The Heights Pub — Restaurant in Arlington

Update 10/8/24:

Among THE very best steak tips I can get out at a restaurant, rather than making them myself. So many restaurants use poor quality meat imo... Not this place. The meat is high quality and the marinade and cooking are skillfully done. I only eat meat now for a weekly splurge and this is how I want to spend those prescious "meat dollars". The burger meat is also quite good. The rest of the time I really appreciate the black bean burger and fish tacos. And they always seem to have some nicely cooked vegetable available. The tot basket is fun and tasty. The beer selection is legit.

My wife and I at here again very recently and she got the steak tips for the first time and said they were excellent; again, high-quality meat and well-marinated. I had the black bean burger again and it was great; obviously home-made and not one of those "beyond meat" patties which has just about the same saturated fat as a regular burger. The place was hopping on a Friday night when we visited. Its obviously become a big neighborhood handout; mission accomplished, we really needed that.

One of my only complaints is that it is indeed quite noisy, despite some well-intentioned sound-dampening panels on the ceiling. Maybe putting some of those panels on the walls would help without detracting from the atmosphere. Also the tables inside are mostly high-tops which are not great for kids imo. Replacing some of those four-tops with regular height tables would...

From start to finish my experience at the heights pub was not good and I would not recommend eating here. When we first walked in we waited to be seated but noticed that there was an odd smell, almost like rotting garbage/fish. While waiting I also couldn't help but notice that there was a sign that said the food safety inspection could be seen upon request. My fiance noticed the smell and recommended we go somewhere else, but I insisted it was probably fine. Unfortunately it was not. Our waitress quickly took our order and never checked back in. This is probably because it was clear we did not like the food. I ordered a Caesar salad and my fiance ordered a quesadilla with guacamole. As some of you may know Cesar salad dressing is creamy. When my salad came it was clear they used some kind of vinaigrette and upon tasting it I'm 95% sure it's Ken's light dressing from the bottle...On top of this my fiance was served brown guacamole that cost extra. Which really made me start to wonder what their health inspection score was. I think this speaks for itself what they are willing to serve to their customers. After leaving I walked to D Agostino for a sandwich.

TLDR: Smelled like garbage inside, service was not good, the Cesar salad had Ken's light dressing on it and the...

Had high hopes for our first visit, based on the excitement around the opening a year or so ago. Ended up let down. While we were seated right away, we had an oddly long wait for our waitress to take our order. We got French onion soup, potato skins, and mac & cheese, all to share. They then took a long time to come out. The soup was decent. The potato skins were tasty, although they were really half potatoes, not the "flesh scooped out" sort of potato skins that the name normally connotes. The mac & cheese, unfortunately, was a real dud. The worst I've had in a restaurant. The pasta was overcooked, and it was lacking both salt and... (checks notes)... cheese! I suspect we missed the sweet spot of their menu, which might have been the burgers or the many seafood dishes. But I'm afraid there wasn't enough promise for us to likely try it again, given the places closer to us that we know...