work out the little ‘bumps» in the service, and will definitely be going back to try their other offerings. (PS: note to Lesly; when people enter the restaurant from the rear of the building, it would be nice if you’d put a light bulb inside the doorway; even at midday, that entrance is pretty dark)

The food was very prompt. The server was very polite. I ordered some traditional Mexican dishes, such as tacos and a burrito. I enjoyed the tacos because they were in a soft corn tortilla. It was very simple. I cant wait to go again.