The Dog House — Restaurant in Chesapeake

Looks can be deceiving. This is a no-frills OG hot dog place. Even though they have only been here 3 years, they seem like more of an institution. After I ordered, I looked at the reviews, saw they have a 4.6 and knew the dogs must be exceptional.

Disclaimer: My doctor told me no bread or beer, so I gave up bread. My pictures don’t have buns but I saw they had Wonder Bread buns so I knew it was legit. I walked in and was greeted by a nice man that took my order and cooked right in front of me. I ordered a beef hot dog and beef sausage, all the way. He was also taking on a few other orders while I waited. I saw him pull out a chunk of chicken and throw it on the flat top. He commenced to chop it up, throw some sauce on it and cover it with a lid. I realized that instead of shredding their pulled chicken to serving size, they leave it chunked and then break it up to order, this probably keeps it from drying out. He served it up on the buns and it looked delicious. They have hand cut fries that look awesome, big, meaty and flavorful. I also saw him pull out a big Tyson chicken breast, throw it on the flat top and season it before throwing a lid on it. They do not buy cheap chicken.

All The Way in Norfolk is chili, mustard and onions, he asked me if I wanted relish. I like dill relish, but I do not put it on my dogs, but the way he asked, I could tell that was the way he ate his, so I told him yes. I was really stepping outside of my comfort zone. They sausage was split which gave it a nice griddle crust and as with most Norfolk dogs, the skin has a nice snap. The sausage was a hot link which was a nice surprise. The chili didn’t look like much, but it was great. I tasted a slight sweetness and realized it was sweet relish, not dill. I would never order sweet relish, but this was really good, an especially good complement to the hot link.

All told, I would recommend The Dog House to anyone, drive out of your area (and comfort zone)...

This place needs to invest in servers or something. I placed an order on DoorDash, my order also included a chicken Philly, that was advertised to coke with fries and a drink. I called the restaurant to tell them what drink I wanted. A guy answered the phone, who seemed to be the cook. He tells me that’s false it doesn’t come with that, I said on Door dash it says that. So I said okay can I change that sandwich, I hear nothing, I said hello he says okay I will tell my manager. I said okay, can I switch the Philly out. At this point I only hear someone cooking. I called back, no answer? How is a business operating like this? Am I ordering food from a house? If he was the owner I doubt it. I don’t think any owner would handle a customer as if they know them, or so rudely. If sho he will go out of business faster then he started. He was rude as h*ll omg! I support black businesses, but at some point it’s a shame that is black people that support them don’t get that same respect! If this is not a black business my apologies, the guy who answered was black. Not to mention the telephone number is a cell phone number smh do better. I’m...

Let me start off by saying that I may have just experienced them on an off day. As their reviews are stellar.

Had HIGH hopes for this place. It’s only a few minutes from my house and I have been meaning to try it forever. Severely disappointed. I ordered a 10 piece wing in hot BBQ and a chili cheese fry.

Fries are hand cut. Unfortunately some of them were cold in the center, so not cooked thoroughly and they were all dark, as of they were cut up a long time ago and have been sitting. Chili is very sweet. It’s weird. Awkward to eat really.

Wing sauce isn’t bad. Wing size, horrendous. These things are tinier than the party size you buy at the grocery store! And on top of that they taste burnt. Now I like my wings fried hard, these were BURNT. i don’t want to be eating charcoal pieces. That’s TOO well done for me. I think they are so small they didn’t realize that they were being over cooked.

Again, I wanted to love this place. Convenient, local and black owned! I will more than likely give it one more chance. I do want to try the loaded potatoes and philly cheese steak, so I may be back. And hopefully able to...