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In today’s review… we’ll cover a Capitol Hill sandwich shop restaurant and bar that you would think is a culinary gem, but in reality is simply bad food hiding behind good marketing.

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The Ratings

Our simple & honest checklist covers a restaurant’s key ingredients:
Ambiance, Service, and Food.

1/10

Let’s get something straight from the start. One of the many reasons we created this newsletter is to identify the most delicious of restaurants in DC despite the increasing noise and false information in food reviews. Unfortunately, the Fight Club concept is one of the eateries with bad food that hides behind good marketing.

Located in Capitol Hill near the Eastern Market, the Fight Club restaurant has a well made website that leans on references from the classic Fight Club movie. Armed with pretty pictures, clever sayings, and a complimenting media, Fight Club appears to be DC’s hottest sandwich spot.

With many different food blogs and trending lists naming the restaurant as a top place to eat, we found The Washington Post’s article the most astonishing. Entitled, “Fight Club sandwiches dissolve the line between insanity and genius,” the review then starts off with: “[…] I’m not the kind of guy who usually goes around trying to find deeper meaning in a place to eat, but every time I set foot in Fight Club, I can’t help but think that this Capitol Hill sandwich shop is here not just to feed us, but to remind us to take some chances.”

Okay, wow. We immediately booked a reservation because we couldn’t wait to try out this seemingly incredible (maybe even divine) sandwich paradise.

What were we met with? An empty restaurant that looks like it should be a late night college party bar, with sticky tables, and a homeless man who sat right outside the restaurant’s window, staring at us during the entire meal.

2/10

Friendly but extremely casual waitstaff — the type of service you would expect from a college party bar: you’ll get your food.

2/10

Would it be a shocker if we told you the food absolutely did not meet our expectations… nor was it any good?

Fight Club was a huge disappointment. The menu highlights a handful of different sandwiches (dinner vs brunch menus). And while sure, some of the sandwich names might be spunky like “Salt-N-Peppa Po Boi” and “Biden’s Bobby” (+ we’re leaving out the menu’s many food items that contain curse words), the ingredients are not that creative, nor tasty.

In fact, we started off with the recommended Smoked Chicken Wings. But, just look at them! We have never, ever, eaten such terrible wings. They looked, smelled, and tasted like starved roadkill wings. Gross and those are an undeniable 0/10.

For the restaurant’s supposed speciality, the sandwiches weren’t good either, but at least they were edible. For instance, the A Small Donkey sandwich which can be boiled down to a very simple and unflavored beef burrito was nothing we’d re-order. The Mushroom Dip, which used herb roasted oyster & maitake mushrooms and was served with a truffle mushroom sauce, was fine. The bread tasted like cardboard, but the mushrooms were decent.

Overall, it’s probably best you avoid Fight Club despite the media’s praise.

Reservation & Menu: