Frank & Teressa's Anchor Bar — Restaurant in Leesburg

I don't know that I have ever taken the time to give a restaurant review, but this experience was truly bad enough to warrant the effort. I took my youngest son and father-in-law to this place on a Sunday afternoon. It was nice out so we sat outside near the entrance in Leesburg. We were greeted fairly quickly and then waited a bit for someone to take our order. We ordered our food and then were ignored for about 45 minutes. Time continued and still no one stopped by to check on us. There are four other tables in line with ours along the outside railing. At one of the tables near us the patrons brought their dog and he was well mannered. That table got all the attention, including from our waiter(s), virtually every 5 minutes that table was being greeted by various staff, meanwhile we continue to be ignored. The food finally came out after about an hour. My order was fine, but the rest of the order was a disaster. The other order was nothing more that boneless wings; they brought bone-in instead. The staff person (not our waiter because, you know, they ignored us) took the food back without even acknowledging the screw up. About 15 minutes go by while I am eating my lunch and still no sign of a replacement order for my son and father-in-law. I asked one of the staff as they were rushing to the table with the dog to send a manager over. Another 15 minutes went by and nothing, no replacement order, probably because everyone was making sure the table with the dog was taken care of. An older gentleman with a Buffalo Bills blazer finally came out and he stopped at each table to ask how things were going. Guess what? He got to our table and skipped right by going to the table behind us. After hesitating for moment, he finally stopped at our table to see how we were. At this point we were there for over an hour and my food came out while the rest of the orders were incorrect. Meanwhile I continue to see our waiter and waiter-in-training continue to stop by to check on the people with the dog. During this whole episode I watched a dazed and confused young waiter bring out at least three different orders to ask if they were ours. We said no, so they started going table to table asking if what he had in hand was their order. After being here for over 2 hours at this point, we asked if we could get the other half of our boneless wings to go because we didn't have any faith that they were going to get it right. At the end of the day, this was a miserable experience all around and it is even more frustrating when you see with your own eyes that some tables get all the attention and others get zero attention. You can't make this stuff up. My advice to Frank & Teressa is to train your staff and to teach them how to do the job that all restaurant customers expect. At a minimum, maybe train them how to wait tables. I love dogs like everyone else; they truly make like better. But give me a break.......I saw my waiter(s) twice during our time at this restaurant, but they constantly stopped at other tables, especially the one with the dog. Now, what did the manager do as a result of all this? They gave us a $50 gift certificate and paid for our meal. That is a great gesture to try and make things right. For me, I gave the gift certificate to someone else because I will not ever go to this restaurant again. This whole experience was just terrible and it wasn't about having enough staff. The staff was just inconsiderate, unaware, confused, and...

OK so maybe my review is low because I had unrealistic expectations about what is ultimately a chain restaurant due to its pedigree, but I can't say Anchor Bar in Leesburg was anything special at all.

For one, the place is very dirty feeling. Which is saying something, because it's been open a few weeks. If it doesn't feel clean now, it can only go downhill. The area behind the bar is a mess, I witnessed a waitress dig her bare hand through the lemons, take one, then throw it back in the bin, and it just generally doesn't give a feeling of "clean".

The drinks were completely meh. I ordered a Kentucky mule, it's fine, but way overpriced for what it was. The yuengling on tap was sorta flat but not terrible.

I also ordered fried pickles and wings. Firstly, the fried pickles were very good. The pickles were fresh, and clearly hand breaded - not pre frozen. The batter was light and crispy. Nice job. The ranch was nothing special which is kind of disappointing for a wing place, but overall that was a great start.

The wings however were just not that good. Every single sauce is like, astoningishly wet and loose. As if the sauces were literally watered down to make the sauce last longer. The sauce barely adheres to the wings because its so runny, and the flavor is entirely muted by how watery it is.

The boneless wings themselves (aside from the sauce) were actually pretty good. They were nice chucks of white meat, felt fresh, and were well fried. With the boneless I tried the "hotter" sauce and the "spicy garlic parm" sauce. The "hotter" is supposed to be their second spiciest sauce so I figured I'd try it to get an idea of what the place had to offer. I like spicy food but I'm definitely not normally the type who can cruise through top level wing sauces - but this was barely spicy at all. Like, I didn't even need ranch or Bleu cheese level. Not even sweaty level. The spicy garlic parm was the same, and carried the same watery flavor just with parm on top.

For the regular wings, I got medium (again, didn't know how hot this stuff would be) and old bay honey. The old bay honey was a highlight - probably because it was literally old bay and honey and couldn't be watered down lol. The medium was in line with everything else and basically tasted like franks red hot mixed with water. The drums were mostly overcooked but the flats were good and a nice size. I'd be tempted to go all flats if I go back.

Overall, the way to sum this up is purely underwhelming. The sauces lack flavor and spice, the drinks are standard, and it's not cheap. This place felt like a cross between Chili's and Hooters without the girls and wings of hooters and without the drink specials of Chili's.

If you want a standard wing place, it's probably fine. I'd stick to boneless wings and maybe try a dry rub or maybe one of the BBQ style sauces are better. But don't expect anything special. For myself, I'd rather go to Hooters or BWW any day than...

I so badly wanted this to be a five star place, and maybe it will be someday. I'll go back in a couple months and if there's marked improvement I'd be happy to amend my review. it's a new place so maybe they're just working out the kinks but for now a 2 is the best I can give it, here's why:

Service: Slow...so slow. I think my server had entirely too many tables. When my meal came out, the empty appetizer plate wasn't taken away, and the server didn't drop off any extra napkins or wet wipes for the wings. This is a WING place, extra napkins and wet naps should be a given for an order of wings. Had to ask a different server (I actually think it was a food runner) for a drink refill, as my server went missing for at least 15 minutes. I was with another person who ordered the chicken Caesar wrap and asked to substitute the fries for sweet potato fries. Both types of fries showed up and I was of course charged extra for the sweet potato fries. I wasn't going to argue about it (mostly because I was running short on time based on how long everything else took) but the order was made clear "Instead of fries can I have sweet potato fries" oh well.

Food: Just average. I had to send the first appetizer back as the queso was cold and the chips were stale. To her credit the server was very apologetic and made it right with a new hot bowl of queso and fresh chips, so kuddos for that. The chicken wrap was below average with the "ceasar" dressing being watered down and tasteless. The wings (which I was so excited about) had a good flavor but the skin was rubbery and undercooked. Not to a dangerous level or anything, but there isn't much less gross that rubber chicken skin on a wing. I asked for ranch and blue cheese, and got the smallest portion of both, in TINY little cups that weren't wide enough accommodate the dipping of a chicken wing. I had an order of 10 wings, and got enough dressing for about 4-5 wings max. The sweet potato fries were excellent, that was the high point of the meal.

In all, I was in there for close to an hour with most of the time spent waiting on food or drink; which was just annoying. I'm really hoping it's just growing pains, as the place has only been open a few weeks.

It wasn't all bad, so I will mention the hostess group were exceptionally nice, greeted us right away and seemed happy to be there. They said goodbye and were more than polite as we were leaving as well. The place was clean, the restrooms were clean, and the environment was awesome with a great beer selection. The type of place you'd want to hang out for a few hours, watch a game and have several drinks.

But the subpar food, combined with the below average service really drags this place down. I'll say again, I'd repeat and really hope to increase my rating of the place in time. I hope they make it - there's so much...