Ford's Fish Shack Lansdowne — Restaurant in Ashburn

I recently visited Ford’s Fish Shack in search of fresh oysters on the half shell, drawn in by promising reviews. Unfortunately, my experience fell well short of expectations, and I left disappointed by several key aspects of both the food and service.

The restaurant itself is located in a strip mall—typically not an issue for me. However, upon entering, I immediately felt that the space could use a deep cleaning, which set a poor tone for the rest of the evening. When I asked the server what the restaurant was known for, I was told about two items that, oddly enough, were no longer even on the menu. This left me puzzled right from the start.

Now for the main reason behind my two-star rating (which, frankly, feels generous):

I started with a Carolina Smash, described as “freshly muddled strawberries and cucumber finished with Prosecco.” What arrived at the table was far from that—just a few sad fragments of old strawberries and cucumber floating in flat Prosecco. Disappointed, I ordered a different drink, but the server didn’t bother to ask if there was an issue with my first one. I found this strange, but I chose not to make a fuss at the time.

Next, we ordered oysters on the half shell—a dozen in total. I specifically requested 6 PEI and 6 Maine, but what I received was 6 Maine and 6 Virginia. I decided to give it a try despite the mix-up, but the execution was equally disappointing. The mignonette tasted stale, with the shallots appearing as if they were the leftover bits scraped from the bottom of a container. Worse yet, none of the oysters were properly shucked—each one had shell fragments, and they hadn’t been fully detached from the shell. To top it off, no spoon was provided for the mignonette or cocktail sauce.

We also ordered the deviled eggs as an appetizer, but they were a total miss—old, overly sweet, and simply unappetizing.

For our mains, my dining companion chose the Filet Mignon and crab cake. While the food was acceptable, the presentation left much to be desired. The dish was monochromatic and unappealing, with no garnish or visual flair. To make matters worse, the server forgot to provide a steak knife, leaving my companion to cut the filet with a butter knife for half the meal.

I ordered the "Angry Mussels." While they were decent, the server failed to bring a bowl for the discarded shells, which added to the overall sense of neglect throughout the evening. These small but significant oversights made the experience less enjoyable.

Here’s how I would break down my overall experience:

Food: 2/5 Service: 1.5/5 Ambiance: 2/5 Cleanliness: 1/5 In summary, Ford’s Fish Shack has potential, but the numerous service missteps and lack of attention to detail left me underwhelmed. It will take significant improvements in both cleanliness and service before I...

We tried the deviled eggs, smoked salmon bruschetta, and the fish and chips.

First, the service is great. The wait staff is helpful and friendly. Our server checked on us often and made suggestions. The food was delivered quickly.

The mini jalapeno corn muffins and blueberry muffins with maple butter we're great. Soft and moist.

The deviled eggs were piled high and topped with candied pecans. There were two strips of preline bacon as well. The filling was slightly sweet and had horseradish in it. I'm not a fan of horseradish, so I am not the best judge, but it seemed to overpower the other flavors. If you like horseradish you will probably really like them. It was by no means a horseradish Bonanza, for me it only takes a little horseradish to be too much.

The smoked salmon bruschetta was incredible. The smoked salmon was lightly smokey, tender, and moist. The quartered cherry tomatoes were drizzled with balsamic and oil tossed with a chiffonade of basil and sprinkled with goat cheese. This was served with toasted sliced rustic bread, a charred lemon half, and what appeared to be an aioli that really made it. This was by far the highlight of the meal. I would return just for this dish.

The fish and chips were a let down. Served with shoestring fries, house tarter, coleslaw, and ketchup. The coleslaw was not bad. It was a little different in that it lacked carrots and appeared to have dill pickle in it. The pickle flavor was not overpowering just not the flavor I usually associate with coleslaw. The batter for the fish was not overly thick, and appeared to be an attempt at a sort of beer/tempura hybrid. This was not successful. The strong "egg" flavor just did not work with the fish. The batter was crispy on the outside, but appeared to have been either too thick or not left down long enough and was therefore mushy on the interior. All of you fried fish lovers out there know this spells disaster and the batter will just fall off the fish. The fries were very very good. I love a good shoe string and these were golden brown and slightly crispy.

Overall a really great experience, but the fish batter recipe will need to be re-thought. I would recommend going even if it's just for the bruschetta. I'm sure there are other great items on the menu we didn't...

My family and I had dinner at this Ford's location on 8/24/19. Prior to this incident, we had been to this location multiple times and have had nothing but wonderful service and food. Our most recent experience was far from wonderful. My husband and I both ordered the New England Cod. We’ve both had this dish previously and it’s normally perfection. The fish was great. The green beans were terrible. They were hard and inedible. In fact, they were difficult to cut with a knife. We asked our waiter for new, properly cooked green beans. Fifteen minutes later, two new dishes of green beans were delivered to our table. They were just as hard as the original ones. And even worse, my husband’s green beans had plastic in them. We asked for the manager. The manager causally commented that it looks like part of the steam bag. Completely unconcerned with the fact that my husband almost bit into plastic. On top of that, the manager informed us that the green beans are just “garnish” and we did not pay for them anyhow. He said that we were paying for the cod, not the “garnish” and, in essence, made excuses for the poorly cooked green beans. The manager did offer us key lime pie to make up for each side of green beans. When we got home, only one slice of key lime pie was included in the takeout box, not two. Even so, key lime pie does not make up for our terrible experience. We found the manager’s attitude to be absolutely unacceptable and unprofessional. The waiter was very apologetic and we understand none of this was his fault. Further, we contacted this location two weeks ago via their contact us page on their website and have not heard back. Very disappointed in our experience and level of...